The beginning: "I started dancing about three years out of high school. I took some lessons from an Egyptian dancer in Eden Prairie. Then as I realized that I needed to make money to keep a roof over my head, I applied for a construction job as a laborer. I kept dancing five years into that, but as the company took off, I put dancing on the back-burner."

Back at it: "In 1996 I got together with some girlfriends and decided to take a refresher [belly dancing] class on a lark. The teacher left for Pennsylvania and called me and said, 'Do you want to take over my classes?' I said sure, and kind of hit the ground running."

Renaissance Festival: "I just started showing up in costume [many years ago]. Then in 2001 they started a full academy and the new entertainment director said I should go through it. I walked in and they said, 'What are you doing here? You're not [already] in the cast?' Unofficially, this is my 23rd year."

For a good cause: "I'm the queen's gypsy dancer, and I roam around and do gypsy curses and blessings and atonements. All the money I get I give to the Wildcat Sanctuary or the local Humane Society."

A shimmy here, a shimmy there: "Basically, belly dancing originated with Saudi nomadic tribes and with Turkish Romanian gypsies, and there are two schools of thought: One is that the style of dance is to help with child birthing, but the way I teach it is that it's created by women for women to help through the hard times in life and to help them explode in joy for the happy times. It helps get through the drudgery: If you're washing clothes on a rock, do it with a shimmy."

All-in-one exercise: "Dancing keeps me completely flexible. I do not jog or walk or do any other kind of exercise program. Dancing is everything that you need in a capsule."

Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a Twin Cities freelance writer.