I started belly dance after several years of doing ballet quite intensively. I had started ballet late (for ballet) but loved the discipline and had a great teacher. But at some point, I realized I had come to the end of it, for me. The kinds of expression it allowed were not enough.
I started belly dance for just something fun to do and was hooked almost from the moment I opened The Compleat Belly Dancer. It was the mid-1970's and there was no one in my area really expert in the dance, so it was a matter of learning waht I could third or fourth hand and then putting it together t omy satisfaction ,with a small amount of input from various people from the culture. The physical discipline of ballet made me ready for the American-stlye dance that was common then. I've also done a little modern and a little African.
Wen I saw this post my first thought was, "Of course -- Egyptian and Turkish!"
because those seem so different to me and so different from what I came up with. I have learned a lot from teachers like Shareen el Safy (in Egyptian) and from watching videos (sometimes frame by frame) of Egyptian dancers, and likewise I have spent hours going frame by frame through some videos of Turkish dancers to try to interpret their technique. Shakira of Columbus, OH turned my on to movement systems like Alexander and Feldenkreis, and that has helped a lot in interpreting where movement is coming from and the quality of the movement.
Joy in dance,
Andrea