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I was on my way this week to perform for a fundraiser with a sister belly dance troupe when I encountered a cattle drive. They are expected this time of year here in the “Wild West,” and it struck me as particularly humorous to slowly work my car through hundreds of cattle while dressed in full belly dance attire. The experience did give me a perfect opportunity to slow down and think about one of my all-time favorite activities.
Before long, my next book, The Belly Dance Prescription: Shake Your Hips and Depression ©, will be available at www.Mommy-Muse.com. I will include information inside about the origins of this ancient dance and the marvelous ways it increases health and well-being. Until then, consider this.
Belly dancing is my top recommendation for exercise and self-expression for prenatal and postpartum women. I love to watch and participate in dance wherever it finds me. I have found that most dance forms which are typically accepted as “serious” art, including jazz and ballet, have a narrow range of “acceptable” body types. Pregnant and postpartum women with rounded bellies and a new fullness to their hips may be uncomfortable trying to fit inside these strict parameters. Movements that leap and extend away from the earth with long, straight lines do not come naturally to the rounded, feminine form.
Belly dance, on the other hand, consistently helps women of all shapes and sizes express their emotions and feel beautiful in their own skin. In my role as belly dance instructor, women often approach me to say they are too fat, too thin, uncoordinated, or unattractive because of stretch marks and caesarian scars. I tell them to come on in and give it a try. A wonderful process unfolds as women enter into a supportive group environment and begin to accept themselves. New dancers expand their energy, strengthen and lengthen their bodies, increase their endurance and reclaim healthy self-expression. Rather than sucking in their stomachs and being ashamed of taking up space in the world, women learn to accept themselves. Bellies begin to be embraced as the center of our bodies and as respected spaces to create new life.
If you are fortunate enough to live in an area that offers belly dance instruction, particularly for prenatal and postpartum women, I encourage you to sign up for a wonderful adventure. Michelle Maniaci of www.NurturingMoves.com in Florida tailors yoga and belly dance for pregnant and postnatal women specifically for therapeutic purposes. Check your local bulletin boards, ask around and search online to see what is available. If you can”™t find a local class, consider checking your local library or an online retailer for beginning belly dance DVDs to get you started. The legendary Delilah has a studio in the Seattle area and a website at www.VisionaryDance.com offering a terrific array of instructional dance videos, informative articles and links on all aspects of the dance. Wherever you decide to start, know you’ll empower yourself and add joy to your life by exploring this ancient art.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay for belly dance in pregnancy!
For your readers in the Boston area, I would point them to my site – http://www.InTheBellyOfTheGoddess.com. Michelle Maniaci is a former student of mine and doing awesome things down in Florida!!
Thanks for your post.
Cathy
Thanks so much for the comment! I am happy to point people in your direction – you’re doing wonderful work in the world!
Great website.
Keep it up
Thanks
http://healthlifestyleforever.com/blog/
Great website! I have shown it to the other medical professionals I am working with as a resource. Bellydance is a wonderful dance form which serves to strenghten the pelvic floor, and abdominal muscles, (as well as others) thereby helping support a pregnancy. I also believe that through that aspect labor is more effective and ideally one would theink hastened! Hard to do blind studies on that theory however-until someone teaches mice to bellydance! Certainly in the postpartum state belly dance is an excellant exercise for regaining your muscle tone. Then there are all those wonderful endorphins produced which decrease the chances of post partum depression. From another dancing sister who was a lay midwife in a past life!
It’s true. I took dance classes as part of my architectural masters program and found it to be a great form of exercise as well as a very effective means for getting ‘in’ to my body. I found I was feeling exceptionally well balanced and just down-right good. After a life of mostly intellectual pursuits, having the discipline of dance where I was focusing on the physical plane for a change increased my awareness of how I moved in space and of my physical existence. I found I could do things with my body that I had never imagined possible, like climbing a 10′ pole and standing on the top while making a stop-action animation film with my friend Howard Hensen. Our bodies are not things, they are us and we are them. Knowing how to be our bodies as opposed to objectifying ourselves is really healthy.