(And some comments on these post-victorian times, MTV, American culture, and starting your own mommy and me bellydance class in your city ) by Zepporah Rose
3. How did you come up with Baby and Mom Bellydance?
I was a professional bellydancer with a local Cincinnati troupe. Then I got pregnant. I danced while pregnant, and started dancing again shortly after giving birth.
I had a baby who didn't want to be put down, and that was fine with me, babies should be carried without fear of spoiling ( I read the Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff, Thank God!).
I carried him in a cloth sling called the
Nojo carrier by Dr. Sears.
I soon learned that I could get my practice in while carrying him in the sling. The sling also helped me to get chores done too !
Then after he got too heavy, I discovered the baby wrap which uses
both shoulders instead of just one (like the sling).
I then started teaching free classes for baby and mom bellydance.
When our troupe was asked to dance at an adoption festival, I gave my first baby and mom Bellydance offical perfomance back in May of 2004. The families, and children loved it. I now do festivals, special events and presentations as well as babywearing demonstrations. The audience responds very positively, especially when I carry a basket on my head !
2. How do your wrap your baby on your back ?
Just Like the *National Geographic* women you see on PBS documentaries on TV!
For Bellydance performances I use an 8 yard extra long piece of fabric (about 22-30 inches wide) very safely tied around my body when performing. For performing I ALWAYS have my husband or a friend help me securely wrap my son.....Butfor home practice I use the basic 5 yard wrap sold on several internet sites. I use the "back wrap cross carry" found below for everyday practice.
No, They go along for the ride on their mommie's back while safely and securely wrapped on (some mom's tie them on the front or use a hip carry, but I feel the back carry is safer and more comfortable for mom and baby). There have been many studies to show that dancing and moving with a baby helps brain development. Click Here for reccomendations
4. How long have you been bellydancing?
9 1/2 Years. I first studied under Tamalyn Dalall from Miami, Fl (who by the way has a wonderful book and video series out). After moving to Cincinnati, I studied with Conchi Madson . I now teach baby and mom bellydance classes and prenatal bellydance classes, regular non mommy or baby classes as well as babywearing classes in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Call for more info 513-295-3917
5. What do you like about bellydance?
Bellydance allows a women to be at peace with her body. It teaches her to use it in a very femine yet strong way. It also enhances the joy of motherhood.
Hips were made for carrying babies. A womb was made for life to grew in.
Breasts were made for nursing offspring.
When a women is proud of her body she can excel in motherhood also. I need strong hips. I need a healthy womb. I use my body to be a mother. When a mother likes her body, her children also learn to like their bodies.
Bellydance is also a wonderful excercise !
6. Have you read any interesting books on bellydance and motherhood?
I just read a really nice book called. Grandmother's Secrets: The ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Bellydancing.
The book is pretty neat. I haven't finished it, but skimming through it there were a lot of interesting old school bellydance topics. There are some beautiful pics of women nursing toddlers. In most of the pics they are covered more than American bellydancers are used to. They focused alot on how strong hips related to mother hood. I also highly reccomend Jean Liedloff's Continuum Concept for babywearing information. Click here to see more on these books.
7. What are your favorite bellydance videos?
Okay BESIDES my new video coming soon, I like to use
: )
Shamira's Sensous Work-out I and II and I really like
The Ultimate Bellydance Workout by Jehan. I also love Neon's bellydance series on hips and abs....they are very fun !!!
I can do all of these above videos with my son on my back. Or I might use Delilah's bellydance (available at www.visionarydance.com) hip weight belt while doing these videos. Also anything by the
Bellydance Superstars, especially Ansuya is great !
...And you don't need a video to bellydance either,
I usually do my shimmys and warm-ups in the kitchen while cooking. I also keep a favortie cd in the player, for when I feel like getting a quick 15 minute bellydance work-out. I let the music and my mood decide how I dance.
8. Okay....um ....isn't bellydance sleezy?
I hear this ALOT. Snide snickers from friend's husband's, or raised eyebrows from associates who are surprised at my hobby...
Hollywood and MTV have done a good job of making bellydance
(or any dance) sleezy....but hey
this from the gang that makes sex seem dirty, and love seem empty.
So I try and avoid those cliche interpretations of bellydance personally.
I think anything could be made sleezy, really.
Ballerinas have much less clothes on than bellydancers, yet they are seen as innocent and fairy like. Women at the beach nowadays would be considered prostitutes 100 years ago, yet the average bellydancers are for the most part much more covered than
the average beach goer.
I think alot of our interpretaions are cultural.
I feel that bellydance is a beautiful art form that allows a women to express herself.
Somewhere along the way society has convinced us that our bodies are dirty, and sex is perverse. This isn't the way our bodies were created.
Bellydance can help a women get in touch with her God- given sexuality, thus improving many aspects of her marriage too.
Bellydance reminds a woman of that her body can be used for strength, joy, pleasure, growing and sustaining life. Hips, womb, breasts, they all are beautiful in bellydance no matter the shape or size.
I think some women might secretly feel their breasts are dirty, or just for pleasing men. I think some are even afraid to try breastfeeding, because they feel that breasts are dirty sex objects. Yet in Song of Solomon it describes breasts beautifully. I think bellydance is a lovely dance that is good for the organs, and the muscles. It also teaches women to love their bodies. And why do my friends who do Irish Dancing never get these comments?? I mean they wear less clothes than I do while baellydancing!
9. Why do you dance? I have heard you are a Christian. How can you be a christian and bellydance?
Dancing brings joy.
God made so many beautiful things in this life, and Satan tries so hard to pervert them.
Culturally, Moses wife Zepporah would have known how to bellydance. Bellydance in the Middle East is their "social dance". Miriam, Moses sister danced. David danced. Clearly our body was designed to dance, yet people don't because it has been made to seem dirty ! Any one read John or Stasi Eldridge "Wild at Heart " or "Captivating" ?
The closest thing to dancing nowadays outside of an underground night club is aerobics..... A great exercise, yet not really dancing, more of a sterile, planned movement.
I really wish society wouldn't make social dancing seem so dirty. I think humans have a NEED to dance, just like they have other needs, if those needs aren't met....it is easy to be tempted into meeting their need in a perverse way.
When people have sex drives and ignore them, it often turns perverse in the form of an affair or pornography etc.
I think the reason so many of our youth are out in smoky "underground dance clubs" is because social dancing isn't really done anymore. No more barn dances, or balls. EVEN the stuffy victorians danced, yet nowadays so -called christian people don't dance, out of fear of seeming dirty. How did modern christians become more stuffy than the victorians !!???
....So teenagers are forced to meet their need to dance in clubs where there is easy alcohol, illegal drugs, smoke and empty sex.
It is a shame really that we have forgotten how to dance as a culture. I think our children want us to remember how to dance.
That is why I dance with my son on my back. He has learned how to dance in his own way doing cute little jigs and jumps. Many days he will come to me and say "Mommy turn the music on,dance." He then pulls my husband and I up to dance with him.
It is a fun way to celebrate family time too.
10. What does BALADI mean ?
....... In Arabic it means my home, country ....kind of a country folk word.
But it's meaning in bellydance and Arabic music is to name a rhythm. Middle eastern songs are not based on melodies (like Mary had a little lamb) but on rhythms. The melodies and music follow the rhythm in middle eastern music. If you say this pattern below you will be doing a baladi
doum doum tek e tek (slight pause) doum tek e tek
R R R L R (slight pause) R R L R
or in numbers 1 -1 -123 (slight pause) 1- 123
the r and L represents your right and left hand - pat your right hand on your right knee, and your left on your lfet knee for R or L as you say the phrase.
There is an excellent, classic article written by Hossam Ramzy THE egyptian musician (like their Mozart) at this link. It is really cute !
11. I would like to teach a mommy and me class in my area, how do I start one ?
I suggest joining local Attachment parenting, or other playgroups to meet moms. Also have lots of patience during class, sometimes the lesson plan doesn't get followed, or we stop and wait for a mom who needs to tend to her sleepy toddler.
( or we stop and wait for me to tend my 3 year old)
I suggest encouraging moms to NOT bring toys to class, this way toddlers dance with you, and no one is distratced by making sure Johhny and Jenny are sharing a toy.
Always support babies head too ! If a child falls
asleep be cautious not to turn and ALWAYS support their head!
My classes are $5 class, but that doesn't mean yours has to be. But remember many stay at home moms don't always have extra cash for extra stuff like bellydance, so the more you charge the less moms who want to come can.
Other than that I teach it as a regular bellydance class, with lots of laughing, and jokes from moms, and babes.
If you need help with babywearing try mamatoto.org or peppermint.com
