Taking a little Break...with the TANGO

Well, I haven't been able to attend a bellydancing class the last 2 weeks, because of Thanksgiving break and a personal issue. So, instead I am going to write about a what I have been doing.

Since Dancing with the Stars began I have been infatuated with the Tango. I researched places in Tucson to take Tango and found what I feel to be the best place Shall We Dance Studios. It is located at 4101 East Grant Road and the phone number is (520) 327-7895.

It is $25 for either a single or a couple to have 4, 30 minute private lessons. They offer Tango, Waltz, Swing, and Salsa.

I went with my friend Dan and we had a Tango lesson. It was a blast. The teacher's name was Jennifer and she was really good. A member of the Southern Arizona's Dance Chapter, she gave us great instruction as well as helpful information in case we ever wanted to compete in Arizona or any other state. I am going back tonight at 8 p.m. and can't wait!

I am going to start up Belly dancing again, because I do love it, and am going to try an attend the 5 p.m. class tonight. I will update this post tonight after Tango!

New Instructor, New Moves

Class on Saturday was really different. It was taught by a woman named Leslie, who used the same warm up that I was used too, but introduced new moves. Moves I have never seen before!

Leslie begun with a "shimmy." Usually, when learning the shimmy we pretty much just kept our knees soft, with a slight bend and our feet about shoulder width apart and just shimmied by moving our hips and core side to side and using our legs.

This time around it was, "Keep your feet a little bit closer than shoulder width distance and shimmy by moving your diaphram in an up/down and side to side motion. It was very different than what I had learned before and difficult. I loved the challenge.

My best friend from home, Vanessa was visiting me this past weekend and attended this class with me. Vanessa's mom is from El Salvador and she has the genetics of being able to move her hips in ridiculous ways. She caught on right away, and eventually I think I improved and at least got the hang of it for a few seconds.

After we spent about 15 minutes shimming, we began practicing drop kicks, a move that was not anything new, but it was the first time I heard it called that. Next, was interesting, because we practiced walking around dancing, as opposed to just staying stationary in one place turning and dancing.

We took long strides, then stepped together and popped our hips out. It looked great when we all did it together and it was a lot of fun.

I am going to go back tonight (Monday) and hopefully learn some fun new moves!