The psoas seems to have become the trendiest muscle in belly dance over the past few years. Now, I’m not saying that dancers are only now using it – but they sure do talk about it a lot more in the past 5 years.
Performing at Tagine in New York City with Rachid Halihal and Majdi Kurd. A dancer’s first solo is an exciting and scary experience, but the first live music performance can induce a whole new level of stage fright – even in dancers with plenty of performance experience under their belt. Dancing to live music can – and should – be a thrilling experience for both the audience and the dancer, but as with most worthwhile things, there’s a hurdle […]
Your mother told you to stand up straight. Your dance instructor reminds you to check your posture. Thanks to your erector spinae muscles you can do these things! The erector spinae is actually a muscle group made up of many smaller muscles and tendons that attach them to your bones. The erector spinae group begins at your sacrum, the back portion of your illiac crest (hip bone) and your lumbar vertebrae at the lower back. […]
Multi-level classes have a lot of advantages for students, and present a few challenges for instructors, but personally, I love teaching this way! For the student at any level, it allows them to move forward with new material on the skills they have mastered and take their time to improve those they are still working on. As we move from one movement or combo to the next, there are always options – provided the instructor […]
Learning how to shimmy is a huge challenge for many new belly dance students. Even if they come to Middle Eastern dance with several years of other dance training, most likely none of it prepared them for that small, repetitive movement that is so integral to belly dance styles. When they sigh “HOW do you do that so fast?”, we usually tell them “Practice, LOTS of practice!”. It’s true, practice makes perfect – or at […]