Dance and I

I have a phobia… I really do not like to deal with people…yes, I know this is weird…
When placed in a situation where I have to deal with people, I will start to tremble, and get really agitated. Just standing in line at the grocery store was torture. So I stopped going – I did not leave my house …for years this is how I dealt with my “phobia”. Then my children started to grow up … “let’s go to the park Mom!!!” and I just couldn’t. My husband would decide that a trip to Dairy Queen would be perfect for a hot summer day … then, the excuses would come pouring out of my mouth. My family would go without me, come back all glowing, and tell me all about their trip to the ice cream place. How I wanted to be a part of their funny stories …I was 22 and trapped in the house.

This is where the magic of dance comes into my life.

I decided that if I took a class of some kind, where the people were the same every week, I would get used to them and could start helping myself get better. I had alllllways loved Irish step dancing and there was a local studio that was offering classes. The ad read “small class sizes in a private studio” - just what I needed. So I signed up…oh boy, was that a night … I was shaking and sweating before I even entered the class. The stresses, on top of what years of neglect had done to my body, were just too much. (*wince*)! I ran home with my tail between my legs that night. I was sooo not going back.

The next day I called the lady who ran the studio, with all my excuses ready. The class was too hard, I was overweight and so on and so forth. Her perky voice interrupted my excuses “I have the perfect class for you to try!!!” No matter how I tried to come up with excuses as to why I could not do this other class, she always had a fitting response to it. “I’m overweight” – “ it’s low impact”.  “I’m not coordinated” – “its made for women just like you”. Pulling my hair out on the other end of the phone I almost explained about my phobia but I could just hear her asking why I signed up for class in the first place. So I said I would attend the next class…

Belly Dance…wow… how did I get myself into this mess?…

Belly dance was brand new to our little city and most of the ladies had been talked into taking just a few classes. The ladies that were taking it were just as uncomfortable as I was. Everyone was trying to hide at the back of the room; there were giggles and blushes as our bodies refused to do what the instructor said was natural to a woman’s body. Every single one of them were so nervous; they were all just as agitated as I was, so I came back the next week and the next week after that. Soon I got to know the ladies and we all relaxed into the dance and were actually doing what the instructor was doing!! Wow!! I was dancing!

I will always be grateful to the perky little voice that would not accept my excuse and just take no for an answer...

It is now 12 years later and I am just as much in love with Belly Dance if not more so than I was way back then. I am not saying it cured me - definitely not! I still have issues when standing in line in the grocery store. I still do not deal with crowds of people all that well. Belly dance boosted my self-confidence, It gave me a reason to leave the house, and it made me feel good. Adding that to the need to be a part of my children’s lives … was enough to make me fight and fight hard.

It’s really hard to explain what Belly Dance does that touches and speaks to a woman so much. I mean, come on … it’s just a dance class…how could it change you… But I see it over and over again in the classes I teach. The lady that is hiding in the back corner of the class on the first week is standing middle row front by the end of twelve weeks, and after another 12 weeks is standing front and center in class and thinking about performing at our next student recital.

Get a bunch of ladies together that all have taken classes and start the topic of dance changing their lives and every single one of them will have some type of story of how it did just that … changed their lives.
I know it changed mine …