Belly dancing and the Core

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve started taking belly dance classes at Joy of Dance (which, by the way, is the best dance studio in Toronto that I know of).  At first, I wasn’t sure if they were for me, as there is an incredible focus on technique.  Whenever there is a chance of doing something wrong, I find myself shying away from that potential wrong-ness situation.

But a few weeks in and I’m really finding that the classes are really helping me with my Nia practice.

How?  Well in Nia we work with the 3 body weights: Head, chest and pelvis. We consider these to be the core of the body and emphasize the alignment of the 3 so that each are stacked, one on top of the other.  When all 3 are aligned along the spine, the organs contained in each of those body weights can function optimally and the body is healthy.

Image via Wikipedia

In my case, my pelvis is not in direct alignment under my chest. That’s because I have lordosis (a curvature of the lumbar/low spine also referred to as swayback or saddleback). This means that my pelvis is tipped forward, and so my abdominal organs are not optimally situated.  I do experience low back discomfort/pain from time to time as well.

My understanding is that a major culprit in lordosis is the psoas muscle, a muscle which reaches from the low back to the inner thigh and can get really tight. I’m pretty sure I’m simplifying things considerably here, but I’m not a muscle expert and love to try to understand my own body.

I understand that the psoas is a fairly deep muscle, and is difficult to get at. That would make stretching the psoas fairly tricky.

Although I know there are ways to isolate the psoas and give it a good stretch, I’ve discovered that I can loosen things up in my pelvis area quite a bit when I’m belly dancing. The movements are intricate and deep and targeted.

That’s pretty satisfying and helps me maintain a more upright and aligned position in Nia.

In short, I *heart* belly dancing (and so does my psoas muscle!)