Stephanie's Studio

D is for Dancing Zulu Dancer So, what can you do for free, that lifts your mood by elevating endorphin levels that also helps your fitness level? Dance! As a girl, I was blessed with a unique opportunity. My mother had danced in her youth and wanted to share that experience with me. Through her encouragement, I grew to love my dance lessons and ended up studying dance about 4 nights a week and then performing on the weekends. One of my favorite activities was dancing outside. I enjoyed practicing my turns outdoors (poor grass!). So, I’d put our large speakers outside the door and then turn and turn, and turn some more, using the trees across the lake as a spotting tool. In case you’re unfamiliar spotting is a place you focus your eyes so that you don’t become dizzy. Now, some of you reading this will think this sounds crazy. Others are living in a place wherein doing something like this is not possible. I’m not suggesting you twirl outside, but hey, if you can, g...

  As Mother Day approaches, I reminisce about the ways my mother led me to belly dance. I still have a photograph of her in the 1950's decked out in an Egyptian costume with her sister friends.   Her belly is bare, the belly that was to become my home for nine months.   She is wearing a veil; she and her multi-hued friends look happy, peaceful, sensual and satisfied.   It is so telling, the ways our mothers can shape us—teaching things about accepting our self, in relation to others. Unlike my mother’s Egyptian influenced form, I was inspired to learn American Tribal Style (ATS) inspired by Carolena of Fat Chance Belly Dance . ATS is about feminine ascension, spirituality, strengthening from the core.  ATS has taken me back to the beginning, to a personal epoch of inner genesis. This genesis enabled the reestablishment of what I love best about the dance—spiritual engagement with music, nature, the self and most importantly, others.  I feel my wo...