Shimmy shimmy

My burlesque has taken a bit of a backseat over the last few months due to a number of things, not least the fact that I've not been able to get to Bristol. I'm hoping that from next month I can remedy that.

In the meantime I've decided to expand my dance repertoire and as of yesterday evening I started to do just that.

Yes, as I mentioned after my tarot reading, I went along to my first belly dance class last night.

I managed to rustle up some things to wear, including a bit of shopping to buy a new top and a pair of non-slippery ballet pump style shoes. Hey a girl can never have too many shoes!! And I seem to be starting to build up quite a selection.

The class was in the skittle alley of a local pub so I turned up at the appointed time and found C, the teacher and the lady who runs the pub waiting.

I quickly swapped my jeans for the skirt and tied a lovely, jingly coin scarf around my waist.

One other lady joined us with the remainder of the class having apologized for being unable to make it.

It was hard work.

Although some of the movements were very similar to some of the ones I use in burlesque. Waist circles are similar to bump and grind movements. Shoulder shimmys are similar to their burlesque equivalent, except that I have to learn to not move my arms and hands as much.

Trying to piece some of the movements together with the music was challenging and a couple of times I had to stop and simply watch what the others were doing in order to try and figure it out, and for the most part I managed to do that.

There were some interesting moves which I'd not tried before. The head slide was a particular good one as you have to hold the body still and move the head from side to side while keeping it upright. C was impressed when I managed to do that first time, so was I.

Its going to be challenging but I'm going to stick with it. The good thing about it is that I can practice at home, without really needing any additional equipment, any time I want (even when cooking dinner).

I have to admit that in some ways it might have been nice to have done the same as I did with burlesque and have a number of one-to-one lessons to get me up to speed but I'm going to stick with going to the weekly classes as they look like they are going to be fun.

I'm not sure that I'll be up to performing as part of a troupe but I certainly want to get to the point where I can perform and already have some ideas about combining burlesque and belly dance in the same routines but then I've got a stack of ideas for burlesque routines that I need to work on. Who would have thought that the person with two left feet, who rarely ventured onto the dance floor and would never have considered going on stage, could find themselves enjoying dancing and performing so much.

Between now and next Thursday I'm going to find as much time as I can to practice what I remember of what we were taught and hopefully I'll be able to do the moves without having to stop to watch what others are doing.

One thing that did make me smile was at the end of the class. As I was changing back into my jeans the lady that runs the pub asked if I wanted to use the ladies to get changed. I didn't need to as it was easy to slip my jeans on under the skirt and then take off the skirt but it did show that once again I must be doing something right.