Category: Belly Dance

Oriental dance (also known as belly dance, bellydance, Mid-Eastern dance, or Raqs Sharqi) is a feminine form of self-expression through dance.

Releasing Neck Tension (and Minimizing the Dreaded "Dowager’s Hump")

Looking Younger – by Releasing Neck Tension

One of my dear friends exercises regularly. I see her often getting up in the morning, putting together a blender-full of a healthy protein and fruit smoothie, and heading out to the gym before she goes to work each day. She’s resumed her “healthy lifestyle,” and she’s getting fitter and trimmer.

As we women get older, we are likely to get <a href="
As we women get older, we are likely to get osteoporosis, resulting in the dreaded ‘dowager’s hump.

Nevertheless, I keep seeing a persistent hunch-over in her shoulders and neck. It’s the emerging dreaded “dowager’s hump”!

Far too many of us are getting this “hunched over” look; partly because so many of our activities – from working at the computer to driving a car – induce this posture. They all bring our arms forward and “hunch” our necks downwards.

If You Can’t Be a Good Example, Then Be a Horrible Lesson

I see my friend, and get a pointed reminder of how I don’t want to look!

Just like her – and possibly just like you – I spend most of my days at the computer. Occasionally, I’m driving about town. These two activities take up the bulk of my time.

Seeing how I don’t want to look is a powerful reminder to include “dowager’s-hump-fighting-strategies” into my life.

But – just like you – I get absorbed in my work, sometimes for hours at a time.

What can we do?

Proactive Steps to Minimize a Dowager’s Hump

As we get older, we can’t simply rely on exercise alone to keep osteoporosis (and the dowager’s hump) at bay. We need to think about a more integrated strategy, including:

  • Diet, including dark leafy greens – possibly with vegetable juicing, together with with good calcium/magnesium supplements,
  • Targeted exercise, focusing on a complete core-strengthening regime, and
  • Specific stretches to open up our neck, upper back, and shoulder/pectoral areas.

Dr. Natalie Cordova, a Chiropractor and posture expert, gives us some ideas on what we can do to strengthen our backs and reduce the likelihood of a dowager’s hump.

Jim Evans also suggests some exercises to help deal with a dowager’s hump.

Releasing Neck and Back Tension Will Help Minimize a Dowager’s Hump

Most of us have desk jobs. Between sitting at our desks, sitting in the car (with our shoulders brought forward as we grasp the wheel), and then sitting at home in the evenings, we are all too often in a posture that tightens our neck and hunches our shoulders forward. Even in our “leisure moments,” we’re reinforcing this posture. (Feel the posture that you’re in while watching TV, doing texts and emails, and other digitally-based activities.)

One of the most notable signs of aging is our posture. Actually, it’s a combination of posture and muscular/joint stiffness. “Limberness” is a sign of youth. Being hunched over, with a tight, drawn in neck, with rounded shoulders is a sign of both stress and aging. And when we get “fixated” in this kind of posture, we start looking like a turtle – one that is very reluctantly sticking its head out of its shell! That’s the “dowager’s hump” stage.

Surprisingly, not many fitness coaches and anti-aging gurus focus on this. But a tight neck, and tight shoulders, are not only absolute give-aways about aging, they also feel awful! It’s hard to feel vigorous, lighthearted, and happy when our posture says that we’re hunching over to avoide the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”!

Perhaps even more surprisingly, the key to unlocking neck and shoulder tension (and releasing a “dowager’s hump”) starts not at our neck, but in our hips, pelvis, and lower back. As we release these areas, we begin to “mobilize” our spine. Once we do that, we can start releasing tension up and down our spines – reaching up into our neck. This is how we create a youthful, vibrant body!

I’ve just come back from a week at a client site. There were task-filled days, often be-bopping from one place to another, with the “to-do list” always on my mind. While I could do some stretch-outs, some yoga, and some walking while at my client’s, it just wasn’t ideal for my early-morning “sun salutation” yoga workout. And now, returning to home base, in the midst of unpacking and taking care of everyone’s physical (and emotional) needs, I’m noticing a tight neck. And also, a tight back, and a very tight lower back and hip area. The secret? A combination of yoga and “belly dance basics” – a series of stretching and releasing exercises that are actually best done in bed, or on a soft and yielding surface. I’ve been combining that with deliberate breathing, opening up my diaphragms. And without even getting to my neck area, I’m already getting some release.

Our yoga practice doesn’t have to be fancy, and we don’t need to do lots of advanced poses. But just getting some “downward dog” and “sun salutations” in helps tremendously to release tension in our hips, lower back, and sacral area. And all of this is necessary before any form of dance can begin.

Very best wishes as you use Oriental dance (belly dance) for personal growth and healing!

Yours in dance –

Alay'nya - author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unveiling-The-Inner-Journey-Alaynya/dp/0982901305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368123419&sr=8-1&keywords=unveiling+the+inner+journey">Unveiling: The Inner Journey</a>
Alay’nya – author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey

Alay’nya
Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!

Founder and Artistic Director, The Alay’nya Studio
Bellydance a courtesan would envy!

Check out Alay’nya’s YouTube Channel
Connect with Alay’nya on Facebook
Follow Unveiling: The Inner Journey on Facebook

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P.S. Want a couple of good DVDs to help strengthen your core and minimize dowager’s hump tendencies? Check out the two below!

 

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DVD

 

Gerson Kuhr, aka The Fitness Pharaoh on Unveiling: The Inner Journey

What does the Fitness Pharaoh, producer of the highly-acclaimed Core Training for Belly Dancers, have to say about Unveiling: The Inner Journey?

Gerson writes:
“Masterfully written. This is one of the most inspiring books that I have come across in a long, long time. It is “must reading” for any woman who wants to get in touch with her “inner diva” and realize her full potential as a dancer and human being. It’s empowering for men as well. The resources alone (mentioned throughout the book) are well worth the purchase price.”

Read this and more reviews of Unveiling: The Inner Journey.

 
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Alay’nya, Unveiling: The Inner Journey

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Kindle

 

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Copyright (c) 2012; revised 2013, Alay’nya. All rights reserved.

Related Posts: Creating a Youthful Presence Through Belly Dance

Morocco’s "You Asked Aunt Rocky" – Fascinating Read, Significant Contribution!

Morocco’s You Asked Aunt Rocky – A Major Contribution to Dance Ethnography!

Morocco’s You Asked Aunt Rocky – the culmination of years of study, travel, practice, ad writing – has just been released via Lulu. I’ve just submitted a review article to The Belly Dance Chronicles, for their April/May/June issue, and also published a five-star review on Lulu.com, where it already has three other five-star reviews.

Currently, you can order You Asked Aunt Rocky directly from Lulu.com, and it will be available from Amazon.com by March.

Breathing, Breakthroughs, and Belly Dance

Emotional Breakthroughs Show in Our Breathing, Body Movement, and Dance

Just yesterday, I had a breakthrough.

Now my life consists of “breakthroughs.” I have them intellectually. (This is what gives me ideas for everything from blogposts to patents. There are several “breakthroughs” in Unveiling alone.) And I’m used to having physical breakthroughs as well; these have made me an effective dancer.

But yesterday something happened that was a bit unexpected, and I want to share it with you while the memory is fresh.

For the previous few months – post-Unveiling-publication – I’d been having a lot of fatigue. Through being kind and gentle with myself, through rest and (not-too-strenuous) exercise, through better diet and supplements, I was slowly getting better. But this improvement was wobbly, and after almost three months, I still wasn’t back to full strength and power. In fact, just the day-before-yesterday, I’d had one of those days in which all the supplements in the world – all the vitamin B-12 and ginseng – were getting me off the launch pad but not quite into stable orbit.

And then, yesterday, several little things happened. I can’t quite put my finger on any single one. But somehow, in the midst of all these “little things” – a real breakthrough occured.

The “little things”? Working my daily exercise with the Course in Miracles, which I started about two months ago. (If there is anything that is life-changing, this is it. And I was in huge resistance about one of those exercises, but somehow, wound up adopting the premise that it offered – that may have been a “pivot point.”)

The “pivot point” may have been when Nimeera, another dancer with whom I met the day before, looked at me and said, “Breathe.” (I didn’t even know that I was holding my breath.)

It may have been waking up, realizing that I was holding tension in one of my favorite tension-holding places in my back, and then starting to use undulations to release that tension, and also releasing the “emotional issue” that I felt was linked to the tension spot.

It could have been any of these; all of them, or none. What I do know is that somehow, sometime, yesterday I began to move again.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’d been “moving” all these past few months. A fair bit of the daily yoga and core, stretch and resistance training. Renewed long walks. And lots and lots of housecleaning and other chores.

But I hadn’t been doing much dance.

I’d attributed this to having put all my energy into the Unveiling-publication.

But there was something else, a sadness that had been a part of my life over the last three years. And somehow, it released, and my body began to naturally do the “belly dance movements” once again.

That’s right, I started naturally and spontaneously moving – the undulations, the figure-eights (of all sorts). The stretches, the neck movements, everything.

And I realized, once again, that the beauty of Oriental dance as a body art (in comparision with other, equally good and very valid body arts such as yoga and T’ai Chi), is that the range of movements that it gives us are fabulously superb for releasing emotional tension. They are the best movements for real body/mind/psyche integration.

That’s because an Oriental dance technique, such as an undulation, corresponds to releasing tension up and down our spine. When we release emotional tension, we can release the physical. And vice versa.

So if we have even a glimmering of how the two are connected – some attention and awareness of how our bodies and our “emotional selves” work together – then when we get the slightest little release in one area, we can use the dance techniques to help us release just a little more. We use our body/mind/psyche integration pathway to leverage this release.

So, for example, a little emotional release – leads to an undulation. An undulation leads to a figure-eight. A figure-eight leads to paying attention to what we have “stuck” in our lower backs and pelvic area. And then we bring our attention to the emotional aspect, process it, and get a bit more release again physically.

And this is why I love this dance form so much!

P.S. I write about this in Chapters 14-16 of Unveiling: The Inner Journey. And in those chapters, I credit Diane Richardson, who is a Co-Founder of Relational Energetics (see http://www.relationalenergetics.com). I also suggest chiropractic and massage, and other healing modalities – Reiki is good, as are others.

Copyright (c) 2013, Alay’nya. All rights reserved.

Related Posts: Creating a Youthful Presence Through Belly Dance

Lineage – in Martial Arts, Yoga, Zen – and Belly Dance!

Our “Master Teachers” in Oriental Dance

Recently, I took a workshop with Anahid Sofian, where the day’s classes were taught by her protege, the internationally-renowned Eva Cernik. Among the attendees was Nourhan Sharif, and others who were remarkable for their intelligence (one had her Ph.D. in biochemistry), devotion to the art (most were long-standing students), and overall high level of knowledge about dance, art, and life.

I overheard Nourhan and another dancer, where the question that one of them posed was: Which other leading dancers do you like – and respect – the most? (The context was with historical figures – the luminaries of films, etc.)

Somehow, the conversation swung around to how we – as students, practitioners, and often teachers – show how we respect our own teachers. And someone (here I’m airbrushing just a bit) commented on one dancer who left a well-known teacher to form her own studio. She had been a teacher in the master dance teacher’s studio, and took the students – who were in class with her – when she left to set up her own “establishment.”

This wasn’t just a burst of ego. It was a show of disrespect, and – in simple business terms – an undercutting.

I had the same thing happen to me, and write about it in Unveiling: The Inner Journey. (see the opening for Chapter 15, “Softening: Beginning to Break Through,” beginning page 199.

I recall a conversation with another leading dancer, one with whom I’ve studied and whom I respect a great deal. I asked her how I could honor her in my work. She said, “Simply recognize me in your bio. Say that you’ve studied with me.”

That seems easy enough. Surprisingly, though, there are dancers – those who want to “establish” themselves – who think that the best way to do this is to disregard (and even disrespect) their connections with their teachers and – when they find them – their “master teachers.”

We in the Oriental dance world seek to claim legitimacy for our art form. We want respect. We demand, and the rigor and beauty of our art form demands, a high level of respect.

But to get respect, we have to give it.

Look at the great traditions in the world; the ones where personal teaching is necessary. Martial artists, the world over, acknowledge their teachers. Lineage is exceptionally important.

Lineage is important in ballet, modern dance, and other dance forms. It is important in all branches of yoga.

In Zen meditation, one of the practices is that the disciples recite the names of their master teachers, going up through their entire lineage, and thanking and acknowledging them.

We have a profoundly beautiful, moving, and exquisite art form. We also have lineage. It’s time for us to respect our “master teachers.”

In Unveiling: The Inner Journey, I identify my “master teachers” – in dance, in martial arts, and in body/mind/psyche/energy integration. If I’ve studied with them, and if there is enough of a relationship so that they can pick me out of a lineup, they’re mentioned. I tell stories about them – the kind of “student/teacher” stories that highlight their role as teachers.

Right now, more and more of us are writing. (Morocco’s book is coming out soon, Nourhan Sharif has one underway.) We put together websites. We have videos. In addition to teaching classes and performing, we have numerous venues available to us – through the web, digital media, and print – in which we can honor our “master teachers.”

We want respect? Let’s start by giving it.

Belly Dancing in Water – The "Origins of the Dance!"

Have you ever wondered how it all started? (Belly dance, that is.)

Have you ever wondered how we – as human beings – started? Apart from Creation myth(s), and God taking a rib from Adam, and that sort of thing.

How did we go from being fairly successful pre-hominids to beings with art and culture, with complex languages, and (even) complex thoughts – on topics that range from cosmology to cosmetics to cosmic knowledge.

There had to be a “transition point,” didn’t there?

And for us women, there had to be a point at which dancing evolved.

Specifically, there had to be a point at which belly dance began to evolve, because this dance form is the oldest one that there is!

Seven years ago, I traveled on business to Hawaii. After checking in and taking a short nap, I got up, put on a swimsuit and cover-up, and walked down to Waikiki beach. It was late evening; the beach was deserted. The stars were out, the weather was warm, and starlight and hotel lights sparkled off the gentle waves.

From where the waves slowly lapped the shore, I I walked out more than fifty feet from the water’s edge, until I was chest-high in the warm water. Seaweed softly stroked my skin. I relaxed, lengthened my back, and let the waves gently rock my spine.

This, I realized, is where belly dance was born.

Several millennia ago, we women took to the beaches in the blistering Pliocene-era heat waves.

Up until that time, we (or our earliest ancestral hominids) were fruit-loving forest dwellers. When the savage Pliocene-era heat and drought decimated our favored forest dwellings, we had to live in the plains. This was too hot, and much too dangerous. Being (even then), intelligent beings, we did the only intelligent thing possible. We went to the beach! (So, for that matter, did elephants and dophins, all mammals who’ve adapted to a watery environment. The dolphins stayed and adapted further, and we and the elephants eventually went back on land.) We lost much of our “fur” in the process, and gained a great deal of intelligence. (Elaine Morgan writes about how our “beach time” helped us evolve in The Descent of Women (1972); another really good smart woman’s “beach read.”)

So there I was, in the slowly, lapping waves, under a moonlit and starry night, with seaweed stroking my back and thighs. I relaxed, and “reconnected” with my ancestresses.

And guess what? My body naturally and instinctively began to do the most fundamental movement in Oriental dance (belly dance); an “undulation.” I “undulated” up and down my spine, in rhythm with the waves and the seaweed.

I floated my arms out to my sides, and let them “rest” on the soft swells of the water. Once again, naturally and instinctively, they moved on their own, in a pattern that we now call “snake arms.” It has nothing to do with snakes, not really. When we women first “evolved” this dance movement, it was because our arms naturally responded to the movements of the waves.

You can read an excerpt from Elaine Morgan’s Descent of Woman.

We (or our early pre-human ancestors) spent a lot of time in the water. Enough time to morph us into what we are today; mammals who stand on two legs instead of four; mammals who use speech (which carries beautifully over water); and mammals who have hair on our heads (to protect our heads from the sun’s rays), but who don’t need much hair on the rest of our bodies. We also became mammals who dance.

We have evolved so that standing in water, responding naturally and instinctively to a soft, gently lapping wave, is enormously soothing to us. This kind of movement releases tension. It gets us back to our “calm state.” Movements that “flow” and “undulate” our spine – whether done in water (ideal) or on land (since that’s where we now live) – help us feel good. And movements that open up our shoulders, and stretch out our pectoral muscles, and release our neck tension (especially when done in water) feel very good indeed.

Experiment on your own (if you must), or with a girlfriend or two or three, and even consider asking a belly dance teacher to come up with a “belly dance in the pool” class for you! No matter how it goe, you’ll learn (or discover) means for reducing neck and back tension, unwinding the tight spots in your clavicles and pectoral areas, and even ways for reducing the impact of carpal tunnel syndrome.

What better way to counter this summer’s heat waves? Enjoy!

Yours in dance – Alay’nya

Copyright (c) 2011, Alay’nya. All rights reserved.

Related Posts: Water Dancing and Emotional Release Through Belly Dance

Rebuilding Personal Energy (Ch’i)

Building Personal Energy (Ch’i)

Over the past few days, my personal energy levels had dropped down a bit. I was a bit more tired in the afternoons, and craving carbohydrates and sugars. These were tell-tale signs that my energy and balance were off.

To start rebuilding my personal energy, or ch’i, I prepared with a short and easy yoga session (mostly to stretch out the leg meridians; these help with sleep and relaxation), and took a nap. (Always a good choice.)

When I woke up, I found a good action movie on TV that was just getting started, and did a two-hour yoga/core/resistance/stretch session. Just the basics, nothing new and certainly nothing fancy. But I felt hugely better afterwards.

Then I did some juicing with the last of the “juicing greens and veggies” that I had stored in a special kitchenette where I keep the juicer (and a garbage disposal for handling waste, even though I compost most of it). A dedicated area helps, as a week’s worth of juicing veggies and greens takes up a lot of room. Also, since this is “raw foods,” it’s best to keep it from meats and other food types. My ingredients were: a whole small beet, a whole large carrot and a whole Granny Smith apple, a small handful of parsley, a small handful of cress, and a few stalks of celery (including the leafy parts at the top, and the “celery root” area below the stalks). This was one of the best combos I’d ever made, it was great!

By this time, my energy was perking up. I wound up doing this in the middle of the night, so my goal now is to calm down and go back to bed. However, the combination of yoga and exercise, together with the nutrients from the freshly-squeezed greens and veggies, has my energy flowing again.

It is from this slightly more energized state that I started doing some basic T’ai Chi, and the silk-weaving exercises.

I’ve looked online for vids of the silk-weaving exercises as described in Michael Minik’s book (referenced in a previous post), and couldn’t find any good, “basic” ones. I’m sure that chi kung training is similar, but at some point I’ll try to do a simple little silk-weaving vid, and post on YouTube. This is a great energizing practice, especially when used in conjunction with the basic things that get our bodies moving and our energy flowing.

P.S. – I’m still winding down and getting ready to go back to bed. Herbal tea – I use Celestial Seasoning’s “Sleepytime Extra,” the valerian helps induce sleep, and stir in a little GABA. Also have a chug of the Calcium/Magnesium components of the two-part liquid vitamins that I get from Dr. Sievers at Care Plus in Fairfax, VA.

It’s only when I’ve done a good bit of yoga and stretching to warm up and get my lower back released, and core work to get my abdominal muscles engaged, that I feel ready to fully take advantage of T’ai Chi. And then, only after all of that do I feel that my body is really ready to work with dance. The elements of Oriental dance involve so much stretching and flexing of our spines, our pelvic girdle, and diaphragms – and so much core strength if we are to do it right – that we can have a really good dance workout if half our time (or even more) is spent with warm-ups and preps, getting our body ready to move in the right way. Then the dance techniques flow from internal strength and connection, rather than from being “imposed.”

And we have a much better chance of doing energy circulation work in dance if we’ve prepared properly.

Unveiling — the Permissions

Dear Ones —

Today, as I get up to write to you, it is early morning – a little after 4AM. The sky is still dark, the birds are still quiet, even the tree frogs ceased their chorus several hours ago. It is in these very quiet moments that I share with you, because one of the things that I (and many other creative persons) most like to hear is: What is the creative process like? What is it like to actually write a book; to go from concept to many rough drafts to final form to the final polish?

The creative process in others fascinates us, because we hope to learn something that we can use and apply to our own endeavors.

As soon as the sun rises, and the spell of quiet-time breaks, daylight energy starts surging in and I’m part of the “practical world” once again. And now that I am so close, so very close, to getting Unveiling to you, much of what I’ve put off over the past year is now on my desk. My daily “to-do” list crawls off the page, and – just as with you – even as I write down all the “to-do’s” and attempt prioritizing, I know that I’ll only do a small fraction of what’s on the list.

And the reason, of course, that I only get a fraction of the “other stuff” done is that I’m still massively allocating time to Unveiling.

A while ago – this is about a month or so back – I could sense the energetic “completeness” of Unveiling. At some level, it was already in final form. All the chapters were in place, all the necessary concepts and thoughts were there – even though I’ve continued to get guidance and inputs, and little things that make such a difference to the final outcome still come to me. (This is much like adding the final fresh, most tender, ingredients to a long-simmered stew, just before serving.)

As I said, energetically, Unveiling was complete.

Pragmatically – now that’s an entirely different story.

I spent most of yesterday, and will spend much time over the next few days, writing the Permissions letters. These are the ones in which the author contacts the publishers of other author’s works, asking for permission to include extracts of the others’ works in their own.

In my case, I have many, MANY extracts from other author’s works. About three dozen in all.

Why so many, you might ask? After all, isn’t Unveiling supposed to be my work – not just a compilation of ideas and insights from others?

And yes, truly, it is.

But the story goes back to the origin of Unveiling.

Many years ago, I began my own quest. I realized that I had stumbled, more or less, on a “path.” In fact, I had found the “path” that I was looking for – a body/mind/psyche/energy integration pathway for women. I had spent many years prior studying martial arts, and finally (and somewhat reluctantly) concluded that they were not right for me. All that block-kick-punch-strike — too masculine. While I loved the energy, the intensity, the total awareness and physical discipline of the martial arts, they were essentially masculine. Fundamentally, they were all about fighting. As a woman, I was less and less interested in fighting; less and less interested in the masculine path. I wanted one that was, at its core, intrinsically feminine.

When I found Oriental (belly) dance, I knew that I had “come home.” And for years, I was able to find extraordinary teachers in the dance arts, much as I’d earlier found extraordinary teachers in the martial arts. (I write about them in Unveiling, and in the Unveiling website – when it is itself “unveiled” – I’ll link to their sites.)

But even though I was getting fabulous dance training, crucial aspects – the “life-path-integration” aspects – were still missing.

I craved some sort of guidance. Specifically, I craved a book.

I looked high and low, and couldn’t find one. (This was some fifteen years ago.)

In response to my own need, I began writing. And of course, books – written by others – began to emerge. They played a crucial role in what I’ll be sharing with you.

So – right now, my job is to get those Permissions letters out, day by day, until all the publishers and authors have been contacted. Then, Unveiling can rightfully give you tiny little “snippets” of insights that others have provided, and you’ll be able to follow up on your own.

This is a long job – I’ve been at it for days, and more will come. But what is exciting is that years ago – when I first started writing to you – these materials (by and large) did not exist. Or I was unaware of them. Or even – if aware – I didn’t understand the role that they would play in the final manuscript. (Again, think of cooking — and being in a well-stocked kitchen. Sometimes, we don’t realize that we need a certain ingredient – like a bit of tomato paste as well as the fresh tomatoes – until we’re well underway with the cooking!)

Now, new and relevant books, articles, webzines and blogs are producing relevant insights, every single day. This means that many of us are holding the same thoughts, and asking the same questions.

Darlings, it is time to unveil Unveiling, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

Great exercise to help with knee strength

Dear Ones —

This Sunday’s (Oct. 19th, 2008) Parade magazine had a Special Report about Women’s Health by Claudia Wallis. She opens with:

“When I ripped a ligament in my knee on a ski-slope last winter, I had no idea that I was joining a limping sisterhood. A torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) ranks among the most common sports-related knee injuries. But women are five to sevn times as likely as men to sustain this kind of athletic damage.”

Ms. Wallis continues with an interview with Dr. Laura Tosi, director of the bone-health program at Children’s Natioanl Medical Cneter in Washington, DC. Dr. Tosi, and studies that Ms. Wallis has read, point out that “girls tend to run, jump, and turn with straighter legs and less bending at the knees and hips than boys.” This, and other factors, make us more susceptible to knee and other joint injuries.

Ms. Wallis is not alone in her experience of knee problems — I have them myself, and so do some of my students. (The older we get, the more likely we are to have this as a problem area.)

In fact, one of my favorite dance teachers, Anahid Sofian in New York City, started learning belly dance on the recommendation of her physical therapist. In doing modern dance, she had overworked her knees, and was in pain. She sought help from her doctors, who then prescribed physical therapy. Her therapist recommended belly dance as a therapeutic exercise. She tried it, became entranced by the art form, and from there went on to become one of the world’s leading choreographers and teachers in this area.

Fortunately for us, we can ALL use belly dance as a therapeutic exercise. The key ingredient that makes this work? We dance in a “bent-knee” posture. ALL of our movements involve keeping our knees just slightly bent. This means that:
1) We strengthen our thighs AND our abs (we need strong abs to make this work),
2) We lengthen our lower back, getting our pelvis to align straight with the floor — this helps a LOT to release lower back tension!, and
3) We strengthen the muscles around our knees.

Belly dance is an ancient, beautiful, and sensual women’s art form. It is very likely the oldest dance form on this planet, although other “native/folk” dances (e.g., Polynesian, African) could have started around the same time. Because belly dance is such an old art form, it is very aligned with how our bodies are naturally designed to move. (In contrast, more recent dance forms, such as ballet, are much more “artificial,” and can actually produce joint damage.)

Our bodies were naturally designed to have – and work best when – we are in a posture where our pelvis is aligned with the floor, our knees are slightly bent (this helps with pelvic alignment), and our spine and neck are “lengthened” so that the top of our heads reaches towards the sky. This is the posture that we practise and use in belly dance.

We think of this as having “soft knees” – knees are very slightly bend; not locked in place. This not only reduces pressure on the knee joint, but helps to mobilize our pelvis.

This pelvic-aligned, soft-knee, spine-lengthened posture helps us be more naturally graceful and beautiful. (Not to mention, it gives the immediate impression of losing ten pounds!) With this as a framework, we create elegant and sensual movements — all while being non-impact!

For those that would like to add a fun way to strengthen their bodies, and feel and look much better, belly dance would be a great exercise alternative!

Copyright (c) 2008, Alay’nya. All rights reserved.

Related Posts: Creating a Youthful Presence Through Belly Dance

Fantasy Requires Determination

LETTER FROM ALAY’NYA – SEPTEMBER 2003

Fantasy Requires Determination

September, 2003

Dear Ones –

'Hot Pink: The Life and Fashions of Elsa Schiaparelli,' by S.G. Rubin.
‘Hot Pink: The Life and Fashions of Elsa Schiaparelli,’ by S.G. Rubin.
Marissa Berenson, fashion muse and icon, once quoted her grandmother Elsa Schiaparelli as saying “Fantasy requires determination.” This inspired me to read Elsa’s autobiography (Shocking Life, 1954, order via interlibrary loan). We dancers are supreme fantasists!

If we were anything less, we would be doing something much more mundane than women’s dance (from any cultural origination). But we’ve chosen a unique personal expression. Our dance does more than give us a good workout, fun with other women, and sensuality in our daily movements. It helps us connect to our “fantasy selves,” to the alter egos that we each have.

The challenge we so often feel is that while we have an extreme side to our fantasy selves, we are scared to find ways to express it. As a result, we live paler, tamer versions of the lives that we would really like to lead. And sometimes, we find ourselves on the horns of our internal dilemma. We really would like to open up, reach out, and express ourselves a bit more. Be a bit (or maybe very much) “over the top” in some ways. But then we start to give ourselves all the reasons why we have to limit ourselves.

The most important thing we can do for ourselves is to honor ourselves, and in particular, honor the aspect of ourselves that IS outrageous, over-the-top, and thoroughly in fantasy world. Dance helps us – but it is how we approach dance, and how we integrate it into our lives, and our view of ourselves, that really makes a difference.

This is where we start with the little things. We must do little tiny things that will say to each of us, “You are special, you are unique and wonderful, and this fantasy-part of you is the most wonderful aspect of all.” So here is one practical, simple way that you can give yourself this message in a very real, concrete way.

Dancer's survival travel kit: cosmetics in a coffee go-cup. Why not?
Dancer’s survival travel kit: cosmetics in a coffee go-cup. Why not?

Make a little “get-in-the-mood” kit to use on your way to dance class. Have a favorite dance CD that you listen to enroute. Take along a few cosmetics, some jewelry, and perfume. (Select one particularly exotic scent and use it as your bellydance scent; start to cue yourself towards dance with this fragrance.) Leave a few minutes early, and when you get to class, put on your “special dance things.” Then start tuning into your body, relaxing, releasing, letting go off the day’s stress, and paying attention to how you feel. Flex your feet and toes, and give yourself a quick little foot massage. You are now a goddess of sensuality – let yourself look, feel, and act that way!

Love to all – Alay’nya

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