Meet Marina Viola

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marina Viola a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Marina, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

As a little girl I was always extremely shy and lacked self-confidence. Although I had danced almost my whole life, I was also always self-conscious of my body, particularly as I entered my teen years. I was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 14, around the time that I was going through puberty. I had Body Dysmorphia and believed that my body was ugly. At age 19, while in college, I took my first belly dance class. My first teacher praised my natural knack for the dance style and gave me so much encouragement that I performed with her band after only taking classes with her for about a month. I remember feeling insecure about showing my stomach at that time. Looking back, it was my body dysmorphia that distorted the image that I saw when I looked in the mirror and made me want to hide myself. As I continued belly dancing, quickly moving on to gigging at restaurants and lounges, I became much more comfortable in, with, and showing my body. I also developed greater self-confidence.
Another experience that was pivotal in the development of my self-confidence and independence was a solo trip that I did in Spain and Italy in the summer that I turned 21 years old. I was totally alone (with no cell phone in those days), navigating travel, staying in hostels, and finding my way around foreign cities. Successfully doing that gave me the ability to believe “if I did THAT, I can do anything.” That experience was life-changing, and one of the greatest decisions I ever made in my life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I started dancing at age 4. My mom put me in ballet and tap classes to try to break me out of my shell, as I was very shy and had really bad separation anxiety from my her. I danced off and on until my teen years, when I became dedicated to taking hip hop dance classes and was a captain of my high school dance. I took my first belly dance class at age 19 in the Phoenix, Arizona area and starting performing soon thereafter.
I have been based in South Florida (Miami/Fort Lauderdale) for the past ten years. While I had to take somewhat of a hiatus from performing while I was getting my masters degree in Mental Health Counseling, I am now fully reinstated in my passion of belly dancing. Currently, I regularly perform at restaurants, birthday parties, weddings, and other events. I am always available for bookings and love to share my love for music and dance with others. I also teach beginner belly dance classes in Oakland Park. I can be found online and contacted for classes, performances, and shows at www.marinavioladance.com.
I enjoy traveling to continue my education through taking workshops with other instructors and recently even hosted a workshop with an international belly dance instructor. My performances – both improvised and choreographed – have won awards across the country at various competitions. I am passionate about the music and frequently seek out opportunities to combine my dance performance with live music. I love to present my art onstage. I am now at the point where I am loving dancing to express what is in my soul and making my own creative decisions, rather than dancing simply to entertain or to impress.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, I cringe at how little I knew when I first began performing belly dance. I would not recommend to anyone to start performing after only taking classes for one month. Belly dance is a complex, nuanced dance style that feels almost endless in its scope. People ask me all the time, “how long did it take you to learn?” and I always say, “I’m still learning!” I was naive and even ignorant in a lot of ways when I first started out, but what I lacked in knowledge and experience I made up for in enthusiasm and passion. I believe that that passion that I had initially was so pure that it gave me the confidence to put myself out there. A lot of my early dance skills were more intuitive. I believed in myself when I probably should not have, but it got me started down the road that I am still on today after all this time.

In keeping with doing things a little backwards, after I had already been performing for two years, I found a knowledgeable dance teacher who became a significant mentor in my belly dance journey. Then it was time for me to put in the work to hone my technique. I would always recommend studying with a lot of different teachers in order to expand your knowledge, find out what you like and don’t like, and find your own style. However having one or two mentors is also really helpful to establish a solid foundation in your dance skills.

I also recommend, for anyone seeking to try out belly dancing, to never forget that this dance comes from a culture. It belongs to a group of people and should be respected. Take any opportunity that you can to immerse yourself in MENAHT (Middle Eastern, North African, Hellenic, and Turkish) cultures. I was lucky enough in my first years as a belly dancer to have the opportunity to dance mostly for Arabs, and often to live music. I didn’t realize at the time how rare that is in the United States. Now I take every opportunity that I can to study with teachers of the culture, dance with live musicians, and pursue cultural immersion. I studied Egyptian Arabic for one year online, studied drumming for a year and a half, visited Lebanon, and traveled to Egypt twice. All of which has only enriched my knowledge, respect, and love for belly dance even more.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

I am still my harshest critic. I still experience self-doubt and imposter syndrome. In this day and age, it is easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to others, and believing that you are not doing enough, or successful enough, or that you are just “not enough.” I dream to perform and teach nationally and internationally someday, so in the present day I am focused on improving my craft and growing as an artist to be able to achieve those dreams. It can be challenging because I have a demanding full-time job as a mental health counselor where I am always there for others. Dancing is what I do for myself, but I don’t often have a lot of time to devote to my personal practice. I try to keep things in perspective by focusing on the present and what I can work on to take steps forward right now, as well as encouraging myself to keep going. I truly believe that I have manifested a lot of my achievements, first from an idea, a vision, a dream, and then from putting in the work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marinavioladance.com
• Instagram: @marinavioladance
• Youtube: @marinavioladance

Image Credits

Snapback Films, Carl Sermon Photography, Ruben Photography, Moments by Mo