Belly Dancing Lessons

2009-02-26T04:06:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since this blog has been updated and there is one major reason for this - it's moved, and I forgot to mention it! Duh! I set up a new Belly Dancing Lessons blog last year which brings together a lot of free training videos from across the Internet.

There is never any substitute for real-life lessons but if you find yourself unable to find a belly dance class in your area or you want more instruction between classes, then the blog will be useful to you. Take a look at http://www.Belly-Dancing-Lessons.com

Also, I have started a more general Belly Dancing Blog to talk about all things belly dance at: http://www.BellyDancingSecrets.com/blog

Free Online Belly Dancing Lessons

2007-02-04T07:31:00.000-08:00

Why I Bellydance
By O Seymour

Learning to belly dance has many benefits and you will feel improvements in both your physical and mental wellbeing. Belly dance promotes a positive body image. Celebrities that are always on television and designer fashion labels promotes slim and thin people and it can have negative psychological effects on women who do not fit into this category. Low body weight can affect mood, increase stress on the heart, disrupt the sleep cycle and deregulate normal gland functioning. It may also be linked to erratic menstrual cycles.

Few women are born with the build and metabolism to achieve the current popular body image, leaving a hard and disappointing road for others who try to measure up but cannot because of their natural body shape.

Belly dancing is a wonderful way to counteract these negative body images and celebrate the more natural curvaceous feminine form in all its shape and sizes.

In the ancient world, when belly dancing came into being, thinness was a sign of poverty, sickness and starvation. For a woman of those times, having a softer layer surrounding her bones showed that she was well fed and healthy, possess financial means and was endowed with security and happiness. Remember that when you look in the mirror.

Most people are open to learning when they feel relaxed and comfortable and it is true for belly dancing. One of the best things about belly dancing is that you can really let yourself go, physically and mentally.

Turkish Corner has a wide varitey of belly dance dvd's, costumes and accessories to help you get started.

O Seymour is a writer and Search Engine Optimization expert. You can view his blog at http://www.seo-rant.com

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Belly Dancing for Fitness of Mind and Body

2006-12-31T06:05:00.000-08:00

"Get your Belly on": Belly Dancing for Fitness of Mind and Body
By Mubarakah Ibrahim

No matter what diet you follow, rather you sweat it out on a treadmill, in a spin class or sweatin’ the oldies, one indelible truth remains: to get in shape and stay that way you must exercise. No matter what pill claims research and science to stop carb absorption, block fat hormones or decrease hunger, the fine print is always the same: “use in conjunction with a sensible diet and exercise”.

The problem with that is most people hate to exercise. And the majority of those who do it consistently have simply submitted to the inescapable obligation to do so.

The quest now is how to make exercise enjoyable . . . dag on it, make it fun even. The best way to do that is to do something you enjoy. Something different., something that challenges your muscles, gets your blood pumping, and your laugh lines stuck. And if it makes you feel confident and sexy at the same time, it won’t hurt none. Belly dancing is just the activity that will give you all those benefits and some more to boot.

The History of Belly Dancing

Belly dancing is often looked at as the secret dance of the bronze skin beauties. But in fact this is a secret that has been revealed. Belly dancing has been done since ancient times. Some for of it exist in many countries around the world from the Middle East to East Asia, its performance in entrenched in culture and tradition.

Although belly dancing is viewed in western societies as a sexually exotic dance done by women for men, that’s not the traditional view or practice of belly dancing. As a dance that is performed in societies where women and men have socially separate interaction (ie women over here, men over there), it is a dance that is most commonly done for women by women. In ancient Egypt, when the mistress went in labor, her harem would gather around her and do undulations of the belly, also known as belly rolls, to symbolize the birthing process, and distract her from labor pains.

During bridal parties when the bride had her hands and feet covered in Henna (a mud-like paste to dye decoration on the skin) the women would belly dancing to pass the time while the henna dried.

Interestingly enough men belly dance as well. With firm, earthly moves that often includes stomps and sharp movements, instead of the graceful flows of the female version, men celebrate among them selves.

The uniqueness of belly dancing

Belly dancing is a type of dancing whose base is isolation moves. You must move your torso while keeping your lower body still and visa versa. For most people in western society it is a muscle challenge because we are not use to using our muscles in the way belly dancing requires. So even the women with a six pack can benefit from the unique muscle techniques required to belly dance. The muscle control and technique required while implementing the very deliberate moves (yeah it’s so much more than just trusting your pelvic bone around), will make you admire the graceful moves displayed by belly dancing performers. Even if you do not plan on gracing the stage to move your “lovely lady lumps”, it is an activity every woman should try at least once in a life time.

We are westerners and in our mind belly dancing is still exotic and sensual and to be able to move with grace and sensuality makes us all little more confident in our femininity. And because it is a dance that can be done no matter what shape, size or scale number you represent, it is just the thing to help you love the skin you are in.

About The Author

Mubarakah Ibrahim CPT is an AFAA certified personal trainer and owner of BALANCE fitness Studio for women in New Haven, CT. She offers 1 on 1 personal training service for women, on-line personal training, outdoor boot camps, and group fitness classes, including belly dancing. She also lectures, promotes and conducts workshops on health and fitness through out the northeast. She can be contacted by visiting her website http://www.BalanceCT.com or e-mailed at balanceCT@hotmail.com © BALANCE fitness.
Article may be reprinted without permission only in it’s entirety including author bio and contact information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mubarakah_Ibrahim

Getting Ready to Bellydance

2006-11-30T06:14:00.000-08:00

Getting Ready to Bellydance

by Oral Seymour

Creating a positive dance environment

Find about 6 feet of space all around you. You need enough space to move with as little restriction as possible. You should also have a large mirror in front of you in which you can see yourself from about 60cm above your head down to your toes.

Privacy is also important, especially when you first start. Dancing in the daylight which stream through your windows is a delight but this can expose you to the curious eyes of passers-by. You can drape sheer fabric in different colors over your windows; you will have the benefit of natural that is tinted into different shades. Candles can also be a nice addition to your settings. The aim is to build a spiritually warm atmosphere which brings emotional contentment and security.

What to wear

There is a variety of clothing for belly dancing but whatever you dance in, makes sure it matches the following criteria Choose something that does not restrict your movements or freedom in any way. Be brave and allow for a top that fully exposes your midsection. No matter how big or small, you don't have to be shy! A lot of women also find a sports bra very comfortable. For your legs - a pair of running or yoga tights rolled over at your waist is a great inexpensive choice. Find something light and feminine such a shawl of silk scarf to drape around your hips. Once you really get into it you should invest into clothing so that you can look the part. There are plenty of wonderful belly dance clothes to choose from which will make you look the part. There are plenty of wonderful belly dance clothes to choose from. Try costume -type bra tops, vest tops, chois and tie-arounds for you upper body. Underneath, flowing harem pants and billowy gypsy skirts give unlimited range of movement and feeling. Coin belts come in every color and design you can think of and are worth every penny for the fun they are adding to your dancing. The exciting jingling they bring adds spirit and authenticity to the dance and can spark your imagination like nothing else.

You can find professional belly dance costumes, coin belts, hip scarves, and accessories at Turkish Corner.

Relax your mind and body

To bring yourself into the right frame of mind and to life your spirits, start with some breathing exercises to relax your mind and release some tension. Stand or sit comfortable and close your eyes Relax your abdominal muscles and inhale deeply for five heartbeats. Let your stomach extend fully so you draw in as much air as possible. When the five beats are up, hold the air in your lungs for two beats and then release your breath completely for another six beats. You should feel your shoulders and neck muscles relaxing Repeat this excursive at least four times. If you are feeling particularly tense, repeat the breathing technique until you feel calm and peaceful.

Imagination is also a powerful tool. Let your mind take you to a simple flower garden with cool grass under your feet, a favorite is a white sandy beach with ocean lapping the shore. Wherever you wish to go at that moment is fine.

The Music

The music of the Middle East has incredible soul and touches and touches upon all aspects of human emotion. Whatever you are feeling, from joy and sadness to ecstasy and surprise, you can find music to match your mood. The most common instruments in Middle Eastern music are the oud, the nay, the kunoon and the dumbek.

As you practice the techniques, count out loud to the beats in the music. When your timing skills improve, you can start counting in your head instead of out loud. This is a simple technique that some dancers give up once they feel they have mastered counting. This almost always leads to sloppy technique. The strongest dancers keep counting no matter what level of expertise the reach.

Turkish Corner

About the Author

Learning to belly dance has almost unlimited benefits and you will feel improvements in both your physical and mental wellbeing.

Reasons to Belly Dance

2006-11-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

10 Reasons to take up Belly Dance
By Paul Symonds

With the increasing popularity of Belly dance, there is an ever-increasing demand for information about events, classes and workshops which are taking place for this form of dance. It is easy to see why this Eastern style art is so popular these days across Europe and North America with belly dancing offering the benefits of exercise, friendship, a form of dance where shape really does not matter and also an art form which can literally be practiced at home when time permits. The nature of the belly dance in fact, is such that it was originally a fertility dance and it is said that belly dance helps to strengthen the hips, which in turn aids childbirth.

If you are completely new to Belly dance and have thought about it before but not started then why not give it go. There are many benefits to belly dance and ten good reasons to take up belly dance are listed below:

1. Belly dancing is can be fun! Dancing can be fun.

2. Belly dance can be great for your health including for weight loss.

3. It is great socially. You get to meet many other dancers and you can find yourself making many new friends.

4. Belly dancing is thought to make your hips stronger and this can aid child birth.

5. It can help to build your self-esteem.

6. It can also help to reduce stress.

7. It is a relatively inexpensive hobby (unless you start buying various belly dance attire).

8. Belly dancing is something which you can start no matter what your level and you can easily

9. Belly dance is said to help relieve PMS.

10. It is something you can practice for for free.

Valeria Lo Iacono, originally from Sicily, Italy, but now living in Bristol, England, has now created a website called worldbellydance.com and this site offers the benefit of being able to add Belly dance EVENTS to the website dynamically in real time and for free. Valeria is also open to ideas about in which direction to take the site. If you have an ideas about what you would like to see on Worldbellydance.com then feel free to send your ideas to Valeria at worldbellydance.com. This site is for belly dancer by a belly dancer and the site is an ongoing project. One particular area of interest to Valeria is the area of dance therapy and how belly dance can be used for therapeutic uses. If you have any information and interest in belly dance and dance therapy then feel free to get in touch.

World Belly Dance - the belly dance website of Valeria Lo Iacono

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Symonds

Perfect Belly Dancing Posture

2006-11-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

How to Achieve The Perfect Belly Dancing Posture

by Cinthia

For all of you aspiring belly dancers out there: here's how to improve your dance posture and get everyone's attention.

- Stand up with your back against a wall.

- Lift your chest, keeping your shoulders down and your neck stretched tall. Your feet should be hip-width apart with the back of your heels touching the wall.

- Bend your knees (and keep them bent no matter what!)

- Keep your upper back resting against the wall.

- Now, the key part: take one of your hand and slide it behind you in the small of your lower back. It is very likely that you've got a gap between your hand and the wall, which means that you are arching and need to align your lower back against the wall. If your hand can't fit in there because your entire back is touching the wall, congratulations, you've got the straight back fundamental for the ideal belly dancing posture

How to align your lower back against the wall:

Put your hand on your tailbone (coccyx) and push down on it until your pelvis tilts away from the wall and every vertebrae in your back has contact with the wall. Notice that keeping your knees nicely bent helps a lot! Remember to keep your upper back to the wall as you do this so that you are not bending your upper body forward.

Also, the chest should remain lifted and the weight of the shoulders pushed down until you feel some resistance in your back. The lift of the rib cage will bring strong opposition from your back muscles, which are pulling down. You know you are doing this right when you start to feel some tension on your lats (muscles right below the shoulder blades). If you feel your lats pulling down and lengthening, it's working, girls (and boys)! After all this hard work, the persistent arch should have disappeared - or gradually be disappearing - by now. You may not get there for a while, but the more you push your body, the closer you'll get to your goal. Keep pushing!

If you think you've got it, let yourself get used to the feeling of a straight back, bent knees and a lifted upper body. Hold the position and then slowly release. Pay attention to your body's natural tendency to arch. Repeat over and over until you start to get a feel of what your muscles have to do each time in order to make the right posture happen. It may feel unnatural and stiff, but once you practice keeping this posture at all times, you will eventually get used to it and it will become second nature.

I assure you, getting this posture right will give you a totally different look as a dancer. When you are able to hold yourself like this, you will not only be able to command attention easily on the dance floor, but you will also have better control of most belly dancing movements and steps, including spins and turns (where a straight back is absolutely essential). And last but not least, once you get comfortable with your new posture, getting into it will immediately make you feel more confident about yourself and about your dancing.

About the Author
Cinthia is a 20-something bellydancer wanna-be living in the DC area. She splits her free time between belly dancing, blogging, web surfing and watching Dancing with the Stars.

technorati tags:belly+dancing, belly+dance, bellydance, bellydancing, belly+dancing+lessons

Why Belly Dance?

2006-11-05T05:30:00.000-08:00

Belly Dancing, also known as Oriental Dance or Raks Sharqi ("Dance of the East"), is an excellent workout, a celebration of life and a spiritual experience all rolled into one.

You may be drawn to belly dancing by the exotic costumes, or because you have seen dancers perform and want to move your body in the same way. Perhaps you are sick of the gym and looking for a fun activity to get you in shape.

These are all wonderful reasons to start belly dancing. It is ideal for:

- Exercising. You'll get a full-body low-impact workout and have so much fun it won't feel like exercise. Belly dancing stretches, tones and stregthens the body, improves flexibility and posture, and works multiple muscle groups, Belly dancing burns up to 300 calories in an hour, so many dancers enjoy a considerable weight and inch loss from the extra exercise and toning (especially when combined with a healthy diet).

- Stress Relief. Losing yourself in the rhythm of the music while gently stretching your muscles and enjoying the community of fellow dancers will melt away all the cares of your day.

- Confidence. Belly dancing boosts self-esteem, reminds you of your sensuality and femininity, and makes you more accepting of your body, whatever your shape and size. Society puts enormous pressures on women to adhere to the unnatural image of the perfect body. Belly dancing cuts through those stereotypes, and will soon leave you feeling in tune, not at odds, with your body.

- Acceptance. Belly dancing is not about perfecting moves and looking better than everyone else. It is about finding joy in dance and movement. It's empowering to be a part of a belly dancing community and to find an acceptance with other dancers that is often lacking in mainstream society.

Your age, size, shape, and fitness level do not matter when it comes to belly dancing. From teenagers to grandmothers and everyone inbetween, if you have a desire to learn belly dancing, go for it!

technorati tags:belly+dancing, belly+dance, bellydance, bellydancing, belly+dancing+costumes

Belly Dancing

2006-11-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

Belly Dance - A Unique And Exciting Way To Exercise!
by Brooke Hayles

In recent years, belly dancing has been catching on in the Western World. You can find classes in almost any city. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced, you can you find classes to meet your skill level. Even children can get in on the action!

Belly dancing started out as a dance tradition in the Middle East as a way to strengthen a woman's hips for giving birth. Now, it has become a form of entertainment and exercise, as well as an art form.

It is not widely realized that the advanced dancers already know over thirty moves! The good news is there are no footsteps to remember if you are just learning. You learn how to move very isolated parts of the body in rhythm to music.

Movements of belly dancing are very isolated. Your hips will lift, thrust and shimmy while your belly rolls and your pelvic muscles tilt. Your arms will make snake like movements while your legs will either be shimmying one at a time or together in a double shimmy. Once you have these and other movements mastered, you will put them to work in several positions, the basic and parallel positions as well as floor work that include dropping, sitting and then returning to a full stand. Also, you can't forget about the veil work that comes into play.

Now you know why there is so much to learn! Some teachers may give these movements different names, they all reduce to the same thing - Very skilled moves. Body movements will be the same, however, no matter the name. Making the body shake, quake, curve, thrust, lock and drop. The arms and hands follow through with the movements in fluid motion. The belly remains exposed to show her control and strength.

The dancers costume will leave the belly exposed during the dance. This is to make it easier on the spectators, whether they are judges or patrons, to see how much control she has over her body. Also, the more skin that is exposed, the more sensual her movements become. It is very stimulating to watch a well-trained belly dancer display her art in this manor, with her hips and mid-drift exposed.

If you are going to take your belly dancing on to a more authentic level, you will want to make sure your costume is appropriate. The top should be almost like a bra with ornate beading and sequins for decorations. The bottoms can either be a full skirt or loose fitting shear pants. Other accessories you will want to add are a belt that is weighted, bands for you wrist and/or arms, scarf and possibly finger-symbols. This may seem like a lot of decoration, but you want to make sure every part of your body is accentuated to show off the hard work you have put into mastering these moves.

On the other hand, belly dancing is a wonderful form of exercise and will make a great addition to your overall fitness routine. There are two basic steps to master if this is what you are after. The first is the all-important stretching. Using an exercise ball or yoga type stretches are ideal. The second is a group of basic belly dancing moves such as hip and shoulder movements along with abdominal, waist and thigh movements.

Make sure that if you plan on belly dancing during pregnancy, you check with your doctor. Because of the nature of the dance, it will have a different effect on your body than other types of prenatal exercise. It also may be prudent to get a second opinion to give you added peace of mind.

You want to make sure you workout four to five times per week, for thirty to forty minutes. Make sure that this is continuous activity and that you break a sweat. The cardiovascular effect will result in weight loss or control, if a healthy diet is used as well. These kinds of exercises release endorphins which are the 'feel good' hormone.

These are just a few of the reasons that belly dancing can be good for you. Also, if you take classes, it can be a source of friendship as well. But be careful that you don't over do it. Be sure to drink your six to eight glasses of water a day and take your vitamins. This will help your body recover and get ready for a new workout tomorrow. One of the places you can learn belly dancing is at a local dance studio. Check the local listings to see where they are offered. If you don't want to try to learn this complex dance in public, you can find a multitude of information on the Internet, in books and from instructional videos or DVDs.

You can find classes and pricing at helenavlahos.com, and at visionarydance.com, you will find classes, DVDs and workshops. To complete your costume, check out home.earthlink.net. Rania Bossonis has a book written on the art of the belly dance.

Summary:
Belly dancing can be used for display or entertainment. Women, men and even children can find enjoyment and fitness in this art form, whether they are beginners or advanced or somewhere in between.

About the Author
Brooke HaylesCheck Out More Helpful Information About Belly Dance For FREE!
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Belly Dancing Lessons

2006-10-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

Want to now more about learning to Belly Dance? Watch this space.

Lucy