Studio in downtown Perry offers only one style of dance that’s ‘beautiful on everybody’

Nestled in the heart of historic downtown Perry, a small dance studio has been a gathering spot for women of all shapes, sizes and ages to learn the art of belly dancing for the past 14 years.

The youngest student at Perry Belly Dance Studio is 2-½ years old while the oldest is 79.

“I have a core group of women who have stuck with it for a long time,” said 54-year-old Trichelle Hutten, the owner of the studio. “Some people just come to learn something new, have a good time and maybe get a more positive body image and they reach the point where they don’t want to perform or do it professionally and they move onto another activity.”

Students from the studio who perform as a group are known as Perry Belly Dance. The group, which includes Hutten, is expected to perform at two local international festivals this month — taking the stage first at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the International City Experience in Warner Robins.

What students at the Perry studio say

Shelli Westbrook, 49, is among the students performing.

Wanting to try something different, Westbrook first started taking belly dancing lessons at the studio in August 2021.

She likes music and likes to dance, but she had no prior formal training.

“It just helps me unwind,” Westbrook said. “If you want a way to unwind and de-stress, it’s low-impact cardio so it really doesn’t hurt your joints.”

Diane Trunk, 79, started taking belly dancing classes at the studio about two years ago.

“I’ve always been intrigued,” said Trunk, who hails from Pennsylvania and now lives in Eastman. “As a little girl, I would watch ‘The Ten Commandments’ and I would see these dancers.

“I’ve always been a dancer, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to do that, and I could never find anybody doing it.”

Belly dancing helps strengthen core muscles, Trunk noted..

“It really gets all your body movement,” she said. “It’s not only an exercise but it’s fun.”

Trunk has performed at three nursing homes.

Welcoming young students

The studio’s youngest students are 2 1⁄2-year-old Mina Mason and Nixi Moncrief, who’s nearly 3.

Mina, who has cerebral palsy, started taking private lessons at the studio when she was 18 months.

“Her doctor wanted to get her moving, and I called a couple of dance studios and nobody would take her that young,” said her mom, Hannah Mason.

Then she called Hutten, who welcomed Mina with open arms.

“She goes to physical therapy, but honestly, I think the dance helps her more because she does so good,” Mason said. “Her coordination is better, her muscle movements aren’t as stiff and Trich works with her the whole 45 minutes.”

Belly dancing also has helped Mina in another way.

“She used to be real shy and wouldn’t open up around people,” Mason said. “But now she’ll go up to Trich and follow her around and do movements and she’s actually about to do some choreography.”

Emmalee Moncrief enrolled Nixi in the class with Mina after Mason encouraged her to come.

Nixi, who is autistic and non-verbal, needed a place to socialize where people would be patient with her.

“She loves the dance class,” Moncrief said. “It’s like when she walks in the door, she’s part of the family. We feel loved there. It means a lot for us to have her there.”

Hutten signs, “I love you,” to Nixi.

A love of dance

Before she opened the Perry studio in May 2010, Hutten owned and operated a belly dance studio in Warner Robins from 2006 to 2009. She had recently remarried, and at age 40, was having a baby.

“I had to close that studio,” she said. “It was too much to be an older pregnant lady.”

After her daughter was born, Hutten began looking for a new studio.

“When I saw it, I was just like what are the odds that there’s a belly dance teacher looking for a belly dance studio and there was one already perfectly fit in Perry all along,” Hutten said.

The space at 736 Carroll St., Suite 12, in the Village Shops was the former Academy for Arabic Arts.

Hutten first started dancing young in life, taking traditional classes in ballet and jazz at age 5.

“And I danced up into my college years in California until I was in my early twenties,” Henton said. “It was very competitive — keeping a certain weight, a certain size.

“It was at a time in my life when I was trying to dance professionally and it was just not for me anymore.”

But she never lost her love of dance.

“When I was in California, I had a choreography friend that had a dance company that just really encouraged me to find something that was gentler on my body and something that I felt a little more passionate about,” said Hutten, who moved to Warner Robins in 2019. She later moved to Perry.

She first experimented with some different dance styles such as a “fireside hippie kind of belling dancing experience or renaissance fairy type of belly dance.”

“It was just something about it that drew me in — the ancientness of it; just the history and the encouragement that it’s a dance originally created by women for women,” Hutten said. “When I just started getting involved with the belly dance community in Georgia, of all places, the sense of community and sisterhood was just something I needed in my life at that time.”

Before opening her first belly dancing studio, Hutten did some traveling and studying with different instructors, including a month in Egypt, until she reached the point where she felt comfortable and confident in teaching. In Egypt, she studied with Souhair Nemesis at Gaby Shipa Dance Studio & Performing Arts.

Also, she has taught belly dancing classes at the recreation center on Robins Air Force Base and was the belly dancer at a former Warner Robins restaurant.

What to expect at the studio

Hutten teaches three styles of belly dance:

• Saidi — A very country, Northern Egyptian style of belly dance that often incorporates a cane. It’s more folkloric, she said.
• Egyptian cabaret — A more glamorous style of belly dancing with sparkly costumes, according to Hutten.
• Fusion-style — A blend of more traditional belly dancing with more Arabic dance moves, she said.

Students learn to use zills (finger cymbals), practice sword balancing, and learn how to belly dance with canes and veils.

Hutten offers private lessons, a beginner’s class, a level two class, an advanced class, a children’s class, a technical class for more experienced dancers, a seniors’ class, and specialty workshops. The types of classes offered may vary based on demand.

Perry Belly Dance is composed of students from the level two and advanced classes. But Hutten generally tries to get most of her students involved in performances at some level. For example, her youngest students may walk across the stage and do a shimmy.

Perry Belly Dance performs primarily at community events and festivals. They’ve also done wedding receptions.

After the International City Experience, Perry Belly Dance is expected to perform at the Perry International Festival on Sept 28.

Hutten also offers a ladies night out and a party experience for women where a small group of friends can learn a simple routine together instead of committing to four to six weeks of classes.

A bit of history

Belly dancing was originally a social dance among women, according to Hutten.

“In a lot of Muslim countries men and women didn’t dance together and even when men and women were dancing in the same room, it was a social dance,” she said.

A lot of hip movement was used in social dancing, Hutten said.

“But I believe that during Orientalism when Europe and the U.S. became obsessed with all things foreign and the World’s Fair brought in belly dancers as well as Hollywood starting to portray belly dancers, so that bled over into the Cairo nightlife,” she said.

The Cairo nightclubs started featuring belly dancers as entertainment based on how they were being portrayed in Hollywood, she said.

“It can be a very sensual dance but it’s not necessarily meant to be for the male gaze,” Hutten said. “It also can be very empowering for a woman to feel ownership of her own body and her own femininity.”

‘Beautiful on everybody’

Belly dancing is good for women of all shapes and sizes, Hutten said.

“It’s beautiful on everybody,” Hutten said. “It gives women of every size a sense of empowerment, a sense of control over your own body and to be able to see yourself as beautiful at any size.

“If people leave my studio not being able to do a figure eight or a hip circle but they leave feeling better about themselves and feel comfortable in their skin, I feel like I’ve done a good job.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2024 at 5:00 AM.