FITNESS.

[parasitegirl]

One more day of vacation and then the jobs start again. January the 4th will be my first class at the "fitness club". I don't even remember what the right non-Japanese term is. Gym? Fitness Center? Sports Center? Fitness Gym?

Yesterday I started reviewing whats DVDs I have regarding dance fitness conditioning (Casandra Shore, Essentrics, Some Rachel brice stuff and Suhalia) along side the more zumba-esque dvds like SharQui , Samira  and by-dancer for-dancer practices like old school Suzanna Devechio.

My first challenge is the prior teacher padded her first 10-15 minutes with stretching. I don't stretch cold. I go in for dynamic stretching which is just moving and expanding the range of movements to properly warm up. But since I can't really be all "everything your teacher taught you may be wrong" I have to create something that seems stretchy enough for them to stay in the comfort range of how they've been learning. I'll make the more dramatic changes appear dancey enough that they simply think "Oh, of course this is how dancers prepare!

I'll roughly map that out tomorrow and find the music that'll be the right speed, feel, and length to cues me when to wrap things up.


Then on to drilling basics.

I don't think it makes much sense to teach a choreography my first month. I want to focus more on getting a feel for the basics and making combinations we can build and practice to join movements together. So, yes, a bit zumbaesque.

I'm not worrying about my body type. I know that while I might worry about being "non willowy" my own students will have unique insecurities about my body being foreign/other and thus possess moves that non-foreign people cannot do. (sigh) It happens.

I've learned that my neighboor  (she lives in the apartment complex behind my place) will also be starting at the same Fitness Club on Thursday teaching Zumba, so we're psyched about that. We took Zumba together seven years ago at a local sports club and when I moved from my last apartment I ended up across from her parking lot.

I sometimes envy the Zumba their structure. They  go through certification, get the music, are taught the choreographies, have all they need, get hooked up with the neon gear...while I am getting my own music, making choreography, and doing this half blind because us bellydancers are defining and structuring our classes our own, highly individual ways.

Maybe if it continues to be a thing I'll get certified...but I also remind myself that Zumba-kind must continually pay for those upkeepings, pay to be part of the Zumba GrandFalloon...and I don't.

As for gear, I shall choose my first day of work gear tomorrow. The main difference between dance /yoga studios vs fitness clubs is NO TATTOOS. Most of my upper gear covers the one tattoo I have, I just need to remember to stay aware when picking flare.

What Natsuki and I both have in common right now is that we start next week...and are practicing our little PA system voices.

Comments

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

I also cannot static stretch cold, it is a recipe for continuous nagging injury.

Have you ever taken a ballet class? That whole class structure of starting out with what are really dynamic warmup and strength drills at the barre seems like it could provide some authority to the notion of dynamic warmups for dancers.