Celebration! (dance related)

Hey, all you slow learners out there in Whole Woman land, have I got news for you!

Actually, it might not thrill you at all, but it has implications for you - yes you!

I have just mastered the Turkish shimmy in ATS dancing. What? Well, don't dwell on the details, but you will see that it is a complex and fast step.

It is different from the Egyptian Classical shimmy, which is done from the knees. This Turkish Shimmy is based on 4/4 (?) time, ie four beats to the bar, but with a canter rhythm (triplet?) between each count. You move your right hip up-down-up-rest. Then do the same with your left hip, then repeat it until you fall over. When finishing the left hip shimmy, you step forward on your right foot and sink down into your right hip on rest-1, which becomes the right hip up of the next sequence, then it is down-up-rest and step back onto the left foot. That is the full sequence. I have taught my body to do this. It has taken me between two and three years to get it. I couldn't yet do it in a performance, but I can now get it right straight away, almost all the time. Now it is time to start layering it on top of other moves.

I can't do nauli (yet). I can firebreathe. If I can learn Turkish Shimmy at the age of 60, and get it to happen on demand, then you can master Whole Woman posture, and firebreathing and nauli.

I tried and tried with Turkish Shimmy, doing it repeatedly at 1/4 speed for months and months before my body 'got it'. Then I did it a bit faster, until I was doing it half speed, and consolidated 1/2 speed, dropping back to 1/4 speed and going back to 1/2 speed, until my body understood the relationship between the two. Then I did the same, speeding it up to full speed, then alternating back to 1/2 speed as before.

This was not thinking my way through it. It was closing my eyes and feeling it, or doing the moves with my hips on long, boring drives, or lying in bed in the mornings, trying to wake up. It simply got into my 'muscle memory', my repertoire of what I can do with my muscles, and the speed that they can learn to keep up to.

It is just like learning to ride a bike. You just keep doing it, and crashing, and getting back on, realising that if you don't get back on the bike, you will be stuck on trainer wheels for the rest of your life, and that is embarrassing, if you were to represent your family in a cycling Event. ;-)

First you only get the pedal to a 1/4 turn before you wobble to a stop. After a few more tries you can get the second pedal back to the top and get the front wheel to rotate all the way round once. Then you can get the pedals to rotate twice before crashing again. It is slow and sometimes painful progress. It is not until you master it that you realise that it is possible to master it, and that you have mastered it!

There is very good reason to learn to ride a bike. There is very good reason to keep persevering with Whole Woman posture.

So, if you have two left feet, and can't ride a bike, or can't get the latest dance moves, don't worry. Your body is capable of more than you realise. All it needs is to be taught. Eventually, with WW posture, when you are slouching, it doesn't feel normal, and it doesn't feel OK. You *need* to straighten up again to feel OK. Then you have made it. Then you can tweek the details for fun, and for better results, but you have to get the basics right, step by step, before you can tweek it. I suggest that you start with your breathing, then chest lifting will be easy, and you will already have half learned to relax your belly. then relax your shoulders, etc

Now, go for it. You are never too unco or too old to learn how far you can take it. Any bit of it that you can master will be a bonus for your pelvic organ support system.

Louise