You want me to what?

I had my first belly dancing class this week. It was the first of eight. Let me tell ya- I’m going to need all eight, and then some!

There are about ten of us in the class. Everyone is a beginner. We all have to concentrate on our own stuff, so no one’s really looking around to see how bad we all are. We started off with some stretching. Belly dancing uses some muscles in my body that have been just chillin’ for quite some time.

One of the first things we did was an exercise in isolating the muscles around our ribcage. Arms out to the sides, contract the muscles on the left side of your ribs. Release. Contract the muscles in the front of the rib cage, as if someone poked you just below your sternum. Release. Now it’s time for the right side. Release. Pull the shoulders down using the muscles under your shoulder blades. Release. Repeat. I’m sure the goal is to do it all in a fluid movement.

Next we learned to shimmy. When you stand with your knees slightly bent, you alternate straightening one, then the other and low and behold, your hips shift up and down. The teacher would vary the speed of which we shimmied. Then after a little practice, she wanted us to try to walk forward while we were shimmy-ing. What?!? It was at this point that I decided that I’d probably be able to belly dance much better if I had a drink (or two) ahead of time!

We learned a few more moves before the class was done. I had fun, but felt completely inept. I think I can probably do it with lots of practice. You’ll know I’ve lost it when I start to shimmy up and down the school hallways…