With all the sumptuous outfits and a heavy dose of cultural heritage, bellydancing is taking over Las Vegas this weekend. Women clad in the traditional bra and skirt outfit called the bedlah, will be bringing their finger cymbals and alluring dance moves to town for four days of bellydance celebration at the Bellydance Intensive and Festival.

Samira Tu’Ala, an active member in the Las Vegas bellydance community, began putting together the Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive weekend in 2003. The event, now held at Palace Station, has grown every year and will be moving to the Flamingo in 2010 to accommodate this growth.

Before launching the annual event, Tu’Ala identified the need for a festival that would bring local dancers together with top national teachers.

“The local community was rather fractured. There were teachers teaching here and there, but there wasn’t a lot of cohesiveness in the community.”

Tu’Ala figured she had, “more teachers than attendees” at the first event seven years ago, but today the Intensive has blossomed into a larger celebration of the art of bellydance.

While classes are still at the core of the event, including sessions for bellydance virgins, this year will welcome the addition of a festival on Friday and Saturday during which amateur performers will have a chance for some stage time of their own. The festival will also include a vendor area where participants can get outfitted for the classes by purchasing hip scarves, veils or finger cymbals. This festival area is free and open to the public, allowing curious onlookers to get a first hand introduction to bellydance as they watch performers on stage in the vendor area.

When most people think about bellydance they picture the Egyptian style, known for its glitzy reputation and corresponding sequined outfits. But the dance is more complex. The other broad category is the folkloric dances, known to the bellydance community as the tribal style. Rooted in the traditional dances that vary from region to region throughout the Middle East, these styles will also be represented at the festival through the show’s headliners, which balance new and older styles.

“I really do my best to have a wide representation of bellydance, because it is a really large umbrella,” says Tu’Ala. “There are a lot of different takes on it, like traditional bellydance that is based in Egyptian and Middle Eastern traditions and the fusion styles more popular in America.”

On Friday and Saturday evening, professional headliners from all over the world will take the stage. Friday night’s performance, entitled “A Night in the City of Riches,” will feature Amaya, Suzanna Del Vecchio and Sharon Kirhara performing at the Clark County Library. Saturday night’s Belly Dance Gala will return to Palace Station, featuring performances by Frederique, Jim Boz, DeLois LaDelle and Aubre.

Among the performers and instructors, one woman stands out. DeLois LaDelle, a professional entertainer for better than half a century and a former Ms. Senior Nevada, is teaching a class on “Developing Stage Presence.” Tu’Ala describes LaDelle as “exquisitely talented and so vivacious.”

In addition to solo performers, several duos and dance troupes with accompanying instrumentalists are set to perform. New World Rhythmatism is one such ensemble, performing both music and dance at the Friday night show. While many performers dance to tracks of traditional Lebenese, Egyptian and Turkish music, Arabic pop music has crept into the soundtrack of modern belly dance, as well. Whether the dances are Egyptian or tribal, the music traditional or modern, expect to be impressed by the activities and performances Tu’Ala has put together for this year’s Bellydance Intensive. At $30 per show, it’s far cheaper than a ticket to Cairo.

Tickets for the Friday and Saturday night shows are $30, individual class prices vary, see the full schedule at www.bellydanceintensive.com/