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A glamorous way to work up a sweat

August 5, 2007 12:35 am

BY RACHANA DIXIT

After a long day at work, I was looking forward to my first-ever belly dancing class.

The class was the first in a series of four held by the Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation Department.

At 7 p.m., 12 other women and I wandered into Room 1 of the Dorothy Hart Community Center and wrapped dancing scarves--which came in several colors and were adorned with fringe--around our waists.

I felt glamorous already.

Our instructor, seven-year belly dancing veteran Karen Sullivan, stood with her back to us so it would be easier for us newcomers to get the movements.

And thus began our hour-long session of stepping, shaking, shimmying and twisting. There was no heavy sweating, but the session was a bit strenuous because of the core muscle work involved.

The class started with basic step movements that involved our moving from side to side and front to back. Posture was also very important, as Sullivan--who was now going by her dancing name of Adara Janaani--pointed out that our knees should not be locked and our backs should be flat, not slightly arched as they often are when standing.

Easy enough, I thought. I re-evaluated that the next morning when I realized my back was sore.

We began to step, first without music and then in-time with a basic Middle Eastern drum beat. Our dancing was mostly based on Egyptian style, in which the movements are smaller and more refined than in the dances of other countries such as Turkey or Lebanon. Nothing too fast, and my feet seemed to be happy going along to the beat. The rest of the class members appeared to feel the same way, showing that anyone who puts her mind to it can learn basic belly dancing movements. Perfecting them, however, is a different story.

Next came the arm movements. While I'm not terribly uncoordinated, moving your arms up and down when your feet are still stepping--trying all the while to look graceful, which I'm positive I was not doing--is initially harder than it seems.

Our arms did motions that had names like "sunrise" (which involved moving the arms up slowly in an arch and moving them back to waist level), and "column" (in which the came down at the same width as the body frame).

I was getting the hang of it, but we hadn't even gotten to our hips and stomachs yet. This was no ordinary way to boogie.

The first 35 minutes consisted of those warm-up steps and stretching to loosen our core muscles. Hips and stomach were added to the mix as well.

By the end of the night, all of us had experienced moving our hips like pistons (where the hip moves up toward the waist), twisting the waist from side to side, moving the hips and stomach in a figure-eight, and shimmying back and forth so the fringe on our scarves whirled around our bodies.

As with any workout, we cooled down and stretched at the end.

By the end of the class, I felt I had learned to do some movements semi-gracefully. And I'd gotten a workout.

Because the core muscles are heavily used, my abs and back were definitely feeling a little strain.

I also learned something else: This dance form takes years and years of practice to perfect. So even though I learned how to move my waist and hips in ways I never thought imaginable, I now have a newfound respect for these dancers and their workouts.

Rachana Dixit: 540/374-5000
Email: rdixit@freelancestar.com