I’m toying seriously with the idea of taking a holiday from dancing. Not to do nothing and not because I’m bored of it (that can’t happen) but because I want to focus on yoga and pilates for a while. If I try to do both, I end up spending so much of the time on the warm up and conditioning and a bit of dancing that there’s no time left to do the real killer pilates exercises. After many attempts to make various formats and set definite times to each part of the dance and exercise sessions – I give up. I’ll just take a week to ten days and learn the yoga and pilates exercises. Oh, and the fitness ball exercises too.
While I’ve done some yoga before, any of the poses you ignore become rusty. The only ones that are gradually improving are the ones that feature in the warm ups. The pigeon pose, for example. I’ve tried a tiny bit of pilates before too, but that’s really little and tends to get dropped because the learning curve (for the muscles, not the brain) is a steep one. Getting the basic right like not allowing the back to arch off the mat or breathing correctly is so important that it really needs special focus, not just a hurried ten minutes after a dance session. Ditto the fitness ball, which I have to learn to work with from scratch. It’sa killer too. If you don’t watch it, you could topple off it in any pose and hurt your back good and proper. So, that too needs careful focus and training.
I’m working with the theory that if I spend a good chunk of time on yoga, pilates and the ball, I’ll be able to later add it to my routines with not too much effort. If I’m not busy dying over any of those moves, I won’t have too much problem giving it 20 or 30 mins.
I’ve found a wealth of exercise routines online – so I’m probably good to go! If I manage 30 mins of exercise-learning, I’ll reward myself with a dance session!
May 28, 2009
I have so many dvds, and I still plan to buy Love Potion, Opulent Motion, and Ranya Renee’s and Sadie’s series. Right now I’ve put off weight loss off the agenda and plan to focus on polishing my technique with Beautiful Technique and Next Level. There are some basic moves I still have trouble with, like hip-lift and foot release, although my undulations have improved a lot.
I bought I love Turkish Bellydance on a whim, and I like it more than I expected; there’s the costume workshop, of course, but she also gives some great breathing tips at the beginning of the second choreography that a singer might use – in fact I remember seeing a vid of her singing a jazz number on Youtube. I’d like to see her do a proper floorwork dvd.
May 29, 2009
I think you are doing a good thing if you give yourself this break. It’s good to do that. Enjoy the yoga and pilates!
May 29, 2009
Pilates is tough! Three or four reps and you feel it! Specially with challenging things like the side plank and so on. I’m really eager to get properly into it and am looking forward to today’s session. I’m not banning dancing but that is only allowed after a satisfactory attempt at yoga and pilates.
Are you working with Beautiful Technique, Sajia? You won’t believe this but I’ve recorded the audio for all the practice files and I have it on my mp3 player. Every now and then, when I feel like, I just do a bit of it. What this has done is to make me totally comfortable with her terminology. So when I work witht he video, it comes more easily. Autumn really has her own distinctive way of referring to stuff. I’ve actually started on the choreography and that’s not in fact any more difficult than the practice flows. It’s very much based on the same movements learned
I wish Autumn had a second DVD already. I’d love to get her guidance on reverse undulations and reverse eights, among other things.l I used to have a tough time with undulations too. Doing just a few of them used to be a strain. But I’ve stuck to it so persistently that now I find I’m doing undulations all the time for no reason at all. In fact, once I had a friend staying over and when I thought she wasn’t looking, I went into some mini undulations while doing something else. She froke and asked me if everything was okay!
Must’ve thought I had some strange fit of some kind!
The reverse undulation used to be just about impossible for me. But that too has now become effortless. I just don’t like the stress it gives me on my knees. But the trajectory is pretty much happening. I did some undulations on the fitness ball! That was something. And in the yoga “cow face” pose in which just about everything is frozen – legs knotted up and arms knotted behind your back. What fun.
May 30, 2009
“asked if I was ok”
Haha my sis often asks me when I feel like I m doing tiny movements no one will see whilst sitting in a chair watching tv – “what are you DOING??” – “meeeee?… nuuuthing!!” – “I see you move your head so weird”
)
June 6, 2009
Go for it. It’s always good to take a break once in a while. When you come back, you’ll have a fresh perspective and lots of enthusiasm.
June 7, 2009
Oh dear, I won’t take such a long holiday. It’s almost over. In fact, I danced today, in a manner of speaking. More as an exercise. Asharah’s workout and then Bellydance Rhythms. I’d been doing Rhythms earlier and it was actually, I think, making me lose weight. So it’s to become a more regular part of my weight loss program.
But the pilates familiarization is going very well indeed. I’m also getting around to liking it, which hopefully will ensure it happens often. I still have to work on the fitness ball, a nicer flowing yoga sequence and some cardio program.
But tomorrow, I’ll dance!
Well, in addition to some of the above.
I must say that Pialtes and its effect on the core really seems to make a difference to belly dance moves. No doubt about it. And to balance as well. Because you have the strength to stand tall and straight and not unevenly and heavily on your feet, balance seems to improve. I find I can do the drop kick (hip drop, drop release) way better, for instance. I can also do a little bit of Autumn Ward’s beautiful undulation with a figure-8 of the leg. (Exercise flow 5 or 6).
Fun!