Belly Dancing as a Zumba Instructor

I have a dilemma. I'm shy when presenting myself to a group of people. I require mental preparation and I get butterflies in my stomach. During a Zumba workout session with Liz at Goodlife, we all had to go in a circle and go in the middle and do our own thing. Because I'm not shy during the workout I guess she automatically assumed I wouldn't be for this. Wrong.... She looked at me and said "Just Do" and tried to nudge me...I shook my head like a 6 year old child and gave that shy smile. But the thing was I wanted to go in there, but I didn't know what move I was going to do. I eventually drudged up the courage and went in the middle and did a travelling samba step that I just learnt to do a day ago. It was so weird, because while I was out there, I could swear that 30% of my body felt numb with nervousness. Why the heck do I feel like that. But...

When I'm taking part in a Zumba workout class I feel I'm at the top of the world. I always make sure I get a spot at the front close to the mirror so I make sure I'm doing the right moves. As the positive endorphins flow through my veins, I actually smile and laugh during my workout. Not something I normally do as I'm sweating like a pig! I have to work on fixing the nervousness issue before August 12Th 2010. I was actually surprised to see that some instructors sweat like pigs too, like Cassandra, and Claudia. They don't let it phase them though and they just keep like going like energizer Latin bunnies.

Some instructors have a great sense of humor like Jewel, Liz & Cassandra R. Sometimes it's just enough to feed off the energy of the instructors because Liz H's energy is all you can eat! She has tons of it! It's so great when she gets out the hip scarf in the belly dancing part of the workout. Every body loves the music whether they can shimmy or not. They just want to shake it! Every time I listen to an Arabic song, I imagine the moves that I would instruct my class to do and at the same time not make them too complicated. Maybe I can have levels, that way the more advanced participants can enjoy it more. I would love to be able to provide hip scarves for everyone in my class because I found a great wholesale source for that. Hopefully I'll be able to order a bunch soon. I love moves like:

• Travelling Hip shimmy


• Leg kick hip shimmy


• Shoulder shimmies with back dip


• Leaning dip hip shimmy


• Hip Figure 8's


• Camel walk with scarf

When you're doing these moves, breathe out twice per second so you don't get cramps in your side from lack of oxygen. Don't forget to drink lots of water during your zumba cardio workout.

I have lots of Arabic songs on my ipod so I won't have to use the same songs every time and also what's a must is keeping it SEXY!~

The Zumba Soul website contains awesome resources on how to belly dance and how to do other latin moves that you can take with you to your next zumba session. www.zumbaworkoutscanada.com/how_to_bellydance