Expectations - Bellydance BaseFusion

We are a cautious people.  We like to read reviews before buying an item or trying out  a recipe.  We like to choose our practitioners based on referrals from friends and family.  We like to see pictures and video of people and places before we meet them or plan a visit.  Having an idea of what is going to happen before it happens seems to make it easier to take that leap into the unknown.

So what can you expect at Hip Circle Studio classes?  I'm going to do my best to give you a peek into the different classes we offer through a series of "Expectations" posts.  Of course, seeing is believing, so I hope this is just enough information to help you give a class a try.  Nothing is a replacement for the live experience.

Bellydance BaseFusion

The Description - Discover the fun inherent in the basics of bellydance in this beginning level class. Each week will include a variety of moves to expose you to the basics of how the body moves in bellydance and the fusion styles used by Malik and Zahara Fusion. Regular practice in using combinations will prepare you for taking on Intermediate Bellydance. You’ll also work your way up to being comfortable with improvisational dancing thanks to the strong foundation presented in this class. Students can be as young as 8 and as old as the sun. Students under 12 must attend with their parent.  

Translation - the focus is on fun, this is a beginning level class (no experience necessary), you'll learn all sorts of moves, you'll practice free dancing, young  girls/teens are welcome, and there's another level class to aim for.

But, what's going  to happen when you walk in for your first class, right?

• You'll encounter women/girls who are different.  Honestly, I don't think we have 2 students that look enough alike to be confused for each other!
• You'll take off your shoes and socks.
• You'll get to choose a coin belt to borrow (unless you bring your own).
• You'll be greeted warmly by me and the other students.
• You'll move!  We do a gentle warm up to prep your heart, muscles, and joints, then get into the content for the week.  Each class ends with a 3-5 minute free dance time before we cool down and stretch.
• You'll chat! We're a friendly bunch and we while away our drills (yay, shimmies!) with light conversation.
• You'll laugh! Nothing is taken too seriously in this level - we're here to have a good time and get to know (maybe even love?) our bodies.  Critiques and such are saved for the intermediate level classes.
• You'll hear a variety of music, from all over the world, while dancing in class.

What don't you have to worry about in our BaseFusion class?

• Baring your belly.  You can be as dressed as you'd like in this class, though it is easiest for me to help you master the moves if you have form-fitting (think yoga style) clothing.  Feel better in a huge t-shirt and baggy sweats?  Go for it.
• Your two left feet.  Heck, bring three if you have them!  Perfection is not the goal in this class and we're not packed in like sardines so there's room for "interpretation" of directions.  Honest - if you've had bad experiences before that have left you with the notion that you "can't dance" this class can help you turn that around.  Everybody can bellydance.
• Competition.  There is no "winning" in our classes (at any level), so there's no need to compete.  I am beyond thrilled with the community of women we've gathered at the studio and how their first instinct is to help and welcome new folks.
• Fat/Skinny/Young/Old bashing.  ALL WOMEN ARE WELCOME!  Let me say that again...ALL WOMEN ARE WELCOME!  However you are, whoever you are, you can walk into the studio and know you'll be accepted.  Every.Body.CAN.Bellydance.

Now it's your turn.  Comment with your experiences from coming to Bellydance BaseFusion.  If you haven't been yet, come give it a try and then add your comments into the mix.  

Determination VS Distraction

While studying with Rachel Brice in Portland we all participated in a ritual she called “One-Word Check-in” where we went around the circle and were asked to sum up how we were feeling at the start of that day in one word.  Harder than you’d think, honestly!  Give it a try now – what one word would you use to sum up today?  I found the practice an interesting one in that the first word that came to mind was rarely the one I shared with the circle.  This was not because the first thought was wrong, exactly, but that when given some time (there were about 35 of us in the circle) other words floated up to the surface and presented themselves as a more correct summation of my feelings.  At any given moment I imagine I’m feeling quite a bit of different things, though it’s not too often that I take the time to identify them all.

Some of us from Initiation have continued this practice in a Facebook group created by Andrea to facilitate our continued dance practice away from the magic of that circle.  Here’s what I posted today:

Today I feel determined...I squeezed in 45 minutes of practice time even though I had to give up my "scheduled" (with myself on my calendar) time earlier in the day...I did a short DD-Hips followed by 18 minutes of drills (18 simple moves, 1 minute each)...I took the first step towards tackling my nemesis the choo choo shimmy...I forced myself to improv and made a breakthrough...and had a productive work day to-boot. Now I'm recharging before teaching this evening by nibbling on hummus and pea pods.

The thing is, when I was thinking about this blog post this morning I thought my word for today was going to be Distracted.  Distracted is true for today, too.  I’ve done about 2 million things, many of them before 10 am, and felt myself pulled in direction after direction, not feeling like I was being terribly successful at completing things along the way.  Due to my distraction I gave up my morning dance practice as scheduled, putting out several work-fires instead, but Determined wins.  Why?  When I looked back at my day in preparation for making my check in, my successes rose to the top despite the distracted environment I lived in today. 

In the end, isn’t it what floats to the top that matters the most?

Creativity

I've been in a rut.  I didn't realize it before but it's clear as the day is long from where I sit right now.  If I had to put a date on it, I'd say the rut began forming about 8 months ago.  Wow.

What happens on the other side of a rut?  HUGE WAVES OF CREATIVITY!  I had the honor of spending the last week away from home, immersed in bellydance at the hands of Rachel Brice - a dancer who I have long admired for her technique but now have her wonderful personality and integrity to admire as well.  In her 8 Elements: Initiation we were pushed to tap into our creative selves on a daily basis, exploring what our brains and bodies had to offer as well as collaborating with the other dancers in the room.  The result was amazing on so many levels - so very many levels - but one very important outcome for me was that the work pushed me out of my rut.  Look at how happy I am with her!


I've been choreographing combos as I walk around my house.  I've been thinking up new songs to use in a variety of classes.  Even scheduling is benefiting from this shift (stay tuned, ladies, the next few weeks should be a HOOT at the studio), all from this boost of creative brain usage.

Ruts are dangerous.  Looking back at the last several months I can see that a lack of creativity has had a negative impact on several areas of my life well beyond the artistic parts of my world.  Our brains are powerful tools that need to be stretched and pushed and pulled and prodded to keep working at optimal levels, and it feels like mine was running on auto-pilot for a while there.

No more - creativity WILL be a part of my everyday from here on out.  How about yours?  How will you be creative tomorrow?

Bellydance

Bellydance

I had no idea how much a part of my life bellydance would become when I set out for my first class. I saw paint on a storefront window – the kind of paint you would use to write “for sale” on the front windshield of a used car – advertising a class. I don’t remember the exact wording now, but I do remember that it had “belly” and “mama” and “bellydance” included. I thought to myself…I have a belly, and I’m a mom, I’ll give bellydance a try. That was about 9 years ago and I haven’t stopped dancing.

I love this art form. It enables me to spend time in my body in true bliss. This is quite a feat given the years and years of body image and self esteem issues I’ve racked up! When I’m bellydancing I’m able to lose myself in the music and the movement – like I said, bliss.

As I’ve taken on teaching and choreographing over the years I’ve seen my relationship with bellydance change a bit. Being in front of a classroom keeps me grounded, and my focus isn’t on how the movements make me feel – it shifts to being about how to describe the movements and transfer the knowledge of how to make them happen. It becomes about helping other women find that bliss and that self-acceptance and love of the dance.

When this post publishes, I’ll be immersing myself in bellydance as a student, studying with the incomparable Rachel Brice. Her teaching style is a good fit for me, and I ADORE watching her dance – she is one of the few dancers who brings me to that bliss place from my seat in the audience. I’ve been looking forward to this trip since taking the plunge and registering back in July and it’s hard to believe the time has finally come.

I will post on the other side of the week of learning, but from where I sit right now I am 100% excited. I’ve left the stages of fear and nervousness behind and will head into the first day of Initiation with the open mind of a student ready to learn. I am ready for the hard work that will be required, and I’m looking forward to some bliss moments along the way.

Bellydance, how I do love thee!

Anemia

I am, for the most part, a very healthy person.  I get well over the recommended amount of physical activity in per week, I eat a balanced diet focusing on proteins and vegetables, I have healthy relationships with both family and friends.  I avoid processed foods and empty calories.  I read food labels and shop conscientiously. 

And, as I discovered this month, I am anemic.

After feeling run down and generally unwell I FINALLY went to the doctor.  Well, a student clinic (no health insurance here) at our somewhat local Naturapathic college.  The lovely student interns led by two wonderful docs have, so far, diagnosed me with iron-deficient anemia.  The full fun is yet to come as we try to figure out why I am anemic, but that will be a story for another day.

The result of my anemia is that it is a bit harder for me to make it through my active days unscathed.  Zumba takes more out of me than it should, and Moxie Boxing pushes me to my limit.  Sundays, when I teach from 8 am - 5 pm, require buckets of resolve.  It’s hard, but in some ways it feels good.

Yes – it feels good to struggle a bit.  To push past that little voice in my head that’s trying to tell me I can’t do a class…that feels good.  It reminds me of all the benefits I’m getting from that workout, of all the other things that seem hard but are awesome from the other side, and of the simple fact that I’m human.

We all have barriers that keep us from working out and taking care of ourselves.  For some it’s time, or all the other people we need to tend to first, or fear of being welcomed, or the weather, or work stress, or whatever.  Pushing past those barriers make us that much stronger on the other side of the workout, don’t you think?  It feels good to step away from that never-ending pile of to-dos to sweat and focus on ourselves for 30 – 75 minutes, both because of the benefits of the workout AND because we’ve overcome a barrier.

What’s getting in the way of your quest for wellness, and what are you going to do to push past that barrier this week?

Love Your Body?

Wednesday, October 17th was Love Your Body Day.  Did you know?  I did, thanks to a Facebook (and real life) friend Stephanie.  Seeing this got me thinking about myself, the studio, and the women who frequent our classes.  Do we love our bodies?  How do we show that?

I have struggled with self esteem issues for pretty much as long as I can remember.  I was one of the few "mixed" kids in school, so my hair didn't behave the same as my friends' which, at the time, left me feeling unattractive.  I was one of those "early developers" in middle school which, at the time, just left me feeling big.  I had issues with my knees and ankles which kept me from fully participating in sports and gym which, at the time, left me feeling galumphy and uncoordinated.  Not a pretty picture overall, huh?

I held on to all the yuck in my head and really let it get to me as I grew up.  Now, did any of that yuck keep me from finding a wonderful mate to share my life with?  Miraculously, no.  Did the yuck keep me from following a winding career path to where I've landed in my whodathunkit dream job?  No.  What the yuck has done is keep me from fully enjoying and trusting in myself and my accomplishments along the way.

Love Your Body...hmm.

I am pleased to say that, today, I have the best relationship with my body I've ever had.  I know that I'm strong, and fit, and I'm thankful for everything my body does for me on a daily basis.  It's not all sunshine and roses in my head, but I'm working on that.  I am also thrilled to see the positive body changes happening for the women at the studio.  Getting healthy and moving your body is, I think, the first step to a positive body relationship.  When women are coming to the studio looking forward to their 30 - 85 minute workouts I know good things are happening inside and out.

What I'm trying to promote at the studio isn't weight-loss though that often happens along the way, but health & wellness.  Love Your Body?  Yes, that's the goal.

How are YOU working towards Love Your Body status?  I'd love to hear (read) your thoughts!

Back To Reality

I know I'm finding this fall transition to be a bit stressful! I've got one child starting his first year of high school (stressful for him and us), 5 disparate schedules to juggle, and a business to run.  Yikes!  It feels like, even if you don't have kids, there's a certain heightened level of activity or tension in the air as this season kicks off, doesn't it?  When I get bogged down I notice a few things:

 

I don't eat as well

I want to sit when I can

I crave opportunities for slowness

 

Not the best recipe for a healthy life!  I'm busy, so I forget to pack a lunch or take time for a good breakfast.  I'm busy for so much of the day that when I have a moment I want to spend it sitting.  I'm busy and have so very much to work through in not quite enough time so, if I find a window of opportunity I want to spend it moving as slowly as possible.  Or at least I think I do. 

 

What I'm finding this year, amidst all the stress and busy, is that taking those precious free moments to do the opposite of my inclination makes me feel so very much better!  

Pack a lunch (10 minutes)

Do some yoga/dance for myself (30 minutes)

Go for a walk (20 minutes)

No one of these fixes take more than 30 minutes.  30 minutes.  We all have that much time to spare, no matter how busy we feel, to take care of ourselves.  So very much can be done (or not done, depending on your perspective) in half an hour!  

• We leave for school at 7:30 or 7:45 am depending on the before school activities on the books.  If I step (pull myself) away from the computer in the morning at 7:15 am I can pack up some food (almonds & raisins, 3 oz of turkey breast, and some goldfish crackers) and be able to stave off hunger until I return home with my boys from school at 4:45 pm.  
• I teach until noon and, as mentioned above, start the after-school driving circles at 3:30 pm.  That leaves me 3.5 solid hours of work time to burn through my to-do list.  If I go into a classroom at 2 pm and do 30 minutes of yoga or bellydance, I can come back to The List refreshed and ready to go at 2:30 pm and still have a good hour of (higher) productivity.
• My evening of teaching generally starts at around 6 pm, and at this time of year the sun is still up until about 7 pm.  Squeezing in a 30 minute walk before class (perhaps with the family) is a great way to get more a mile under my feet and clear my head before diving back into teaching.  If homework stress is high, this is good for everyone!

 It may be counter-intuitive in the moment, but taking the time to take care of ourselves in a healthy way has such a strong, beneficial impact on our day, our brain, and the people around us that it would be a shame to let those impulses of sitting, doing nothing, and eating yuck (or not eating at all) to take over.  

Busy is, as they say, a state of mind.  In choosing to reserve some time for intentionally un-busying ourselves we can fully transform that chaotic feeling into something calm and productive.  Try it, and tell me how it goes!