Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 October 2007 23:40:47
Belly got Heat
Belly got Power
It's the only reason
Men buy flowers!
I've taken up my fascinating belly dancing again, after a summer break. A class is only an hour long, but the whole time is spent, between warmup and cooldown, on the dance moves. One single class produces a noticeable tightening/toning of even my middle-aged middle.
Yes, of course, I could do the same movements at home alone... but you know I won't. I need the discipline of a class.
Even the simple fact that one's arms should never, ever flop, lax, makes for a workout. And thinking all the time of something graceful and pretty to do with the hands is a killer for me. After some time I hope it will become second nature and I'll do it without thinking.
Of course, IMO, it beats straightforward aerobics all to heck, because you don't usually get to wear sequins, bells, feathers and beads in an aerobics class. Unless maybe Richard Simmons leads it.
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One thing I enjoy about it, or at least about my particular class format, is the total acceptance of the body we are taught.
Not that we don't need to try to be healthy and fit. And certainly not meaning we have to be 100% natural -- some of us have had breast augmentation! But there's a heavy emphasis on living in your own body, being happy in your own skin, developing flexibility and awareness about what your body can do. I like that.
And if I had any worry about the blinding glare of my fishbelly white belly, well, if I did dress up in a "nice" costume for purposes of performance, it would at least have the netting, like one of my instructors did in this video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfl0WmPrfm0
Limit the neon glow of it, you know?
Meanwhile, in the ratty fun costumes I put together for class use, colors battle and odd sparkly things clash and jingle, and the belly is right out there for all to see. Que sera sera.
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The dancing lessons I took as a child quickly bored me. I had no real interest in drill teams or dance squads or cheerleading, as my sisters did. I was more weightlifting and track.
But there was something about the emphasis on the... innocently sensual? That is, innocent in the sense that you're not up there performing virtual sexual intercourse, as with some forms of dance! Rather, you're more like being thrilled with your own femininity and joyfully inviting everyone else to enjoy it too.
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Monday night is "Happy Shimmies" night. That's the name of my dance class/group. What a workout that class is! I am always wrung out when I leave (in a good way).
If I've had a hard day, when I walk into the health club I'm a bit slow and heavy in my steps. If I've had a good day, I might be a bit perkier and with a more bouncy athletic step.
When I leave the place, though, after an hour of drops and pops and isolating muscles I didn't know I had -- I glide. The back is straight, the head is high on an elegantly-held neck, the shoulders are back, The Girls are in Battleship Position, the hips have a sort of sway, rippling the filmy skirts I usually wear to dance.
When I got there in the evening, ladies from the Body Pump class (immediately previous to the belly dance classes, same studio) were leaving. The instructor and her friend made admiring noises about all us bellydancers coming in after them.
That particular instructor has been on TV exercise shows, and always leads the crowd in a warm-up before big charity walks and runs. I've been led by her at these events, and have always thoroughly admired her intensity and dedication to spreading the fitness bug.
She's so fit, her hair has muscles. And yet there she was, displaying interest in a decidedly softer-looking bunch and their seemingly less strenuous workout. I'm not sure if that was just a display of "comrades in fitness" thinking, or if she really truly has an admiration for the intensely feminine discipline of belly dancing. Probably the latter -- you wouldn't think belly dancing would do a lot for your thighs! It's the soft-kneed, butt-tucked stance. You don't realize how often, how much, you go through life with your knees pretty much locked, your legs perfectly straight, until you have to spend over an hour keeping the knees just a tiny bit bent. Ouch!
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Belly dancing, depending upon the verve with which you approach it and the steadiness with which you rehearse on your own, will tone up every muscle you've got. Fingers, toes, abs, neck, whatever.
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I speak American English and a little Old French, 'Cajun, you know.
I have no idea what the lyrics are in the music I hear at that belly dancing class.
I've heard a lot of "Krishna". Let us hope the singer was being nice to Krishna.
There is one English song, lots of dark minor tones and bongo drums, "black is the color of my true love's heart", the lady moans...
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Unfortunately, I have to participate in this class in front of mirror walls on two sides. That's OK... I long ago have gotten used to how funny I look. At least that helps me keep up the perpetual smile one is supposed to maintain in performance!
Speaking of "funny", I wonder if the instructors would allow me to work out a sort of comedy dance? Standard moves, of course, and needing just as much rehearsal etc. as "real" choreography -- but taking advantage of the happy silly appearance of a squatty little grandmother daring to enjoy herself so...