What to expect from my class

I have a new class starting next week and have had a lot of questions such as "what to wear" and "will I be able to do it with a bad back" etc so I thought I would write a blog explaining everything.

What to wear? the simple answer to this is wear whatever you like as long as it does not constrict your movement.  I find most ladies come in sports type gear to begin with but very soon they find themselves drawn to all things sparkly and feminine and the transformation is always lovely to observe.  You will need to bring something to tie around your hips such as a coin belt or scarf this will emphasise the movements.  I usually dance barefoot as belly dance is a very earthy kind of dance however you can wear soft soled dance shoes or socks with grips on the bottom.

The first thing you will do when attending my class for the first time is fill out a health questionnaire, I take your health and safety very seriously and have heard of so many people getting injured in other people's classes.  Belly dance is suitable for all however if you have certain health problems such as bad backs or joint problems then some of the moves will have to be adapted.  The form is a requirement of my insurance and is confidential between you and me, if anything about your health changes whilst attending my classes please always tell me so that I can tailor the moves to suit you.

The second thing we will do in class is warm up.  If you have attended classes before where the teacher did not warm you up properly (shame on them) you may find it odd.  Warming up is crucial to prevent injury and your body will perform better if the muscles are warm.

The third thing we will look at is posture, this bit may be boring however it is important.  Good posture is crucial again from a health and safety perspective - a lot of people have injured their backs belly dancing because they have not adopted the right posture plus the dance looks a hundred times better when performed in good posture.

Having got all the boring bits out of the way now its time to have fun, my classes are always 90 minutes long which gives me time to warm you up properly and check posture now we start to look at technique.  I will go through the basic movements explaining things, demonstrating things and checking to make sure you are doing it correctly.  I will then teach you a simple routine which will utilise all of the basic moves you have learnt.  Each week we will practise this routine plus you will learn more moves each week and as the weeks go by you will learn more and more routines.  To begin with the dances you will learn will be easy and fairly slow however as you become more proficient the movements will become more challenging and the choreographies will become faster and more challenging.  We will start off learning caberet style but during the course you will learn lots of different styles such as the folkloric Saiidi (dancing with a cane), Tribal style (dancing with zills) Egyptian caberet  (with a veil) Dunyarvi Gypsy style (with a big swishy skirt) plus you will learn lots of fun fusion dances incorporating Bollywood, Tango, Latin and Dark Caberet.

I am continuously updating my skills to learn the latest techniques so you will always be learning something new in my class.  A lot of teachers just concentrate on just one style but that can become quite boring as you are continuously re-hashing the same moves.  I have been teaching for over 8 years and all of my dances are different, fun and achievable.  I am a cuddly woman, in my 50's so if you are worried about your size or age then don't, my students range in age from 21 to 75 the routines are achievable by everyone.

The final thing you will do in my class is a cool down, you will have worked hard and your muscles will be full of lactic acid and if you cool down properly you won't hurt the next day please always stay for the cool down, it is important.

If you have any questions about my new class please contact me, it starts next Friday and is in the mirrored dance studio at Wombourne Leisure Centre 11.30-1.00.  I hope to see you there.

November update

Well December is almost out and I realised I have not blogged for ages - that can only be a good sign as it means I have been too busy to blog and busy is good.

November started with a lovely event at which I danced with my troupe in Lichfield.  It was one of those lovely old-fashioned haflas full of joyful women and I spent a very pleasant evening with friends.  The following weekend Shikidim were booked to dance at a wedding which is always nice, it was a pleasure to dance for Helen and her new husband and nice that it was in the village - a home fixture.  The weekend after that we danced at the Bamba charity hafla in Birmingham, we had a lovely evening, there were some greats acts performing.

That brings me up to 24th November - the day of my Raqs Wombourne2 show.  I have to say the lead up to the show grew more and more stressful.  I like to plan things like this very carefully and was feeling very pleased with myself that we had got the programmes and music sorted so early.  The week before the show I was sent messages from 6 performers to say they were unable to dance - fortunately I had been inundated with requests for performance slots and had crammed too many into the show so it gave a little leeway with the timings but it meant the programmes were wrong and the music had to be re-done - Rob was re-doing the music an hour before the show.  The day of the show was pretty manic, we had Bex do a brilliant fun workshop - spooky, vampy and gothic and then Ozgen arrived and we did another fabulous workshop - Turkish Romany style, followed by a drumming workshop with the wonderful John Sleiman which sadly I had to miss as I had to get my hair done and get to the Civic Centre to set everything up.  The show was brilliant even if I do say so myself.  I think having been to many belly dance shows I am still capable of being critical/objective however I can honestly say that every performance was wonderful.  We had up and coming talent such as Hannah who was a very pleasant surprise for everyone, we had Rachelle (recent Miss Belly Dance Ireland winner) perform and wow everyone, we had big names such as Bex and Ozgen who always deliver a stunning performances and we had fabulous troupes displaying Saiidi, ATS, Bollywood, Circus, Thai fingers.  If I were to mention everyone personally here it would be a very long blog but I would like to say a huge thank you to each and every performer/troupe it really was a splendid showcase of the diversity of Belly Dance.  I do have to say a special thank you to my students who performed a Latin fusion dance - all my nagging and drilling paid off and they did me proud as did my troupe Shikidim who performed my new dark caberet dance and my tango fusion dance.

My fabulous students

 The following day we had more workshops with Ozgen, Turkish caberet being the first and it was just fabulous fun, lots of skirt swishing and attitude and then we had a drum solo workshop - I was feeling slightly brain dead by this time but nevertheless the workshop was excellent - very clever choreography.

Ozgen performing Turkish Romany style

 Plans are already underway for RaqsW 3.  I now have Christmas to celebrate so I shall cut this blog short.  Merry Christmas everyone.