San Marcos — Jamie Shelton’s sister is the professional dancer in the family. Jamie was always more into climbing trees and petting horses. So it’s a little ironic that Jamie’s taken to belly dancing the way she has.

But belly dancing, or raks sharki as it is called traditionally, is quite unlike the flamenco or the tango or the waltz. It’s a flashy, free-spirited style based clearly on one’s own interpretation of the music. It’s all about muscle control and isolation. The costumes — from the sequins to the puffy harem pants to the belt covered with fringe and coins — are pretty fun, too.

And besides, Jamie says, anyone can do it.

“It turns out we had a family friend who was a belly dancer who invited me to take classes with her, and I just fell like a ton of bricks into it (15 years ago),” Shelton said. “I never thought I’d be into dancing at all. But that sense of control, learning how your body can move, that fascinated me.”

Shelton is a member of the Midnight Breeze Dance Company, a local troupe of dancers who offer classes and perform at festivals and special events all over Central Texas. One of the first things she noticed about belly dancing was how comfortable it made one feel with his or her body. And she liked that.

“We’re not self conscious. One of the beautiful things belly dancing teaches you is to be comfortable with your body, whatever size it is, whether it’s young or old — it’s accepted in belly dancing,” Shelton said. “We’ve had 80 year old students, and we’ve had 18 year old students, and they can all become belly dancers. You do it for yourself first, and then performance second.”

While the origins of the dance are disputed among the Turks, Egyptians and Greeks, what we know as modern belly dancing came primarily out of Egypt. It was traditionally done by women for other women as a form of entertainment. While men were off drumming, women would gather after preparing meals and grandmothers would show young ones different dance movements.

“They didn’t wear fancy out fits. It was mainly long robes, maybe a scarf or sash around the hips, but not what we think of as a belly dance costume,” Shelton said.

And the name “belly dancing” sort of happened by accident.

“The word beledi (an original style of belly dancing), which means country side, sort of got bastardized to ‘belly dance’, since it’s all based in the belly. So it’s appropriate, but it’s not entirely accurate,” Shelton said.

In the 20s, a dance club in Cairo, Egypt began showing the dances in a cabaret-style atmosphere and started the idea of modern belly dancing. As Egyptian culture became more interested in Western Culture and vice versa, Hollywood began producing movies like Egyptian-themed The Thief of Baghdad. The films displayed fabulous, and often outrageous, costumes that were thought to be Egyptian.

“So out went the full covered costumes and in came this Hollywood version,” Shelton said.

Today there’s a bit of a discrepancy among dancers on whether to be called belly dancers or oriental dancers or simply raks sharki. Shelton has no problem with “belly.”

“It’s all abdominal. It’s all about muscle control and isolation. You’re using each of your muscles, many times muscles you’ve never used before, to do a hip lift or a hip drop or a maya, which is sort of a figure eight,” Shelton said. “Some people get into it originally because they just like the idea of it, it’s sensual and sort of exotic, they think they’ll come in and it will just be a shimmy class, where you just learn to shake your butt. In about two classes, they’ll disappear because they realize it’s very difficult. You have to learn how to use your muscles and control them accurately to create a sense of fluidity.”

Even so, she says there’s no pressure among dancers to reach a certain level or even to perform in public.

“If you dance in your room by yourself forever, that’s fine. It is for yourself.,” Shelton said.

Because, she says, you’ll begin to feel a lot better about yourself in the meantime.

“You know, we get bombarded with so many images of the skinny, 90-pound model with six-pack abs. Then you look at a belly dancer who has curves and is soft. That’s the way you’re supposed to look. You’re supposed to have some meat,” Shelton said.