learn to belly dance

Hey everyone. I feel like I’ve abandoned everyone here and I apologize. I’ve not forgotten about 43things or the people here, though. Anyway, when I got back I noticed that I had my nickname as a goal. I know that was not something I intentionally listed as a goal and so it’s apparently just been sitting in my goals list for awhile. Needless to say I removed it. On to the bellydance topic!

My cousin owns a beginner bellydance dvd as well as an intermediate hip work dvd from the same performer and teacher. She actually ended up with two copies of the intermediate hipwork dvd, so she gave it to me. I figured that I would need to get the begginer dvd on my own and use it before I could begin to work with the intermediate, but having watched both dvds,I almost think that the intermediate dvd might have simpler moves. My cousin agreed.

I believe bellydancing is definitely a complicated dance to learn, and I didn’t have much dance experience- and absolutely no training- in my youth. Still, I want to learn to bellydance and I enjoy dancing, so here goes nothing, I guess. As for the dvd, it gets a bit complicated in my opinion, but I do not feel the instructor or video designers are at fault. The video shows the instructor from diff. angles and she shows you how to construct the move before putting it all together for you.

On a positive note, I recently discovered that, while I am far from performing a correct bellyroll, when I attempt to roll my stomach, it now looks more like a bellyroll than it did before. Unless I bend at least a slight bit at the stomach, then I can’t really make it look like it at all, and I know I am prob. rolling my body a little when I do it, causing it to partly be an illusion, BUT it does seem that my upper stomach is pulling in first and rolling down a bit. It does not look the same as simply pulling my stomach uniformally in and pushing it out, so I think I am moving closer to a roll. Hopefully, someday I will get it right, but for now, I think I should just appreciate any progress.