clevermanka (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clevermanka) wrote2006-08-01 11:27 am
clevermanka) wrote2006-08-01 11:27 am
Entry tags:
Bellydance Bootcamp
What a fantastic workshop. Damn. Talk about bellydance bootcamp.
Day one: Room introductions, pep talk, and an hour long warmup. Walking glute squeezes. Walking in a big circle around the studio. Right foot on the downbeat, half time; left glute squeeze on the downbeat, full time. Do it walking forward, walking backwards, walking sideways right foot leading ,walking sideways left food leading. Wash, rinse, and repeat with variations on side and time. For an hour. Oh, while you're trying to squeeze your left glute while stepping on the right? Don't forget to breathe. And if your arms get tired in fifth position, you can put them down in second postion for a little while.
I'm sorry to say I don't remember what we worked on that afternoon, but it involved more glute squeezes. Eventually I had to put my hands on my ass to tell if anything back there was moving. Crazy.
Day two: Again with the long warmup, but this time it was only about 45 minutes because she didn't explain through it, just called out directions. The morning was interior hip squares. Front pelvic tuck using the lower abs, right or left glute squeeze, back pelvic tip using lower back muscles, and then the opposite side glute squeeze. A various mix of feet timings and squares, such as right foot on the downbeat, quarter time; interior hip square, downbeat on the front, half time. That translates to four steps (right-left-right-left) and two complete hip squares in one measure. Forward, backward, sideways right, sideways left. Don't forget your arms! In the afternoon, we did the same thing, only interior hip circles instead of squares.
Day three: By now I recognized the warm-up as my favorite thing because I didn't have to think so damn hard during it. This isn't to say it was easy: well over a hundred thigh presses, then the 100+ ab crunches in various forms, and then a minute of plank pose--twice. Anyway. The morning was vertical figure eights. Walking around and around and around. Various feet, various hips, various times. By now I had a tenuous grasp on the breakdown of half-time, full-time, etc. That was a huge breakthrough for me. I felt a lot better once I got that. I might not have been able to execute the movement, but I knew what I was supposed to be doing. That afternoon was vertical figure eights, then we worked on twists using the obliques only--no knees--and a glute squeeze to make it pop, then walking with zills (you haven't put your arms down yet, have you?).
So that's the outline of the workshop. Here are my personal issues/obstacles that I encountered. Some of them I managed to overcome, some will take time, and some are things I'll just have to live with.
Day one: I do carry around some admirable junk in my trunk, but the junk is apparently floppy. I had difficulty separating my glutes from my quads, which made glute squeezes in a plié impossible. By difficulty I mean "I flat couldn't do it." This is something I'll have to work on. A lot.
Day two: Day two was very frustrating because I simply could not do the interior hip squares any faster than quarter time. I could do them if I used my knees to pop the hip up on the side movements, but not with the glute squeeze. I found myself having to count "front, right squeeze, back, left squeeze" and only allow myself to rock back and forth between the glute squeezes. Otherwise my thighs would get involved with the left and right movements. I spent a lot of time in the center of the room with the non-walkers because I couldn't do the movements at the speed everyone else was. Well, I could, but not without being sloppy, and I didn't want my body to learn bad habits. I wanted to do it right, even if it meant doing it slower than everyone else. I'm fortunate that I'm not one of those people who has to be the best (or even the average) person in the room. I was probably one of the three slowest in the workshop, honestly.
Day three: Finally, something I felt comfortable doing. I could do the vertical eights, even with the undulation she added on the last lap. But my Achilles' heel is my right hip (arthritis--bleh!), and it starting hurting pretty bad after about thirty minutes. I had to sit out probably a third of the morning. Physically, I felt better doing the horizontal figure eights, but doing them while walking was just not going to happen. I don't know if my brain had hit the wall by that point or what, but I was incapable of moving my feet while doing the one figure eight front to back followed by one figure eight back to front. I didn't have problems with twists beyond the basic need to develop my obliques a little more. I did a little bit of the zill stuff, but it was very basic and I'm pretty good with zills. So I gave mine to a girl who had never worked with zills before and I just closed my hands in the patterns. I had to step out of class early to catch my flight, anyway, so if I had to miss something, I was glad to miss the zills section.
All in all, I was very happy with the workshop experience and after working on the movements, muscles, and techniques for a year, I would take the class again and then possibly test for Level 1 certification. What I would really like to do would be study for six months, take another three day, study for another six months, then take the five day workshop at her home studio and test for level one certification. But that's a lot of money to think about.
I went into the workshop figuring I had no interest in testing because I have no interest in teaching. But having been shown these techniques, I would like to learn more advanced ones, provided I can master the basics. I'm fascinated at the idea of using my body like an efficient dance machine.
Yeah, I drank the Suhaila Kool-Aid.
(Edit: BTW, arnica completely saved my ass at this workshop. I took four Sore Spots lozenges a day, spaced out at mealtimes and before bed, and rubbed the gel on my major muscle groups each night and morning. I honestly think I would not have made it through the workshop so well without it.)
Day one: Room introductions, pep talk, and an hour long warmup. Walking glute squeezes. Walking in a big circle around the studio. Right foot on the downbeat, half time; left glute squeeze on the downbeat, full time. Do it walking forward, walking backwards, walking sideways right foot leading ,walking sideways left food leading. Wash, rinse, and repeat with variations on side and time. For an hour. Oh, while you're trying to squeeze your left glute while stepping on the right? Don't forget to breathe. And if your arms get tired in fifth position, you can put them down in second postion for a little while.
I'm sorry to say I don't remember what we worked on that afternoon, but it involved more glute squeezes. Eventually I had to put my hands on my ass to tell if anything back there was moving. Crazy.
Day two: Again with the long warmup, but this time it was only about 45 minutes because she didn't explain through it, just called out directions. The morning was interior hip squares. Front pelvic tuck using the lower abs, right or left glute squeeze, back pelvic tip using lower back muscles, and then the opposite side glute squeeze. A various mix of feet timings and squares, such as right foot on the downbeat, quarter time; interior hip square, downbeat on the front, half time. That translates to four steps (right-left-right-left) and two complete hip squares in one measure. Forward, backward, sideways right, sideways left. Don't forget your arms! In the afternoon, we did the same thing, only interior hip circles instead of squares.
Day three: By now I recognized the warm-up as my favorite thing because I didn't have to think so damn hard during it. This isn't to say it was easy: well over a hundred thigh presses, then the 100+ ab crunches in various forms, and then a minute of plank pose--twice. Anyway. The morning was vertical figure eights. Walking around and around and around. Various feet, various hips, various times. By now I had a tenuous grasp on the breakdown of half-time, full-time, etc. That was a huge breakthrough for me. I felt a lot better once I got that. I might not have been able to execute the movement, but I knew what I was supposed to be doing. That afternoon was vertical figure eights, then we worked on twists using the obliques only--no knees--and a glute squeeze to make it pop, then walking with zills (you haven't put your arms down yet, have you?).
So that's the outline of the workshop. Here are my personal issues/obstacles that I encountered. Some of them I managed to overcome, some will take time, and some are things I'll just have to live with.
Day one: I do carry around some admirable junk in my trunk, but the junk is apparently floppy. I had difficulty separating my glutes from my quads, which made glute squeezes in a plié impossible. By difficulty I mean "I flat couldn't do it." This is something I'll have to work on. A lot.
Day two: Day two was very frustrating because I simply could not do the interior hip squares any faster than quarter time. I could do them if I used my knees to pop the hip up on the side movements, but not with the glute squeeze. I found myself having to count "front, right squeeze, back, left squeeze" and only allow myself to rock back and forth between the glute squeezes. Otherwise my thighs would get involved with the left and right movements. I spent a lot of time in the center of the room with the non-walkers because I couldn't do the movements at the speed everyone else was. Well, I could, but not without being sloppy, and I didn't want my body to learn bad habits. I wanted to do it right, even if it meant doing it slower than everyone else. I'm fortunate that I'm not one of those people who has to be the best (or even the average) person in the room. I was probably one of the three slowest in the workshop, honestly.
Day three: Finally, something I felt comfortable doing. I could do the vertical eights, even with the undulation she added on the last lap. But my Achilles' heel is my right hip (arthritis--bleh!), and it starting hurting pretty bad after about thirty minutes. I had to sit out probably a third of the morning. Physically, I felt better doing the horizontal figure eights, but doing them while walking was just not going to happen. I don't know if my brain had hit the wall by that point or what, but I was incapable of moving my feet while doing the one figure eight front to back followed by one figure eight back to front. I didn't have problems with twists beyond the basic need to develop my obliques a little more. I did a little bit of the zill stuff, but it was very basic and I'm pretty good with zills. So I gave mine to a girl who had never worked with zills before and I just closed my hands in the patterns. I had to step out of class early to catch my flight, anyway, so if I had to miss something, I was glad to miss the zills section.
All in all, I was very happy with the workshop experience and after working on the movements, muscles, and techniques for a year, I would take the class again and then possibly test for Level 1 certification. What I would really like to do would be study for six months, take another three day, study for another six months, then take the five day workshop at her home studio and test for level one certification. But that's a lot of money to think about.
I went into the workshop figuring I had no interest in testing because I have no interest in teaching. But having been shown these techniques, I would like to learn more advanced ones, provided I can master the basics. I'm fascinated at the idea of using my body like an efficient dance machine.
Yeah, I drank the Suhaila Kool-Aid.
(Edit: BTW, arnica completely saved my ass at this workshop. I took four Sore Spots lozenges a day, spaced out at mealtimes and before bed, and rubbed the gel on my major muscle groups each night and morning. I honestly think I would not have made it through the workshop so well without it.)
no subject
Sounds like a fantastic experience!
I can only picture 3/4ths of the movements you mention, but my brain is stuck in second gear this morning.
-
Working towards a cert. goal sounds like a great idea. Goals like that are concrete and measuarable. Go CR!
See if this helps
Just wait - next time she'll make you stand with arms in fifth, as high on half-toe (on the balls of your feet) as you can, plie' as deeply as you can, BEND OVER at the waist (arms still in fifth!), and do those damn glute squeezes ad infinitum. She did that to us in a small master class Salwa had several years ago.
Brutal - and I loved it! Here... have another sip of that Kool-Aid. ;-)
Re: See if this helps
Re: See if this helps
There ya go! That's the spirit! Get 'em girl!!!
no subject
My problem is to stop from partly engaging my hamstrings. Isn't it amazing how flippin' high up her ass that woman engages her glutes?
If men did these there would be no more Old Man Butts out there.
no subject
She said lots of people (usually people with previous dance training) have problems separating their glutes from their hamstrings.
Dude, she can fucking LIFT HER ASS off the floor using only her glutes. It looks like she's arching her back, but no. That's just ass muscles. Crazy.
If all men did this exercise, I wouldn't be able to leave the house for fear of running my car off the road.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Of course, I'd need an exercise ball at home in addition to the one at the office. Would feet up on a chair work, too? It'll be a while before I can blow $60 on another balance ball.
no subject
$60 for a ball!! pashay!!! go to Marshals or TJ max and get one for $20! I got mine at the physical therapy office and it ws $28, a good Swiss sturdy thing.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I think the 5 day thing is $575???? which is about going rate for other professional things-alot of my massage certification stuff is that for 5 days.
do you have her videos??? I'm got one on the netflix, will let you know what I think of it.
no subject
Yeah, the classes are hugely expensive, but damn...if I can someday be half the dancer she is, I'll pay that to learn how!
no subject
As for the fundage...think of it this way. One day, your body will no longer be able to do this. Training your body at this level is the thing that might allow you to continue to do this longer.
The creation of art and beauty is worth the outlay, so long as it can be sanely budgeted for.
D.
no subject