Imagining Belly Dancing In The Woods

So this is how it happens, one afternoon I go to my bellydancing class and I swing my hips instead of twisting my legs and suddenly I’m  one step closer to doing the “Egyptian”  the way it’s supposed to be done.

That’s how it happens.

I do a dance step again and again and again and one time Julz or Kathleen, my teachers, say just the right thing and I really hear it  and not only hear, but actually do it.  (This time it was when Julz said, Swing your hip as if you’re hitting a beach ball into the opposite corner of the room)

I should know this from making my art.  That shift that occurs after drawing one thing lot of times and suddenly, my fears that I won’t be able to draw it again, vanish.  I will forever after be able to draw that goddess or bird or donkey with experience and the confidence.

This has happened a few times in my bellydancing class.

I feel like I really get what the dance move is about and how I’m supposed to be moving a part of my body.  I’m starting to  believe it’s something I can learn.

So I decided to take it a step further in my mind.  I decided to imagine myself belly dancing with the other women in my class as if I know how.

This is not as easy as I thought it would be.

I first tried to imagine myself dancing in the classroom with everyone else but that didn’t work.  So I thought about dancing in the woods, where I feel comfortable.  Not practical in real life, but it can work for a visualization.  Even this is harder than I thought it would be.  I haven’t actually been able to imagine it yet.  I get to the place in the woods were the other women are dancing and the scene just falls apart in front of me.

So I’m working on it.

I do believe that once I can imagine myself belly dancing and doing it well, it will make a difference in my ability to learn.  Visualizing something is more than just a belief.  It’s more than  me just  “thinking I can” do something.  It’s another step in making it real.

I’m not saying that it’s the whole thing.  I don’t believe something will happen just because I can see it in my mind or because I believe it.  In my experience there’s a lot of good and often hard work that also has to go into anything I want to achieve.

Now I’m working on my bellydancing from inside of me as well as on the outside.

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Imagining Belly Dancing In The Woods

  1. this reminds me of an exercise in yoga I should remember more often. I forget the position that ended the class, the name of it, that is. But we would lie flat and then work the mind. so as we laid we would focus on one tow after the other and then the ankle and then the leg, and slowly work our way up the body and then back down the other side. All this without moving. It was the brain we were exercising. I should think of this more often when I exercise or meditate. to bring thebrain in on the effort.

    1. It is an exercise for the mind Linda, but you also feel it in your whole body, don’t you? When you focus your attention on those parts of you body, you feel it. But then, I guess that’s how the brain works, right?

  2. Good job, Maria, learning belly dancing. I left a Zumba class in tears. I applaud your tenacity.

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