Belly dancers shimmy for charity

With flowers in their hair, flowing skirts and bare midriffs, four women started to dance. The music started out with a slow tempo. Then it quickened and brought smiles and claps from the audience as the women shook their hips and shimmied for charity.

The dancing group, Eastern Bloom, a Tribal Group Improv student troupe from Eastern Groove Studio in Elgin, was one of 22 groups to perform at the VFW Post 1307 Ladies Auxiliary’s “Shimmy for the Cure” event Sunday. All of the money raised was donated to cancer research.

The event drew fewer people than organizers hoped but the VFW will still donate at least $1,000 to Cancer Aid Research. Pat Porter, a member of the women’s auxiliary, said some of the funds will go to various research facilities throughout the country and some to grants for those living with cancer.

Sunday’s event started with lunch and then continued with a two-act show, featuring local and regional dancers.

Monica Herdrich, an Elgin performer who danced Sunday with her 12-year-old daughter, Tatyana, does a dance that mixes tribal with hip hop.

Donna Kajtsa, or Donna Diva to those who know her, is a breast cancer survivor and a belly dance teacher. Kajtsa and a group of dancers shimmied in a Rockford fundraiser seven years ago. Kajtsa, of Glen Ellyn, has been running events of her own in Elgin ever since.

“It’s empowering,” Kajtsa said of the dance that draws mostly women and features styles ranging from American Tribal to Egyptian to a fusion of belly dancing.

The belly dance community is a tight-knit one that stretches across the Midwest.

“It’s almost like a family,” said Georgia Drakopoulos of Elgin, an Eastern Bloom dancer.

Eastern Groove Studio student Robbin Valentich, of Elgin, said the dancers of all ages and abilities become a support group for each other.

“It’s a community of women,” Valentich said. “It’s a very comfortable environment.”