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voxwomanit's a workout TV show on the Fit channel (hooray for satellite TV, I guess). It's called "Shimmy" and it's a belly dance workout. I just sweated through one episode, and it's really gratifying to be able to do everything that the voiceover is telling you to do, and not have to watch the video once first to get the choreography, or pause the thing to figure out what the heck is going on.
It's Belly Dancing 101, really. They went through shoulder shimmies (well alternating shoulder movement - not nearly fast enough for a proper shoulder shimmy, but I suppose they aren't "going there" because you wind up really shaking your boobs when you're doing it properly), hip lift/hip drop, hip turns forward and back, and "cabaret" shimmies (with added hip circle). It was REALLY gratifying as I was doing it and listening to the announcer say "this is an advanced movement - you're going to have to practice it" and I said - "I don't THINK so!") and then something she called "shivers" which is a smaller shimmy (which they kept in the hips and lower body, but I was taught to get your entire body shaking with that one) to which they added figure 8s with the hips. And threw in a quick step and turn thing for "choreography". I could keep up. I mean, crap, I've been belly dancing for slightly over 30 years. Thing that annoyed me is when it was time to "dance", they changed to a "club music" beat instead of the nice balady they had going on throughout the teaching section of the show.
It feels good, though. This is the first real exercize I've had since before I started this new job in February.
The yoga shows I've been looking at run through the postures too fast for my taste.
I do find it somewhat ironic as I'll sit and watch a workout show and eat a chocolate Dove bar at the same time. I'm hoping this will motivate me to start losing weight again, because carrying this excess blubber is making me tired and my knees and ankles ache. I am pleased that my body remembers these moves, especially since I haven't really been dancing for a while. And that I can pick up a choreography relatively quickly.
I also agreed to teach a belly dancing class at the Pagan Picnic in August. If I had the room in the house, I think I'd start up teaching belly dancing on a weekly basis. I enjoyed doing it when I was at my "peak" as a dancer (taking 2 classes per week with different top dancers, a "master class" seminar type class 4 or so times a year, teaching one class a week, and performing 3 or 4 times a month). The styles have changed somewhat; I have no idea what "American Tribal" is (and I really have to stop reacting to it the same way I react to fluffy bunny Wiccans). I was taught in the Egyptian Cabaret Style with a lot of REAL tribal thrown in (I had learned a whole slew of Bedouin folk dances, but I don't really remember them right now - maybe if I heard the music). I was amused when belly dancing got co-opted by the aerobics community, and I'm glad it's popular now. I am hoping that people don't forget the roots of the dance form. I'm somewhat of a traditionalist, I suppose.
It's Belly Dancing 101, really. They went through shoulder shimmies (well alternating shoulder movement - not nearly fast enough for a proper shoulder shimmy, but I suppose they aren't "going there" because you wind up really shaking your boobs when you're doing it properly), hip lift/hip drop, hip turns forward and back, and "cabaret" shimmies (with added hip circle). It was REALLY gratifying as I was doing it and listening to the announcer say "this is an advanced movement - you're going to have to practice it" and I said - "I don't THINK so!") and then something she called "shivers" which is a smaller shimmy (which they kept in the hips and lower body, but I was taught to get your entire body shaking with that one) to which they added figure 8s with the hips. And threw in a quick step and turn thing for "choreography". I could keep up. I mean, crap, I've been belly dancing for slightly over 30 years. Thing that annoyed me is when it was time to "dance", they changed to a "club music" beat instead of the nice balady they had going on throughout the teaching section of the show.
It feels good, though. This is the first real exercize I've had since before I started this new job in February.
The yoga shows I've been looking at run through the postures too fast for my taste.
I do find it somewhat ironic as I'll sit and watch a workout show and eat a chocolate Dove bar at the same time. I'm hoping this will motivate me to start losing weight again, because carrying this excess blubber is making me tired and my knees and ankles ache. I am pleased that my body remembers these moves, especially since I haven't really been dancing for a while. And that I can pick up a choreography relatively quickly.
I also agreed to teach a belly dancing class at the Pagan Picnic in August. If I had the room in the house, I think I'd start up teaching belly dancing on a weekly basis. I enjoyed doing it when I was at my "peak" as a dancer (taking 2 classes per week with different top dancers, a "master class" seminar type class 4 or so times a year, teaching one class a week, and performing 3 or 4 times a month). The styles have changed somewhat; I have no idea what "American Tribal" is (and I really have to stop reacting to it the same way I react to fluffy bunny Wiccans). I was taught in the Egyptian Cabaret Style with a lot of REAL tribal thrown in (I had learned a whole slew of Bedouin folk dances, but I don't really remember them right now - maybe if I heard the music). I was amused when belly dancing got co-opted by the aerobics community, and I'm glad it's popular now. I am hoping that people don't forget the roots of the dance form. I'm somewhat of a traditionalist, I suppose.
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Date: 2008-06-09 10:57 am (UTC)I've been looking for something to motivate me to work out. Running an hour on the treadmill with no goal in mind other then weight loss hasn't been getting me anywhere. I lose ten or so pounds then stop going for a while then I'm right back up to 190. The stress at work isn't helping.
I think I've found a new motivation. I'm going to start training for this. Well, not the 2008 one. I figure with some hard (and consistent) training I can be ready for the "sprint" distance by next summer and a full tri the next year when I turn 40.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 11:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 12:31 am (UTC)I can draw a lot of parallels to American Tribal belly dance and "eclectic Wicca" for example, and I can now understand the attitude that spiritual "purists" have towards the "take a bit of this and a bit of that" from various cultures. I wonder how the Indian classical dancers feel about this, too (ICD is *very* structured - which is kind of weird considering the ragas they dance to are basically improvisational. But all the hand movements and postures *mean* something, and the dances I've seen are telling religious stories).