Took the week off last week

I was on “vacation” last week (though if you are retiling your bathroom I’m not sure it should count as vacation) so I didn’t do my regular AM and noon time workouts. I did however attend my Monday and Saturday yoga classes and teach.

So last week in Beginning Belly Dance, we covered weighted hip twists, hip twist (washing machine) shimmy, weighted hip lifts, hip lift shimmy, unweighted hip lifts (aka choochoo in group improv)  and unweighted hip drops. We also did single hip lift and single hip drop walks.

In Intermediate we learned one way to play chiftitelli rhythm on our finger cymbals, reviewed our ¾ up and down shimmies, learned the vibration shimmy. We also reviewed all beginner level arm moves and learned the arm figure 8. We then started working with our veils learning the matador, half matador and the figure 8.

As requested, here is the list of the arm exercises we have been doing in Advanced. In addition to the below, we have also been doing our regular leg exercises and glutes – singles, ¾ and segmented.

Standing:

·         Wall pushups

·         Wall pushups hands turned in

·         Wall pushups feet further back

·         Hands at sides, bring up to shoulder height, rotate hands, take up to 5^th, then back down (I’ve told you about this one, but since it requires weights we haven’t been doing it in class)

Seated:

·         Arms out to side, palms up, fingers ripple in then back out, leading w/pinky

·         Shoulder rolls backwards together – 2 ct, 1ct

·         Shoulder rolls backwards alternating – 2 ct, 1ct

·         Shoulder rolls forward together – 2 ct, 1ct

·         Shoulder rolls forward alternating – 2 ct, 1ct

·         Shoulder arcs – hands out to side – up front up back, 1 side at a time – 2 ct, 1 ct

·         Rope pulls to the side

·         Hands straight forward, pull back, elbows going behind back

·         Rope pulls down

·         Hands pull down from 5^th position to shoulder height

·         Hands to side, palms down rotate elbow back and forward

·         Arms to side, palms facing back in blade, down and up

·         “Make a muscle”

·         Cow face pose (Triceps stretch)

·         Eagle pose

On the Floor:

·         Backward crunches

·         Lie on stomach and lift arm and opposite leg, keep head down

·         Cat/cow

·         Rotate cat/cow

·         Pigeon pose (after glute exercises)