Bellydancing Gala puts misunderstood dance in a new light

There was little doubt Nefabit Rakassah would follow in her mother’s bellydancing footsteps.

As her military family moved from Hawaii to Alabama to Spokane, Rakassah watched her mother Delilah teach classes and perform as the founder of a bellydance company called Mystic Dreams and remembers trying on her mother’s costumes, even when she knew they would not fit.

What grabbed Rakassah was the sensation of moving one’s body the way bellydancers are able to. It felt good but was also captivating to watch.

“It’s hypnotic in the sense that you’re looking at somebody move their body in a way that you don’t quite understand unless you are an advanced, professional dancer,” she said. “It looks magical.”

Already a student in ballet and gymnastics by age 3, Rakassah was a natural at bellydancing, picking up moves more through exposure to the style from her mother than formal lessons. Her first performance was at the Bing Crosby Theater as part of a recital with the since-closed Simply Dance when she was 6.

“I felt like there’s something so magical about the stage, because there’s an exchange between the performer and the audience of energy, of inspiration,” she said. “That’s really what hooked me with it was that feeling of being on stage. People misunderstand when you say that all the time. They think it’s about glory or ego or feeling like ‘Everybody’s looking at me. Everybody’s watching,’ but it’s more about sharing with the audience and having an exchange that’s in a universal language. You don’t have to say anything, but you’re communicating.”

As Rakassah grew, she began traveling with her mother to competitions and workshops. After the family retired in Spokane, Rakassah’s mother founded the Northwest Bellydance Company.

There was a lot of interest in bellydancing classes in Hawaii, and a small but dedicated group of students in Alabama. Once the family settled in town, the company quickly began welcoming students and performing around town.

When her mother began being pulled toward other things, Rakassah took over in 2009. Today, the company typically has between 50 and 60 students at a time. People of all genders are welcome, though Rakassah said many students are mothers looking to find their femininity and heal their bodies after childbirth. They are looking for a community that is body positive and embraces all body types.

“That is, I think, the most powerful thing for me, and the biggest honor for me as a teacher and as a director is that people feel this is a safe place to feel beautiful, to feel connected with their body and to feel feminine,” she said.

During her time at the top of the company, Rakassah has opened the Northwest Bellydance Academy, a place for company members to rehearse regularly and for those new to bellydancing to take classes in three styles: classical bellydance, tribal fusion and Datura style.

On Saturday, Rakassah, Saleenx, Thorn Trinity, 30 Northwest Bellydancing students and internationally renowned fusion dancers Sarah Lyn and Ashley López will perform as part of the Northwest Bellydancing Academy Gala.

For all the joy bellydancing has brought Rakassah and her students, she knows there are many out there reluctant to give bellydancing much attention because of how it was introduced to the United States.

During the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, performers danced what Rakassah said should have been described as folkloric, ethnic dances from the Middle East. Instead, it was called bellydancing and was being peddled as scandalous and shocking.

Bellydancing was lumped with vaudeville and burlesque, something that would not be found in a “real” theater.

There was another branding problem in the 1960s when people began to take the dance down a sexualized route. There is nothing wrong with admitting dancing is sexy, Rakassaah said, but that is not the intention of the dance. People got the idea that bellydancing was inappropriate, and even now Rakassah gets asked if it is OK to bring children to a bellydance performance.

The answer is a resounding yes. In recent years, company dancers have performed at weddings, birthdays and other private events as well as public performances at Spokane Zephyr and Velocity games and festivals like Valleyfest, Unity in the Community and the Spokane County Interstate Fair.

At the gala, audiences will see beginner, intermediate and advanced dancers perform classical, tribal fusion and Datura styles of bellydance.

Rakassah and her fellow teachers will perform, and some students will perform solos they danced at competitions throughout the year. Many students will also join Lyn during one of her performances as part of her Sara Lyn Project.

Company co-teacher and co-director Saleenx has taken workshops and classes with Lyn in the past and speaks very highly of her. Rakassah and López met through social media, when Rakassah asked López if she would be interested in performing with the company after teaching classes in Sandpoint.

The gala comes toward the end of a busy year for the company. The group performs weekly at Lebanon Restaurant and Cafe, and Saleenx performs regularly at the White House Grill in Post Falls. On top of those weekly performances, the company performs about 20 to 25 times a year.

Of those performances, the gala is the biggest event of the year for the company. The teachers began choreographing last winter, and students started prepping for the show in August.

Though the gala features a mix of student and professional bellydancers, Rakassah wants people to know it is not, as many have assumed in the past, a “dinky recital.”

“The costumes, the production value, the lights, the choreography, how much rehearsal we put in, I am very proud of it as a very respectable show,” she said. “It’s fully produced and something that I really believe the average person would enjoy watching.”