Well, It’s been a long and quite tiresome 6 weeks of learning to belly dance, but as my title suggests- the end is nigh and I’ll be quite glad to see the back of it!

I’ve lost no weight, but then again I didn’t change my diet so what did I expect? well, a miracle actually, ahh well! Still, apart from that, it’s been more difficult than I thought it would be by far.

I’d of probably been better off going to a class, where I had people to motivate me and point me in the direction of where I was going wrong, as it was it was just me making a pillock (yes, this is a word) of myself in my living room.

I’ve still not fully mastered the basics and as a consequence, the routine I’ve been doing for the past week hasn’t come together yet. But I’ve got tonight, the weekend and then monday and tuesday before xmas eve is upon me.

Like an idiot, I’ve agreed to do a routine for my family on xmas eve, while at a hotel in wales… wonder how I can get out of that? answers on a postcard, or the comments page please….

I’ll be back for my last belly dancing report of the year next week.
Until then, Keep (belly) Dancing!

Laura xxx

Well, I’ve made it to 6 weeks in… and no change.

Seriously, I don’t feel happier, healthier or any of that crappy nonsense. May have something to do with me wanting to punch my teacher though… blonde, thin and nauseatingly happy; she is beyond annoying!

So, i really want to give up and luckily I only have one more week to go. What have i learnt in six weeks? well I’ve learnt I have no balance or rhythm for a start, and that I’m never going to learn how to belly dance properly either.

I’ve become pretty with the whole thing since I started, maybe because I’m knackered coming in from work each night and find it difficult to get motivated.

That said, I’m sticking with it and I’ve started learning an actual routine now, which I have about 1 week to perfect before I go away for Christmas.

Better get practising!
Remember- Keep (belly) dancing!

Laura xxx

Well, I’m now into my 5th week of belly dancing, and apart from finding it very difficult to master the basics, I’ll be honest- the weight hasn’t exactly fallen off either.

I don’t know what I was expecting really, I admitted from the start that I wasn’t going to diet along with the exercise, and Aylin told me last week that just doing belly dancing alone will not give me instant weight loss.

That was a blow, I won’t lie to you- because up until that point I’d been living in ignorant bliss, stumbling my way through the routine each night after work, and hoping that by still eating pizza and drinking beer I’d be able to tone up, just by doing some belly wiggles.

What to do now…well I’ve only got something ridiculous like 2 weeks left until Christmas now, and my hopes of mastering belly dancing are now fading pretty fast…

The thing is, I’ve been on all the mad diets, I’ve exercised until i’m red and puffy and I’ve done portion and food control until I’m thoroughly miserable, and it didn’t make me any happier.

So from now on, I’ll belly dance- but just for fun, maybe with the pressure off I’ll finally get it!

Till Friday- Keep (belly) Dancing

Laura xxx

As promised, here is my interview with the lovely Aylin Hansen. She was extremely patient and helpful with all my questions, because I had quite a lot of them!

L: Hi Aylin, thanks so much for speaking to me!
A: It’s fine, what can I help you with?

L: Well, I looked at your video on the NHS website about belly dancing and I realised how badly I needed your help. I’m doing a blog about belly dancing and to be honest it’s not going well…
A: Why is that?

L: I Can’t seem to get the rhythm right, I keep bashing into my coffee table trying to make snake arms, it’s very bizarre.
A: (very long pause) Really?!

L: Yes, you see I’m working from this DVD at home and so far I’m just not getting it. I need your advice and tips please!
A: Well, you can always come down to our classes to see how we get on and try it out with us. It does make a difference when your in the place, because when you’re trying to do it yourself, it’s much harder because you don’t know whether you’re doing it right or wrong. The only downside about that is that you’re left to your own judgement, whereas if you’re in a class you will get corrected.

L: Ahh, I see that’s where I’ve been going wrong…(long pause, as I reflect)

L: Anyway! How long have you been teaching belly dancing?
A: Well, I’ve been doing it for about 5 years.

L: Why did you decide to take it up?
A: I’ve always been dancing and then someone asked me if I would be interested in teaching and I said I’d give it a try and see, and I loved it so I stayed on.

L: This is my third week of doing the dancing now, should I be worried I’m not getting it quite yet?
A: Tell me what your problem is…

L: Hip movements mainly, I end up moving my whole body rather than just my hips.
A: Ok, and what seems to be going wrong?

L: (Struggling to find the technical terms) Well, you know like when you wiggle your hips, but they don’t wiggle, but the rest of your body kind of does… (going more red by the second)

A: That’s a very difficult one, and I don’t think you can achieve that within the first three weeks.
L: (ridiculously over-excited) Really?! thank goodness!

A: They are very difficult to start with, but there are tricks to make isolations easier and one of them is, for example I always start teaching hip alternates are the most basic moves, secondly give you a very good idea about posture and thirdly it’s a good start for hip shimmies. So once you’ve cracked hip alternates, you can begin work on hip shimmies. It takes a lot of practise to get to a high level of belly dancing and if you don’t want to dance like you do when you go to a club, if you want to have technique to it then it takes time.

L: That’s reassuring!!
A: Absolutely, especially because you’re telling me you have problems with hip shimmies, most people have problems with shoulder shimmies then they find it very difficult to alternate, but with the hip shimmies, if you tuck in your tummy and bend your knees, it’s very important that you bend your knees and come slightly down and you tuck in your tail to straighten your spine and that in itself locks your abdominals already and makes it easier to isolation.

L: Right I’m going to try that tonight! I do it three times a week as a rule, my shoulders are a bit off balance too, what would you suggest for that?
A: Well for shoulders I usually say… well, go and find a wall and stay about 1ft away from it. Then put your hands on it and bend your knees but don’t lean on it ok? Put your hands on the wall and then start pushing your shoulders. Push one shoulder forward and then back as if there is a stick going through your shoulders. Using the wall, so that forwards and back and so on, then try and get faster, then take your hands off the wall and try and do the same thing. Now if you can do it when your hands are on the wall, it means you can also do it when your hands are off the wall, you just need a bit of muscle control. That’s a very good way of practicing it, especially to discover those muscles that works the shoulder shimmies.

L: A lot of people take this sort of thing up at this time to lose weight, can it really make a difference?
A: I think it’s a wonderful thing, it’s got the feel good factor to it as well, so you know lose weight, have fun get lots of exercise. Yes, it’s as good as any other dancing. What you need to follow with it however is a proper diet… (my heart sinks) You won’t lose weight if you’re eating loads of everything and just doing one hour of belly dancing.

L: (Mumbling) I may need to change my diet a little bit then…
A: Well with what you’re eating you need to be determined that you are on diet and that you will stick to it and that you want to loose weight. If you eat pizzas and pastas then you’re never going to lose weight.

L: Well thank you very much for giving me your tips, I’ll put them into practise.
A: Thank you for asking!

And with that she was gone… I’ll be reporting on monday for week 5 of my belly dancing challenge. One more week of theory and I’ll be on to learning the dance. Terrifying!

Until then- Keep (belly) dancing!
Laura xxx

Aylin Hansen has been working with the NHS Choices website to provide information about the health benefits of belly dancing. For further information please visit www.nhs.uk

No, this is not a video of me attempting to belly dance, but a video of a professional instead!

I spoke last week about wanting to call in the professionals to help my technique (or lack thereof) and so spoke to Aylin Hansen, who has been teaching belly dancing for 5 years.

I’ll be posting my interview with Aylin later on this week, but I have to say her tips have already started to help me, and I’m progressing a bit better with my DVD.

Anyway, until then- enjoy the video and keep (belly) dancing!
Laura xxx

Aylin Hansen Teaches Belly Dancing Class

Aylin Hansen has been working with the NHS Choices website to provide information about the health benefits of belly dancing. For further information please visit www.nhs.uk

Well, if you read my post on Friday you will know that I was ready to give up… but then I had a Eureka moment! Get some help and some top tips on how to belly dance!

So that’s what I plan to do, I’m already arranging to talk to someone who teaches classes in the ancient art, so I’m on the right tracks at least! Hopefully she can give me some help  and advice on where I’m going wrong… it’s not like I’m uncommitted or anything, I just genuinely seem to have two left feet!

I’ve got an additional video to look at tonight, which I’ll post on here this week, so that anyone else who wants to take up belly dancing can watch and get the basics.

Well, suppose I better get practising…straight after work I’m going to stick the dvd in and shake my hips until they are too sore to continue.

Keep (belly) Dancing

Laura xx

This is getting slightly depressing, two weeks in and I haven’t so much as mastered the art of wiggling my hips and shimmying my arms.

Forget learning to belly dance, If I’m having trouble with the basics, how am I going to cope with a routine?! Thank god that’s about 5 weeks away because at the minute I’m aching all over and I’m convinced I have a dodgy hip that refuses to move the way I tell it to.

It doesn’t help that my instructor- some gorgeous blonde hippy woman is telling me how easy it is all the way through, while I’m standing there huffing and puffing until I finally surrender and move on.

Well by last night I’d started to get a little better at what I was supposed to be doing, but the fact is I need some serious help in learning to master this new skill.

 I think next week is all about concentrating on your ‘leg action’ whatever that means- humm… I’ll keep you posted on my developments, or lack thereof on Tuesday. Perhaps it’s time to call in the professionals.

Keep (belly) Dancing!

Laura xx 

Well, here we are on week two of my quest to learn how to belly dance.

After seriously damaging my arms while trying to learn how to make the right snake movements with my hands, I was ready to move on to learning how to wiggle my hips.

What I do like about this DVD is the fact that you can learn the art of belly dancing in stages, so that if you’re crap at one, you can just move on and forget about it, until the time comes for you to learn a whole routine.

And, while I was having a lazy flick ahead to see what else my belly dancing expert had in store for me, I found a section on how to seduce your boyfriend by learning a sexy routine- oo-er!

Truthfully, I can’t see me ever looking sexy with this dance, especially if last night is anything to go by. It turns out that shaking my hips is harder than moving my arms, and after whacking my leg into the coffee table, trying to get the right ‘movement’ I decided to call it a night.

Just like all things, learning a new skill requires patience- so hopefully by Friday I’ll be a happy bunny who can wiggle her hips and have the perfect snake arms!

Til then-Keep (belly) Dancing!

Laura xx 

Well after a week of starting to learn to belly dance, all I have mastered so far is how to move my arms in circles. No seriously, and now my arms are in so much pain that I can barely move them!

I’m taking it slow with this belly dancing lark, mainly because the dvd comes in different sections for me to learn how to belly dance. There are 6 sections which show you how to move each part of your body in a belly dancing rhythm, so this week I focused on my arms.

Holding my arms in a triangle position above my head, I was instructed to roll my head from side to side and then front to back for about 5 minutes, by which point my arms and neck were killing me. Next I learned how to roll my arms up through my shoulders, to my elbows and out, holding my palms up and down. It may sound really simple, but by Wednesday I still was not getting the correct ‘palm’ action.

Giving it a go again last night was pretty comical as my boyfriend decided to join in, which caused me to burst out laughing rather than anything else. After I got over my amusement though, it started to get a little easier, with snake arms being incorporated into the routine and a minimal amount of walking added too.

Doing two things at once proved very difficult and it took a few goes for me to get it right. My boyfriend however, collapsed in a heap and gave up after the second go, but seeing as he has quite long arms this wasn’t a bad thing as he kept hitting me with his interpretation of snake arms.

This morning I woke up with a sore neck and sore arms, possibly from an entire week of moving my arms in circular motions. That said, it must be doing a little bit of good, because my arms look slightly more toned that last week.

Roll on hip movement for next week I think!

Keep (belly) Dancing

Laura xx

Hello and welcome to www.femalefirst.co.uk and my exclusive Belly dancing Blog.

This may seem a bit strange, a blog about Belly dancing, but if truth be told, I’ve always been a bit curious about learning the art of belly dancing.

Yes, alright it’s a bit funny thinking of me wiggling my way around my living room trying to tone up, while also trying to look even a tiny bit sexy, as they seem to do naturally on the TV.

But I am what you would call a serial fitness cheat.  I always look for other options to loose weight, rather than just heading to the gym for a long and (painful) work out,  so with 7 weeks to go until Christmas, I’ve decided I need some serious help.

The idea of belly dancing seems like a laugh really, especially if you do it with a bunch of mates and you all make fun of each other, but imagine you and only you in your living room, at night struggling to master the art of shaking your tummy…embarrassing doesn’t even come close.

Especially when you realise your curtain is open and half of your neighbours are having a giggle at your expense. At least I wasn’t dressed up how they were in the DVD, that would have been mortifying! No, not me it’s tracksuit bottoms and a manky t-shirt all the way, but if you find me blogging in a few weeks time on where I can find a belly dancers outfit, you’ll know how good I’m getting!

I’ve only done the introduction so far, so I can’t comment on any weight loss or if I feel more toned because truthfully I feel just the same as always. And what’s more, I don’t plan to diet along with this fitness regime, just to see if fitness alone can really make a difference…

I’ll keep you updated on my progress at the end of the week, until then..

Keep (Belly) Dancing!

Laura xx

(I’m using An Introduction to Belly Dance, £12.99, available through Acacia)