My Belly Dance Journey Part 1

I grew up in a small town. The first belly dance moves I saw were on a Janet Jackson video. For awhile I was like " What is that kind of dancing?" In the video they were wearing Indian styled dance costumes showing their midriffs and wearing nose piercings. I watched their hips closely and couldn't imagine how it could be real. Somehow, somewhere I found out that the name of the dance I wanted to learn was "Belly Dance". It wasn't until years later that I found a Belly Dance VHS at Zellers by Veena and Neena. It was the cold winter of 2002. I loved it! And the following spring of that year I got a brochure of the classes at the Fredericton UNB from a regular shopper at Winners where I worked. I started Beginners Belly Dance with Shantel Powell. Here we are in Odell Park Fredericton NB near the Willow tree. It was the summer of 2003....or was it 2004?

In the class we covered the basic moves of hip circles, slides, figure eights in different directions and did the same with the torso. We covered shoulder shimmies and Egyptian shimmy, veil, balancing of broom sticks on our heads and some floor work. After the six week session which ended on my birthday I was hungry for more and began Intermediate Belly Dance with Stacey Macklem who taught at a gym in Fredericton which no longer exists. Later the class was moved to Kingswood Gym.

The Fall of 2003 I began teaching in my own living space and performing Belly Grams and at some charity events. Belly Grams are or were similar to singing telegrams. You hire a dancer to show up at your friends or co workers workplace or at an event of theirs for a Birthday and do a quick 8-15 minute dance for them and their group. Whenever I got to be on a stage I absolutely loved it! I loved having all of the space to move in! Oddly enough, I did not get nervous about performing. The only thing I ever got nervous about was getting ready on time even if I was there in good time!

I explored cane dancing on my own, veil, sword dancing, zils and moved onto American Tribal Style and Tribal Fusion in 2005. The fall of that year I began traveling to Halifax NS to take the 200 hr Hatha Vinyasa Teacher Training at Therapeutic Approach Yoga Studio. I was unable to continue traveling to Halifax to complete my training in 2006 but completed the training later in 2009 after I moved there.

Meanwhile from 2006-2007 I completed the Foundation Visual Arts Program at NBCCD in Fredericton NB. After that year I wasn't sure whether to continue majoring in Surface Design so I went back to work in retail at Jinglers. In the spring of 2008 I moved to Halifax to complete the yoga teacher training. I taught workshops for Belly Dance and taught yoga classes at various locations in Halifax and Dartmouth.

During the time that I was beginning to establish myself as a teacher I had an acute injury in my thoracic spine. Usually when I am too upset about something I don't practice yoga. Money was tight. My husband was on EI. I didn't quite cut it as a receptionist for the Physiotherapy Clinic where I was also endeavoring to teach yoga classes. I have no receptionist training. Although I did well they couldn't afford to keep me on until I wasn't so rough around the edges. The yoga classes, no matter how I tried to advertise them just wasn't happening. This is the part you don't imagine before you complete your yoga teacher training! This time however I did decide to practice yoga even though I was very upset. I had been told to do it a certain way and had ignored it every single time and had been fine. This time I doubted and I questioned. I did not heed my natural instincts for this particular yoga pose as I had in the past. I am also quite flexible which may have contributed to the injury. This injury was very difficult and it stayed with me for years and years. I had chiropractic work done on it by the Chiropractor who had just told me that I couldn't be their receptionist anymore and he gave me the treatment free of charge. It helped but it wasn't enough. I also did physio exercises. Even with that I kept re-injuring my spine with the simplest of movements. Usually I would feel sore in my sleep and then stretch, arching my back. And then it would be re-injured again! It made keeping my arms up at any height for any style of Belly Dance much harder. I never adapted to it the way I had when I began belly dancing. It made playing guitar and doumbek horrible. It made the experience of drawing and painting horrible! I could not handle weight work outs consistently of course! Yoga poses involving the strength and support of the arms were not so strong or stable. My sleep was bad so I was never rested. It made everything horrible! I was in pain all of the time and knew no relief until I finally had coverage and sought out the help of a physiotherapist in Fredericton NB at Signature Spinal Care. There, I was given Laser Therapy which is different from Laser Surgery. And it worked! I praise Laser Therapy and it's creator everywhere I go!

Check Back for Part 2 of My Belly Dance Journey!