It just occurred to me that this is the first post on google regarding the topic of body types for belly dancers, and it’s rather disheartening that nobody has an accurate comprehensive answer. I know this is an old post, but I figured that I’d sign up and post regarding this topic.
Belly dancers are not supposed to be athletic looking, they’re supposed to have full, feminine bodies. Some women are prone to dramatic weight loss with exercise, while other women can develop the myriad muscles required to perform the movements involved in belly dancing without actually losing a great deal of weight. The goal of belly dance is to move beautifully, and having a larger belly is actually a benefit, because the movements you work so hard to perform look more obvious. Instead of developing the rectus abdominis (the “six-pack muscle”) belly dance develops the internal/external obliques (emphasizing waistline and hourglass shape), the transversus abdominis (lower belly band), quadratus lumborum (lower back muscles), and the diaphragm (breathing muscle, utilized in a lot of the “fluttering” movements common in belly dance). The overlying rectus muscle is only minimally utilized in most movements, and never really implemented in full. I still wonder how anyone can be technically obese and practice belly dance with any skill, but only because of the sheer amount of calories it burns. The concentrated muscle movements involve all of the larger muscles in the legs, and I, for one, work up an incredible sweat after just 30 minutes (whereas other exercises may exert me after about an hour and a half). But all of the women with larger bellies are working at an advantage (and they still develop more sleek physiques because of their work on the oblique muscles) due to the fact that they have more to work with in the various movements desired out of the body when dancing. When a smaller woman undulates, it requires them to exaggerate with everything they’ve got, but larger woman can achieve a greater effect by merely moving the muscles required in the undulation, her belly and weight do the rest of the work for her. In belly dance, while I’ve never heard anyone wish outright to be obese, many women envy the larger women in their dancing abilities because of the overall effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzg4a-PQG10&list=PLE484C7972C1A901C&index=1</ There are a few examples of the “ideal body-type” in belly dancers. And I’ll tell you that in any duets I’ve seen, if there’s a thinner woman with a larger woman, your eye is still drawn to the larger woman, and it’s not typically out of disdain, but because she moves better through the routine.
Braains!
Was this really necessary?
Thanks for an informative post, amuredem. And welcome to the Dope!
And at the Anime conventions they dress as Sailor Moo?
Maybe what you saw wasn’t so much “fat” as it was loose skin after pregnancies? Daily mail article with a couple of SFW pictures.
It tones the belly, what it doesn’t do is shove the cookies away. To shove cookies away you’d normally use a hand.
Or the result of a surgical procedure. In my mother’s case, an apendecetcomy which ended up being a removed ovary, but I’ve seen women to whom it happened as a result of a not-delicate-enough cesarean.
I’ve always been put off by “muscular” or “toned” women. Heck, plain old skinny women are off-putting. I want smooth, soft lines, not bumps and bones. In fact, I find the “typical” belly dancer body to be close to ideal.
I would like to see what people consider “not toned” when they make posts like this. I suspect that it is because what is considered “toned” nowadays comes from people posing on the front covers of fashion and exercise magazines - poses where the subject has gotten into a very rigid position, with many muscles contracted.
It would be almost impossible to belly dance like that, since a great deal of the dance involves moving parts of the body with or at least around the core muscles, and those muscles have to be relaxed to be used properly.
This dancer might look “flabby”, but you can tell that she has really strong control of her core muscles: Carolena Nericcio
An apropos article: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/personal-trainer-exposes-the-8216hidden-truths8217-behind-before-and-after-photos/story-fneuz9ev-1226709726569
While we’re at it: Rachel Brice, goddess of belly dance, and possessor of one of the best bodies on planet Earth.
‘‘She danced just like her back had no bones.’’
You want to talk abs? Check this shit out, bellydancer coin trick
[QUOTE=outlierrn]
You want to talk abs? Check this shit out, bellydancer coin trick
[/QUOTE]
yeah…she’s absolutely amazing. When I took bellydancing classes, the instructor had us doing this with just one quarter. I could flip it over and flip it back but that alone took every ounce of concentration I had.
Wow, guys, for a Website that claims to be “Fighting Ignorance” I was amazed at the
ignorance in some of these posts. Let’s look at some of the myths propagated in just this thread:
-
You need super low fat to have six pack abs:
You do NOT need to have super low fat. I have a FOUR pack (Ok, not a six pack) but my bodyfat is 23%. It depends on your diet and how your body distributes the fat.
By the way, the woman who said your boobs will shrink and flatten, to get tones abs is ANOTHER MYTH. With my 4 pack, I have natural 38 B cups (before my period I become a C). I was lucky that way, I am petite in height and a size 4, but I also tend to store fat on my lower belly and hips, so I must combat that with yoga, weight training, cardio, lots of dance and eating cleanly. (Lots of anti-inflammatory foods: fresh organic veggies n some fruits, EVOO, Avocado, wild salmon and other fish, organic turkey, pasture-raised eggs, AVOIDING REFINED PROCESSED FOODS. Find what works best for YOUR body, since people react differently to different foods. Water and lemon with some turmeric- avoid artificial sweeteners. -
Most belly dancers have toned/flat abs.
This is simply NOT true!! I am a dancer and have taken so many belly dance classes.
The person who works at Ren Fair and said he saw so many belly dancers with toned bodies, but disproportionately LARGE bellies (that sometimes hang over their coin skirts) is CORRECT. I realized, from studying so many types of dance, that the undulations in belly dance REQUIRE that you work on distending the belly and many “PUSH OUT” on many undulations, so I gave up belly dance!!!
Sorry, but I don’t want to distend my belly and make it LARGE!!!
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they mostly have large bellies. I think the training and practice of belly dance (as beautiful and feminine as it is), causes the entire belly area PROTRUDE OUT. SORRY, in my opinion, NOT SEXY.
(YES EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT IN WHAT THEY FIND SEXY).
- Having tones abs is not natural.
REALLY??? You think eating healthy foods and doing exercise is not “natural”?
I think eating too many processed refined foods and AVOIDING exercise is
“NOT NATURAL”. We are human beings and our bodies were designed for MOVEMENT, not laying on the couch watching TV and eating chips, baby! Get up and dance, walk, run,
play catch, clean your room, but get moving!!!
Okay, there are several other myths here, but let’s see who else can find them??
I’d keep going, but the Ocean’s calling me!!
Peace,
Surfdancer