“Knock on wood,” says Leslie Thompson. “With no injuries, I’ll belly dance forever.” The Los Osos school teacher makes no bones about converting to belly dancing three years ago. “I can’t stop,” she says. “It’s too much fun.”

Following eight months attending Tuesday night beginners class at the Community Center in Morro Bay, she says, “The ‘Magic Moment’ came, the rite of passage.” Dance instructor Patti Harsch invited Thompson and two others to join Thursday night classes — with the performing troupe. “We were so excited,” Thompson recalls, “that we turned to
each other and screamed.”

A “sacred ceremony” welcomes dancers into the troupe. Each is handed a card inscribed with her new Arabic “dance name.” “My name forever is Ebtasan,” Thompson says, “which means beautiful smile.” Class time, she adds, “is like a girls night out kind of thing. Get silly. Celebrate birthdays. Pattie makes the best cookies in the world.” The troupe’s title is Benat Serat, which means “a group of beautiful women.”

At first, Thompson recalls, “I had this stress of wanting to belong, yet not get in anybody’s way. They had the dance patterns all figured out. You can practice and practice and still make mistakes. I didn’t want to let the ladies down.”

Her first public appearance came during the troupe’s belly dance performances on the giant chess board at the Embarcadero in Morro Bay. As with tradition ending a performance, each dancer takes a solo curtain call with a “hanky dance” of her own making. “I was so nervous that I grabbed the new girls and told them. ‘Let’s do it together. Safety in numbers.’” But from that moment on, she adds, “I’ve felt comfortable.”

Belly dancing, Thompson explains, is a dance of many cultures, not the dance of seduction pictured in Hollywood, but with roots to folk dancing at joyous occasions. Usually, Thompson says, it was practiced by women entertaining themselves.

“Belly dancing is the ultimate dress-up, head to toe,” she adds. Glittery costumes of jingly jewelry, brightly-colored dresses and whispers of veils accentuate and sensualize every motion, drawing immediate attention. No place for shyness. Thompson takes stares in stride. “It’s acceptance of self,” she explains. “There’s self concern at first, like the first time on a beach in a bikini, when you want to hide under a towel. Now, when I dance, I tell people it’s okay to look. I’m not dancing to entice. It’s an art form. I hope the audience focuses on the dance team, and realizes the hundreds of hours that we put into the moves.”

Her favorite performance moment? “When we first approach the dance spot,” she says, “people hear the jingling of jewelry coming, and turn their heads to look at us with anticipation, knowing that it’s about to begin.” When the performance ends,” Thompson adds, “I want to keep on dancing, even though the audience has walked away.”

She grew up in a musical family — her on piano, her father playing guitar and her mother singing. Thompson enjoyed folk dancing in PE, and spending hours “in the loneliness of my bedroom watching the Lloyd Thaxon Show dance offs, and practicing the dance moves. I remember wanting to try belly dancing, but I wasn’t sure what it was all about — so exotic and ethnic.”

With both her parents educators, Thompson leaned toward a classroom career, graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a biology degree. But before stepping on the teaching treadmill, she pollinated begonias for a greenhouse grower, drove school and city buses, and became the first woman in Lompoc to work on the city crew, trimming trees from a
boom truck.

“I’d resisted school long enough,” Thompson says. Armed with savings and a student loan, she earned teaching credentials at Cal Poly, and has been teaching ever since. Ultimately, she’d like to become a counselor. “Every day I see lots of needs not being met,” she explains, “and I don’t have the time and training to help them.”

In the meantime, her dance goes on. It’s practice, practice,
practice. She’s currently learning a new dance number, where she balances a sword across the top of her head. “I need to work on pointing my toes down when I lift my feet,” she explains. “Frame the body. Posture for good poise. Hold my head high and believe that I am beautiful — that will transmit to the audience.”

Having musical knowledge helps, says Thompson. “It’s best when dancers feel the music, and don’t have to count. I’m not preoccupied, so I can get outside myself and interact with the audience, let my hair down. Adds another dimension.”

Every time Thompson prepares to belly dance — whether it’s for class practice, workshop or performing — “I dress to the nines,” she says. “Gussie up. Put on as much jewelry as I can. I can’t help it.” An accomplished seamstress, she delights in fashioning festive outfits to compliment her colorful wardrobe.

After watching her in performance, clapping is one thing. But for Thompson, the ultimate compliment is someone telling her, “Looks like you’re having fun.”

For information about belly dance classes, call Patti Harsch at
772-4146.