Hello There!
We're so excited you've found our blog. Let us introduce ourselves: we're Letta and Lela. Best friends, dancers, and dreamers. We started this blog to document our project, tentatively titled "Beautifully Built." Our idea is simple: every woman is built beautifully and should feel that way. Dance is a powerful means of self expression, empowerment, and exploration. It's also an excellent way to stay fit and expand your horizons!
We come from two very different schools of dance, as it were. Letta is a Belly Dancer - she took over the University of Maine's belly dance club, and was incredibly successful. She continued to study and update her dance vocabulary - most notably, she spent a little more than a semester studying abroad in India, where she added to her knowledge through the rigorous study of Kathak and Kuchipudi. Letta has a background in Belly Dancing, Tribal Fusion Dance, Kathak, Kuchipudi, and Modern.
Lela is on the opposite end of the spectrum: she has been classically trained since the age of two, with an emphasis on ballet. Her training includes Ballet (Vaganova and Cecchetti), Modern Dance, Jazz, Tap, and many years of performance experience, in rolls such as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker. Coming form a family of Broadway performers, dance in all of it's forms has been a constant in her life.
Both of us have struggled with healthy body image: the normal struggles of teenagers (pimples, braces, and awkward limbs), the identity search that goes along with being multiethnic (for Letta), the pressures in the classical world to stay "slim and beautiful" and fit into your tutu (especially for Lela), and the constant bombardment of images from modern media. For both, dance has been a powerful conduit to learning, accepting, challenging, improving, and loving our bodies.
This is an experience we believe in sharing with every woman. For now, we're starting Beautifully Built as a course to be offered through our local Recreation Department. Over time, we want to grow, build and share.
Eventually, we'd like to bring the Beautifully Built project to Rehabilitation Centers for women with body image issues, to Girl's Schools, Girl Scout Troops, Shelters, and Battered/Abused Womens programs everywhere.
Please follow along with us as we bring our message of love and dance to the world!
