Belly Basics from a Baby Belly

On Friday, October 15th, I was invited to do an Athena's Party at Girl Power Fitness in Hyde Park, MA.  The Hostess and owner of Girl Power Fitness is a friend of one of my close friends who teaches Zumba, and soon got word that I am also a belly dancer.  Since the night was also going to feature a strip tease lesson, she asked if I would be able to teach a short belly dance lesson.

Truth be told, I don't think I'm necessarily qualified for the job.  Though I've been studying for about 8 years, I've only taken my commitment further in the past 3 years.  I don't necessarily plan on becoming as professional as some of my friends who are dancing at restaurants, but I absolutely love this dance.

Luckily, I had seen a fellow dancer, Ma'isah, the night before and told her about my upcoming lesson.  At that point, I had no idea what my lesson plan was, and I was too nervous to really think about it.  I am extremely lucky that she had a clearer head than I did, and she helped me break it down and feel more prepared.

I knew I had to start with the basic history and background of belly dance, starting with the term raqs sharqi.  I explained to the room full of women that the dance was more about dancing for other women and less about dancing for a man.  I stressed the importance of why it should be more about enjoying the dance, rather than just performing.

I knew I had to go quickly through various moves, but that I wanted to touch on a lot of the basics.  After my brief history lesson, I talked about the importance of posture and demonstrated the "right" and "wrong" ways to stand.

In My Goddess and Belly Dance wear

I started with hip and rib circles, moving slowly then a bit quicker.  I made sure to give the room ample time to practice, while also being aware of the time.  I touched on horizontal figure 8's and vertical figure 8's.

Then I moved on to undulations, starting with the hip then the ribcage.  In the theme of undulations, I moved on to snake arms and noted how difficult it was for many in the room to grasp.  I tried various ways of explaining it, though I knew that the time allotted would not be enough for everyone to really hone it in.

Then we moved onto the faster movements, namely shoulder and hip accents and shimmies.  The shoulder accents gave way to shoulder shimmies, and the ladies really seemed to enjoy that.  I then moved to hip hits going up and hip hits going down, focusing on one side at a time.  I also introduced them to the Egyptian Hip Hit and the Drop Release movements.

I had index cards with notes, just like when I had my very first party as a Goddess :)

Finally, we moved on to the shimmies.  I started with the basic knee shimmy, then the hip shimmy, and finally the 3/4 shimmy.  After going through the basic moves, I put on Betwanes Beek and I led them through the various movements I taught them throughout the song.

Afterward, I thought of all the various things I didn't get to tell them.  I touched on layering, but I didn't really show them an example of it.  I talked a bit about placing your arms in a way that frames your body, but I forgot to end the final song with a pose.  I got so nervous, that I didn't even suggest that I could dance a bit for them while we were waiting for the next portion of the evening.  I didn't get to talk about level changes, smiling and facial expressions, or using the movements to move across the room.  I know it's silly, considering that I really only had enough time to go through the basics.  But I just like being thorough.

Nonetheless, the women seemed thoroughly excited and happy with my quickie lesson.  They said that they were surprised at how hard some of the movements were and how much they were sweating during the lesson.

I had created a list of teachers in the area to hand out to the girls, encouraging them to seek out lessons with some of the top performers and teachers in the area.  It felt encouraging to hear that some of them enjoyed my lesson and would have also enjoyed continuing lessons with me.

Again, while I don't think I'm necessarily qualified to teach beyond a beginner level, experiencing being a teacher was incredibly insightful.  If anything, it helps me to be a better student.

Giving Zumba a Try

Recently, a friend of mine has lost a lot of weight and looks amazing after getting heavily involved in Zumba.  I was thoroughly impressed by her efforts, and I had heard a lot about the classes.

Basically, Zumba is a high-energy dance-based class.  Though most of the elements are from Latin dances like salsa, cumbia, and merengue, there is also hip-hop, samba, and a little "belly dance" (I'll get to this in a second).

I had a Groupon coupon for the Oak Square YMCA in Brighton, and there were several Zumba classes to choose from.  So, I tried one out, and I must admit that I had a lot of fun.

It really is just like dancing around.  While some of the transitions need your concentration and it probably helps if you have rhythm (or if you don't care whether or not you have rhythm), it's really what you make of it, and it can be really quite fun.  I find myself smiling through most of it.

You can definitely work up quite a sweat from all the dancing around, and I can see how someone can lose quite a bit of weight if they dedicate several workouts a week to this cardio class.

Now, while there isn't a lot of Middle Eastern-style dancing in the classes, there are definitely incorporations of it.  I feel bad whenever this part of the class comes up, mainly because I get a bit critical about the moves.

I, of all people, understand and value the fusion of belly dance with other styles of dance.  I'm not forgetting that I still want to somehow fuse traditional Filipino dance with belly dance.  But I think that the fusion is more impressive when parts of the different dances are still visible, recognizable, and respecting of the different styles.  That's just my personal style and take on the whole thing.

So, when the Zumba instructor says that we're incorporating belly dance into the moves and it reminds me more of bangara or doesn't feel like belly dance, I find myself really struggling with understanding what is happening and really struggling with the specific moves themselves.

On some level, I feel proud to be able to distinguish different versions of the dance.  But on another level, I feel like a jerk because I know I'm being too critical of an already-fusion style of working out.

I should just not care, and go with the flow.  I should just not think about it too much.

But then I become really aware that a lot of the other folks in the class are not necessarily as educated about belly dance.  The little bit of exposure they have in Zumba class isn't enough for them to really understand what raqs sharqi really is.  With all the misconceptions there are about Middle Eastern dance, I personally feel wary whenever something is called "belly dance" and it doesn't feel "right" to me.

This isn't to say that Zumba instructors are in the wrong.  I do think that more education needs to be done about Middle Eastern music and dance before people just go around identifying snake arms or hip hits as the "belly dance."  Perhaps there is just a line between fusion and...not fusion?  Here is an example on youtube of a Zumba/belly dance routine.

I don't know if I'm explaining it well enough.  I don't want to come off as really snobby about it.  Hopefully the fact that I keep going to Zumba classes will mean something.

I do think it's important to be aware of your biases before you go into a Zumba class or any other dance class, for that matter.  Otherwise, just have fun with it!