Monday,
April 8, 2002

So THAT'S what this muscle group does!

You treat me like I was your ocean;
You swim in my blood when it's warm.
My cycle's a circular motion,
Protect and keep you from harm.

Jungle Love, Steve Miller Band

I don't know why, but I really love that song, particularly the first two lines of that stanza. Just thought I should share that with y'all.

And yes, tonight was my second belly dancing lesson. I came prepared this time -- tight black sport top, dark leggings and decent support underwear. (And no, I'm not posting pictures, Nance, although I'm looking into getting the digitized shots of me shooting hoops.) The t-shirt and sweatpants from last week worked just fine, mind you, but it's a hell of a lot easier to see what you're doing with your ribcage and hips when your clothing is form-fitting.

Isis also asked if a lot of us were achy after last week -- apparently we were picking up stuff so well, she wound up throwing everything at us (which explains a lot). Tonight we just concentrated on hip work, including hip circles (that's when your hips pivot in a circle while your upper body remains stationary), the hip summons while walking and turning, and the hip shots back, forth and in circles. We finished it off with some arm work and trying to make graceful little arabesques in the air with your hands and arms. Have you ever tried to make your hands flow like little fishies? It ain't nearly as easy as it looks, kids. I have a bit of a head start because I like doing the flamenco hand movements when my wrists ache or when I get bored, but I still looked like an ungainly robot next to Isis' flowing hands.

75% of the class then filed out to the Belly Dance Treasures shop afterwards to pick up a necessary tool for all belly dancers -- a hip scarf. This is basically a triangle or rectangle of fabric with beads or coins attached to it that you tie around your butt and hips. When you practice shimmies and hip shots, the beads and coins move and jingle -- it's a great way to isolate your bottom half and make sure you're only moving what you're supposed to be moving. As much as I wanted to get one of the big, beautifully beaded scarves, I really couldn't afford $60 for it (not with a big horking tax bill looming over me, thanks to being moved here by Ericsson last year), so I got a basic $30 scarf in emerald green with large gold coins. At least it's noisy as hell, so I'm definitely going to hear it when I don't move properly.

I am moderately miffed at myself, however. I was looking at some absolutely beautiful rectangle scarves with fabulous beading, and I really liked how they looked on my butt. However, I kept hearing one of the regulars say that the triangular scarves were so slimming (and she was reassuring one extremely slender student that, "You have nothing to worry about, you can definitely wear a rectangular scarf"). I felt like I'd be getting the hairy eyeball if I bought the rectangular scarf, so I bought the basic triangular scarf instead. And now I'm kicking myself.

Screw it -- I'm going back and getting the scarf I like next time. So what if it makes my butt look big -- it also makes my butt look cool, dammit.