Belly Dancing part Trois: Safe Haven

This October, will be one year anniversary of taking my belly dancing class! Huzzah!! No, I haven't been in any dance recitals yet (I'm a huge chicken), but the more I take the classes and practice the moves at home, my confidence in actually wanting to perform increases. Anyway, my class is at the same time every week and for a whole year, my manager always set my scheduled to have that night off. Great. However, the week before last, my other manager decided to take over the schedule making and yes, he scheduled me to work the night of my class. I told him that I don't work Tuesday nights and he of course he came up with an excuse on why I needed to work that night and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Whatever. Tuesday comes around aaaannnnnd, there was really no need for me to be there. At. All. All the areas in the store were covered and yet he made me come in. I was pissed. Now, it sounds irrational, but I've come to really look forward to my classes. It's the one day out of the week that has absolutely nothing to do with work or home. I get to dance and laugh it up with a bunch of ladies, who also, sees this as little break within their work weeks. Yes. There are times where she has canceled class due to life, but that is something that can't be helped. F***king with my schedule is a whole different story. I've been at my job for 10 years! I always came in when they needed me, stayed late and rarely took any sick days. But the one time I ask to not close for night out of the 6 day work week, you deny me that request?? *sigh* Lucky for me, my instructor had a free class on Sunday and I was able to go to that! YES! And then it dawned on me. Besides, the comradery we ladies have when we are clumsily learning a new dance move, I come to this class as a safe place. I don't have to worry about rude customers or rude managers. No one with bad attitudes or negative vibes. Also, with it just being women in the class, we let it alll hangout! Our boobs jiggle while doing shoulder shimmys, having our stomachs hang out for body rolls and undulations! It is the life!! LOL! Seriously though, my teacher always makes a point to tell new students that even though we are all made and shaped differently, the beauty of belly dance allows you to appreciate and love the skin your in. To embrace YOU!! After every class, that feeling of peace just surrounds me and I love it!

Isolation, constipation and concentration!!

hehehe...I'm just messing. My belly dance teacher told us the 3 main terms for belly dance...and I can only remember one: Isolation!! One of the major aspects of belly dance is definitely Isolation. To be able to control and move the different parts of your body, at the same time, is the most amazing thing I ever seen. And the most hardest. You see, I have a really hard time doing one or more things at one time. I swear in the middle of class, my mind wanders and when I'm suppose to be learning a dance move, I'm thinking about dinner or cake. (mmmm, cake) *clears head* Anyhoo, one of the best ways to really see the beauty of body isolation, is during a drum solo. While someone is going to town on a drum, the belly dancer is showing how she (or he) can keep up with the beating of the drum. While watching a lot of drum solos on Youtube and my jaw drops with the way the ladies are able to keep a rhythm and show off their body skills, while dancing to the beat of the drum. My favorite dancer so far when it comes to drum solo, is Sadie Marquadt. She is absolutely amazing!! Look at the way she is able to control her body movements!! I am utterly green with jealousy!! I have also became more determined to get her LEVEL!!! Just imagine my body be able to move my hips, chest and stomach like that!! *le sigh* So, I'm happy to say that my teacher has told me, that we will be learning a drum solo this month! *screams excitedly* Wish me Luck!

Belly Dancing Part II: So Uncoordinated

It has been a couple of months since I started taking my belly dancing classes and I must say that I am in love!!! I must admit, that it did take me awhile to get used to doing chest lifts and drops, snake arms, shimmies, undulations, traveling twists and everything else in between. Now, my teacher taught us this awesome choreography that we will probably perform in a recital later on the future. I'm not looking forward to that. Anyway, it is a pretty simple dance with all moves we have learned so far. Welllll, I always knew how uncoordinated I am, but I never realized how bad I am until I'm dancing with others. Why they're going right, butt is going left. While we're doing traveling twists, which I LOVE, I tend to lose my balance, lose my place in the song and then eventually lose my mind. And she wants ME to perform on stage with people actually watching me dance?!?!?!? *runs away while screaming* *takes deep breath* But a couple of positive things I can say about the mistakes I make in class is that I don't give up. I am also able to laugh at myself when I do make the mistakes. I stumble, I fumble, I laugh and then try again. Like they say, whoever they are, practice makes perfect. :D

Belly Dancing Part 1: My Back Hurts

Tonight I took my first ever belly dancing class. I was nervous and out totally out of my element, but I've been wanting to do this for years! I finally found a dance studio close to my house and I signed up for it right away. So how did it go? I never knew how stiff I was until I had to shimmy and do the snake with my arms. And yes, my back hurts. We had to raise our chests and then drop them. Over and over and over again. I usually don't do that on a regular basis, so my back is not use do that kind of a work out. I'm really uncoordinated as well. We had to walk forward, while pointing our feet and moving our arms at the same time....Yeaaaaaa. I sucked pretty badly. Anyway, besides noticing how long and awkward my arms looked in the mirror, I really enjoyed myself. The teacher is awesome and she has really great personality. I can't wait until next weeks class, but until then....*shimmy, shimmy and shimmy*