When is this going to feel natural?

 I was honored to sub for an fcbd class this week and the exchange of positive energy always wows me! Every good soul who walks through the door has something magnificent to offer fat chance belly dance.  This week in a beginner class I fielded the question “when is this going to feel natural to my body?”  

TOUCHE!  

FAT CHANCE BELLY DANCE posture definitely does NOT feel natural to the body,  HOWEVER. This is exactly the reason I was drawn to it in my 60s.  I will explain.

Growing up with my MOM and her 2 sisters, I remember them taunting each other….’ PUT YOUR SHOULDERS BACK!!! PUT YOUR SHOULDERS BACK~!!!  You see, their mama lived to the ripe old age of 96 (lucky me!). My mom and her sister lived till 92 so I do not think I will be leaving very soon and while I am here, I do not want to experience the spine that my grandma had to endure.  Today there is even more reason to fear the dreaded dowagers hump.  Some call it phone neck.

We value our spine these days.  Yoga has helped us to realize the energy that flows.  We are in such an improved state of mind when we think about our spine.  When I discovered yoga in my 40s I felt so much better than I ever had in my youth of teens, 20s and 30s.  Back pain went away, energy returned and I was thankful that all my abuse of heavy lifting had not previously given my vertebrae any major trouble.  If you know anyone with chronic back pain sometimes you can read their face.  They wish for an end to that pain at any price.  It is sad.

So how can we protect our spine?   THESE THINGS!!!  OUR MUSCLES!

YES! This we can do!  When we learn about dance posture we start from the ground up.  Our feet are pointed to 11 o’clock (performance angle) and comfortably apart.  Our knees are ALWAYS bent. This gives us the added benefit of working the largest and quickest calorie burning muscle of the body, the quadriceps.

Quadriceps include four large muscles located in the front of the thigh: vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and rectus femoris. 

We work up to our waist~we want to elongate the spine in back so we tuck the gluts but do not squeeze them.  This protects our spine. And now we reach the part of the body that defines the power, zest and proud carriage of the dance. Simply put, we raise our shoulders up , back and down.  We engage our traps at the bra line.  This raises our chest without using our shoulders.  It also makes carrying our arms straight out at ‘back of the couch’ level much more doable. It also allows you to set your shoulders free and not hunch them up to your ears. The beautiful long neck appears and it also elongates the mid torso.  All these elements contribute to the beauty of the dance.

SO!   my mom and her sisters as they touted tits up! Needed to think-shoulders up, back and down.  If our traps stay engaged our spines will thank us.  When we walk the dog down the street,  walk proud Ladies!  You are dancing !!!  And for this proud fierce posture, I will be ever grateful to fat chance belly dance.

And so, my Dearest new student, you hit it on the head.  It will never feel natural but it will make you feel just right AND keep you healthy.  You know exercise and you do something I have never done, running.  For this I salute you!!!!  If yoga kept me healthy in 40s, I credit fat chance belly dance for keeping me zestful in my 60s.  Thank you Carolena! I wonder if you ever knew in your wildest dreams the joy you would bring the world.  Blessings!

The waterpot and before

 On this Easter Sunday I received DeAnna’s weekly email  about Megha and the waterpot.  Our class just learned the waterpot this past week!  Those new to Fat Chance Belly Dance will hear Megha’s name spoken with love and reverence.  Megha Gavin became Carolena’s travelling partner in the early 2000s and brought fcbd general skills to many many classes around the US.  She passed on in October of 2020 and the dance community grieved deeply.

I am one who usually steers noticeably clear of the “c” word whenever I can, but this time I did not, and in my research on Megha I came across her Facebook page-“Megha - beating the odds “.  Reading the words of this beautiful spirit as she traipsed through the ungodly land of cancer treatments did something to my heart.  I know now why she is spoken of by the fcbd and dance community with such adoration.  It struck me- this is the pure heart of this dance.  It is fearless, fierce, loving and will never pass up the opportunity to share joy.  Megha and Carolena did so much to spread joy together and now it is ours to carry on.  I never want to let them down. Her spirit lives on through all of us.

Please take a pause in our busy lives to read about her and honor all that she brought to our phenomenal Fat Chance Belly Dance.

MURMURATION ~ WHY?

 WHAT THE HECK IS MURMURATION?  Besides being one of the wonders of our world, it is just one crazy lady's journey through a life with so many connecting dots.  To be honest, I only learned what it was a few short months ago.  Thank you Mr Google!  

Forty years ago, when I thought of myself as a painter, I saw them.  The bleak cornfields of an Ohio autumn/winter season came alive with the mesmerizing phenomenon above.  We did not have the starling populations of Europe but their numbers were adequate to create a dynamic flow.  After that first encounter I was always on the look out.  I would call out "BIRDS IN FLIGHT!" for my family while we were driving. My appreciation splashed onto the canvas with some realistic work.  Finally I just turned to the abstract painting to try and express what I was seeing.  The passion was real, even if no one else understood.

So these life dots do seem to be out of order.  As I struggle through arthritis and other aches and pains of being 67,  I laugh.  I should have been a Fat Chance Belly Dancer in my 20s and a painter in my 60s.  But that was not meant to be.  Fat Chance had not even been born yet!  

The first time I read the explanation of my newfound word, MURMURATION, the connection jumped off the page.  According to Andrew King and David Sumpter, "murmurations exhibit a strong spatial coherence and show extremely synchronized maneuvers, which seem to occur spontaneously, or in response to and approaching threat, like hawks or peregrine falcons."  Yes, and more...  " Each starling in a flock is connected to every other.  When a flock turns in unison, it's a phase transition.  At the individual level, the rules guiding this are relatively simple.  When a neighbor moves, so do you.  Depending on the flock's size and speed and its members' flight physiologies, the large-scale pattern changes."  

Another cool finding says that it seems the birds may work in small teams of 7...just like FCBD focuses on the quartet as its largest block of dancers.  The difference comes with the spreading out of the movements with the starlings in contrast to the surrounding support of the stationary FCBD chorus.  

Science continues :  According to esteemed biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake, "morphic resonance is the idea of interconnections and collective memories within the species. " He states that it's a process in which " self-organizing systems inherit a memory from previous similar systems".  Hmmmmm, our collective memories are the harkening back to dances of the past are all part of Fat Chance Belly Dance.  I thought of the film recommended by Carolena - Romany Trail.  This dance celebrates a strong noble group who migrated and touched every area they inhabited, from India- north to Spain and south to Northern Africa. Over the years this dance has grown, incorporated and celebrated new steps.  I cannot wait to research all that.

What started as American Tribal Style has been adored world wide.  I am not sure there are 750,000 of us, like the starlings above, but who knows how many are dancing in their living rooms to you tube videos!?  When the pandemic was in high gear in 2020, I danced every day with my "imaginary friends" I called them.  I just did the Fat Chance Belly Dance Friday Flow #22 today again with Michiyo.  Just try it!  Even if you do not know the names of the steps or cues, following as best you can does bring a serious endorphin rush! 

I am happy to report that now I have real life dancers creating with me.  Here is a short video from our class last night at Patricia Ann Studio on Friar Tuck in Dunedin where we practiced in duets.

 Other comparisons of my life dots...  The murmurations of starlings are in response to a threat, they confuse the predator with their movements. Well the patriarchy certainly is confused these days.   Hasn't all of womankind been under threat, especially since we managed to gain a few rights to control our own  lives?  Maybe it wasn't an accident that our dance formed because a shy young girl did not want to wait for a man to ask her to dance.  It gives me goosebumps.!!  WE ARE STRONG LADIES.  We need to bond together and fly.  Fat Chance Belly Dance can enable that connection.

I leave you with my favorite video of the afternoon.  Be happy, be strong.  We are part of an evolution!

Notes from a baby dancer

 In 2022 this baby dancer graduated to become a toddler dancer.  That is the moment when you realize that the tiny gurgling bundle of joy has an actual little person who is getting pretty good at figuring things out.  In our chosen dance of American Tribal Fat Chance Belly Dance Style, the baby dancer presents most clearly in the lead position.  Words to describe those first experiences in the lead are fear, confusion, lack of confidence, need for reassurance, and TOTAL loss of memory.  "Did I just have an Alzheimer's attack??"  

But I am here today to offer hope and encouragement!  At some point we graduate to the next level, I call it the toddler dancer.  We know stuff, we may not always get it right, but when we do, we are pretty proud of ourselves.  I want to explore the when and why of how this happened to me.

The when:  It happened this past summer when my in person classes were on break.  Lacey Sanchez was offering a 3 month guided study on FCBDU called "All in the Family".  It was phenomenal!  She emailed every Monday with our homework, then we had an in person zoom chat once a month to evaluate.  The homework consisted of 2-3 FCBDU classes, studies and writings about the history, music and costuming of FCBD, and usually we were asked to make a dance video each week inspired by our topic.  We concentrated on the Pivot Bump family, but to learn the steps we needed to explore the FCBDU website and find them.  Since there were many steps in the family I did not know yet, I had extra classes each week to take.  It was so inspiring to view the videos of the other dancers in the class, who were from around the world!  Since I was new to many of the moves, there were many mistakes in my videos, but I just put it out there along with my assessment of 3 good things, and 3 things that needed work, in my opinion.  Self evaluation is nothing to be afraid of and it turned me into a toddler dancer.  To overcome the memory loss during the lead I always included a list of the steps just outside the camera's view.  Sometimes you can notice me studying it with a concentrated frown.  (not cool, baby dancer).  I started posting the list right underneath the camera.  It accomplished a two in one~I was smiling (or frowning) at my audience, and avoiding my empty brain syndrome.  And so,  Sometime during that repeated process of learning and filming some confidence came, and also a blessed excitement to lead!  When you solo for your audience, or the camera, it is on you, there is no place to hide in the back, catch your breath, and relax by following.

The why of this transition is more spiritual to me.  The steps themselves became my friends.  I could stop by and take them out for a good time.  As my body learned all the components of each movement, I came to have a great respect and awe at how powerful they made me feel.  Each step held its own grandeur and adoration of the divine feminine.  During our exploration of the PULSE turn last Tuesday Katia asked us to stop and appreciate the pause and pose before the turn.  This accentuation of certain poses during a step brings me to why I love it. There are so many examples, and I have pictures, of the elegant feminine sculptural quality.  The dance makes it a moving sculpture of the grace and dignity of our femininity.  In one of Carolena's classes she tell us, "if the choice is between beauty and common sense, beauty wins."  That is why the movements are my friends.  I want to honor them, respect them, share them and demonstrate them as often as I can.

Now, multiply those feelings by a studio or stage full of dancers who know how to weave, fade, circle, spin and smile, all while totally supporting each other, and you will find the magic we celebrate together.