Belly Dancing Class

When I graduated college, I promised myself that I would take at least one class a year for the rest of my life. It doesn’t have to be a serious class at a university. It can be just something fun, like a cooking class or a sewing class – or a dance class.

I’ve always loved to dance. I danced around a lot as a kid. When I was about 5 I was in a little ballet show. When I was in high school I was on the dance team. I think we called it Poms, but it was basically the dance team. So when the flyer came to my house for Minneapolis Community Education, I thought a dance class would be really fun.

I had tried to take a dance class before through the Minneapolis Community Ed program. Latin dance, actually. The instructors were great and it seemed really fun. But Mark works nights, and I didn’t really want a different dancing partner. I stopped going after only two sessions. It made me kinda sad to have to dance alone.

That’s why when Julie suggested we take belly dancing, I was on board right away. I have always wanted to take a belly dancing class. You don’t need a partner, and I’d heard that it could be a great work out. We signed up for the eight-week beginners’ session.

Monday night was our first session. It was so much fun! Our instructor, Vivian, has been belly dancing for almost ten years, and she’s been teaching for five years. We started the class by warming up a bit and hearing about what we’d learn over the eight weeks. And then we started dancing.

We learned a couple of basic moves, and I learned that my left hip doesn’t like to dance so much. I could do most of the moves with my right hip just fine, but my left hip refused to play along. It was frustrating, but so funny at the same time. I felt like I had a lazy hip. Apparently, most people do have a dominant hip, so keep that in mind if you ever take a belly dancing class!

Like I said, we learned a few basic moves – the hip up, the hip out, and the hip something else. I can’t remember!





No one else would be in my pictures, so Julie and I had to separate from the group for a couple of minutes to get some shots!

The hard part about belly dancing is moving the hips and the arms at the same time. Sounds easy, I know, but you move your hips at a different rate than you move your arms. It feels like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. But by the end of the class, I felt like I was getting the hang of it. And this morning, I found myself practicing the new moves while I was in the shower.



After class ended, Vivian gave us a demo of what we’d be able to do by the end of the eight sessions. I was really impressed – and excited that I’d be learning all of these great moves.





I really recommend taking a class through the Minneapolis Community Ed program. They have a bunch of different kinds of classes, and they aren’t expensive at all. It’s a great way to learn about something you’ve always been curious about.

I’ll keep you updated on the belly dancing progress!

Up Next: Not sure. We’ll see where the week takes me…