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Belly dancers to be featured at Pumpkin Fest
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Published: November 7, 2009
Candace Sinkovich started dancing when she was 3.
As a toddler, she took lessons in a number of disciplines — tap, jazz, ballet and gymnastics — all of which were helpful in giving Sinkovich the proper footing in what would become her passion: the exotic and perhaps misunderstood performing art of belly dance.
"I fell in the love with the costumes," said Sinkovich, who started belly dancing when she was 7. "They were so colorful and beautiful and I loved to dress up in them."
Sinkovich, 39, would go on to belly dance in a number of places, not the least of which was the Marrakech Morrocan Restaraunt in Las Vegas.
Two years ago, Sinkovich moved to Statesville and earlier this year she began teaching belly dance at the YMCA of Iredell County.
She and three of her prized students will give their first public performance at today's Crossroads Pumpin Fest in downtown Statesville.
Nikol Dishman, 32, has been one of Sinkovich's belly dance students for about two months.
But she has had an interest in belly dance since her high school days, which were spent on a U.S. military base in Ankara, Turkey.
"I was always intrigued by it," Dishman recalled. "The dancers always seemed so happy and so joyful and so in tune with each other."
Since taking the class, Dishman has learned that there is more to the art, and says Sinkovich has been a master at teaching it.
"It's playful and fun but it's also a challenge," she said. "I see Candace and, even though I will never
be as good as her, I want to strive to be."
Sinkovich explained that there are many forms and styles of belly dance, which originated in the Middle East and moved to Northern Africa and Eastern Europe.
But much of the physical part of the dance involves the "layering" of isolated dance moves.
She demonstrated what she called "shimmying" (a quick, repeated hip movement) and "snake arms" (the gentle swaying of the arms), which are perhaps the most familiar moves associated with belly dance.
"Layering," Sinkovich said, "is doing these unrelated moves at the same time."
It takes practice, she said.
One of the songs Sinkovich and her students will dance to today is called "Ya Hawa."
She said it tells the story of a man who has lost his true love.
"And he is talking to the wind," she explained. "And he is asking the wind to bring back his love."
The dance attempts to illustrate the broken-hearted man's plight.
"I think we want people to realize that belly dance is not sensual or sexual," said Dishman. "It's cultural. And it's beautiful."
The belly dancers will perform at 4:30 p.m. today at the Pumpkin Fest.
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