*walks in, trips, falls, gets up, waves*

Q-Tip

Q-Tip

New member
Hello everyone & thank you for having this board!

A little about me......

I've always wanted to learn belly dancing but since I'm very uncoordinated I don't usually attempt any kind of dance because it scares small children and the elderly. It's not pretty.

40 yr old grandma, redhead, computer geek (spins propellor on beanie)

Working on getting in shape and lowering my bmi while increasing lean body mass. (weight training & cardio are the current focus and I have a very regimented diet.)(5'4",size 10-12, 161 lbs)

I get bored with exercising so I try to keep dvd's on-hand of various types of cardio. (Tae-bo, pilates, yoga, Belly dancing)

I have 1 BD vhs tape but I don't like it so I never do it.

I have 1 BD DVD which I enjoy - Veena & Neena's Bellydance Fitness for Beginners Basic moves & fat burning.

Goals as they apply to this forum:
  • Learn to belly dance with correct form.
  • Develop a sensual and romantic routine to perform for my better half for his birthday in April 2008. (slower moves? more floor work? etc. etc.)
  • Costume appropriately for the routine.

Potential obstacles:
  • There are NO BD instructors close enough for me to take lessons.:protest: (The closest one is 50+ miles away and I work 2 jobs so free time is limited.)
  • I'll have to rely on VHS tapes and DVD's.
  • There are a zillion instructional DVD's for learning to dance and I don't know which one to get next.
  • Funds are limited.

I have no intention of ever performing in public because I freeze in front of people. Thus, the IT career. :redface:

I'm sure I've forgotten something you need to know.........
 
Shanazel

Shanazel

Moderator
Hey, as long as you can get up and wave after you fall, you're half way there.

Welcome. This is a great place to be.
 
Ariella

Ariella

New member
Another computer geek? Oh yay! What type of computer geek? Should I give you advice like this:

while distanceToNearestBdInstructor >= reasonableDriveLength:
you = watchingVideosOnYoutube
DVDs=[]
for GoodYoutubeBDancer:
you = SearchingInterwebsForDvdsByDancer
if DVD <= ReasonablePrice:
DVDs.append(DVD)
nowYou = AskOpinionOfOrientalDancersAboutDVDs
if opinion == good:
nowYou = considerPurchasingDVD
print 'Welcome'

[edited in after initial post]...aaaah! It didn't like my indentation! Let's pretend that the above is properly indented, like a good Python program should be.

Or like this:

So if you're not able to get to an instructor even for private lessons, it's might be wise to get more DVDs to learn from. There are lots of great styles of bellydance out there, I recommend you watch some youtube vids to learn what style you are interested in. If you see a dancer of particular interest, see if she has a reasonably priced DVD, and ask this forum if we know anything about it. Welcome!

P.S. For those who are really confused, the first message was written in Python, a programming language I'm learning.
 
belly taz

belly taz

New member
 
Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

Moderator
Hi Q-Tip, We're glad that you found us so welcome to the forum! You have very specific goals which is a good thing. What you will probably find is learning BD will help with coordination issues over time. Since you have a DVD by the Bellytwins, may I recommend their instructional series. There are small choreographies at the end of each DVD. Jillina also teaches choreographies during her instructional series as well. Floor work however is another story as it is both athletic and graceful because it requires stregth, flexibility and balance. Good Luck and Have fun!
Yasmine
 
Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Q-Tip said:

I have no intention of ever performing in public because I freeze in front of people. Thus, the IT career.
Click to expand...

:cool: He he he, I freeze too when I have to do talks at work - my excuse is I'm a lab rat with an IT streak. But you never know what you might do once you discover your inner belly dancer! ;)

Welcome to the forum and happy posting. :dance:
 
Q-Tip

Q-Tip

New member
Shanazel, KuteNurse, belly taz,Ariella, Yasmine Bint Al Nubia and Aniseteph thank you for such a warm welcome.

Ariella - LOL I can read that code. I deal with MS Access for the majority of my work.

Aniseteph - Stage fright is terminal, I freeze and then stop breathing. But on the upside I'm a lovely shade of blue.

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia - Thank you for the recommendation, I was considering that series.
 
Maria_Aya

Maria_Aya

New member
Heyyyyyy welcome in this wonderfull forum
Enjoy reading and posting, you are at the right place, and warning we are all belly-nutcases lol

Maria Aya, Greece:cool:
 
Yshka

Yshka

New member
Hi there, welcome to the forum. Maria is right, loads of bellydance-addicts over here. You'll love it. happy posting, dancing and learning.

Ps. just out of curiosity, I'm sorry if that means a quick thread hijack, but why are people from Indiana called Hoosier?
 
Q-Tip

Q-Tip

New member
Here is what the State of Indiana says about Hoosier origins:

For well over a century and a half the people of Indiana have been called Hoosiers. It is one of the oldest of state nicknames and has had a wider acceptance than most. True, there are Buckeyes of Ohio, the Suckers of Illinois and the Tarheels of North Carolina -- but none of these has had the popular usage accorded Hoosier.

The only comparable term in American experience is Yankee. And that started out as a synonym for New Englander. In the Civil War era Southerners applied it indiscriminately to all Northerners. In the world wars, many a boy from Dixie doubtless felt a sense of shock when he discovered that in the eyes of our British (Limey) allies that all Americans were Yanks!

But where did Hoosier come from? What is its origin? We know that it came into general usage in the 1830s. John Finley of Richmond wrote a poem, "The Hoosier's Nest," which was used as the "Carrier's Address" of the Indianapolis Journal, Jan. 1, 1833. It was widely copied throughout the country and even abroad. Finley originally wrote Hoosier as "Hoosher." Apparently the poet felt that it was sufficiently familiar to be understandable to his readers. A few days later, on January 8, 1833, at the Jackson Day dinner at Indianapolis, John W. Davis offered "The Hoosher State of Indiana" as a toast. And in August, former Indiana governor James B. Ray announced that he intended to publish a newspaper, The Hoosier, at Greencastle, Indiana.

A few instances of the earlier written use of Hoosier have been found. The word appears in the "Carrier's Address" of the Indiana Democrat on January 3, 1832. G. L. Murdock wrote on February 11, 1831, in a letter to General John Tipton, "Our Boat will [be] named the Indiana Hoosier." In a publication printed in 1860, Recollections . . . of the Wabash Valley, Sandford Cox quotes a diary which he dates July 14, 1827, "There is a Yankee trick for you -- done up by a Hoosier." One can only wonder how long before this Hoosier was used orally.

As soon as our nickname came into general use, speculation began as to its origin. The speculation and argument have gone on ever since. On October 26, 1833, the Indiana Democrat reprinted an article published earlier in the Cincinnati Republican: "The appellation of Hooshier has been used in many of the Western States, for several years, to designate . . . an inhabitant of our sister state of Indiana." The Ohio editor then reviews three explanations of the nickname and concludes:

Whatever may have been the original acceptation of Hooshier this we know, that the people to whom it is now applied, are amongst the bravest, most intelligent, most enterprising, most magnanimous, and most democratic of the Great West, and should we ever feel disposed to quit the state in which we are now sojourning, our own noble Ohio, it will be to enroll ourselves as adopted citizens in the land of the "Hooshier."

Among the more popular theories:

* When a visitor hailed a pioneer cabin in Indiana or knocked upon its door, the settler would respond, "Who's yere?" And from this frequent response Indiana became the "Who's yere" or Hoosier state. No one ever explained why this was more typical of Indiana than of Illinois or Ohio.
* That Indiana rivermen were so spectacularly successful in trouncing or "hushing" their adversaries in the brawling that was then common that they became known as "hushers," and eventually Hoosiers.
* There was once a contractor named Hoosier employed on the Louisville and Portland Canal who preferred to hire laborers from Indiana. They were called "Hoosier's men" and eventually all Indianans were called Hoosiers.
* A theory attributed to Gov. Joseph Wright derived Hoosier from an Indian word for corn, "hoosa." Indiana flatboatmen taking corn or maize to New Orleans came to be known as "hoosa men" or Hoosiers. Unfortunately for this theory, a search of Indian vocabularies by a careful student of linguistics failed to reveal any such word for corn.
* Quite as plausible as these was the facetious explanation offered by "The Hoosier Poet," James Whitcomb Riley. He claimed that Hoosier originated in the pugnacious habits of our early settlers. They were enthusiastic and vicious fighters who gouged, scratched and bit off noses and ears. This was so common an occurrence that a settler coming into a tavern the morning after a fight and seeing an ear on the floor would touch it with his toe and casually ask, "Whose ear?"

The distinguished Hoosier writer, Meredith Nicholson (The Hoosiers) and many others have inquired into the origin of Hoosier. But by all odds the most serious student of the matter was Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr., Indiana historian and longtime secretary of the Indiana Historical Society. Dunn noted that "hoosier" was frequently used in many parts of the South in the 19th century for woodsmen or rough hill people. He traced the word back to "hoozer," in the Cumberland dialect of England. This derives from the Anglo-Saxon word "hoo" meaning high or hill. In the Cumberland dialect, the word "hoozer" meant anything unusually large, presumably like a hill. It is not hard to see how this word was attached to a hill dweller or highlander. Immigrants from Cumberland, England, settled in the southern mountains (Cumberland Mountains, Cumberland River, Cumberland Gap, etc.). Their descendents brought the name with them when they settled in the hills of southern Indiana.

As Meredith Nicholson observed: "The origin of the term 'Hoosier' is not known with certainty." But certain it is that . . . Hoosiers bear their nickname proudly. Many generations of Hoosier achievement have endowed the term with connotations that are strong and friendly . . . .
 
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