Dance Safety References

[gotraqs]

Can anyone recommend a good book that gives background info on how not to dance, in order to avoid injury, or how to dance or train to strengthen against injury?

There are, I know, some books out there on dance kinesiology as it relates to classical dance forms, but would these same books be general enough to understanding the body mechanics employed in oriental dancing as well?

Thanks!
Paula

[gotraqs]

BTW, anyone worked with Hadia's Complete Oriental Belly Dance System DVD's?

Is this DVD set really helpful for advanced dancers wanting to understand body mechanics, and injury prevention?

Or, does one really need to take her teacher training course to get more complete info?

Still looking for suggestions for any kind of other printed materials as well.

Thanks!

[gotraqs]

Uh oh. I'm talking to myself (or rather, posting, to myself)! I am going to pick up a book at the library called "Conditioning for Dance." I'll let you all know whether it seems to be a good resource (of course, I have to imake the time to read it, don't I?).

In the meantime, please offer any advice you may have, including anything related to the Hadia teacher training.

:)

[gotraqs]

Bumpety bump bump!

[deelybopper]

Kashmir's pages on safe dance practice are a fantastic resource:
http://www.raqs.co.nz/safedance.html

D

[*Shira*]

I've got an article on my web site called Avoiding Injury from Belly Dance. Here's the link: http://www.shira.net/avoid-injury.htm

It's not as comprehensive as the kind of book you're talking about, but it warns of certain risks and how to avoid them.

[Trina_Dance]

Hello,

I've done both Hadia's Teacher Training workshops, as well as her Oriental Dance System DVDs, and both are extremely helpful in terms of understanding body mechanics and injury prevention. Ideally, a combination of working with both the Teacher Training and the DVDs is recommended, however if you can only do one, then I would wholeheartedly recommend that as well.

Hadia spends a lot (A LOT!) of the teacher training workshop illustrating how to effectively do warm-ups that don't cause injury, as well as correct ways to do movements and stretches as well. I loved this workshop because you come out of it feeling like everything you've learned before has completely been revised...it's amazing the amount of unsafe practices that dancers do. So pretty much, if you can take her workshop, go for it! It's the ultimate in teaching you about body mechanics and injury prevention.

Also, you may want to work with anatomy books, mainly anatomy of movement books, which are also very helpful if you sit down and dedicate yourself to learning about what's happening. I found one once at my university library; it might have been called "Anatomy of Movement" and it looked very helpful. Anatomy colouring books are also useful (Hadia uses these during her workshops). Hope that helps!

[badriya_al_ahmar]

Originally Posted by gotraqs

BTW, anyone worked with Hadia's Complete Oriental Belly Dance System DVD's?

Is this DVD set really helpful for advanced dancers wanting to understand body mechanics, and injury prevention?

I bought the 4-DVD set a few years ago and it was one of my best dance purchases ever. I have not taken any courses with Hadia, but she explains things clearly on the DVDs and I have taken a lot of valuable information away, especially about the importance of warming up your joints as well as your muscles. My regular warm up is based on hers--I tend to do yoga for post-dancing strengthening and cool down, but before I started yoga I used her cool down system.

One of the things I really like about her warm up is that it puts you in touch with every joint and muscle in your body--not only do they all get lubricated/warmed up, but if you have any trouble spots going on, you will be aware of them before you start dancing and better able to avoid injury as a result.

[gotraqs]

OK. So, I've been checking out some books on dance safety and conditioning. These books have primarily applied to ballet, jazz, modern. So, my question is:

Since it seems a strenghthening/flexibility program outside of technique class is important, what kind of conditioning do you think is most beneficial to belly dancers? Should belly dancers follow the same advice on conditioning and safety that is given to classical dancers?