Belly Dancing...The New Fad

The fitness world moves through its fads almost as fast as my jeans move in and out of style, and it can become very tiresome to try and keep up with them all. Instead of mastering each of the trendy techniques that arise in popular culture, I prefer to just dabble in them all. Get a taste of what exists in the world; see what I like!

I've taken a Spin class with the bike Nazi's, I've centered my chi with a Yogi, I've even stripped off my clothes and climbed a pole during a Cardio-Strip session at Crunch Fitness in Chicago. In the end however, I always end up back to the basics of the running and sit-ups…as much fun as everything else is =) But it doesn't hurt to keep trying them all out!

Tonight, my mother and I discovered the ancient Middle Eastern art of Belly Dancing, the 2006 workout fad of the year!

We arrived at the little studio ready for some dancing and a hard workout, but were completely taken aback when the instructor showed us where to put our tennis shoes, and then where to sit. What? Sit? Bare Feet? What kind of place was this?! You can't possibly expect us to get a good workout in without my shoes can you?

I decided to humor my instructor a bit longer.

We took our seats and she ran through the coming weeks with us. The dancing sounded really exciting, the stretching was just up my alley (I have to admit out of all the trendy workouts, Yoga is still my favorite…enter my love of stretching), but I was most excited when she pulled out the little skirts with coins on them in flashy colors that were available to buy…and encouraged to wear! (Jayne, I know for sure you can relate…I hear Dorothy is borrowing yours he he). Note to self: bring $28 dollars for cute little coin skirt to wear around during my 6 week Belly Dancing class, and then never again after. By the end of the discussion, I was willing to ignore the fact that I was barefoot, and get down to business.

It's been a while since I've done any real sort of physical activity, and I must admit that just the opening stretches had me groaning in pain. Good pain though of course. After stretching, she ran us through a few of the basic moves and then we learned our first three steps of the dance. Hooray for dancing! One of the most exciting things in the world for me is learning a few steps and then feeling the rush of putting that all to music and seeing how it all flows and coordinates together. I felt myself wanting to bump and grind a few times to the music (It's the modernist in me) but I had to remember that we're working on control and isolation, not random movements of whichever body parts happen to feel the music at the time. It's hard though…I love to dance!!

I wouldn't say that I left feeling as though I had done a fantastic workout, but I did get some stretching in, a lot of laughter, and a great hour of fun. I think its well worth my time for the next 6 weeks…or at least until the next big workout fad comes along ;)

Hmm..I think I may have just found my purpose for a blog....Trend research!! I'm going to look into it and get back to you =)