Rihanna’s Getting Into Belly Dancing

Rihanna for Reb’l Fleur [Source: Rihanna Diario]

Though this bit of news is pretty much at the level of celebrity gossip, Sarah Tetteh at the Daily Mirror claims that Rihanna is taking belly dancing classes with a professional from Morrocco.

A “close pal” of Rihanna’s supposedly told her:

“She loves belly dancing and has been getting all her dancers to join in. They’ve even had a few private Arabian-themed parties. We shouldn’t be surprised to see a little of this influence when Rihanna goes on tour later this year.”

I find it interesting because belly dancing is a growing phenomenon in the States among women of all ages. In particular, I’m seeing the emergence among younger women of newer alternative forms of belly dancing being developed in counter cultural circles. So Rihanna’s involvement got my attention as a possible step towards further mainstreaming belly dancing.

Should be interesting to see where this goes.

Note: I wanted to post a music video featuring some kind of dancing by Rihanna but her work’s just too racy for All World Dance, especially the lyrical content. But I think the promo video for Reb’l Fleur fragrance shown above makes it easy to imagine her getting into belly dance. Of course, it’s a bit racy too!