May

Cross-Training: Bellydancing

Presidental Challenge update — Still going, with five days of activity last week, again thanks to household chores. Total points so far: 4822. This week, I’m not doing so hot: four days in and I’ve only been active for two days. I guess that means I’ll really have to move the rest of this week, if I’m going to keep it up.

John Zimmer of My Self-Defense Blog has recently discussed non-martial arts activities that can help build strength, flexibility and coordination for the martial arts in a couple of posts:

I enjoy walking/hiking, cycling, and yoga, among other activities. But one of my favorite cross-training activities is bellydancing or, as it’s more appropriately called, raks sharqi (meaning “Oriental Dance”). In addition to strengthening the core muscles (those in your torso), it’s helped to build up my arm muscles. It takes a surprising amount of effort to hold your arms out away from your body for minutes at a stretch, as any practitioner of Kundalini yoga can tell you . The basic stance for raks sharqi is similar to a shallow, narrow horse stance (the feet are shoulder width apart, but it’s a narrower shoulder width than in any of the martial arts I’ve done).

Much of the hip work you see bellydancers do is actually driven by abdominal muscles, rather than from your legs or back as you might expect. I can tell you, three years of bellydancing have made sit-ups a breeze. Something that surprised me, though, is how much it’s helped me maintain proper stances. I’ve always thought stances depended primarily on thigh muscles, but the core muscles help you retain a straight torso without slouching. It’s also added both power and control to my kicks, since I’m now able to drive a kick from the hips alone, if I need to. And, at least for me, performing a dance routine requires as much exertion as a sparring bout.

Additionally, bellydance has props, many of which are or can be used as weapons. Sword dancing is, I think, the best known. If you live in the southern area of Raleigh, North Carolina, my bellydance teacher will be teaching a four-week sword workshop in August of this year. I’m psyched; I’ve been wanting to learn sword dancing for years. Here’s a video of one our local dancers. Unfortunately, the audience hides her from the waist down, which means you can’t really see her floor work. But it’s still a video worth watching, especially since the camera zooms in close enough to see how she’s actually handling the sword:

You can do more with a sword than just balance it on your head! Many bellydancers use “dead steel” (unsharpened blades) and it shows in how they grip the weapon. Sara and the rest of her troupe, Blue Moon, use the real deal and you can see it in the way they dance. The following video shows you can balance a sword in several places:

Besides swords, bellydancers sometimes use poi which are weighted balls on chains or strings:

In outdoor performances, dancers will sometimes use flaming poi; inside, they have to make do with battery-operated lighted ones. Here’s a dancer using flaming poi:

Stick and cane dances are also part of raqs sharqi. In the Middle East, stick dancing is considered a man’s form:

Whereas women are more likely to dance with a cane or even two:

The video quality is bad, but you can really see how she uses the canes.

I have to admit: dancing is a struggle for me. I’ve been told I’m a decent dancer, but I have to work really hard at it. It doesn’t come easily for me the way martial arts does. Telling myself that it’s forms set to music helps. Still, the benefit I get out of it outweighs the frustration. Of all the various styles of raqs sharqi, I find myself drawn to tribal the most. I think that’s largely because in tribal bellydance, you’re supposed to look serious, strong, and with a “don’t mess with me” attitude (that and the costumes), unlike the friendly, flirty attitude of cabaret or Egyptian styles. My goal is to eventually work up a routine using nunchuku.

What cross-training have you done and how has it helped your martial arts?