Thread: Fitness Based Belly Dance Class, Advice Welcome :)

Hey Ladies,

So athletics is pretty much my background before dance, so I'm not scared of a little fitness, but I've been approached to teach a "Fitness Based" belly dance class. They kinda want something like Zumba; high energy, fun and up beat, low on technique but very enjoyable and generally easy to follow (but honestly i feel like if you're not a dancer or pretty coordinated in the zumba classes... its a lot harder to follow).

Does anyone teach classes like these? I'm going through my movement vocabulary and thinking of different ways to take the moves and make them less technical and just fun fun fun. This should be a good challenge because i'm ALLLLLL about the technique.

Advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks :)

Off the top of my head----arm paths ( first done slowly to show technique and then sped up) to help cardio, lots of step/touch( touch to front or to side or back--first slow and then fast), hip circles large and small, crossover steps to each side, isolations of chest and hip as advanced as you can see that they can handle it. Veil also helps cardio---you could get some inexpensive ones to loan them. My beginner students usually start w/ a twist shimmy and then do Egyptian( bent knee).

I'll see what else i can think of. I teach at a Ymca where the beginning ladies know NOTHING so i'm used to starting from scratch. And as my friend tells me---Don't forget to dance for them often(just 2 or 3 minutes) so they can see what they are aspiring to achieve.

This thread from a year ago has good tips: Teaching Bellydance for Fitness

I've been teaching SharQui classes (I also teach "regular" bellydance classes) for about two years and have really enjoyed the challenge of making bellydance accessible to beginners while still keeping the level up for the more experienced.

Watching some of the bellydance fitness DVDs can give you ideas, but be aware that some of them count on the viewer already knowing many bellydance movements. In a fitness class, where you could have new people dropping in every week, you really need to know how to explain movements quickly and accurately (Oreet does this really well with the SharQui method).

I have a list (that needs updating) of music I have used here.

great info ladies! thanks for the help :)