From flab to fab: belly dance your way to fitness

Ebony, August, 2007 by Lynette R. Holloway

Two years ago, when Dana Powell was looking to spice up her work-out routine she decided to try belly dancing.

"I decided to give it a try because it seemed so exotic," says Powell, 31, of Chicago, who grew up taking lessons in ballet, tap and jazz. "Plus it also works the midsection, an area that a lot of women want to target. It's also fun. You don't realize you've been working out until you get home and try to laugh or sit down."

Powell, the editor of a bridal magazine, is among a number of others who have had that experience. In recent years, scores of women have turned to belly dancing, an exotic dance, as an alternative to more popular fitness routines, such as aerobics, Pilates and yoga, says Djalaal, a tall, reedy Chicago-based instructor who has been teaching for more than 30 years.

A Noticeable Change Within Six Weeks

"Within six weeks--if you practice at home--you can lose inches without losing weight," says Djalaal, who suggests weekly classes. "While it's important to develop all of the muscles, it's really important to focus on the glutes. It's one of the largest muscles in the body."

And while Beyonce and Shakira make belly dancing look easy in their popular video for the song Beautiful Liar, it is not. The hour-long classes generally begin with warm-ups and end with cool-downs, and many classes involve exercises that are choreographed to Middle Eastern music. Some teachers, like Djalaal, ask students to dress in belly-dance regalia, including coin sashes, which jingle like chimes when the hips sway. More advanced students use finger cymbals that keep time to the beat.

A Full-Body Workout

Belly dancing not only works your midsection, fitness experts say. It makes for a full-body workout that shapes and tones muscles, including transverse abdominals, which are generally hard to work. Further, belly dancing helps tone the upper body, obliques, glutes, quadriceps and calves by isolating the muscles through stretching and exercise, including lunges and belly flutters. It also involves a lot of aerobic movement, including hip circles and shimmying.

Belly dancing is identified by swaying of the hips, undulating the torso, and a range of other dynamic motions, according to Learn-to-belly-dance.com. Movements of the dance are highlighted by curving patterns, undulations, lifts, locks and drops, and shaking or quaking body movements, according to the site.

While each instructor is different, Djalaal begins all of her classes with isolation exercises for the feet, legs, hips, ribs, neck and head to prepare the body for the workout. Then she combines exercises into a combination of movements.

"It's really something you have to practice," says Powell, who says belly dancing has helped her maintain a lean-like dancer's physique, "and it makes for a great workout."

Belly Dance Moves

Belly Rolls

Back Bends

Forward and Back Shimmy

Walking Shimmy

Hip Bumps and Squeezing Glutes

Move Your Hips

The following are some belly dancing moves to help you dance away inches:

Hip Slide

Turn feet straight and spread them the width of your hips. Sway your hips to the left and then to the center. Sway them to the right and then to the center. Repeat.

Rib Slide

Face forward, Place your hands a little below your hips. Move your ribs to the left, center and then to the right. Repeat.

Neck Slide

Put both of your hands over your head. Open both elbows. Slide your neck to the left, center and to the right. Be sure to hold your arms still. Keep your chin out. Repeat.

Tummy Flutters

Rest both hands on either side of the lower abdomen. Inhale and exhale normally while pulling the abdominal muscles in and out. Feel your abdomen move against your hands. Repeat.

Arm Snake

With your palms facing downward, stand with your arms outstretched at the sides of your body, Raise the elbows, the wrists and the hands like you're painting. Lower arms. Repeat.

Book on Belly Dancing: Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World by Wendy Buonaventura and Ibrahim Farrah, Interlink Publishing Group, 1998.

Belly Dance Classes In Your Area

CHICAGO

Djalaal

c/o Chicago Multicultural

Dance Center

806 Plymouth Court

(312) 461-0030 ext. 21

WASHINGTON, D.C

Sahara Dance Central

4631 41st Street, NW

Washington, D.C.

(202) 362-4400

www.saharadance.com

ATLANTA

Nazeem Allayl Belly Dance Studio

1394 McLendon Ave., N.E

(404) 638-6530

www.atlantabellydance.com

LOS ANGELES

Mesmera's Red Magic Dance

P.O. Box 291014

(323) 669-0333

www.mesmera.com

NEW YORK

Morocco Academy of Mid-Eastern Dance

6 W. 20th St. (btw. 5th & 6th Ave.) 2nd Floor

(212) 727-8326

www.casbahdance.org

MIAMI

Belly Motions

430 S. Dixie Hwy.

(305) 663-1553

www.bellymotions.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CARLOS ORTIZ