How a pioneering Nepali belly dancer wants to break stereotypes, inspire new talent

Born and raised in Kathmandu, Pinky Sapkota always had an innate sense of connection with dance movements. Trained in Salsa and Bachata at the Salsa Dance Academy, she knew from early on that her passion for dance would be a big part of her life. Later she realised belly dance was her calling.

Fluid movements, isolated structures and intoxicating music are synonymous to belly dancing. Also known as Oriental Dance, Raqs Sharqi and Eastern Dance, this form of storytelling has crossed numerous continents and cultures.

Belly dancing crossed Sapkota’s mind when she was watching the tele. “When I saw Meher Malik on TV for the first time, I felt so proud to be a woman because of the way she represented and celebrated feminism through belly dance. Then I started doing more research about this dance form and I fell in love with this form,” says Sapkota with whom I got an opportunity to talk to about her experience on being one of the pioneering belly dancers in the country.

The art form that Sapkota practises can be traced to Egypt, where women got together and danced for one another. Temple paintings suggest that the dance was practised as early as 1,000 BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. It is also said the dance originated in India over 5,000 years ago.  It is believed that the temple priestesses performed this dance in order to celebrate and worship fertility. It then reached the Middle-east through Gipsy migrants– ‘Roma’ in Europe, ‘Ghawazee’ in Egypt and the ‘Nawar’ in India. In Europe, Flamenco, one the most famous Gipsy dances shares uncanny similarities with belly dance.

“After I saw Meher perform in 2012 when she was in Nepal for a workshop, I dreamt that one day I will learn from her and dance just like her,” she says.

In 2013 she finally decided to move to India to learn the dance.

She had made her choice even as the message of belly dance, created to celebrate womanhood in a close group during childbirth to relieve labour pain, has been quite manipulated. Artists feel that in recent times, there’s a lot of prejudice towards belly dancing. It is considered to ‘exotic’, and performers promiscuous and ‘sexy’. Many people think it is performed by women for men.

As the identity problem of belly dance spreads, there are a few women who are continuously working to get to the roots of the art form and to spread its mystique around the world. Sapkota wanted to join them.