Five years ago, Sue Libey thought that she and her daughter, Ashley, could put a new twist on their relationship by taking belly dance lessons together. “She had to convince me,” Ashley said. “But it’s really fun.”

Saturday night, Sue, now 45, and Ashley, 21, performed two dances together and were part of several ensemble pieces during a Belly Dance Festival sponsored by Longview Parks and Recreation.

The Longview women were among four mother-daughter pairs who participated in the evening of bright robes, flashing jewelry, tasty Middle-Eastern snacks and, oh yes, undulating bellies.

The event was organized by Terrie Phillips of Castle Rock, who teaches belly dancing for Parks and Rec.

Phillips, 47, was one of four generations of women in her family at the event.

She learned how to belly dance from her mother, Linda Newton of Skamokawa, who was serving baklava and pita bread sandwiches to the audience that packed the Longview Woman’s Club building.

Newton, now a nutritional coach, works with her daughter at their Empower U studio on Commerce Avenue.

“We’re passing on a tradition,” said Newton, 62, who learned to belly dance in California. “Mothers love to pass on tradition to daughters. If you can pass on traditions to daughters you can communicate. It keeps them off the streets.”

Newton said belly dance’s appeal bridges generations because “it doesn’t matter if you’re old and heavy. Everybody is welcome.”

The traditional form is “a dance of womanhood, telling the story from childhood to old age,” Newton said.

Dancers start out veiled, to signify a young girl’s innocence. Then the veils come off, which portrays the flirting of teenagers. The third phase of a traditional dance is usually done on the floor, with undulations symbolizing childbirth.

“American audiences aren’t really respectful,” Newton said, so she and the other local dancers leave out the birthing bit.

The end of a dance, with shimmying hips, is a celebration of life.

Some dances stray from the tradition, Phillips said. “There’s a whole belly dance world out there. There are many styles of belly dance.”

Styles demonstrated Saturday ranged from tribal (“it looks more ethnic-y,” Phillips explained) to cabaret, as is done in restaurants and night clubs.

Even if you don’t know the stories and styles, it’s a remarkable dance form to watch — much more than moving midsections.

Dancers’ feet twirled as they gracefully twisted arms and flipped their shoulders. Women shook tummies that had real-woman amounts of flesh on them.

“Your body type doesn’t matter, which is great,” Sue Libey said.

Saturday’s show included Phillip’s class, a group from Evergreen Dance Studio and professional dancers from the Portland area.

Phillips’s dance name is Teraz, bestowed by a dance instructor years ago. For one number she appeared in an iridescent blue skirt and top with big silver lame wings. As she twirled, she created bowl shapes, a cape and full angel motif with the silver fabric.

The “Isis wings” of her theatrical costume don’t have a Middle-Eastern history, Phillips said.

Other dancers used swords as props.

The Evergreen troupe wore leotards and blue jeans dressed up with sparkling hip scarves. Most of the dancers were dripping with rings on fingers and bare toes, and wore flashing coins hanging around hips and busts.

Performers drew applause from the non-dancers in the audience and boisterous zaghareets from the other dancers. The wavering, high-pitched whoop is a traditional form of encouragement for belly dancers.

“You just go ‘la-la-la-la-la,” Phillips explained. “It’s like us going ‘yeah!’ “

The Evergreen dancers include Kim Hash and her daughter, Megan.

“We do ballet, too,” Kim Hash said. Belly dancing is “a different kind of exercise,” she said. “You just have a good time with it. You get to wear a lot of shiny things and things that make noise. You can’t do that with ballet.”