the Price of Belly Dancing Lessons

After visiting a local Asian festival, my wife decided that she would like to try belly dancing. She approached one of the performers at the festival and was told when the next class would be and how much it cost, etc. The class was the next weekend. I went with her but did not participate. There were 5 women there taking the class total. The teacher was very young and sort of short with the women. She told them that she would be teaching them some yoga poses, basic dance poses, drills, 3-4 tribal moves and how to transition between them. During the 2 hour class, she did not complete all of these but did her best I feel.

It was obvious from the beginning that the teacher was overwhelmed and not used to teaching a group class. She was easily side tracked and even snapped at my wife one time when she asked a question about a particular pose. My wife was not happy with the class and did not go back. She did not feel like she really learned anything about belly dancing, as all that the lady taught was a bunch of still poses. The teacher was so caught up in what her students were doing "wrong" that she could not move forward to teach something else.

I do not really know what my wife could have done differently. Maybe she should have researched belly dancing more and found out if it really was something she would like instead of just going on impulse after seeing a show. I do know for a fact that she regretted just approaching the first belly dancer at the show. She wished she would have talked to some of the other dancers first and gotten a better feel for their personalities and experience at teaching.