Bath resident Josephina Gasca will hold a free belly dancing workshop for Midcoast teens Tuesday at Patten Free Library. Gasca has been teaching belly dance since 2006 and runs her own company, Belly Dance With Josephina, at locations such as Bowdoin College and Merrymeeting Adult Education in Topsham. She believes that the art form falls in line with other art forms such as writing and meditation, and that dance brings communities closer. The Times Record sat down with Gasca on Thursday to chat about how she got her start in belly dancing, what to expect in one of her classes and what makes the art form unique.

The Times Record: Tell us about your history as a belly dance instructor.

Josephina Gasca: I started dancing in 1998 in Chicago, where I’m from. I bought my house in Bath on Halloween in 2003 and moved here in January 2004. I found a strong writing community when I first came here, but I did not expect to find the strong belly dancing community that I did. I continued my studies of belly dancing until I found Jamileh of Maine Belly Dance, and she’s been a mentor and a friend ever since.

I trained with Jamileh, and after a while I started to think that I wanted to teach because I had started to perform on my own. One day Jamileh called me up and said “why aren’t you teaching?” Also, in one of my writing studies programs, my teacher told me, “If you want to become a better dancer, you need to become a teacher.” And I love teaching, so I did it.

I’m really passionate about belly dancing. It’s not just dance to me, it’s about community, and a powerful community of women. Not to say men can’t be part of it — I’ve seen male belly dancers and instructors. But belly dancing celebrates the divine feminine in my opinion. It’s for everybody, every body type, every shape, every age. Whenever you get around to it is the perfect time. I’ve have teenagers in my class, and I have an octogenarian in my class; the full spectrum.

TR: What is your angle as a teacher?

JG: The community aspect of it is great. Also, in order to teach belly dancing you do have to teach choreography, and there’s something very powerful about seeing several women moving together, and how their individuality is expressed. If we’re all in a line in the front of the room and we’re all doing a specific move, it’s going to translate differently to each one of our bodies.

I’ve had a lot of the same people in my classes since I started teaching. I get people cycling in and out, but a lot of them stay. Everybody comes for different reasons. I just think it’s powerful that we continue to grow, and it helps me grow as a teacher because I can’t keep doing the same thing. I just think it’s wonderful. I would love to see a group of little girls all the way through elderly women dancing together.

Classes average between 10-15 people. I teach four seasons a year, and an advanced class three seasons a year, and then in summer I do a mixed-level class, and I don’t call it this officially but it’s known as “belly dance boot camp.” As part of that we take advantage of Maine weather. We go to Reed State Park sometimes and dance on the beach, because belly dancing is really meant to be danced on the sand. I also do a group meditation, once a month program called Sacred Dance, Sacred Story, which wraps dance, meditation and writing into one, all of my favorite things.

TR: Would you say that belly dancing is a form of meditation?

JG: I would say that its very sensual and sexy, but it is also a very spiritual journey, for me. Trusting the music, trusting how your body is going to move.

TR: Does the history of belly dancing come into play when you’re teaching?

JG: A lot of the shapes that we make with our bodies — infinity signs, circles — it’s all very much like ancient runes. Belly dancing is centered in the Middle East, and that is where it’s thrived and maintained and stayed alive and rich. But personally, because of all the symbols, I believe it goes back to matriarchal times.

Belly dancing is a very spiritual journey. It has also brought me in touch with the idea that, if you don’t have the kind of body that society deems beautiful, it just opens up doors to find your own sense of beauty. And I don’t see that a lot in different dance forms.

TR: Will you be doing more classes at Patten Free Library in the future?

JG: Any opportunity to make a community larger and more full is just wonderful for me. I feel like if everybody danced there would be a lot less conflict. I also feel with this current administration in Washington, I feel compelled to bring the art form more to the forefront, because we are all just people, after all.

Josephina Gasca’s belly dancing workshop starts Tuesday at 3:30 p.m at Patten Free Library in Bath. The class is free and is meant for students grades 6-12. Gasca is also accepting students for summer courses. To learn more, visit bellydancewithjosephina.com.

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com

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