AMANI, the culture and creation of Belly dancing

One day, there was a little girl who had to go to school like her brothers and all the kids of the world. She hated school and, eagerly awaiting schooling years to end. Afterwards, she unsuccessfully, tried to escape this burden. She was dreaming of dancing and nothing else.

She took advantage of every moment and hour to exercise in her own room at her big house and enjoy oriental dancing in front of the mirror which became her companion loyal all the time to get away from the whirlpool of studying to dancing.

Oh! I forgot to mention her name. She's Angel Ayoub from a town called Hamat in North Lebanon. In spite of that, Angel was not lazy at school except for the French literature class which she preferred eating seeds, potatoes and chocolate or competing for the biggest chewing gum, to it . Pardon me, the French literature,...history,...geography and the English Language...only.

Though she had an inclination to study medicine, Angel unwillingly entered the university to receive a degree in Social Sciences and another one in Beautification, "because it's Faster," she explained. It was her father's, Nabil Ayoub, Condition to grant her the key to freedom only after she had finished schooling and received a university degree.

My God! at last the distress is done with . "Now I can dance, "Angel couldn't believe herself. She began preparing for her start in the artistic world a month before she graduated and chose a new name, Amani, that was suitable for oriental dancing, and which meant "Wishes" in English. The name has a long story which I will relate to you in the following lines.

At one of her relatives' engagement party where there were a crowd of important artists and journalists, Angel responded to a friends' request and performed a dance which was met with admiration (all the doing of the mirror), and that urged one of the distinguished journalists, Mr. George Ibrahim Al Khoury, to ask her for a second dance after being introduced to him by that friend. A small incident that has changed the course of her life and encouraged her to enter the artistic world. Days passed away, till a letter was published in the most important artistic magazine with the title: "An Educated Girl Asks: Should I Take Oriental Dancing as a Profession ? "

The letter was signed by the name Amani and sent by the teen-ager while she was still a university student, asking the distinguished journalist his opinion about that matter to which he gave his famous answer:

"There is no such thing as trite dancing, but there is a trite dancer. It's the person himself who shapes his future, and not the other way around." And he asked her to use "Amani" as her name when she starts dancing professionally.

In spite of the opposition she faced from some people, and the society in particular, Angel went on pursuing to fulfill her wishes and dreams on the first of April, 1987 using the name Amani.

The 1st. of April ? Ha...Ha ! It's April Fool's Day ! Is this teen-ager playing a practical joke on us all or what ?! Or is her artistic life is going to be nothing but a big lie in this world ?

In 1987, the war was still going on in Lebanon, a fact that hindered Amani's recognition in Lebanon, Her own homeland. But this didn't stop her from working abroad and strengthening her artistic foot steps in every establishment she worked in and where contracts were renewed more than once.

She traveled to many countries, Arabian and Foreign, Dubai, Abu Dabi, Jordan, Tunisia, Italy, France, Syria, Australia...

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