Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 1118 Issue Date: 5 May, 2024

    Claire, belly dancing and sexology

Claire Litton gave a very enjoyable presentation on her Rotary Ambassadorial scholarship at the Tuesday, 14 September meeting.  Claire arrived at the Meeka Restaurant wearing bright pink hair and large smile.  Obviously an interesting presentation was to follow on her life of belly dancing and sexology studies.

Claire was born in Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada but her formative years were spent close to the Canada/USA border near Niagara Falls.  Hence the very strong North American accent.  Claire applied for her Rotary Ambassadorship from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not too far to the south of Niagara.  It was in Pittsburgh where she developed her interest in belly dancing and commenced studies on sexology.  Belly dancing was a life long ambition as Claire discovered after recently seeing it mentioned on her list of career dreams formulated at the age of 11.  Wanting to study sexology presumably followed at a later stage of her life.  Claire was a professional belly dancer in the US and teaches the movements in Perth as well as being part of a belly dancing troupe.  A few members of the audience mentioned they should join the group because they had big bellies.  Not true, says sylph like Claire.  Belly dancing is for all body shapes – fat, skinny, men, women.  The mention of men belly dancers brought back painful memories of witnessing male Rotary Club of Western Endeavour member contortions during a club dinner at the Elies Tent Restaurant earlier in the year.

Claire was drawn to the School of Public Health Sexology program at Curtin University because it is recognized worldwide as being one of the best.  In fact, this program was awarded the prestigious World Association for Sexual Health ‘Award for Excellence & Innovation in Sexuality Education’ for 2007.  For the uninformed, (according to Wikipedia) sexology is the scientific study of sexual interests, behaviour, and function.  Claire’s current interest on the topic is the prevention of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  Improving communication on the availability of screening facilities should lead to reducing the spread of diseases for example.  Claire sees her immediate future working for an NGO, possibly in Thailand, where her skills will directly benefit the population.  The RCWE wishes her well in her pursuits in this direction.