Zuuuuuumba.
May. 25th, 2008 04:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
parasitegirl(written at work and posted a few weeks later. I am soon off to Silly Zumba!)
Zumba:
On Sunday I went to Jazz and Zumba at my sports club. My attempts at jazz dance haven't been smooth, because I've never been able to make it to the first class of the month when the choreography starts.
I thought I had, this weekend, because the first Sunday of the month was in Golden Week and the Golden Week schedule I saw listed didn't include jazz...but I guess those ladies folded time somehow and shoved jazz in there because there I was on day two of the choreo...able to pick up all the new steps and order but having no fucking idea of the first section and being unable to clearly see the teacher.
One of the older ladies who likes me would NOT allow me out of the class when I expressed the feeling that it would be best for me to just come back at the start of the next month. I know what a realistic pushing myself is and what's just a bit absurd. If I wasn't interested in a challenge my improv ass wouldn't be in a jazz dance class focused on choreography and conducted in Japanese.
She blocked my exit and then made her point in English as well.
"You can DO it! 3 more times! You can DO it!"
I realized I'd have to knock her down to leave, so I stayed.
Next month Imight will pick up the Tuesday night jazz class at the start of the month instead of Sunday. I'll give it a full month and then debate jazz vs hip hop lessons. When I first joined the sports club I didn't realize the dance classes were choreography based classes that started on a new choreo every month...let's just never speak of how humiliating it was to join in the two hour ballet class in its third week.
In bellydance classes and workshops that I don't compare myself to other people around me. I'm focused on myself, the music, the instructor, the task at hand...but I make exceptions if I catch Henna giggling at my look of consentration during glute squeezes or if Nourah is making her heartbreaking look of frustration. In Jazz dance I watch others for visual cues for the sections I haven't learned, but I really couldn't tell you much about the skill level of the class or individual students.
And then we have Zumba. The energetic, silly aerobics built around latin/afrocuban/hip hop/reggaton music and dance moves. Zumba makes sense to me and features step combinations and shimmies and isolations that I know. I did my first Zumba class in Golden Week (after being the only person to raise her hand after being asked "who has never done this before...) and gained a fan following.
It was strange to realize that people were watching me in class. I try not to be the annoyingly public bellydancer but I was focused in dancing/performing (instead of just doing the motions aerobics style..) because I try to stay in performance mode when I practice dance. It's all about bringing the muscle memory to the whole body...if you're waiting until your performances to show the whole story in your face...you're gonna forget and drop that face sometimes.
The instructor liked dancing with me (it's strange to realize that an instructor is dancing next to you NOT to show you a correction but because she likes dancing with you) and little old ladies cheered at me after the class. Some reached out to touch my tummy and declaim that they wished they were young and flexible. Seriously. When they saw me leave the changing room they cheered, waved, and yelled 'See you again!"
I have to say, hats off to the old ladies of Japan. Even if you're not trying to go all out in Zumba, an hour of it is high energy. If there is ever a World War of Septuagenarians I think it would be safe to place most of your cash bets on Asia...and invest in bunkers...Ah, the Coming Age Wars...butterscotch candy.
Zumba class last Sunday featured a different teacher and this time they managed to stop me before I got to the changing room. The teacher asked "You bellydance, don't you?"
Busted.
And before I knew what was happening I was helping a mixed crowd of people do chest lifts and drops, breaking down the basics of a belly roll, and promising to bring my business cards next time.
Hot Yoga was all about a quiet environment where people didn't talk. Sports Clubs are way more social. I suspected as much years ago. Eshe never told me anything that relaxed that view. Tales of Eshe's Sport Club World always involved a too-high level of people being up in her gaijin business in one way or another. My powerful blending ability goes pretty far at the club. I can hit the basic machines, go to classes and no one assumes that I won't understand or feels the need to say "WE DON'T TEACH IN ENGLISH!" but apparently my cover gets blown when things get dance oriented.
Hot Yoga studio members were more homogenous. As best I could tell I fell squarely into the high side of average for fitness, size, curves, body, age within the yoga studio. Now I see older real naked bodies now. My age make me mascot fodder for the older women and a peer of sorts for my instructors.
When I've gotten used to the cardio and dance classes I need to branch out into core training, light lifting, sculpting, pilates, and find another yoga class or some such stuff, because I know my workouts are almost overwhelmingly about the cardio right now.
Zumba:
On Sunday I went to Jazz and Zumba at my sports club. My attempts at jazz dance haven't been smooth, because I've never been able to make it to the first class of the month when the choreography starts.
I thought I had, this weekend, because the first Sunday of the month was in Golden Week and the Golden Week schedule I saw listed didn't include jazz...but I guess those ladies folded time somehow and shoved jazz in there because there I was on day two of the choreo...able to pick up all the new steps and order but having no fucking idea of the first section and being unable to clearly see the teacher.
One of the older ladies who likes me would NOT allow me out of the class when I expressed the feeling that it would be best for me to just come back at the start of the next month. I know what a realistic pushing myself is and what's just a bit absurd. If I wasn't interested in a challenge my improv ass wouldn't be in a jazz dance class focused on choreography and conducted in Japanese.
She blocked my exit and then made her point in English as well.
"You can DO it! 3 more times! You can DO it!"
I realized I'd have to knock her down to leave, so I stayed.
Next month I
In bellydance classes and workshops that I don't compare myself to other people around me. I'm focused on myself, the music, the instructor, the task at hand...but I make exceptions if I catch Henna giggling at my look of consentration during glute squeezes or if Nourah is making her heartbreaking look of frustration. In Jazz dance I watch others for visual cues for the sections I haven't learned, but I really couldn't tell you much about the skill level of the class or individual students.
And then we have Zumba. The energetic, silly aerobics built around latin/afrocuban/hip hop/reggaton music and dance moves. Zumba makes sense to me and features step combinations and shimmies and isolations that I know. I did my first Zumba class in Golden Week (after being the only person to raise her hand after being asked "who has never done this before...) and gained a fan following.
It was strange to realize that people were watching me in class. I try not to be the annoyingly public bellydancer but I was focused in dancing/performing (instead of just doing the motions aerobics style..) because I try to stay in performance mode when I practice dance. It's all about bringing the muscle memory to the whole body...if you're waiting until your performances to show the whole story in your face...you're gonna forget and drop that face sometimes.
The instructor liked dancing with me (it's strange to realize that an instructor is dancing next to you NOT to show you a correction but because she likes dancing with you) and little old ladies cheered at me after the class. Some reached out to touch my tummy and declaim that they wished they were young and flexible. Seriously. When they saw me leave the changing room they cheered, waved, and yelled 'See you again!"
I have to say, hats off to the old ladies of Japan. Even if you're not trying to go all out in Zumba, an hour of it is high energy. If there is ever a World War of Septuagenarians I think it would be safe to place most of your cash bets on Asia...and invest in bunkers...Ah, the Coming Age Wars...butterscotch candy.
Zumba class last Sunday featured a different teacher and this time they managed to stop me before I got to the changing room. The teacher asked "You bellydance, don't you?"
Busted.
And before I knew what was happening I was helping a mixed crowd of people do chest lifts and drops, breaking down the basics of a belly roll, and promising to bring my business cards next time.
Hot Yoga was all about a quiet environment where people didn't talk. Sports Clubs are way more social. I suspected as much years ago. Eshe never told me anything that relaxed that view. Tales of Eshe's Sport Club World always involved a too-high level of people being up in her gaijin business in one way or another. My powerful blending ability goes pretty far at the club. I can hit the basic machines, go to classes and no one assumes that I won't understand or feels the need to say "WE DON'T TEACH IN ENGLISH!" but apparently my cover gets blown when things get dance oriented.
Hot Yoga studio members were more homogenous. As best I could tell I fell squarely into the high side of average for fitness, size, curves, body, age within the yoga studio. Now I see older real naked bodies now. My age make me mascot fodder for the older women and a peer of sorts for my instructors.
When I've gotten used to the cardio and dance classes I need to branch out into core training, light lifting, sculpting, pilates, and find another yoga class or some such stuff, because I know my workouts are almost overwhelmingly about the cardio right now.
