Health Through Dance, Dance Fitness and Establishing New Social Opportunities

I like many people found my initial experience of dancing and any form thereof to be both embarrassing and uncomfortable; you know the drill you're at your first school dance when you're 8 years old and you find this strange but moving emotion of awkwardness and excitement rush over you. You feel the compulsion to join in with everyone and dance to the usual cheesy disco tunes of the 70's and 80's but for some reason find it difficult to join in. Sometimes you pluck up the courage by your friends grabbing your arm; or you suddenly in the corner of your eye notice the girl you secretly like and observe her taking fleeting glances in your direction, motivated by her glances and your own as yet undeveloped emotional desires take that first brave step onto the dance floor towards her.

Your own experience may or may not have been like this example, perhaps you always found it easy to get up and dance and shake your body in sometimes what is best described as "daddy dancing". We know that some of us have a natural affinity to dancing be it limbo dancing, salsa, samba or belly dancing, you just have the ability to do it without the usual social anxieties and deterrents most of us experience around dance. If you were like me back in the day the only way you would see me shake or otherwise move my body on the dance floor was through the use of emboldening agents like alcohol!! I however more recently was motivated by other factors to get up and start dancing and enjoy myself unabated by social awkwardness and poor confidence that had previously blighted my experience of dance and have learnt to establish new social opportunities and improve my health through dance.

At the time I first started to become interested in dance I was looking for several things, first to improve my health through dance and to establish new social opportunities. I was advised that dancing is a great way to improve your fitness and also a good way to fight stress and tension and this struck a rather strong cord with me as I was unfit, lacking physical exercise and feeling the physical effects of a busy work life and having a poor social life. I also considered myself to be overweight and lacking any tangible muscle tone and thought "weight loss through dance" yeah that must be possible! I remember watching a documentary about dancing and you know what I noticed? That the people taking part were so fit and in shape and that all the dancers were toned and the juxtaposition of them and myself was stark and I wanted what they had and moreover what they had achieved, fitness through dance.

Another aspect of dancing that appealed was the social component, that making friends through dance was yet another possible consequence of dancing. One thing that was noticeable from the dance documentary was that the dancers were all good close friends and there was a strong sense of social connection amongst them, they were clearly enjoying the shared passion of dance. Have you ever noticed this about dance? That it is actually very social and people do enjoy themselves immensely and you can indeed improve your health by dancing, by this I mean not just physically but also emotionally.

After battling my own social worries and low motivation I decided to take that jump off the cliff and into the ever flowing tides of change, as sometimes you just have to make that change in your life! I started my path of discovery by joining a local Salsa group and boy how nervous was I? Yeah it was tough going for the first time believe me but I just kept thinking "Do you want to improve your health through dancing?", "Do you want to make friends by dancing?". The answer to these thoughts was a big and emphatic YES!! I found the first couple of sessions both enjoyable and very social and discovered I was able to make friends by dancing on a weekly basis and found my fitness improved too, plus I noticed that as the weeks went by my dance fitness improved incrementally which helped me keep up in the sessions.

Naturally I had to overcome some embarrassment and shyness to begin with and found some old bad memories of dancing at the school disco occasionally slipped in and out of my head but I was determined to make it work and quickly sort to quell such negative thoughts. Making new friends was great and having a solid social platform was definitely what I needed at the time and guess what? I also began to lose weight and I also found this encouraged me to diet better and eat more healthily and my overall sense of well-being improved too which was fantastic.

Health through dance? Dance fitness? Making friends by dance? The answer to these is a resounding and heartfelt yes and it has changed my life beyond what I ever thought possible at the time and I am more than ok with that.

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Zumba Workout And Fitness And Its Origins

Zumba has been the word on many of people's lips as of late, be it on the news, on the internet or in the passing conversation heard at work whilst enjoying your coffee. You might be forgiven for believing that Zumba it is just another obscure fringe form of dance or some fad out of Hollywood, but think again Zumba is a tangible and highly accessible new form of dance based workout. It is a workout and fitness achieving tool for achieving better health and what is more is highly enjoyable and allows you to meet new people through dance and that is always a good thing in my book. Zumba unlike many other forms of dance is free from the convention of having to partner up with someone and hence no need to feel the embarrassment and shyness some people experience when first taking up ballroom or Latin dance forms; moreover this means you don't need to do Zumba with a partner or have to worry about finding someone to dance with and we all know asking someone to dance takes some bravery when not accustomed to doing it.

So to surmise Zumba is a brilliant workout, it improves fitness and general health and is a great way to get off the sofa and out of the house and to enjoy and achieve the fitness and health you have always wanted.

Where did Zumba originate from? Zumba is attributed to being contrived by Alberto "Beto" Perez a native of Cali Columbia, Alberto was during the mid-1990's a fitness and aerobics instructor and taught the traditional moves associated with his craft and had done this for a while. But as with some things they just seem to happen out of nothing; a happy accident if you will. Alberto one day left his usual aerobics music at home and instead had to improvise the music for his class. What Alberto did was use mix tapes of the music he that he grew up with such as Salsa and Merengue, and as if by magic Alberto had come up with a new way to dance to music and one that allowed the music to truly inspire how you moved. Thus Zumba as a dance inspired workout and fitness regime was born and a new way to achieve health and fitness and have fun whilst doing it had arrived.

In 1999 Alberto bought Zumba to America and was approached by businessmen Alberto Perlman and Alberto Aghion, they together decided upon the brand name Zumba Fitness and trademarked the name Zumba. In the following years Zumba's potential as a workout and fitness program really came into its own. DVD's were launched and with the Zumba Fitness Party brand really becoming widely known saw the first academy set up to train new instructors to teach this new dance inspired fitness phenomena. In 2008 the widely successful Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System DVD was realised featuring Alberto Perez himself along with new Zumba Fitness stars Tanya Beardsley and Gina Grant. More recently for all the video game enthusiasts (myself included) a Zumba Fitness game was launched on all the major game consoles, the Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

http://www.healththroughdance.com/

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Pole Dancing Shoes: One Of The Greatest Accessories For Pole Fitness

If you are into dancing around a pole for fitness, then one fine choice for footwear will be pole dancing shoes. These types of shoes are very important for dancers who want to be able to pivot and grip the floor when they are spinning and twisting during their routine. The shoes are designed and manufactured with material that allows the shoes to have a strong grip.

Another fine benefit of these shoes is that they provide dancers with good posture when walking or standing, along with the fact that they also can make the dancers look really hot and sexy during their performance. Good posture when standing and dancing around the pole is essential.

The shoe will help a lady with her performance, as the footwear will offer plenty of momentum whenever pivoting as a transition between moves or pivoting at the start of a spin or twist action. Some dancers do not like to wear pole dancing shoes when learning new moves and opt to wear trainers or bare feet. But when performing a routine in a show or competition pole dancing shoes are beneficial.

Pole dancing shoes are worn by strippers in gentleman's clubs and by those participating in pole fitness. Pole dancing is being accepted and used by so many women who are taking part in their pole fitness programs.

Pole dancers require a lot of strength and those that participate and those that use this dance for the purpose of staying fit find that it is brilliant for toning up the entire body. The moves require you to lift your body weight with just your arms, use your arms to lift your lower body overhead, support your body weight on your arms during complex inverted moves. Those that take part achieve a cardiovascular workout when performing routines. 3-4 minutes routines require a lot of energy.

The choice you make in regard to the right type of shoes will affect the back and feet, the routine plus the dance and it will also affect the ladies ability to climb. Lower quality shoes are not a good choice, as you want something of excellent quality so you have the ability to execute the dance in the way that it was intended. Higher quality shoes will last much longer than cheaper brands.

If you are a dancer or take part in a fitness program that incorporates this type of dance for exercising, then you will want to use pole dancing shoes as your main choice of footwear. When practising you may opt to wear trainers but when you have perfected a move or during a performance you will want to wear pole dance shoes.

If your looking to buy a pair of Pole Dancing Shoes then take a look at this site all about pole dancing shoes and other accessories.

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