Taking My Belly for a Dance

Last night I ticked something off my “Bucket List” – I went to a belly dancing class for the first time and I loved it.  I mean I really loved it.

The class was held at the Canberra Dance Theatre and the studio is purpose built for dancing.  There were big mirrors, dance bars around the side and the floor was soft and spongy.  It felt good to be in a proper facility rather than a local hall. 

There were about 15 of us in the class and my age group was certainly in the minority, however most of us had never done belly dancing before so I wasn’t alone there. 

Our instructor, Lila was fantastic.  I did think it was funny though that I was being taught a middle eastern dance style by a lady from York in the UK – only in Australia!

The class started with a warm up that included walking, then skipping, then doing the grapevine around the room while swinging our arms around.  Then we had the balance section which I’m not too bad at, but then came the crunches and other tummy strengthening exercises.  Finally we started the moves.

Now if you want an abdominal and glut muscle workout, take up belly dancing.  It is all about these muscle groups.  We would tighten one side, then the other, then back again.  We made circles with just our hips.  I learnt to shimmy starting off slowly and then getting faster and faster.  We then moved on to shimming with just the shoulders, holding our core still.  To finish off we learnt to kick each hip, again starting with one side then the other, getting faster and faster. 

Throughout this I loved the music, the arm movements, the wonderful sense of freedom and fun.  When the class finished I felt euphoric and incredibly satisfied.  It surpassed my expectations and I’ll be back next week with bells on!  Did I mention that true belly dancers where a scarf with bells!

My muscles today know they had a work out but aren’t devastated.  The big thing today though is that I got to tick something off my bucket list and I can’t keep the smile off my face when I think about the fun I had last night.

Have belly, will dance!!!

 

Beautiful Offcuts

My garden is looking a bit “neglected” at the moment.  Winter doesn’t lend itself to being outside keeping it looking “well-kept”.  Apart from some early jonquils, not much is flowering.

I did get some pruning done on Sunday including a large limb from off the apricot tree.  My lovely neighbour helped me out by holding one end as I sawed away.  The limb had grown too high that I couldn’t pick the fruit and I wanted to open the tree up and encourage new growth.

I then gave the Banksia rose that grows up the side of the deck a good hard prune taking lots of the deadwood from inside and trimming the long tendrils.  I then gave the crab apple a tidy up.  This then gave me some wonderful budding offcuts to display inside.  A beautiful bonus from my labour.

Winter’s Fingerprints

As I have on more than one occasion written (okay whinged about), I’m not a fan of winter. I try. I really do. I look to find the good things about winter like soup, woolly slippers, snuggling down under the doona(s) and the beautiful sunsets and sunrises the cold air seems to bring.

So I took some photos yesterday of the frost in my garden. It got down to -0.4 and the world was covered in a blanket of tiny ice sculptures.  Art in the garden……winter’s fingerprints.