Cindy Lee Yelland is an angel in disguise as a mortal woman. She’s also a dance dance dancing queen. Is there any kind of dance she isn’t into? She teaches and/or performs belly-dancing, gypsy tribal dancing, spanish flamenco, samba, circle dancing, fusion, and drum and dance. With Yonisha and Samba Tribe Cindy Lee performs Brazilian Samba, belly-dancing with the Loose Hip Sisters, Gypsy dances with Gypsies in the Mist and The Rainbow Caravan, drum and dance with Joan Casorso. Who even knew the Okanagan hosted so many dance groups! Cindy Lee performs solo as Angel on the Loose, showcasing a fusion of all these dance types. Outfitted in any number of magnificent large “wings” imported from Egypt and made of fabulous, diaphanous fabrics that glimmer and shimmer as she gently dances to celestial harp music, this angel is truly a vision.

But Cindy Lee hasn’t always been an angel on earth. There was a time when she thought she wouldn’t even walk again. Born with scoliosis of the spine, by the age of fifteen she had 13 fusions and a steel rod inserted to straighten her spine. Belly-dancing gave her her life and her mobility back. It was 10 years ago that Cindy Lee Yelland attended a goddess circle where one woman got up and did a belly-dance for the group. “It was just so beautiful. I said ‘I want to do that.’” So she started taking classes with local belly-dancer Annie Beserekian and has never looked back. “At first it was just about dressing up and having fun,” she says. But it wasn’t long before she realized how much the dancing was helping her back by strengthening her core muscles and improving her flexibility: “I’m in the least pain now than I’ve ever been in my whole life.” Because Cindy Lee has trouble sitting or standing for long periods, dancing is the perfect alternative!

In addition to the great physical benefits, there’s mental, spiritual, and social components to dance. She talks about how belly-dance originally was a dance by women for women, done in celebration and to prepare the body for childbirth. It’s only in recent history that belly-dance has been performed in front of men. Cindy Lee’s classes and the weekly free-dance meetings of the Loose Hip Sisters try to re-capture this fun, social bonding between women. “There’s no wrong way to dance,” she points out. “There’s so many women and so many body types…It’s a great way for women to get in touch with their bodies and celebrate them just the way they are.” Dancing is also a great stress reliever and a form of artistic expression to boot. Very empowering– the sisterhood of the dance! But as Cindy Lee says “Really I’m still doing what I was doing when I was nine– dressing up in shiny things and dancing around.” May the angel keep on dancing.

For more info visit www.angelontheloose.com