My fancy gym has a lot of different fitness classes and they’ve just added burlesque dancing. Here’s the description: “In this 45-minute dance class you will increase your flexibility, balance and coordination while bringing out your playful side. Learn a variety of movements and choreography that will unleash your inner confidence.”
I thought I might give it a try and blog about. After all, I’ve tried Zumba. I’ve also given a non-fitness burlesque class a try. See Sam has fun at body positive burlesque.
Diane and Catherine have blogged about burlesque too. See Building Confidence Through Burlesque (Diane Harper) and Burlesque: bawdy body positivity (Catherine Womack).
But I might not get a chance if these attendance numbers are anything to go by.
I looked at 8 am on Thursday and it looks like almost no one had signed up. Aqua fitness on the other hand? Fills up every time.
So I have an idea: AquaBurlesque!
Sexy water dancing.
No one will know if you get the moves wrong because you’ll be underwater.
I bet it would fill up fast.
Check out Demi Remick, and her burlesque tap dancing! https://www.instagram.com/demi_remi?igsh=NHU0aHB5OW1xY3Fm
This is brilliant! I love the Million Dollar Mermaid clip. But seriously, Mermaid action saved me this year – after a hysterectomy this spring, 12 weeks of rehab because I developed a massive (and horrific) infected wound near the incision, and when I was all healed up, I went back to work for 3 weeks and then got in a car accident, or rather I watched in horror as a well-meaning young man t-boned the passenger side of my car.
Needless to say my nervous system was a bit frazzled, and it’s taken me months to convince my body and brain that the pain I am feeling pretty regularly is actually brain-based as much as it is body-based. It’s the same hip area as my affectionately-named Cantaloupe, the large fibroid I carried around for 4 years prior to her eviction. She was pressing on my pelvic nerve and the veins that go down my left leg, so my organs and ligaments and all the pelvic things are still kind of figuring each other out. Enter the mermaid.
As part of my prehab for my scheduled hysterectomy, my fantastic physiotherapist got me water walking and swimming. But after the surgery, when I could finally get back in the water, I had very little core or back muscle, and I needed that to convince my spine and hips to find their rightful homes. So I started showing up to aquafit most days, sometimes for two classes in a row. The first half hour was always agony, not just for my hips but my entire body which just sort of felt inflammation and stiffness everywhere. One day Hank, one of our beloved instructors, sadly lost his true love, and was off for the rest of the summer. I had been considering how volunteering as an instructor might make my newfound favourite rehab more affordable, so I hopped out of the pool and gave it a try. I mostly copied the moves of the helpful regulars, and they gave me lots of tips as the weeks went by.
For me, the key to my rehab has been pleasure – not quite sexy water dancing but for sure pleasurable intuitive movement that pushes me but also keeps my nervous system within its window of tolerance. And you’re right, no one can see you (well, I have admittedly given a heads up to the lifeguards that I’m not drowning, just working out my stiff spots.) With flippers and paddles, I can now get a pretty good workout.
Love your rehab story. Thanks for sharing!
And if you’d like to write a guest post we’d welcome hearing your story on the blog itself.