Belly dance - student night

The much awaited belly dance student night was finally over. Great!! was the only word I can use to describe the night. It was indeed an eye opener for all the students as well as the guests. I can tell that a lot of efforts were put in by most of the students for the night. From head gears to anklets, beautifully stitched costumes to beautiful neck pieces and ear rings – every piece was meticulously matched. There were easily over 50 pieces of beautiful costumes to feast the eyes. Not to mention bodies of various sizes and shapes dominate the dance floor. Whatever shape and size they are, everyone looked beautiful. I was especially taken by a group of aunties who did quite a few performances. Everyone of them danced with confidence and grace. A word of thanks and praise must really go to our teacher, who, all by herself, put up the night for the students. . We took quite a few group photos. But I MUST obtain the consent of those in the photos before I can post them.

Belly dance is gaining popularity here and the perception of the dance has changed. Belly dance teaches us to be in control of our body which is a good form of exercise. The benefits of belly dance are both mental and physical. Dancing provides a good cardio-vascular workout and helps increase both flexibility and strength, focusing on the torso or "core muscles", although it also builds leg strength. Many belly dance styles emphasize muscular "isolations", teaching the ability to move various muscles or muscle groups independently. To begin with the teacher student relationship is very important. We students have a lot of fun in the class and at the end of each class, every one of us look forward to the next one. Sometimes our teacher will perform for us and can see that every pair of eyes is flooded with admiration including myself. Being the oldest aunty in the class, I would say that I am pretty slow in catching up but the teacher and other students are always full of patience with us, aunties.