BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Belly Dancing Shakira - "Hips Don't Lie"

Shakira's latest video "Hips Don't Lie" has her unbelievable hips in it (obviously). I swear that woman's hips are not attached to the rest of her body, or her spine is totally unconnected to anything else!

Anyway, she has a whole Belly dance troupe in the last scenes. But even better, they have made a "Fans Only" video where fans have sent in clips of them dancing to the song - and LOTS of them have bellydance training. Full costuming and everything. It's GREAT!

I keep entertaining the idea of taking classes; Parthena's suggestions have started to wear me down - and it just looks fun! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

My physical therapist is about to have a heart attack at the thought of me doing it so soon after my surgery, though. (I was teasing him about it.) He only let me start doing full swimming last week because he was worried about the pressure on my stomach. Me- I'm chomping at the bit because I am not a patient woman! <img src="/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />We were without a studio for a few weeks and all watched it together at the student's home where we temporarily had class. We loved it! Some of the fans in the video were obviously real bellydancers and that guy is amazing!

Shakira seems to be double jointed and while she can pop those moves, she's by no means a bellydance superstar in my opinion - there are better dancers out there. But I'm glad that she's brought bellydance into pop culture as part of her artistic form. Her style is not typical of the bellydancing you'll be learning. The beauty of bellydance is that you don't have to do ANY of those strenuous moves to be a great dancer. If you can't do one thing, there are a hundred others that you can do! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'm glad you're still interested! If you get a chance, rent the "American Bellydancer" DVD. It's a documentary but very inspiring. "Tribal Style - On Becoming a Belly Dancer" is due to be released this month if all goes well.

The classes I'm looking at are actually advertised on Stephanie's site the Nazeem Allayl Belly dance Studio (or Atlanta Bellydance.com)!

I saw these ladies perform on one of the local morning shows, and they are great. The prices look reasonable, too. I've been teasing my PT and my husband about it for so long, that I'm actually excited about doing it, LOL. AND I'm finally cleared, I've just got to wait for the next round of lessons to start (May I think.)

Michelle, I am SO PROUD of you! You will love what the dance does for your sense of self, and it's such a fun way to get in shape. I said I'd never show my belly and guess what......

That was at my first performance. I was sick but decided that I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity, which had been planned for two months. It put me down for two days, but I did it! That was in early February, and I've noticed a difference in my belly since then. I've developed quite a bit of muscle! We performed again about two weeks ago.

My acupuncturist thinks I should teach, and when I ran it by my instructor, she agreed. So my goal is to be teaching within a year <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

The sword was a Christmas gift from my 23 year old. He's proud of me! If anyone had told me even ten years ago that I'd be dressing up like a gypsy and dancing with a sword on my head at my age (or at any age!) I would have said that they were insane!

Please keep me posted!

Parthena, you look fabulous! Keep it up--how exciting!

Why thank you, dahling! One of the girls took that. I rarely take a good picture and she did a great job - so much so that I'm proud to share it!

I agree! You are absolutely gorgeous in that picture!
Maybe next year you can go to the editor's gathering, and we can both put on a show, eh? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

We'll drag Stephanie along to make sure we're doing it right (but she has to go in the back so she doesn't make us look too bad, LOL)

Now that sounds like a plan! Maybe we can put on a workshop for the other editors!

Thanks for the compliment!

Oh my goodness this is great!!!

I haven't done much with my sword as of late <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Better get after it, then - it's easy to get rusty!

We had to move the studio right after the holidays and then everyone was sick, so I didn't spend much time with mine for a few weeks. I really had to put in some serious practice for my last performance!

Good to see you back, I was worried. Then I ended up having to take a break too!