I wanna belly dance, but what if the company I work for would fire me over it?

[Gwenhwyfar]

I've discovered my love for dancing a few years ago when I took a dance class for a semester in college.  I knew that dancing was definitely going to be a hobby I do in my spare time when I graduate from college and get a good job.

 

Of course, I started exploring what kind of dances I would be into and would love to learn.  I thought it would be nice to have a dance that felt more tribal and spirited.

 

I've watched a lot of dances I thought I would be into before, but they never quite captured my attention like belly dancing.  Most dances that caught my eye would interest me for several months and then I forget about it.  Not belly dancing; I find that even if I forget about it for awhile, I come back to it.

 

It's kinda funny, belly dancing was the last thing on my mind on dances I'd get into, but I guess watching one dancer perform it in such a way that I never viewed belly dancing as before really changed my mind.  I was into K-Pop dancing before I discovered my love of belly dancing.

 

I find myself very into Egyptian belly dancing, which is also kinda funny because it goes against my ideal of wanting some lively dancing.  I find that Egyptian style belly dancers really focus on their ab isolations, belly rolls, hip techniques, and graceful fluidity, which makes you really impressed with how they can do all that.  I should be into Turkish belly dancing, but I find that the dancers are too lively and move too fast that you can't see any of those techniques except for hip movements.  I find myself disatisfied watching a Turkish style belly dancer because I hardly see any of the impressive ab and belly techniques; move too fast for me, lol.

 

Anyway!

 

I got an internship at this great company; getting an internship is a part of the requirement for my degree to graduate.

 

I'm happy and grateful to be working for this company and it involves work that I want to do for my future.  The office I work in is semi-formal where you need to wear a work shirt and dress pants, so I imagine that's what it'd be like for any other company I'd work for.  It'd be great if I could be hired to work for this current company after my internship though; that's what I'm hoping for.

 

I was casually talking to my supervisor (the guy in charge of my internship) about dancing.  We get along pretty well, I think.

 

Something possessed me to mention that I would really like to learn belly dancing, which he kinda laughed off.  I then freaked out after the conversation was over and started worrying maybe I shouldn't say that.  Maybe the company would view belly dancing as too risque.

 

I started worrying about it a lot and later decided to look it up on my phone to see if anyone got fired for belly dancing.  I came up with one result of a teacher in Turkey getting fired for belly dancing because someone looked her up and found videos of her dancing when she use to perform in the US:

 

http://www.bhuz.com/business-belly-dance/78307-i-got-fired-my-job-because-my-bellydancing.html

 

Turkey is apparently going through a cultural transition of being more conservative, but it doesn't mean something like that can't happen in the US!  Hey!  We got lots of conservative people living here!  Why not?!

 

There's also the problem with social media...  If someone was to post a video of me belly dancing or I thought I'd share some of my performances online and my company viewed it; if they didn't like it, could I get fired?

 

I mean, there are company rules about employee use of social media, but I don't quite understand where they draw the line on that.  There are plenty of examples of employees getting fired for doing things in their private life if their company finds them on social media!

 

I hate how social media can expose so much of your private life!

 

Am I freaking out too much over nothing?  Can I do what I like in my private time while working for a good company?

[Silo]

This isn't something I'd worry about. I'm in accounting, which tends to be more conservative and I still wouldn't worry about it. If it does cause a problem, I'd say it wasn't a good job match. You have to be able to find a good work life balance so if a strong interest of yours is a problem for your employer, that balance won't be there. But unless you are literally shimmying over your coworkers as they work, I can't see it being an issue.

[JPrev]

I don't think you need to be worried.  Whether or not you tell new coworkers that you belly dance is up to you, but I'd probably be discrete about it.  Not because I'd be concerned about getting fired, but because it might invite unwanted attention in the workplace.  Depends on the company of course, but people are people.

 

I would know.  A picture of me attempting to belly dance was posted to Facebook.  A coworker later wanted to demo a new Facebook integration for one of our products.  She's a good friend of mine, so she used my page to demo it in front of our bosses.  The pic was still on the wall.  Such is life.

[lela gypsypunk]

If a company listed belly dancing as a reason for termination, I'm pretty sure you could sue their pants off. I belly dance, but not professionally and it's non of my company's business what I do with my free time. Go ahead and belly dance, it's so much fun!

[I-Jo]

Are you dancing professionally?

 

Are you taking class from an actual reputable studio? or just from the gym?

 

Are you taking outside educational classes?

 

Also- Middle eastern folk dance-   or you can get coy and just say folk dance.

Find out asking around about gym classes and zumba and what not and if other people are taking them.   Odds are someone's taking a zumba class somewhere- you're probably totally fine if they are.

 

Personally- I don't like talking about stuff like that- but unfortunately- I spend upwards of 15 hours a week at my studio.  I work 2-4 nights a month at a restaurant and I sew a lot of costumes.   it's a HUGE part of my life- so it makes it weird to NOT talk about it.  But I love dancing- it's everything to me- so it creeps out, but I try to keep my personal life out of work- it's none of their business. at all. 

 

Turkey =/= USA

Even in Egypt women are shunned for dancing- I know of a woman who got kicked out of her flat (she'd been a loyal faithful none troublmaking tennat for 3 years) when her land lady found out she was a performer. 

 

The same type of social stigma isn't here that is there- dancing there, unless you're Dina, says to the world (there) that you're a lascivious whore.  Its just not the same.  

 

 But- mostly- keep your mouth shut about it- making it casual- add in ANY other form of dance you may have taken- my teacher isn't a full blown hip hop dancer- but she does a lot of integrating- so I tell them I take west African (i do) and hip hop (I do) we have a teacher who was big into ballet for years- so we did ballet for belly dancers- so I tell them I took ballet too. 

[Gwenhwyfar]

Thanks, guys!    I feel a lot better about it now!  I can't wait to learn belly dancing!!!

 

 

Although, what about if I wanna post videos of my dances on Youtube?  Should I not worry about that either?

 

@JPrev:  Lol, have you attempted belly dance since?

 

@lela: What kind of belly dancing do you do?  ^^ Egyptian? Turkish? Tribal fusion?

 

@I-Jo:  Sadly, I'm not signed up for classes yet.  Far too busy as I'm still in college and got an internship right now.

 

For now, I'm watching videos on Youtube for lessons on some basic belly dancing.  Unfortunately, as I know, you can't really learn belly dancing properly without a teacher to guide you face to face on proper techniques and corrections, but the videos will take me somewhere for now.

 

I'm currently doing exercises to help control and manipulate my ab muscles to do belly rolls.  I seem to have gotten some results so far, but still not a full belly roll (struggling with the lower abs to relax more).

 

I'll be sure to call it Middle Eastern folk dance from now on!

[lela gypsypunk]

I started with Egyptian and now I'm studying tribal fusion. Have you checked out freebellydanceclasses.com? That lady has a ton of very good videos and while I do take classes, I supplement with her.

For posting videos, you should feel free to do that. Standard rules of the internet apply, some folks will be a**holes, some folks will be cool. If I had any good videos of me dancing, I would put them all over YouTube, lol

[Missmouse]

I wouldn't sweat it too much, but I would also advise against sharing too much of your personal life with coworkers, especially if you work in what could be described as a 'conservative environment'.  I know that these days there is a propensity for oversharing, but it's good to have healthy boundaries around what parts of your life you share and who you choose to share them with.

 

Personally, I share very little of my personal life with coworkers, mainly because I really could get fired if I chose to say too much.  In some instances, it's a valid concern, so it's best to err on the side of caution.  (Stops shaking old lady cane in the air).

[Gwenhwyfar]

@lela:  Well, that's good!  Standard Internet rules?  You mean company rules or common sense?  lol

 

Do you got any favorite belly dancers?  My personal favorite right now is Sadie and the person that got me into belly dancing in the first place, arsenicGallows.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf5wMRlZYnQ

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igxk4NmdE-Q

 

Both wonderful dancers!

 

@Missmouse:  Oh!  I'll definitely make sure not to share too much from now on!  And err on the side of caution?  So it might be better not to post stuff on YouTube?

[Noname123]

I second everyone who said don't sweat it- if you're that worried you can always alter your social media name or youtube name (first and middle name or altered first and last names) so they can't look up what you do on your own time. I did that as soon as I landed a job in the corporate professional world since I wanted to keep my college friends and pictures on fb without worrying what someone from work might find.