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And in the world of belly dancing?

The Golden Belly.

Two Pittsburgh dance troupes have won Golden Belly Awards from the international Zaghareet dance magazine.

Claire Litton says it's surprising, because "the West Coast is the heartland of belly dancing in the United States."

Litton, of Squirrel Hill, is a dancer with Khafif Music and Dance, which is named "Best-Kept Secret 2007" in Zaghareet's September/October issue, which also names Zafira Dance Company as "Troupe of the Year 2007."

Khafif's style is fusion dancing, Litton says, combining many styles into a cohesive whole. The eclecticism of the group is made possible by the roughly 40 years' combined experience of its dancers, who have studied West African, Persian, classical Indian, Balkan and Polynesian styles.

Zafira Dance Company refers to its performances as "opulent vignettes that combine belly dance with contemporary and ethnic dance forms. The result is an ornate performance that blurs the boundary between old and new, performer and audience, earthy and elegant," according to its Web site.

Zafira operates as a collective of five dancers -- Christine Andrews, Maria Hamer, Jennifer Imashev, Tamara Nelson and Olivia Kissel.

Khafif is a dance and music group with four dancers -- Beth Howard, Jenn Green and Bernadette Vargo are the others -- and four to six musicians.

"Dancers and musicians usually aren't in the same group, but we really play off each other," says Litton, who dances under the stage name Safa. Raised in London, Ontario, Canada, she started belly dancing in eighth grade. She continued taking lessons, and moved to Pittsburgh in 1993 after she fell in love with a local drummer, who now plays in her company.

Although most people stereotype belly dancing as for sexy James Bond girls, Litton says belly dancing is really the only type of dancing "for men and women of whatever shapes and sizes. You can be any age, have body piercing and tattoos. You can have three kids. One of the most beautiful belly dancers I've ever seen was a grandmother."

Although Khafif performs in Pittsburgh, the troupe is on the road a lot, teaching belly dancing on weekends in the United States and Canada.

"We have a huge amount of fun doing this," Litton says. "It's our life. We wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun."

Details: www.zafiradance.com, www.khafif.com.

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