 SPONSORED POSTÂ
By LISA CLARK
Owner, Magnificent Belly Dance
Belly dance, oriental dance, Raks Sharki, the names are different but the dance is essentially the same: graceful feminine moves intertwined with muscular articulation punctuating the beat of the music.
Why would you, the everyday woman, want to belly dance with the ladies at Magnificent Belly Dance?
At Magnificent Belly Dance, you have the opportunity to be feminine, to be outrageous, to be graceful, to be yourself and to do something just for you in the company of other everyday women. Background, size, skill level and age are unimportant. Where else can a 16-year-old woman and a 50-year-old woman feel equal and be friends?
All of this gloriously fun dancing comes with health benefits for the body in addition to the newfound freedom of the spirit and feminine energy. We use your quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes to hold us steady as we dance.
The fact that we are on our feet and moving, makes belly dance a weight-bearing exercise, strengthening bones. Throw in some hip pops or hip lifts and the glutes are increasingly engaged. The movement of hip drops, hip circles, figure eights, and shimmies puts the lower back and hips through a full range of gentle, repetitive motion increasing the flow of fluids to the joints.
Just think about our slow graceful arm movements — snake arms, caresses, hand undulations, hand circles — all building strength and flexibility of the shoulders, neck and upper back. In belly dance we use our torsos in rib circles, rib slides, chest lifts, snake arms, rib figure eights, undulations, and belly rolls. We are exercising our back and abdominal muscles evenly, promoting good posture and balance. Our beautiful feminine dance accomplishes all of this and is low impact.
Whether you are the extrovert who will likely be out there dancing with the Suburban Gypsies Dance Troupe or the introvert who will be content and comfortable keeping belly dance private, the question becomes, why wouldn’t you want to belly dance?
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