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If you don't know "step-touch" or "grapevine" or rhythm, this's calculus when you're 2+2ing
They really need to have basic dance classes. And those classes shouldn't presume anything.
Today's class said, "this is the ribcage slide, move using your obliques". I don't know which muscles are the obliques I happen to know they're somewhere on the sides and are exercised with catty-corner situps but fuck-me if I know exactly which things those are, nor how to use them by themselves to move fucking half my body without moving anything else. But I don't think most of the other people there knew what obliques were at all, not even in terms of "side tummy".
This was the introductory class. I guess the normal class is full of people who can do anatomical surgery? Certainly you must have been taking the advanced classes for several years before you'd be able to keep up with anything harder than this.
You know what they really need? Someone needs to stop and explain how the fuck you can hold your arms up for a bleeding hour and not be screaming from tortured muscles.
Actually I needed that when I took band in middle school.
After 6 months of going to the gym, and weekly tai chi classes, I can actually "hang my arms like they're weightless" but there was a lot of instruction on how that should feel, how to arrange it so the skeleton takes the load instead of requiring muscle action. Plus I have spent a lot of time in the weight room building shoulder muscle, building arm and back muscle, conditioning tendons and re-orienting my posture. But if it's going to take 6 months of pre-requisites before people can even stand correctly, they need to have a class for moronic idiots.
There really is nothing in the world for people who fall between "sudden-amputee who gets great physical therapy to learn how to move" and "is already dexterous, fit, and coordinated enough to dance competitively". You have to take yourself from couch potato to "doesn't need classes or a gym" on your own before you can keep up.
There must be something we can do collectively as a society to bridge that gap.
But so far, the best belly dancing lessons have been the free video on Netflix streaming. I keep thinking taking classes from a live teacher is going to help teach me what I'm doing, so the things that look similar but are called different things can be explained how one implements them. But no one teaches any of that shit, it's all "follow along as best you can." If that's all I'm doing, I'll stick with the video.
Today's class said, "this is the ribcage slide, move using your obliques". I don't know which muscles are the obliques I happen to know they're somewhere on the sides and are exercised with catty-corner situps but fuck-me if I know exactly which things those are, nor how to use them by themselves to move fucking half my body without moving anything else. But I don't think most of the other people there knew what obliques were at all, not even in terms of "side tummy".
This was the introductory class. I guess the normal class is full of people who can do anatomical surgery? Certainly you must have been taking the advanced classes for several years before you'd be able to keep up with anything harder than this.
You know what they really need? Someone needs to stop and explain how the fuck you can hold your arms up for a bleeding hour and not be screaming from tortured muscles.
Actually I needed that when I took band in middle school.
After 6 months of going to the gym, and weekly tai chi classes, I can actually "hang my arms like they're weightless" but there was a lot of instruction on how that should feel, how to arrange it so the skeleton takes the load instead of requiring muscle action. Plus I have spent a lot of time in the weight room building shoulder muscle, building arm and back muscle, conditioning tendons and re-orienting my posture. But if it's going to take 6 months of pre-requisites before people can even stand correctly, they need to have a class for moronic idiots.
There really is nothing in the world for people who fall between "sudden-amputee who gets great physical therapy to learn how to move" and "is already dexterous, fit, and coordinated enough to dance competitively". You have to take yourself from couch potato to "doesn't need classes or a gym" on your own before you can keep up.
There must be something we can do collectively as a society to bridge that gap.
But so far, the best belly dancing lessons have been the free video on Netflix streaming. I keep thinking taking classes from a live teacher is going to help teach me what I'm doing, so the things that look similar but are called different things can be explained how one implements them. But no one teaches any of that shit, it's all "follow along as best you can." If that's all I'm doing, I'll stick with the video.