All of our stories are so important and so uniquely a part of our personal journey and experience. Our stories are as individual and different as we are, and they are deeply meaningful. Please share your story in the comment below or email me-I would love to hear it!

Q: What do you remember about your first belly dance class?

David:

I have had “first” class experiences with every teacher I have taken from of course, but I have had a two distinct first class experiences that I have to consider actual first meets with Belly Dance in two different ways.

I had danced North Indian folk dances since age 4, but I started belly dancing with Safa in Norway when I was 19. It was a pre-arranged private lesson and I remember taking the train from my hometown to Kongsberg feeling extremely excited, nervous, shy, anticipating, any emotion you can think of. Safa taught classes for hobby dancers. She started out with telling me a bit about the dance and showing videos of dancers while sharing their relevance and importance in the dance. I remember some of the dancers on the videos being Jamila Salimpour and Bal Anat, Suhaila Salimpour, and Horacio and Beata Cifuentes. This lecture section was followed by Safa introducing me to finger cymbals and movement. I clearly recall being completely overwhelmed by all of it thinking “I better practice a lot by next class, this is hard!”. Yet, I enjoyed the dance a lot and continued classes.

My second “first” class experience in Belly dance was with my second teacher, Lee Figenschow – a well established authority within the Norwegian Middle Eastern dance community. I had met Lee before and I remember being in awe/fear of her. Lee is an amazing dancer/teacher/choreographer, and obviously disciplined, trained, educated, with clear intentions, visions and purpose in her dance works. Her presence definitely intimiated me. During my first class – also a private lesson – with Lee I remember my hands and voice feeling like they just wouldn’t stop shaking. She examined the strength of my body, asked about my intentions in the dance and had me move while she analyzed my needs. I remember feeling down about my abilities and how little I knew about the dance, yet a mix of excitement to learn more with a humlity/intimidation of the intensity of the work ahead when I left the class. I almost think of my first private lesson with Lee as an intake to a mentorship, actually.

Thanks David for the honest and inspiring story!

Belly Dance Hip Scarves Help you Learn

Belly dance hip scarves aren’t just wildly fun, they are also helpful learning tools that help you to see, feel, hear and experience the belly dance movements in your body. They give you a powerful feedback system so that you can see and feel what you are doing and improve your body awareness. This is also the reason why belly dance performers where costumes with beaded fringe on it- it makes the movements more dramatic and give the magical illusion of doing more than you really are.

Wearing Hip Scarves is Easy!

People often get a little nervous the first time they put on a hip scarf because they think there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to do it. Well take a deep breath and relax because there are no hard and fast rules and nothing you can mess up or look silly doing! But here are some general guidelines that will be helpful:

• You can wear a hip scarf either tied in a knot on the side or in the front, it’s completely your preference. It really just depends on what part of your body you want to accentuate. I often wear mine knotted on the side because I want to emphasize my hips. If I am dancing Turkish Romany style that emphasizes the pelvic movement, I will wear it knotted in the front. And sometimes it just depends on my mood where I want to wear it, just like choosing what clothes you want to wear that day.

• Wrap the hip scarf around your hips as opposed to your belly or abdomen. It should rest right around your hip bones.

• Gather it around and tie it snugly and firmly but not so tight that it will bunch up and restrict your movements. With experience you will create the perfect balance.

Watch my YouTube below to see exactly how to wear a belly dance hip scarf. You will see how easy and fool-proof it is and you will be shaking your hips like magic in no time!

How do you like to wear your hip scarf? Leave your comment below!

In this process of readjustment I have been making a conscious effort to find healthy outlets for my stress and to use healthy strategies for processing my emotions. There have been many times in the past where I have turned to food to comfort me whether it is out of stress, boredom or anxiety. As I become more conscious and aware of myself and my emotions I have realized what a negative impact it has on me to use food as a strategy for coping. I don’t have a huge problem with emotional eating, but I really don’t like how I feel when I use it as a coping strategy, even if it is only minor and occasionally. I hate it because it makes me feel more out of  control when I am done and worse about myself and whatever I am going through. In an effort to find healthier coping strategies I came across a fantastic book that I wanted to share with you that has been so helpful to me. It’s called “50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food” by Susan Albers. The 50 ways that she suggests are not superficial, but rather deep, nourishing and introspective ways to really address what is bothering you in that moment and cope with it in a way that will make you feel empowered and more grounded as opposed to regretful and helpless.

So, because of the great suggestions in her book I decided to get my nails done to cheer myself up this weekend. I thought to myself- what can I do to pick up my mood besides turn to the “Mister Donut” that I have to pass every time I walk home. Thanks Mister Donut for challenging my will power on a daily basis! So, I decided to get my nails done with the sparkles that seems to be all the trend here in Japan. It’s actually really cool because they don’t use acrylics, they use gel which is much healthier for your nails. You get to pick the color of the glitter and sparkles and it is really fun! When my nails were done I looked down in pride and amazement at how much such a simple thing could really pick up my mood. And it was a healthy strategy because there were only good feelings and none of the regret.

If you ever struggle with emotional eating and feel controlled by it I would highly recommend checking out her book. Then go get some sparkles or whatever makes you feel better in a healthy way. You will be amazed at how good you will feel!

Pigeon pose that is. This is one of my all-time favorite yoga poses for opening the hips. So many of us have tight hips, and a big reason for this is that most of us sit a lot during the day which leads to tight hip flexors. Hip flexors are the group of muscles at the front of your thigh that are activated when you lift your knee up and bring your thigh towards your torso, like when climbing stairs. When we sit we are constantly in this hip flexed position and it causes the hip flexors to get very tight.

Learn this important belly dance hip stretch:

I have been particularly noticing in my classes lately that a lot of my students are challenged and limited in their different belly dance movements because of tight hips. This pigeon pose is great for opening the hips, increasing blood circulation and relaxing the body. In the yoga world it is commonly known that the hips and pelvis are where we tend to store a lot of emotions like fear, guilt and sadness. So, not only will you be opening and stretching your hips you will also be releasing a lot of stuck emotions. As Stephanie Snyder, San Francisco vinyasa teacher says in this Yoga Journal article on hip opening yoga poses, “”You know your junk drawer at home?” she asks. “The pelvis is like the body’s junk drawer. Whenever you don’t know what to do with a feeling or experience, you put it there.”

Check out this great short, just over one- minute video on the pigeon pose. I love this teacher too! She seems so down-home with a simple and grounded explanation of this pose.

So get started walking like a pigeon, so you can walk better like an Egyptian!

One of the most important keys to a good shimmy that makes it much easier to do is to focus on staying relaxed. It’s a great feedback system because if you get tense and the muscles get tight then the shimmy literally stops. I am sure you know the feeling of doing a shimmy and have it suddenly freeze on you. This happens because the muscles get tight. When this happens just relax the muscles and start again slowly and build up gradually as you get a rhythm going. Your body will tell you through your shimmy that you need to literally loosen up!

Shimmies are a great way to reduce stress because they teach your body to relax. The vibrational movements will literally shake stress and tension out of your body. Below is a great video on getting started with the shimmy. Try this 5-minute video at the end of the long day and see how it makes you feel better immediately!

Enjoy!

As dancers seeking to express a particular emotion, we must know why we are doing what we are doing, otherwise it is meaningless and ultimately becomes mechanical. It isn’t interesting to us or the people that are watching us. Tamar draws my attention to the pure wonder of doing the simplest movements and the motivating energy behind it. Nothing is left out and we are fully present in that movement, the both the participant and the witness.

Whether you are a professional dancer or someone who just rocks out in their living room, you will gain so much more from any type of movement if you connect with the meaning behind it. Why do you do it? Why do you move at all? Dance isn’t like walking to the supermarket to get groceries. We don’t have to do it. We do it because there is something inherently desirable about it. I know for me, it makes me feel alive, joyful and connects me with the deepest and most real part of myself. It grounds me.

Why do you move? Knowing why will  make it more meaningful when you do any type of movement and will draw more pleasure and joy into your life. You are both the instrument and the channel, and what a tremendous blessing it is to move with meaning.

See movement with meaning  with this amazing video of Tamar Bar-Gil below:

What’s happening here? Well, sometimes the mind rebels to change of any kind, even if it’s positive. Also, to many of us the idea of a set structure feels constraining, boring and uncreative.  Well, I have developed some ninja strategies to improve your belly dance technique by tricking your mind to believe you aren’t really “practicing” or even exerting much effort. Over time and with steady practice these techniques will lead to HUGE gains in your practice.

My Top 5 Strategies:

1. Don’t “practice”: The next time you are listening to any kind of music let inspiration guide you and freestyle some belly dance movements. Make it a practice to be open to spontaneously practicing anytime and anywhere. Some of my best practice sessions have been when I am just rocking out to some hip hop music and feel inspired to dance with some belly dance moves.

2. Spare moments are opportunities: I tell my students and I firmly believe that one of the most important ways that I have improved my belly dance technique is while waiting for my tea in the microwave or while walking the dog. These spare moments really add up to make a huge difference.

3. Visualize your practice: It’s a well known fact that Olympic athletes have used visualization techniques to help them win medals. The mind doesn’t know the difference between “seeing” something in your mind and actually doing it. Many of the combos I develop for my classes have come through visualization and “daydreaming”.

4. Watch videos:  Just watching belly dance videos will enter your mind subconsciously and improve your practice. Got a spare 5 minutes? Watch an inspiring belly dance video from one of your favorite dancers.

5.  Shake it up!: Try a new dance class whether it be belly dance or another style like salsa, swing or tango. It will help you gain a new perspective and give you fresh inspiration.

If you are lucky, you live in a place where you will have some belly dance teachers to choose from. I would recommend doing a Google search for belly dance teachers in your local area. You might also want to find the local community centers and gyms/fitness studios as they may offer belly dance classes also.  When you have identified some local teachers, give them a call and ask them questions so that you can learn more about the style that they teach, how long they have been dancing and what level of classes they offer. If you have never belly danced before you definitely want to  start out at a beginner level, even if you have done other styles of dance or learned a little belly dancing from YouTube.

The best way to choose a belly dance teacher is to try out as many as you can. You want to find a teacher that you feel a connection with and whose teaching style resonates with you. Every teacher has their own unique style of teaching and the likelihood is that you are going to just “click” with one teacher more than another. When I found my first belly dance teacher I immediately felt intuitively that I would be able to learn from her and felt open and receptive to her teaching style. It’s really best to trust your gut on this. A good teacher will always teach the fundamentals such as posture and will dance in a way that is visually a great model for you to follow.

Once you find a teacher that you connect with focus on taking classes from that teacher and really concentrate on their classes and curriculum. You will get a much more solid foundation this way. It’s much better than taking from multiple teachers at the same time as you may get confused and receive conflicting information. It’s alright to take the occasional workshop or class from another teacher, and it’s great for expanding your skills, but for the most part, try to stick with one teacher for awhile.

If you don’t have a local teacher there are some great DVD’s on the market that you can learn from as well as from YouTube. But  be careful what type of teacher you learn from as there is very mixed content on YouTube especially. You don’t want to pick up bad movement patterns that will later be hard to break. But even if you don’t have a local teacher, don’t get discouraged, you can still learn belly dance and learn it well!

I hope this helps you make a better choice and please email me with any questions.

I’d love to hear your comments! How did you choose your belly dance teacher? Leave your comment below.

But what if your goal is that you want to improve your belly dance technique? As everyone knows, practice makes “perfect” (or more perfect) and belly dance is no different than a basketball player practicing shooting hoops or a piano player practicing scales. The more time you put in, the better you will be. And for me, the whole point of being a stronger belly dancer is that it will allow me to express myself better through my body. It is not an end in itself. I know that the better my “instrument” is (which is my body), the better I will be able to express myself creatively.

Below are some ideas and suggestions for a daily practice that will help you to improve your “instrument”:

• Make your practice fun! Put on music that you love when you practice- it doesn’t have to be Arabic music, it could be hip hop, pop, house, whatever! The important thing is that it should inspire you. Some of my best ideas for belly dance come when I am having fun listening to hip hop music
• Make your practice times short. In fact you don’t even have to have a distinct “practice time”. I always tell my students that I think one of the ways I have really improved my shimmies is in those spare moments that I am waiting for my food in the microwave, walking the dog or brushing my teeth, it all adds up!
• Incorporate drills and isolation exercises into your daily practice. This practice could look like this: chest slides, chest lifts/drops, pelvic tuck/drops, hip slides, hip drops, ribcage squares/circles, pelvic squares/circles. If you can, aim for 15 minutes each day of isolation exercises in your practice. Soon you will notice a HUGE difference!
• Find instructional videos on YouTube (mine and others) and pick one movement a day that you will focus on.
• Watch great belly dancers on YouTube and pick one move or combination that you will try to emulate.

These are just a few ideas for improving your practice, but I hope that they have helped you to improve your craft and your enjoyment of belly dance.

I’d love to hear from you! How do you practice? Please share your tips, suggestions and questions!

Here are my top take-away from this Tuesday night class that made this long journey worth it:

• To create a dynamic performance and dynamic movements you want to create an opening and closing of energy and tension. As a former acupuncturist we learned that everything in life is a reflection of the dynamic interplay of yin and yang. The same is true of belly dance- when you do a move that is more “opening” you want to follow it with a “closing” movement to “close the channel” as Orit said. This creates energy and tension and a dynamic performance. For example, we did a one-sided hip circle then to “close” the circle we drew the circle into the body by contracting the lower abdominal muscles, pulling the circle into the body.
• When you are doing a movement you want to draw the eye of the audience towards what you are doing by focusing your gaze at that area. For example, if you want people to look at your hip shimmy, you look at your hip shimmy too. This is an essential way to create interest and stage presence when performing.
• Know yourself why you are performing a particular movement in a piece of music. There are unlimited ways to express yourself when performing, but what is important is that you must know why you are doing it and there must be intention and awareness behind it for it to have power.

When you love something there is always more to learn and always areas to improve, but you do it with joy, because that’s what love is.

Wishing you much joy in your dance, and now, sit back and enjoy this beautiful performance by Orit Maftsir.

Orit Mafsir New Baladi