chip zempel

Here's what I did. I got my wife interested in belly dancing. Firms and
tones. Burns calories. Increases flexibility. And she gets to play dress
up - all those veils and jewels and hip scarves and headdresses. Great
teacher, great bunch of women in the class. She is having an absolute
BLAST!

....and so am I, drumming for the classes. Not only does she NOT resent
my drums, she's got me helping her with her zils (finger cymbals). Now
she gets up in the morning on weekends and instead of popping an
aerobics tape or yoga tape into the VCR, she's sweating to "Veena and
Neena." (Very cute, BTW)

We've even got our 16-year old daughter going to classes with us now!

When we got into this, I was amazed at how many belly dance classes
there are here in Sacramento (aka, Columbus-West). Community centers,
dance studios, fitness clubs, metaphysical "book & candle" shops - it
seems like EVERYBODY's got belly dance classes! Just look at Beyonce's
latest video, or any of Shakira's videos. Belly dancing is a big thing
right now.

Or, depending on what you're into, maybe you can interest your wife in
African dancing or Salsa dancing or Irish dancing. (Damn, playing
bodhran for Irish dancers is a BLAST!) I'm not sure about other forms of
dance, but it seems like all the belly dance teachers around here LOVE
to have a live drummer, even if you're just playing along with their
CDs.

Give it a try...

Chip

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Yes, ALL "real" dancers LOVE live music. And the drum is the KEY to
music for dance. There is an intimate connection between drums and
the dancers. It's like musicians in a jazz group. There is a give
and take, a "trading fours" if you will as well as a friendly
competition between drummers and dancers. In these days of CDs
dancers often think of drummers as some kind of glorified metronome.
But if you look back to African and other roots, you find that
it's a cooperative art. The drummers says, "dance to this" Which
the dancers do and then reply with "Try playing this rhythm"
and the drummer does. etc. etc. And of course this all goes
on without one word being spoken aloud.

And hey, it seems belly dancing is getting popular here too.
A local dance studio now has "belly dance" nite one day a week.
The Turkish guy I know explained to us how belly dancing like
Tango was originally a MALE dance. And then proceeded to give
us all a demo of male belly dancing. VERY cool!

Benj

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gerry scott-moore

If you can get your husband to take up bellydancing, all may not be
well, but you can probably also get blood out of a turnip too.

I'd vote for you.

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///--- Nazodesu no more.