Thread: Bellydancing for Fitness?

Hi all.

First off, let me say, SORRY that I've been all over the boards lately. The phones haven't been ringing quite so much at work, so I have time to kill. :)


Ok, here's my question. The only belly dance classes I've EVER taken have been to learn the dance as an art form.

How would one go about teaching a belly dance for fitness class? (Like a 60 minute class at a 24 hour fitness?)
My gym is considering adding a bellydance for fitness class, and I (always the eager one) let them know that I would be more than willing to teach it. (as I've been trying to get out there and start teaching anyway)

What kinds of things would you cover? Stay away from?

~Yasmin Diab

I hate to play the devil's advocate here, but...

How are you going to teach a class if you don't know how to teach bellydance for fitness?

What is your lesson plan for normal BD classes? If this is the first class that you're going to teach, it would probably be better to start with 'just belly dance'. Get some kind of degree as a fitness instructor, then start teaching bellydance for fitness classes. There are a lot of areas and possibilities with fitness excercises that could hurt your students if you do them wrong. It would be unethical to teach a class with cardiovasculair /weight training excercises without knowing what they do to someone's body.

It sounds like you're eager to teach, which is good because you're passionate about dance. But maybe this is not the best opportunity to start with.

Michelle Joyce wrote a great article on this:
http://www.gildedserpent.com/article...cemichelle.htm

Originally Posted by mekyria

I hate to play the devil's advocate here, but...

How are you going to teach a class if you don't know how to teach bellydance for fitness?

What is your lesson plan for normal BD classes? If this is the first class that you're going to teach, it would probably be better to start with 'just belly dance'. Get some kind of degree as a fitness instructor, then start teaching bellydance for fitness classes. There are a lot of areas and possibilities with fitness excercises that could hurt your students if you do them wrong. It would be unethical to teach a class with cardiovasculair /weight training excercises without knowing what they do to someone's body.

It sounds like you're eager to teach, which is good because you're passionate about dance. But maybe this is not the best opportunity to start with.

No, no...I like devil's advocates. :)

I am extremely eager to teach...but you have a very good point. If I don't know how to focus on the "fitness" aspect of it, I probably will not be a very effective teacher.

:)
Thanks for the input!!!

Originally Posted by latriamou

Michelle Joyce wrote a great article on this:
http://www.gildedserpent.com/article...cemichelle.htm

Thats a great article! Thanks for sharing!

How about writing a 12 lesson plan, showing it to the gym owners and persuading them to let you teach 'regular' belly dance in the gym? It depends on the image of your gym wether they like it or not. I teach at a health center that also offers salsa lessons because they want to attract people who don't like excercises but love to dance. You could argue that your class would draw another group of people to the gym then the fitness crowd.

Also ask wether this would be a drop-in class, or if people have to sign up for the whole session. It totally changes the way you can teach. You can't build on the material of the previous classes if half your students were absent or didn't take belly dance classes before.

Originally Posted by mekyria

How about writing a 12 lesson plan, showing it to the gym owners and persuading them to let you teach 'regular' belly dance in the gym? It depends on the image of your gym wether they like it or not. I teach at a health center that also offers salsa lessons because they want to attract people who don't like excercises but love to dance. You could argue that your class would draw another group of people to the gym then the fitness crowd.

Also ask wether this would be a drop-in class, or if people have to sign up for the whole session. It totally changes the way you can teach. You can't build on the material of the previous classes if half your students were absent or didn't take belly dance classes before.

That is a totally great point as well, about the student base changing every week...I worry about that too...even for a "regular" class...I'd want to do a 10-12 week session with a set lesson plan...

I may talk to the manager at my gym about having a regular class...I think they have a salsa class and a "strip tease" class. yay.

:)
Thanks for the input! :)

I do 1 class in a gym (is a hotel, gym and spa, so I have new ppl coming all the time, and ppl who always come and ppl who come and then they wont, because they r for a few days in the hotel and they take advantage of the facilities of the gym).

I think the idea of belly dance as fitness is brilliant! in Argentina, every gym has salsa and belly dance for fitness. Is very popular.

The difference between my classes in the gym and the ones in the dancing centre is basically, you dont give so much spinning in the gym, and after all, there is no need to be so "everything has to be perfect" and correct them all the time.
Because the fact is this ppl go to try a new class in the schedule "belly dance", they know nothing about it and they want to have fun and see how it goes, and then, they fall in love with it!! so slowly they make progress, they are not dancers and maybe they dont want to be dancers, they just want to dance a bit, listen to the beautiful music they probably dont have, smile a lot, as they see me smiling they smile. Is a nice time.

What I do is a 5 min warm up.
25, 30 min of technique and then the rest of the time a small choreography, and correct them a bit. And maybe if I give less training, less choreo, the last 10 min we do a bit of dabke, and they love it hahaha because it just gets crazy.

But dont get frustrated if they are hard at the beginning, they just go to have fun, others may take it more seriously, some are new all the time, so give them variations of how to make some steps that other ones already know. Tell them if they keep me coming they will catch up.

And ask for a volunteer for burn cds for the rest, or make small groups of 5, and give them 1 cd you want to work with, make a compilation or pick one, and you can lend it to them, and all of them can pass it, or record it to each other...so they get use to the beat of the music, and you can practise from there in the class, and they love practising at home, I promise you.

I tell you what El Hosseny told me when I started "they are not dancers habibi so dont get frustrated, give them easy steps, small combos and they will love you".

My class is really late now because i work till 18 and is now at 19.45 to 20.45, I arrive at 22 pm at gome , these people have kids, husbands, and they still come to my class...so in fact they love it :) Hope is useful my little experience.

and I must say, is a really posh place, and my class is with "spinning" the most popular, all my classes are booked. So good luck to you :) they r even thinking in putting another one on saturdays.

I've been doing a 45 minute class in a gym for about 9 months now. It's billed as belly dance, not specifically a fitness class. What works for me (and of course YMMV) is keeping it all very simple. Really basic moves. I don't worry if they don't get them perfectly, but I do make sure they're doing them safely. The generic lesson plan I'm working with at the moment is:

warm up (10 min)
drill a couple of moves
put them into a step combination
drill the combination
follow the bouncing butt improv dance
cool down (5 min)

Accesible to fist-timers, gradually building up the energy levels and getting them moving, but without totally wiping anyone out! It's at lunchtime, and everyone there still has to work in the afternoon.

I also teach in a fitness centre. My lesson plan is more or less like Emma's. I combine 8 different techniques and make 4 combinations and repeat them for half hour. I change the flavours 2 month. Oriental, folklore etc., I am very careful with picking the right music and the right moves that go togeter with the music. My goal is, even though I teach this dance from a fitness point of view, I would like the students to get educated in bellydancing. Awareness and understanding of this dance and knowing the do and don't are very important for me than how well they do the technique. I am happy if they do the technique safely!!!

In the ( far distant) past I took dance/aerobic classes and salsa/aerobic classes which were high impact. I see no reason why you cannot do that with our music and some of our dance technique. 2 classes near me do this
( both are Arabic ladies) and they don't teach technique at all.
It's follow the bouncing butt to ME music in one class and let's all learn a choreo. to perform at local events at the other.
I did contemplate belly aerobics myself but decided it would not satisfy my needs which are to see our dance being danced well and promoted.
I am sure if you have the energy and skill you can get good belly dance from a fitness class and a lot of enjoyment. I'd attend such a class...I just don't want to teach one!
AS long as you have the legal issues sorted and health and safety training and the energy...go girl go!

Below is my response to a similar question on another forum. I do want to add that I do spend a lot of time picking music that goes with specifically with each movement in the drill. I spend time in the beginning of the song explaining which muscles and body parts are used to execute the movement in slow motion before doing the step to the music. Because it's a fitness class, not a performance class the moves don't have to be perfect just effective. (If the class is small one week I may even take the time to repeat a couple of drills.)

PREVIOUS POST:
I have the same problem. I currently teach a 10 week class for beginners that is advertised as a belly dance fitness class. Most of the ladies just want to exercise but some want to learn how to dance so it's been difficulty balancing both needs. But I used to teach an ongoing class at a fitness center and while there I experimented with different ideas so everyone can learn at different levels and get a good workout at the same time. So far this is the method I currently use (still a work in progress!):

I do basic drills the first half hour that never ever changes. I start out slow for a warm up and end with an easy drum solo. My basic drills consist of a warm up (rib cage circles, snake arms, shoulder rolls, belly rolls), side to side, side to side with walk, one hip circle, small and large hip circles, 4 variations of hip drops, shiver with kanoon and chiftetelli, basic shimmy, basic shimmy with a twist, basic shimmy with up and down hips, hip movements for drum solo.

Since the first half hour is basic drills the second half hour is devoted to cardio. After the half hour of basic drills I then add on 2 advanced drills, such as combined shimmies with 3/4 circles and doing shimmy twists on the toes for 6 minutes, or level changes. THAT GETS THEM let me tell you. Girls start clutching their calves in agony! The advanced drills are difficult and guaranteed to get their heart rate up. Then I pick 1-2 fast paced song with some easy rhythm changes but a lot of repetition and utilize the steps we've done in the drills and usually introduce a couple new ones such as traveling steps. I do choreograph the music but as there is no time to break it down the girls basically just follow long so to them it's like improv. I always reserve 5 minutes at the end for stretching.

I try to switch up the music I use for the choreograph/cardio part and once a while switch up the advanced drills so repeat students get something new but the basic drills never change.

I've found that most people who take a belly dance class in a fitness center really just want a fun workout . The goal is to keep them moving the entire time so they are sweating when they are done. When I first started at a gym I had a difficult time getting members to try the class because they had the perception that belly dancing was "easy". Ironically, the steps that are the hardest to learn are the slow steps which is what they all wanted to learn! So I do those first to get them wamed up, then move on to the faster steps such as hip drops which are relatively easy to learn but gets them moving.

If you find someone who really wants to learn suggest to the fitness director in addition to the regular dance class that you can teach private or semi-private classes and charge the member the same as a personal trainer would. The gym make more money and so do you.

I think I have posted on this before, so if you've heard my soapbox schpeel on the topic just scroll past me.

I think that "belly dance for fitness" is a fundamentally flawed concept, if you are dealing with participants who have not already been trained in belly dance, and if by "fitness" you mean providing a significant cardio and strengthening component.

here is why. To get a cardio workout, one must move one's body at a certain speed. This speed far surpasses what a novice needs to be doing when learning new oriental dance moves. Beginners often, nay usually, need to break movements down, drill them very slowly, get lots of feedback and correction from the instructor, and learn cultural context as they go along. Even if you want to take out the cultural stuff, you are still left with needing sloooowww repetition and frequent correction and explanation.

Lets take something "simple" like a basic hip drop. It will take at least a few minutes to explain the posture and where the movement should be coming from. If you take an average beginning class of 15 people or so and begin to teach this movement, you will probably only have a few pick it up pretty well right away. But you will have a few people locking the knee of their weighted leg (bad!), another one might be pushing up with the leg that is supposed to be unweighted (suboptimal), three others might be standing with a swayback, so they are doing a butt waggle rather than a hip movement, half of them are bobbing their heads and upper bodies as their hip raises and drops, and need to be given pointers as to how to absorb the movement so it appears isolated.

O.K. you are the teacher. You have to analyse all this and then make the rounds and get each student more on the right track. YOu have to figure out which ones can get it right with correction, and which ones have postural, strength, or flexibility issues that are going to have to be dealt with over time.

Keep in mind that if you fail to give the necessary feedback and leave someone in the back row just repeating the movement incorrectly over and over and over, they will get the wrong things in their muscle memory, and just get further and further from ever being able to do it correctly.

Now do all this and keep everyone's heart rate in the "training zone"????

I don't think so.

I have a similar gripe with most kinds of aerobics classes that use movements that not everyone can do right off the bat. Watch them. People are usually doing damaging and bad postural things and movements without intervention from the teacher.

So that is why I think belly dance for fitness doesn't work unless the students are intermediate in level, and why I wouldn't teach such a class geared to an inexperienced clientelle.


Sedonia

Originally Posted by ssipes

Beginners often, nay usually, need to break movements down, drill them very slowly, get lots of feedback and correction from the instructor, and learn cultural context as they go along. Even if you want to take out the cultural stuff, you are still left with needing sloooowww repetition and frequent correction and explanation.

Sedonia, while I completely see why you're saying that a beginning belly dance student will not learn proper dance technique at the same time she is trying to drive her heart rate into the cardio zone, I don't think that the target market for "belly dance fitness" classes is what you describe.

I would expect that most people who attend a group exercise class at a gym are NOT seeking formal instruction in dance technique. Nor are they necessarily looking for a hard-driving cardio workout - they may just want to burn more calories than what they would burn if they stay home and watch television while eating snacks.

I would encourage anyone teaching a "belly dance fitness" class to drive home the message to students that they're NOT learning to "dance", they're learning a way to get moving using moves that are borrowed from dance. But if they want to learn to "dance", such a class won't be structured to offer that.

Originally Posted by yasmindiab

Hi all.

First off, let me say, SORRY that I've been all over the boards lately. The phones haven't been ringing quite so much at work, so I have time to kill. :)


Ok, here's my question. The only belly dance classes I've EVER taken have been to learn the dance as an art form.

How would one go about teaching a belly dance for fitness class? (Like a 60 minute class at a 24 hour fitness?)
My gym is considering adding a bellydance for fitness class, and I (always the eager one) let them know that I would be more than willing to teach it. (as I've been trying to get out there and start teaching anyway)

What kinds of things would you cover? Stay away from?

~Yasmin Diab

.p:: This is a joke, right? Teaching belly dance as dance is not just off the cuff. For that I have done theory & practice in anatomy and physiology at postgrad level plus worked with a fully qualified mentor for several years. If I was to branch out into fitness I could probably do it with a little more research. The thought of an enthusiast teaching a fitness class with no background is horrifying - worse is the thought that a gym would consider it

Many of my students in the gym come to bellydance and burn some calories or get fit. Even in our dance centres some students come to the class just to burn calories. In both places 50% of the people have the smae goal. I disagree, when people say that bellydance can't be taught for fitness. The definitions of fitness varies from low and high impact aerobics to stretch and tone workouts. I wouldn't not teach bellydance like aerobics, my workouts fit into low impact workouts with stretching and toning of the muscles my main focus still is get fit whilst dancing.

Beleive me, if you ask the students, many of them want to dance and move like a bellydancer. Counting the caories is the last thing in their minds. Many of them say to me that they want to feel good, feminine and sexy, they feel all of this when they bellydance. My students from the fitness centres I teach, did a performance on the May 12th and I must tell you, they looked great!!!


BTW,
My routines have(not in the order presented below).......

1. Very few isolations techniques ( I repeat these moves until they get the concepts. This is a great toning excercise!!!)


2. Shimmies- for cardio

3. Travel steps for low impact aerobic activity

For my isolations I choose a concept..for example slides. I teach head slides, rib slides, hip slides. If my concepts is circles, I teach , hip circles rib circles etc.,Once the students understand the concept of one slide they can shift this concept to different parts of the body.

Then I combine these moves with simple travel steps and makeup combos and gradually I add shimmies in to the routine . I don't teach a lot but I repeat same combos many times . For variety I change tempo, add directions change, level change etc.,that. When I do the cool down routine, I talk about the dance styles and culture.

Last year , I have completed my fitness training course. I personally think and belive that bellydance can be taught like bellydance in gyms without having to change anything....but the concept here is repetitions!!!

Cheers
Janaki

Our director is a certified aerobics instructor and developed a fitness class but I found it is almost all "un bellydance like" moves; very much an an aerobics excercise class done to belly dance popular music - wearing sneakers becuase of all the jumping and running around. I agree that it is not a good idea for beginner belly dance students because the posture is so important and they can hurt their knees and lower back doing things that fast. I actually did not like the fitness class - just feels like too much jumping and running around to belly dance music when what I want to do is *dance* to it, or at least 3/4 shimmies! So, I'm sticking to floor stretches and 8-min. ab workouts and light weight upper arm "anti wogga wogga" routines.

So would have to say that the best thing to do is get an aerobics certificate first or you run the risk of people injuring themselves.

I think fusing belly dance with aerobics is like any other fusion -- you should be good at both forms (teaching dance AND teaching aerobics) before you try to fuse them, otherwise it's just a mess -- and possibly a dangerous one.

I think if you're eager to teach, the best thing to do is to work with your teacher. If she feels you're ready to teach, maybe you can assist her & spend some private lesson time learning *how* to teach, and then maybe you can expand her studio by offering beginner classes in a new location under her studio's name.

That's what my students are doing as they're ready to teach. After assisting & receiving some training, they are able to teach beginners while taking advantage of my website, my advertising, my insurance, my lesson plans, my choreographies, and my student prop collections. They may eventually be ready to do all that for themselves -- and they may prefer the independence when they're ready. But it's a great training ground.

Originally Posted by kashmir

.p:: This is a joke, right? Teaching belly dance as dance is not just off the cuff. For that I have done theory & practice in anatomy and physiology at postgrad level plus worked with a fully qualified mentor for several years. If I was to branch out into fitness I could probably do it with a little more research. The thought of an enthusiast teaching a fitness class with no background is horrifying - worse is the thought that a gym would consider it

Ouch.

that was a little harsh...

I think I've decided not to do this.


thanks for the input.

Originally Posted by yasmindiab

Ouch.

that was a little harsh...

Sorry, I was having a bad day yesterday with new hire computer "help desk" people who had exaggerated their experience and I thought "oh no - not again".

But I am glad you have rethought it for now. Go get some training and look at it again in a few years.

It's probably a good idea to get fitness training, perhaps the ACE cert in group fitness, before you teach a "bellydance for fitness" class.

That said, I think Norma has posted a very useful and, it seems to me, informed program for such a class. One can be creative in this type of class, too.

I use the 1rst half an hr for a hard training, then choreo. So they dont get bored. And If there's enough time a bit of dabke.

Originally Posted by kashmir

.p:: This is a joke, right? Teaching belly dance as dance is not just off the cuff. For that I have done theory & practice in anatomy and physiology at postgrad level plus worked with a fully qualified mentor for several years. If I was to branch out into fitness I could probably do it with a little more research. The thought of an enthusiast teaching a fitness class with no background is horrifying - worse is the thought that a gym would consider it

Yes, harsh indeed! And I note that you were having a bad day. Nevertheless, I felt quite provoked reading this. It's great that you have those qualifications, and I am all for teachers developing their dance and teaching skills as much as possible. I, too, hate seeing the results of rubbish teachers, and especially get annoyed when the teacher decides not to continue improving her own skills ("I've started teaching, so that's it, I'm not learning any more!").

BUT I was thinking back to my own teachers - and none of them had any qualifications. One of my teachers was a fantastic dancer, and not a bad instructor, but safe dance practices? What's that? And as for many of the 'master' teachers that visit us from Egypt, for example, most of them don't have (a) qualifications (b) an understanding of our concept of safe dance or (c) great classroom teaching technique.

Despite this, I've learnt to dance rather well. I've gained a bit of this from one imperfect teacher, a bit of that from another, worked on my own to fill in some gaps, and learnt so much from my own experience of teaching. I bet there's many a great dancer/teacher amongst us that sprung from less-than-ideal classes.

So, while it's ideal to have lots of experience, qualifications, etc before we begin teaching, it's neither realistic for everyone, nor perhaps absolutely necessary - at least to start.

After reading this thread I have to step back and think about the qualifications of my instructors.

Sultana, Nemhra Khan, Ireta, Eliza Gamal, Zaina, Suhaila, Ansuya, Aziza, Hasani, Tina Sargent, Saqra, Kami Vance, Boz....

I wonder if any of them had special training and certificates back then?

giggles ..g.:

Well Cassiopeia, that's a whole other topic! My guess is that more than half of the belly dance instructors out there aren't qualified to teach belly dance let alone a belly dance fitness class. In my day there was no such thing as certification. Dancers didn't start to teach until they retired from the stage. You earned your teaching credentials by having the professional experience and background.

It's very different out there now where dancers go straight from being a student to a teacher without having the years of professional experience in between.

And many of the certification programs are to me a joke. I wouldn't qualify for most of them after performing and teaching for more years than most of the girls running the programs have been on the planet!

I know of one local group in particular that has a teaching certification program and the 3 ladies sound absolutely fantastic on paper but in reality none of them were good enough to become professional so they started to teach and now they want to certify others? Give me a break!

Originally Posted by jewelbellydance

BUT I was thinking back to my own teachers - and none of them had any qualifications. One of my teachers was a fantastic dancer, and not a bad instructor, but safe dance practices? What's that? And as for many of the 'master' teachers that visit us from Egypt, for example, most of them don't have (a) qualifications (b) an understanding of our concept of safe dance or (c) great classroom teaching technique.

Despite this, I've learnt to dance rather well. I've gained a bit of this from one imperfect teacher, a bit of that from another, worked on my own to fill in some gaps, and learnt so much from my own experience of teaching. I bet there's many a great dancer/teacher amongst us that sprung from less-than-ideal classes.

So, while it's ideal to have lots of experience, qualifications, etc before we begin teaching, it's neither realistic for everyone, nor perhaps absolutely necessary - at least to start.

I never said you cannot learn dance without a teacher knowing about safe dance. The question is rather, out of a class of 30 how many will be uninjured at the end of the term? The "naturals" and the fit will most likely be okay. With most (low impact) belly dance many of the others will also be fine. But I have seen a number of avoidable injuries that have happened in dance classes (not just belly dance) that may not have happened if the teacher had a bit of theory of safe practice.

Once you start mixing it with aerobic work the chances of injury sky rocket. Often it isn't intrinsicly the move but rather the speed, force and number of reptitions that do the damage.

Stay Safe!