Belly Dancing for Fitness Club
 

Hi there!!!
I was hoping that there were some ladies out there that loved to belly dance for their workouts and would like to have some fun with it. I have been dancing for years and i love it. I'm back on the fitness wagon and thought hey why not start a group for women who love to belly dance and who want to chart our results. Doesn't matter if u use videos or take classes. Let's just have some fun, support and Lord knows accountability for staying on the wagon :coach:Any comments on how to set things up would be great. I was thinking maybe weekly weigh ins and progress reports on your belly dancing. BEWARE im far from the best belly dancer LOL but hey its makes me happy. :cheer::belly::D well hope to hear from you guys!!
Mickey

Video Recommendation
 

That sounds like great excercise and fun!

Any recommendations on a good beginners video Mickey?

If so count me in :carrot:

Deb

HI Deb:welcome3::
Glad to see u are interested :woohoo: To answer your question, my favorite belly dance dvd's are Instructional Belly Dance with Jillina. I put the link at the bottom for ya. I have the whole 3 DVD series for this and I'm just now on lesson 2 lol.. I think u will find that they way she breaks down each move makes it easier to learn. she also sets up the chapters so u can go at your own pace (repeat the parts u need work on with out having to start the whole dvd over :)) I have also used the DVDs from the "Twins" (when u start researching belly dance dvds u will see who i mean lol) but didn't care much for their teaching style. oh and i have also heard that they have On Demand (Comcast Cable) belly dance workouts too. I plan to check that out and see how it is. I'll let ya know. Let me know if u have any more questions :)

http://www.amazon.com/Instructional-.../dp/B0001906OA

Well, Gotta say, I had hoped for more people to be interested in this :( but oh well, I shall push on even if this starts to look like a blog instead of a forum lol .Last nite I worked on my belly dancing for an hour. I am working with Instructional Belly Dance- Level Two with Jillina. It's been awhile since I last practiced and man was this an eye opener! So, everyday I'm going to try and post tips for learning from a dvd as well as just basic belly dancing tips. weight loss progress will be posted in my ticker and signature. Well hope to have more people join in the fun!
p.s gonna post the tips in a seperate message ;)

*~*~*~tips ~*~*~*
 

:belly:BELLY DANCE TIPS FOR BEGINNERS!!!!:belly:
12/5/08

1. Really spend some quality time streaching and warming up!:exercise: Feeling loose and warmed up makes it alot easier to do your isolation. I learned the hard way when I did a figure 8 and felt stiffness in my back:yikes:. My fav forms of warming up, free dancing (put on my fav songs and just cut loose :))and crunches (u use alot of abs in belly dance).

2. Learning from a dvd can be a lil overwelming because it can seem like the video is moving faster than you can keep. But thats why we have a pause button and rewind :lol:. At one point last nite i felt like i was tripping over my own feet trying to do the moves as fast as she did. :idea:So, I stopped, broke down the moves for one combination, and just practiced that over and over, slowly and at my own speed until I knew I could do it accurately and gracefully. At the end of an hour long practice I may have only learned one new combo, but at least I got it down right :bravo:

3. Final tip of the day, finish up by free dancing and adding in the new belly dance moves u just picked up:dance:. It helps to make them feel natural to you and they will become second nature.

Hope these tips are informational and help u in your journey of belly dance and weight loss :goodvibes:

Hey, I just finished a belly dancing class in my area. Honestly, I think I learn more from Shimmy. I even invested in the belly dancing belt with all the coins. It really helps me get into the spirit and magic of belly dance. I find I can many of the moves--just not as well as the ladies on Shimmy. It's a good workout but gentle too--and oh, so beautiful. So many women these days are into the whole "pole dance" thing. For me, belly dancing IS my pole dance. It is much more seductive and all about the anticipation.

Hi Thighs and Diva :) Glad to hear from you :) I to believe that belly dance is far more seductive and beautiful than any strip tease. It feels like art for me and it accents the beauty of curves. I didn't get to practice last nite because it was my 1 year anniversary but i sure did shimmy ;) lol. Im thinking of doing a class, in San Francisco, there is a great belly dance scene. But i would feel better going when i had a lil less belly lol.
Heres a question for all, what Belly dance move do you have the most trouble with?

Belly dancing is sort of in my culture, I'm lebanese. I love it, I think it's beautiful, and I find it really fun. I can't wait to go to the lebanese festival thin and tear up the dance floor with my fab moves. hehe. I guess I'm going to have to get a dvd soon!

Hi Beautiful!:welcome:
For one, im sure u are a beautiful dancer now, but i know what ya mean ;) :hug: And since u know more about it than I do, don't be suprised if I ask you many questions :D Jillina has great dvds and the twins are ok, just a suggestion. Some use fit tv, I haven't tried that program yet, but I will. I like dvds because i can pause them and practice the moves at my own pace. We are all gonna end up a more fit and sexy as sin by the end :D Check out the tips of the day for belly dance thread as well and feel free to leave any tips that you may think others will find useful . Take care
Mickey

I just started belly dancing in September, and have fallen head over heals in love with it. I like lots of different sorts of exercise in general, but at heart, I've always been a dancer. I haven't done much as an adult because I got too fat and self concious to dance :( . I just turned 40 and decided I was old enough not to care what anyone else thought and so I signed up for classes. I am hooked and having a blast! :carrot:

My teacher's style is mostly Egyptian, and I really prefer that to American Cabaret, but I kind of, sort of, might also like to try tribal :o. Once I get better at this. It looks soooo funky and challenging!

I really like my classes, as my teacher is very plus size positive. She is thin, but really encourages all sizes and ages to participate.

I've followed a couple of DVDs, though I really prefer the live classes. The twins are great dancers, but they seem too perfect and plastic to me, but I do like Jillina. I'm planning on picking up Bellydance for Core Fitness by Ayshe to give that a try.

BP

Oh, it's in my culture but I'm very white washed... The only thing I know about it is how it looks when people do it... ahaha, and of course, the moving the hips and hands .... I'm no pro!!!

Hi BP:welcome: and BA -
Sounds like we are all in the same boat... sorry i have been a bit awol the last few days, just got busy with work and stuff.. but my DF (dear fiance :)) is going to get me a dvd player for the living room so i have more room to practice.. trying to do it in our cramped lil bedroom was causing all kinds of stubbed toes :) keep updated as to how the dance is going and as well as the weightloss.. im interested in seeing if it produces as much weightloss as the traditional excersise or not.. doesn't matter that much cuz we do it for the joy more than anything .. soo keep those hips a shaken ladies :D :belly: ttfn
Mickey

I went to an extra class tonight. The regular classes I signed up for are over for the year, but my teacher invited some of us to go to her more advanced class that she teaches elsewhere - for free! :woohoo: That was fun, and hard. And painful - I stepped on one of my toes and bruised it! :o :lol: Klutz!!

Lots of hip work and some travelling shimmies, which I am starting to figure out. Reverse camels are hard! But I'm getting them. Belly rolls are impossible! I'm not really able to move my abdominal muscles in isolation yet. I can do it when I'm laying down on the bed, really concentrating, but not when I'm trying to follow and there are arms and feet and hips to think about too! :p

I don't know if I'll be able to practice much this week - I'm coming down with a cold and I may wind up crawling under the bed covers for a few days. Hopefully it'll be a quickie cold! Right now I feel like someone ran into my head with a truck! :frypan:

BP

Hey BP,
That sucks about the cold :hug: but congrats on the invite! I would have been past excited if it had happened to me. I swear i have the hardest time with traveling shimmies lol.. i lose the whole smooth motion the moment i pick up my feet and try to move in any direction.. the other thing i have the worst time on and don't laugh when i tell u, is spins. :eek: I can't seem to spot to save my life and the end result is me standing there dizzy and about to puke lol well theres my embarssing belly dance secret.. ohhh reverse camels are hard as **** lol.. i always have to fight the urge to do them the front way lol.. well hope u get better soon. ttfn
Mickey :belly: