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Chandani's Bio About 13 years ago I came across a flyer for Middle Eastern Belly Dance for Women and suddenly had a mixture of emotions. "How interesting", "Wouldn't that be fun", "I don't have the time", "I don't have the money", "What an opportunity"! I decided to call the instructor, Donna Whitley, and look into it further. It didn't take Donna long to convince me to take the class. At the time I was attending college, working retail, working in the church and volunteering a lot. It was through Donna's classes that I learned to take time out for me. She taught me that it was ok to focus on myself. That's exactly what I did and apparently what I needed. I was giving so much of myself to the rest of the world that I forgot to give back to me. So once a week, I learned belly dancing, shared with other women and allowed myself to have "me" time. Belly dancing became a part of my life. I was proud to say I was a Middle Eastern Belly Dancer. Donna had first hand experience with dance, history & traditions and passed her knowledge to her students. I came to know and understand the real meaning behind the dance. I began doing workshops, including a workshop called "Dancing in God's Love". I did this workshop for my church and the youth group to show how belly dancing is a form of prayer to me. Of course the biggest response was..."she's a youth minister and a belly dancer"?! After graduating college I decided to take my youth ministry a step further and get my Master's Degree at Fordham University in New York. While there I didn't teach, but I did get in contact with several other belly dancers in the area. Once I completed my Master's I took a job in New Jersey and moved. I felt a calling to teach belly dancing again. So I started teaching at a couple of facilities, attended workshops and met lots of fellow belly dancers and vendors. Once again belly dancing became the highlight of my week. I decided that I needed a dance name and a business name. I did some research on names and finally decided on Chandani, which means "moonlight" in Arabic. The reason being is my pet name for my friends and students is "sunshine", so they started calling me" moonlight". After toying with some ideas for my business name, I finally decided to have a contest. I invited my family and friends to come up with my business name. I could definitely tell who was familiar with belly dancing and who wasn't by some of the responses! Finally my good friend from Nigeria, Fr. John Odeyemi, came up with a name I liked and BodyWorks By Chandani was born. Not long afterwards I made the decision to move closer to home. After some debating and research I finally decided on Virginia Beach. My intentions were to open up my own dance studio and Women's Center. The world works in amazing ways because in April 2002 I opened BodyWorks By Chandani dance studio. After working for 3 Episcopal Churches for a little over a year in Virginia Beach, I resigned as a Youth Minister for the time being to be a full time Belly Dancer. Over the next two years I discovered that just as I have a calling towards Youth Ministry, my second calling is toward belly dancing. I have never regretted making the decision to become a full time belly dancer. The best part is watching the beautiful experience of women discovering themselves in my classes. Teaching my students is a Ministry in of itself. I am looking to work with Youth again some day, but for right now I am enjoying my new calling. Not only do I
feel as if I am a part of a long tradition of women continuing a beautiful dance, but I
see through my students that I am passing the history and traditions of this
dance to them. There is still so much to learn about this dance and so I
continue to take classes, workshops and private lessons every month in an effort
to keep up with this art form. I would like to thank my family (Mom, Dad, Kim, Laura, Jonathan, Kyle, Cameron and Jordan) for supporting me throughout the years. No more making fun of me at the dinner table for being a belly dancer!
BodyWorks
By Chandani Copyright ©
BodyWorks By Chandani 2002 - 2009 All rights reserved. |
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