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Enjoy Exercising and Expressing Yourself Through Dance!

If you enjoy busting a move on the dance floor with your friends at parties, why not take some dance lessons from a professional to refine your skills? Whether or not you have taken lessons before, learning some new moves will not only spice up your routines but it can also provide you with a fun way to exercise and release stress.

Dance is a form of expression that provides both emotional and physical rewards. Because dancing requires you to move your body in challenging ways, it tones and conditions the body, making your muscles lean and strong.

If you are interested in taking dance lessons, you'll find opportunities to improve your dancing skills in a variety of places, ranging from private studios to large health clubs. Similarly, you can choose from a number of different types of dances, including:

  • Ballet
  • belly
  • disco
  • folk
  • hip hop
  • jazz
  • polka
  • salsa
  • square
  • swing
  • tap
  • waltz.

If you have never taken dance lessons, experiment with a few different types of dance to see what suits you best. In fact, professional dancers often practice more than one genre of dance because learning different techniques complements and enhances their practice.

Belly Dancing
Recognized by some countries as a folk dance, belly dancing draws its inspiration from dance styles of Morocco, Egypt, Russia and Spain. This ancient dance has a rich cultural heritage focused on respect for the sensuality and femininity of women.

Belly dancing was first used by the Egyptians to help women prepare for childbirth. Its movements work multiple muscles and are all natural to the body, including rolling and undulating with stances and moves such as shimmies, ribcage slides and turns. Dancers wear colorful, jeweled costumes that are comprised of a bra, a belt low on their hips, a flowing skirt and a veil. Some dancers add jewelry, strands of beads or decorated cuffs around their wrists.

Today, belly dancing is taught at a wide number of venues in most cities with lessons for women of all ages and backgrounds. Its benefits include:

  • greater flexibility
  • improved posture
  • reduced back problems
  • strengthened abdominal muscles
  • toned arms and shoulders.

Tango
Originating in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Montevido and Uruguay, tango is a social, sensual dance. Known for its dramatic style and associated with love and romance, this dance is made up of intricate footwork, challenging patterns of movement and syncopated steps that can be difficult for beginner to learn.

Tango's basic movement starts with the walk, one of the first steps beginners learn. While there are many different types of walks used in tango, the "line of dance" is the most common, simplest walk to learn. In the line of dance, you walk counter clockwise along the outside edge of the floor to avoid running into other couples. The one aspect that is common to all types of tango walks is the way in which steps are taken: tango dancers must step forward with all of their weight on the balls of their feet.

Tango dance partners face in the same direction, cheek to cheek, keeping their arms around one another as they move and step simultaneously. This close physical contact is one of the reasons that the tango is considered to be such a romantic, sultry dance.

Women dancing the tango usually wear high heels and flowing knee-length dresses with slits up the side or the front to free their legs for the dramatic steps. Men tend to wear form-fitting slacks and long sleeve silk shirts to allow free movement. Couples, especially those dancing competitively, generally wear costumes of matching colors.

Tango dancing improves posture, tones the arms and legs and offers aerobic benefits.

Ballroom Dancing
In its early form, ballroom dancing was an activity for royalty. While socio-economic dynamics don't prevent anyone from this type of dance today, ballroom dancing is usually reserved for special occasions, such as weddings or lavish parties. Dancers are often dressed in formal eveningwear: The women wear fancy, long gowns, and the men dress in tuxedos.

Ballroom dancing includes dances that were popular in different time periods. In ballroom dance, one of the dancers is considered a leader, and the other is the follower. This dance progresses by the follower responding to the leader's movement and awaiting cues for the next move. Most styles require some knowledge of step patterns. Private studios and dance associations offer ballroom dancing lessons and opportunities to practice the steps with partners.

Some of the basic positions of ballroom dance include:

  • a closed position where partners move tightly together
  • a fan position where both partners face outward with one arm stretching out to the dance floor
  • an open facing position where partners stay connected but with some space between them.
Whatever dance style you choose, lessons and practice will help you improve your dance skills and experience the positive rewards of dance.

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