08/18/2026
We've rebranded! Arcanum is now ***rbellydance Q***r Belly Dance !!
Kamrah and I initially opened Arcanum as a brick-and-mortar studio in Chicago, intended to serve North Chicago dancers who may feel unwelcome or unaccommodated in a normative dance studio environment—q***r dancers, neurodivergent dancers, fat dancers, disabled dancers, etc. And then I got into a PhD program in Texas, and we had to convert to an online studio.
Over the years we've continued refining our values as teachers, facilitators, mentors, and what the two of us represent. "Arcanum" was chosen to evoke an abstract sense of dark, witchy, gothic vibes to appeal to others who, like us, embody these things every day. But what we have come to understand is our significance lies not in our aesthetic, but in the intersections of identity that we represent—notably, q***rness.
We have bonded over the vulnerable interactions we've had with students throughout our careers who tell us what it means to them to see visibly q***r dancers excelling in this industry. And as we are getting older, and our lives are unfolding in surprising, spectacular, and sometimes terrifying ways, our long-term values have shifted, and we both feel called to signal to other q***r dancers like us.
If this resonates with you at all, we invite you to follow our studio accounts, and visit us at www.Q***rBellyDance.com ! (and if anyone can make a more attractive logo than the one I slapped together in Canva, please send them my way!)
***r
