I finally did the Bellydance for Wimps DVD last night. It’s only been sitting on the TV for a week or two and I’ve only had to renew it twice at the library. I’d popped in a yoga program, but decided I really wanted to see what the dance one was like–I’m not big on unknown workouts,* but lately I’ve been thinking about going back to belly dancing, for several reasons.
Belly dance is fun and it also has a purpose other than weight control–dancing is it’s own accomplishment. In fact, it is very size friendly**–my former teacher is a beautiful, graceful, strong woman who is also my size. And I wasn’t bad at it–the only thing keeping me from performances was ingrained stage fright and lack of time. I only stopped when I was seven months pregnant and too tired to leave the house.
And lately I’ve been finding myself shimmying my hips, just a little–at the sink when I wash dishes, in the bathroom just after I wash my hands, for the amusement of Baby after I diaper her. I’ve sneaked a slow undulation or two into a stretch at work. And when I do arms movements for yoga, I do snake arms.
So, I took out the yoga and put in Bellydance for Wimps. I decided to do the ten moves and the combination dance at the end. The results were both encouraging and ouch.
The horizontal hip circles (standing and traveling) and the figure eights were old friends, the hip drop-kicks were surprisingly easy to get back to–despite the DVD teacher counting them like hip lifts, which threw me. I was feeling pretty confident until the undulations.
An undulation is sort of a torso-wave from sternum to belly, with a little rear end in it, too. Since Baby’s emergency C-section arrival, I’ve forgotten I ever had stomach muscles, so now I pretty much don’t. The DVD started slow but then quickly had me doing four fast undulations in a circle. With arms. Repeatedly. Which I did because, um, that’s what I do. It was part of the workout.*** I also overdid the shoulder shimmies, which I could have done with lowered arms, but didn’t. Because, you know . . .
Those disclaimers at the beginning of workout programs saying that the company isn’t liable if viewers maim themselves while following along? Those would be for me.
But the dance itself, at the end? Wonderful. Not perfect–who would be perfect after 30 minutes? But it was coming back to me. I remember the joy.
I don’t think I’ll buy this program–it’s not quite what I’m looking for, and the style is a little too Little Egypt (as opposed to traditional) for my taste.
But I think I’ll call my old teacher and see what classes she might be leading now. And I’ll start practicing some of the other moves and isolations I remember.
Tomorrow–after I take some ibuprofen . . .
______________
*What if it isn’t enough of a workout? What if I don’t find this out until it’s too late to do something else? What if it takes too long (the library sticker is right over the program length info) and Baby cries and husband is downstairs watching whatever sport is on this week? That would be my little compulsive exercise obsession thingie–read on for more.
**I actually had problems dancing when I was at my lowest adult weight–hips are necessary for belly dancing, and a little extra weight helps rebound moves like shimmying and decisive moves like hip drops. And frankly, I didn’t have the energy to keep up. Plus, my hipscarves kept sliding off.
***One or two moves were done while lowering the body from the knees, and I did modify those because I do react to intense stabbing pains in both of those poor, abused joints. I am getting older and I am not quite stupid enough to actually cripple myself–or at least not this way.
Tags: belly dancing, Body Image, eating disorders
