My first: Belly-dancing
Today I finally went for my first ever belly-dancing lesson/workshop. After years and years of talking about it and wanting to go for lessons - I remember the first time I was meant to take belly-dancing lessons was either in my late secondary school or early JC days, back in 1998-1999. It was an old school-friend who had suggested it, the same girl who had suggested going for French classes at Alliance Francaise in Singapore. My spirit was always willing to take up new ventures and adventures, but my flesh was weak - I was always mostly too broke, or otherwise too busy to pursue all the interests or learning opportunities that were available. (Hence my realisation that I had too many wants, and therefore needed to earns lots of money to feed my greed for life experiences)
Since I've started working, I've wanted to try out belly-dancing as well, but it's been difficult finding weekend classes - most belly-dancing classes are on weekdays. And then again for the first couple of years I was working too hard to even get out of bed most weekends when I was granted reprieve from work. The lack of belly-dancing companions did not help in overcoming my inertia either. I prefer to do things with people, but several attempts to persuade people to join were met by: "let's do salsa/tango instead?" or otherwise, in typical City fashion, there are always cancellations, delays, etc. Theoretical agreements to go for rock-climbing/wine-tasting etc. courses have rarely come to fruition due to a combination of lack of co-ordination, procrastination, or just lack of will.
So this time, I got fed up. I wanted a quiet weekend in to recuperate from my post-holiday jetlag, to tidy up my room. But at the last moment, I thought I might as well try something new on Sunday, so I searched the web for belly-dancing classes, et voila! there was a workshop today, and I called to reserve a last-minute spot.
It was interesting, and actually much harder work than I had expected. And I've discovered I have two-left feet. Funnily enough, people who see my dancing in clubs think I'm a good dancer. That's mostly because I enjoy the rhythm and let myself go with the flow in clubs. But I've realised that I'm really quite bad at organised dancing - I'm always mixing up left and right, struggle with learning movements, and am as stiff as a marionette when I'm trying to follow specific steps as part of a broken down choreography. It's a humbling experience.
Nonetheless, it's fun and challenging, and I want to go for the next workshop at the end of September. Learning and new experiences give me great joy because it means I'm living and growing!
Since I've started working, I've wanted to try out belly-dancing as well, but it's been difficult finding weekend classes - most belly-dancing classes are on weekdays. And then again for the first couple of years I was working too hard to even get out of bed most weekends when I was granted reprieve from work. The lack of belly-dancing companions did not help in overcoming my inertia either. I prefer to do things with people, but several attempts to persuade people to join were met by: "let's do salsa/tango instead?" or otherwise, in typical City fashion, there are always cancellations, delays, etc. Theoretical agreements to go for rock-climbing/wine-tasting etc. courses have rarely come to fruition due to a combination of lack of co-ordination, procrastination, or just lack of will.
So this time, I got fed up. I wanted a quiet weekend in to recuperate from my post-holiday jetlag, to tidy up my room. But at the last moment, I thought I might as well try something new on Sunday, so I searched the web for belly-dancing classes, et voila! there was a workshop today, and I called to reserve a last-minute spot.
It was interesting, and actually much harder work than I had expected. And I've discovered I have two-left feet. Funnily enough, people who see my dancing in clubs think I'm a good dancer. That's mostly because I enjoy the rhythm and let myself go with the flow in clubs. But I've realised that I'm really quite bad at organised dancing - I'm always mixing up left and right, struggle with learning movements, and am as stiff as a marionette when I'm trying to follow specific steps as part of a broken down choreography. It's a humbling experience.
Nonetheless, it's fun and challenging, and I want to go for the next workshop at the end of September. Learning and new experiences give me great joy because it means I'm living and growing!
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