A couple of years ago, Drury English and writing major Mary Jean Miller took her love of gymnastics and entered a new world: belly dancing.

The senior is a near beginner at the craft, having just picked it up the summer after her freshman year of college. However, she’s always had a passion for dance. She was a gymnast for 10 years, five of which she was competitive. In addition, in high school, she cheered for three years. Once she realized she liked the cheering aspect less than the dancing aspect, she took up Zumba, but still ached for something a little more challenging.

It was then that Miller and her friend from high school, Ashley Bilke, decided to teach themselves belly dancing while home in Joplin for the summer, and since then, she has continued to master it.

Here’s how Miller got her start and why she continues to dance.

Her belly dancing had humble beginnings.

Miller and her friend had their first encounter with belly dancing when they attended the Kansas City Renaissance Festival in 2011. They went a few times with their school’s theater troupe, Joplin High School Theatre, and watching the belly dancers there sparked their interest.

“I was getting to see how much fun the belly dancers were having at the Ren. Fest and seeing their type of dance, and it was something I looked at and said, ‘That looks amazing, I can’t imagine having that much control over my body and how that would feel.’ And I think that’s what drew me to it; I wanted to be able to emulate what I loved so much, what I loved to watch, and so I decided to — or we decided to — just go for it.”

Once they agreed to take it up, they started with a basic workout DVD that worked their bodies based on isolations, which are the foundations of belly dancing. They learned hip circles, hip pops, and hip lifts and drops, which “are all parts of choreographing and of belly dancing itself,” she says. They also did, and still do, draw heavily from YouTube tutorials when learning and choreographing dances.

Their first performance was at the Carthage Art Walk, where they showed off four routines and two costumes they had only a month to prepare. They set out a rug, which Miller had purchased at a garage sale, and danced for almost two hours straight. They passed around a hat for tips and ended up with $8 each at the end of the night, which Miller called “remarkable” for an art walk “where people don’t go expecting to tip at the end of a show.”

“We were something that had never been out there before,” she says. “We had been to the art walk, and we had never seen belly dancers before, so we said, ‘Well at least we’ll be new. Maybe people will tip us because of that.’ ”

Since then, she has continued to teach herself different moves and choreograph her own dances for every performance.

She was later contracted to dance at the Carthage Art Walk.

After performing at the art walks and other venues a few times, Miller and her friend were contacted by the Carthage Art Walk and asked to perform for payment.

“They [the Art Walk] ended up loving it so much that they called us up and said, ‘Hey, we realize you can only do this during summer, but would you be willing to come out for the art walks we have in the summer?’ and we said, ‘Yes.’ ”

They ended up with a $100 check to split between the dancers.

Of the four belly-dancing styles, she prefers the gypsy style.

There are four styles of belly dancing, each having its own spirit and flavor:

• Egyptian
• American tribal
• Tribal
• Gypsy

Egyptian is the classical base for all other styles. Tribal mixes dance types from around the world, such as hip hop, breakdance, jazz, burlesque, and more. American tribal is based on folkloric movies, and it is the most popular style in America right now. Dancers can be seen performing it to dubstep, EDM (electronic dance music), and techno music, though it is not exclusive to that genre. She said it is “more earthy, with sharper movements.”

However, gypsy style is different than the others because it’s gypsy style; “The reason it’s termed gypsy style is because the gypsies, or Romani, have traveled all over the world,” said Miller. “And as they travel, they pick up these different influences from different cultures, while still maintaining their own culture.”

Miller said she has more freedom to express herself with gypsy style because she can “take this style and transform into something that’s incredibly personal and incredibly personalized.”

“I get to have something that’s unique and something that’s different that incorporates the styles of dance that I like and that I want to show off to the world.” — Mary Jean Miller, Drury senior and belly dancer

Belly dancing pushed her into a new love for sewing.

Because dance costumes are so expensive, it is more economical to create costumes, Miller says.

It’s something she discovered the hard way.

“We were looking at the costume prices online and saying, ‘This is ridiculous. Fabric costs less than these pieces.’ And,” she said, “because we’re poor college students, we said, ‘All right, we’ll do it. We taught ourselves belly dancing; let’s teach ourselves sewing next.’ ”

She did have a little prior experience through Girl Scout camp. “I think I had sewn a pillow once. I kind of remembered it from that. … We did a lot of Googling.”

Nonetheless, she was successful, and ended up enjoying it despite the pressure of “crunch time.” She has been creating her own costumes ever since. She was even commissioned by her friend to create one for her this summer, which turned out “phenomenal” according to Miller.

“And it’s not just my opinion,” she said, “because I’m absolutely biased. But it’s one of the best costumes that is out at the Ren. Fest right now. She’s gotten a lot of compliments on it. And it’s just so fun because she designed it, and I brought it into life. Were both really just super pleased.”

It took her about a month to complete, but Miller added that she is still not an expert, despite the success she has had with it.

“There was a lot that I was kind of learning as I went, which is a lot of my sewing in general. I kind of learn as I go and try not to make the same mistakes twice.”

However, she has entertained the thought of doing work for others, if she were commissioned of course.

“It is something I’m willing to do if people commission me,” she said. “It’s not something that I’m opposed to, but it’s just not something I advertise because I don’t always have time to do it. “

Her favorite part of dancing is being able to express herself.

Like many dancers, Miller enjoys being able to express herself in a different way. Dance, to her, is “customizable,” and it allows her to let an audience feel the same emotions she feels when she moves.

“My favorite part about belly dancing is honestly just the joy it brings me, and the happiness I feel in not only getting to express myself, but in getting to share that joy with others and that happiness with others, whether they’re watching me dance, whether they’re dancing with me.

“And it’s expression that words cannot convey,” says Miller, “because it’s something that transcends language. And I think that’s interesting because throughout cultures, everybody dances. As far back as we know, there’s always been dance, and there’s always been song, and that’s because dance and song combined do more to express emotion and feelings than language ever could.”