Helena Vlahos separates her abdomen into two halves as if they were independent pieces. She pushes one outward, contracts the other, reverses the movement, and thus achieves something that seems impossible: making nine 25-cent coins jump on her belly, catching them in the folds of her skin, and tossing them again, all without using her hands.
The trick was born by accident in 1968, when a one-dollar bill flipped over on its own on her abdomen during a performance. Vlahos, who has trained in belly dancing since she was 15, spent more than a decade perfecting that movement until turning it into her “Nine Quarters Act”, the act that made her legendary in 1979.
Today she holds the Guinness record for Unique Abdominal Dexterity, and at more than 70 years old she continues dancing and teaching in Los Angeles 👏