Learn to Bellydance With Your Body, Mind and Spirit

As a new term of dance reaches its conclusion we are becoming accustomed to using new muscles, making new movements and feeling new physical freedom. Since I'm returning after a long rest from bellydance, I'm feeling it too! I'm enjoying the sensation of awakening forgotten muscles deep in my chest and sacrum; muscles that can lack stimulation when our range of movement becomes limited.

Settling into a new 'day job' has meant more hours in front of the computer, as well as more hours clutching a mobile phone typing SMS messages. These activities have left me with an increase in arm, shoulder and neck tension. The opportunity to return to teaching bellydance happened at the perfect time. I feel enriched and more balanced with the presence of the fluidic, creative realm of Majickal Bellydance back in my life. Without dance my life is too chair-bound, desk-hunched, and head-heavy.

CIRE services  have invited me back to teach another term of dance at Chirnside Community Hub next term. It  will be a long ten-week term, allowing me to introduce some new dimensions of dance into our practice. The longer term will provide a vehicle for me to extend my model of multidimensional consciousness as it relates to dance. Some of you may be familiar with my book, Multidimensional Meditation, available on Amazon or directly from me. It's a model for understanding yourself at different levels of consciousness, but it's also the framework for how I teach dance these days. Being a numerical model it can be applied anywhere.

Some of you may know that the dimensions I refer to align with the eastern chakra system. You may be familiar with the idea of seven chakras, however there are actually many more than seven chakras. They are an expression of the energies animating the complex electromagnetic system that we are. Energy runs in circuits, cycles and chakras, yin and yang. Electrical engineers refer to the active and receptive poles of a circuit as male and female, because the terms broadly describe the nature of energy as expressed into the active and receptive state.

So before we expand our model of dance to ten dimensions next term, I thought it would be worthwhile to summarise the seven dimensions we've explored so far, eight including Dimension Zero. The following description isn't just about the structure and movements of dance, although they are included. It represents a way of viewing yourself as a moving, flowing, transforming energy being, mindful and self-aware.

Week 1 - Dimension Zero

The first week we oriented ourselves into a bright new studio, exploring the space around us as well as our range of movement. The fundamental shape of bellydance is the circle, so we learned how to understand the many circles existing around each joint, each limb, each dancer and the studio itself. We connected with gravity, energy and breath. The emphasis was on space and the idea of the circle with its associated symbol being the studio itself, the sacred circle in which we gather to celebrate our physical, bespirited selves; in this case by the spirit of the ancient art of bellydance. 

Week 2 - Dimension One

Bellydance shoes are optional

Represented by the element of earth, the second week we worked with structure and shape. We formed our movements into things we could name as circles, lines and points in space. We became more mindful of our joints and the shapes we could make with them. We explored our sense of weight, personal centre of gravity and our orientation in space. We began combining circling movements with movements of force like hip flicks, and movements of angle like pelvic tucks. We became mindful of our feet and how they determine our direction.

Week 3 - Dimension Two

The element of water guided us into the dimension of feeling, flow, and the ability to move across space in a fluid way. Dancers attuned emotionally to both the music and to the way we sensually inhabit ourselves and connect to our feelings. The idea of flow led us naturally toward figure eight movements, our hip joints alternately circling as we danced across the studio. Our lower bellies began to flutter awake from their chair bound slumber.

Week 4 - Dimension Three

During week four we thought about what fires us up to get motivated to dance, or conversely, what   smothers or limits the spark of our enthusiasm? We talked about the benefits of finding even five minutes to ourselves to dance at home, which represented a promise of self-care and a way to review and integrate into ordinary life what is learned in class. Working with the element of fire, we mobilised our solar plexus, learning how to use the muscles of the diaphragm to manipulate the ribcage into beautiful, hearty bellydance movements. 

Week 5 - Dimension Four

The mental plane, our thinking, can be symbolised by the element of air.  Our attitude toward our bodies and our belief in what dance is and who we are as dancers profoundly affects the dancers we become. Lack of belief in one's own ability to dance will manifest in the body, in the posture and even in the breath. When we dance with awareness of the mental plane we become conscious of the belief systems that may inhibit the ease and flow of our movements. Through dance we can shake off restrictions of the physical form in order to challenge the thought form. During week four we also connected to the world outside of our individual selves. We moved from the subjective world of personal dance, to the objective world of shared dance, mirroring each other and connecting through co-ordinated movement and a bit of a chat. 

Week 6 - Dimension Five

What to do with the hands? This is a challenge faced by many dancers who feel a little shy about expressing themselves. Dimension Five rules the throat chakra and self-expression. Dancers learned that their hands will soon find their unique language and in time - with practice - speak it fluently. We made a lot of noise, learning how to show our appreciation for each other's performances with the trilling call traditionally used by celebrating and appreciative women all over the world. A long piece of emotive, dynamic music helped us explore the lights and shadows of the realm of sound which contains the power to alter consciousness. 

Week 7 - Dimension Six

Inside each dancer's mind is a vision of how she sees herself. This week we opened our inner eyes and saw ourselves in full colour and full costume. Through this inner reality women initiated as dancers and saw their unique colours. We also explored using our physical eyes in dance, connecting with each other to express another intuitive level of communication. By using our eyes we directed the eyes of those around us. 

Week 8 - Dimension Seven

The final week in this eight-week term will explore balance and rotation. The studio becomes the cosmos as we form a solar system of spinning, multicoloured dancers, expressing their unique shapes,  sounds and velocities into some kind of improvised, organically co-ordinated improvisation. In early weeks our journey initiated a personal connection to dance, where we found mindfulness and presence. Then in week five we turned outward, finding connection with another dancer. In the final week, dancers will discover themselves as members of a troupe. 

Next Term

Majickal Bellydance is back at Chirnside Community Hub next term for an extra long ten-week term. This means we'll have time to really go deep into what we've learned so far, as well as learn some new ways of putting it all together. 

Beginners will learn everything all over again, a little faster this time. More established dancers will continue to explore the shapes and colours of the uniquely styled Majickal Bellydance, as well as practice some more complex combinations that may be developed into choreography. 

As usual there will be games, mindfulness exercises and laughter. This class is light and joyful, leaving dancers feeling uplifted and positive. The class structure, although planned around my own ideas, is also an adaptive one. This means that no matter what level of dance you're at, there's a place for you with Majickal Bellydance.

Stay connected for next term's dates and booking link. I'll post them here as soon as I receive the information. Until then you can enquire with the venue by calling 1300 835 235.

See you next term. X

Leanne Margaret

www.leannemargaret.com

P.S. Here are three of us at a school excursion to Club Rakkasah on Friday 13th March. There's no better way to get fired up to dance than to attend a dance event.