Dance for union: From Aug 12 to 17, dancers from 60 countries will meet at Kerry Hotel for the largest belly dance festival in the world. Photo provided to Shanghai Star

Shimmying in Shanghai

Awaiting the great jig

In Egypt he was surprised to find his teachers were men. "Muslim women are not supposed to expose themselves to non-family members of the opposite sex, so we were taught by men," Guo says.

When he came back, his belly dance class was so popular that once his class was on, the gym emptied out except for his classroom.

"Men would be watching women dancing from outside the glass wall, but when I invited them to join us in the class, most of them wavered."

He soon opened his own dance studio, a small one at first. "Within a year I had to change to a much larger space," he says.

Few men are into belly dance. Maybe one out of 100 of his students are male. Most men take the class in order to become professional coaches.

However, Guo says belly dance enhances men's sexual performance, just like it helps women to have smooth child-birth.

Belly dance is the most healthy of all types of dance, he says. "You see ballet dancers and modern dancers with injuries all over their body, but never belly dancers. You never get hurt belly dancing."

Guo will be judging this year's Belly Dance China competition in August. His greatest wish is for his students and other belly dancers to be proper role models, and let people know that belly dancing is a proper art and healthy form of exercise.