Shake your body

BELLY DANCING

In the beginning

Some say the art of belly dancing goes back as far as the Middle Eastern slave trade. Others say it started as a ritualistic dance performed by women to increase fertility. Whatever the case, the dance today comes in many forms: Turkish, Egyptian, American tribal and folkloric. In Singapore you’ll find a mixture, but the style I learnt was Egyptian, with Cairo-trained professional teacher, Angelina Tay.

Appropriate attire

The only instructions I’d been given before rocking up to my class at Danz Studio in Cuppage Plaza was to bring something comfortable to wear. Clearly I wasn’t paying close attention, I absent-mindedly showed up in my work attire. Pants rolled up at the ankles, shirt tucked up around my bra, and a borrowed bright pink scarf fringed with coins worn like a short skirt over my work trousers helped to sex up the look.

What was the class like?

Firstly, I would strongly suggest you join a class for beginners. I didn’t; instead I was popped in with six students who had been belly dancing for about two years. They were dressed in black bra tops and colourful, coin-covered scarf-skirts, and yes, they looked quite fabulous. After a quick yoga-like warm-up, Angelina jumped right into demonstrating a belly shake. I looked on in awe as she rolled a big ‘O’ out from the middle, up and around and back. The only similar movement I was familiar with was a belly bump. This was quite different; you needed a modicum of grace to pull these movements off. Next up, belly shaking got one step harder, with books placed on our head for modelesque balance, and if that weren’t enough, another three sets of motions were added on. By the end of the 90- minute class, despite all the different movements, the undulating, rhythmic and tribal-like dance started to feel wonderful, and so long as I didn’t catch my reflection in the mirror, I felt kind of sexy and fabulous too.

What are the fitness benefits?

Once you become fairly sure of yourself (and the movements), belly dancing for an hour or more will not just see you burn countless calories but build all sorts of abdominal muscles you never knew you had. I can’t say that I felt that sore after class, but considering the balance required, the chest and arm lifts, the belly rolling and constant hip shaking, I was suitably sweaty and pretty exhausted at the end of it all.

Sign me up…

Contact Angelina Tay, various locations (Tel: 9002 6104; www.angelinatay.com). Prices vary.

POLE DANCING

In the beginning

Historians might try to tell you that exotic pole dancing can be linked back to the first-ever recorded striptease, performed by Inanna, The Goddess of Love. She didn’t have a pole though, we don’t think. Whatever its heritage, the art of pole dancing is drop-dead sexy, and quite the fad. Since the early ’90s, when classes for ‘everyday ladies’ kicked off in Canada, women all over the world have taken it up, to get fit and feel more sensual – some with the aim of taking their pole back home and into the bedroom. To find out more, I took a class with Suzie Wong, or ‘Ming’, as she is known – the principal of Acro Polates, a company that teaches pole dancing for fitness.

Appropriate attire

‘Wear something short on the bottom and comfortable on the top…you just need to be able to wrap your legs around the pole without slipping,’ Ming says. So I’d packed a tennis skirt and my jogging top, thinking this was a sensible option. Too bad I ended up looking quite ridiculous next to the other five girls in my class who were all sporting tiny black hot pants and even smaller black sports bras.

What was the class like?

This time I joined a beginners’ class. We first learned the fireman movement (use your imagination), then the geisha and the butterfly. None of us looked remotely sexy or butterfly-like hanging on to the pole, and I found it hard to learn to let go, in more ways than one. ‘You’re very big and strong, you have to let go as you circle towards the floor, don’t hold on so tight,’ Ming kept saying to me. ‘It’s supposed to be sexy.’ Then she would show us all how to do it properly, and we’d try again with music. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, but I’ve never felt less sexy in my life.

What are the fitness benefits?

Ming’s taut, toned body is evidence of the long-term benefits of pole dancing, or ‘polates’ as she likes to call it. The strength required to hold onto the pole, let alone whip gracefully around it, legs extended, upside down or sideways is extraordinary. The end of the class saw my hands and inner thighs suffering pole burn, and my tummy muscles screaming. ‘You have to stretch out now, otherwise you’ll be sore,’ Ming warned. And she was right. The next morning, my arms were so sore; I could barely lift them to do my hair.

Sign me up…

Blk 261, #02-29 The Waterloo Centre, Waterloo Street (Tel: 6334 2382; www.polefessional.com.sg). Levels one to five are taught in eight-week blocks. Price is approximately $25 per hour-long class. Sign up for a free trial class with Ming.