I was mildly interested in belly dancing as a form of exercise, but I saw a special on PBS about it, and the?

Question

instructor who was featured actually didn't appear to be in particularly good shape. Same with most of the others in the class she was teaching. In fact, they all had a bit of a, well, belly. What's up with that?

Answer 1

Bellydance is a great cardio workout but one class a week does not give you the amount of exercise you need to have massive weight loss and toning. Most bellydancers do have a soft rounded belly's. Like I keep telling people "bellydance" is a mis-nomer. It does not mean that the belly is the focus of the dance meaning it neither features a large jiggly belly or a flat tone belly. People get flat abs when they work that particular area with exercise directed at flattening abs. Bellydancers often view a slight rounded belly as ideal because we prefer to have a little extra to jiggle along. It helps move the fringe on the costumes and the rounded voluptuous look is considered better than extremely flat and toned. Just because they may have a little flab here or there does not mean that they are necessarily out of shape. There are many medium and larger dancers who have extremely good flexibility, muscle control, heart rates, and blood pressure. There is a difference between being in good shape and being toned or muscular. The two do not always go hand in hand. Someone can be very muscular and flexible but have terrible BP and Heart rate. Would the be considered in good shape? I guess it depends if your thinking about it in the appearance department or in the physical department. So yes a bit of a belly is common and generally preferred by by bellydancers but no it doesn't mean they are definitely out of shape either.

Answer 2

It's considered "sexy" to have bellies in the countries where belly dancing comes from. It's just the way that the belly dancers usually look. I've taken a belly dancing class and I enjoyed it. I don't think that it will increase your belly size. The belly size is just a cultural preference.

Answer 3

Very interesting post. I myself am interested and have found several sites where more information is available:

http://www.squidoo.com/BellyDanceLessonsOnline/
http://www.squidoo.com/bellydanceapparell/
http://www.squidoo.com/tribalbellydancing/
http://www.squidoo.com/bellydancingclothes/

Live, Love, Belly Dance!
-- Rem