Expressive exercise

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

From left: Paula Wallace of Nu'uanu says ballet relieves stress, Erin Hart is into belly dancing, and Dominique Schussler of Kahalu'u takes Afro-Caribbean jazz classes. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Miki David of Hawai'i Kai takes a class at the Ballet Hawaii studios at Dole Cannery on a recent Saturday. She is among a growing number of women in Hawai'i who are turning to various forms of dance for exercise.

After slipping behind a screen, she emerged, butterfly-like, as a different person: barefoot, wearing harem pants, a camisole and hip scarf, with her hair tossed up in a nonchalant style, ready to put aside her day for an hour of exercise, romance, fantasy — and dance.

Folk has been taking belly dancing for three years and she's passionate about it.

She is one of a growing number of Island women who are turning to dance as their exercise of choice. Adult ballet, belly dancing, Afro-Caribbean jazz, tap, salsa, hip-hop, tango, flamenco and samba classes are sprouting up in nearly every neighborhood. Dance classes are doubling or even tripling in size, as women discover the myriad benefits of dance.

Various dance forms are supplementing, or replacing, more traditional workouts, such as jogging, cycling, swimming and aerobics.

While a partner is needed for many forms of dance — ballroom, tango, samba and salsa — other styles do not depend on anyone else. A woman can go it alone whenever she feels the urge to dance.

In many ways dance is more demanding than other forms of exercise. It requires concentration, coordination, agility, grace and style. You're not just following an instructor mindlessly or repeating a motion with varying intensity until the sweat factor kicks in. You're following a rhythm and learning a specific choreography.

Many women say they love dance because it puts them in touch with something primal: It's about releasing their inner diva — bringing out the goddess within, who is often obscured by their daily routines.

Dance also can capture the cultural imagination, opening up knowledge about culture from all around the globe, from Europe to the Middle East to Africa and South America.

Certainly part of the appeal is the romance of dance. Nearly every little girl wants to be a ballerina at some point in her "when I grow ups." At age 7 or 8, they put on their little tutus and trot off to ballet class. By age 9 or 10, many abandon their dreams of becoming a prima ballerina because they've been told they don't have the long lithe limbs and svelte body that ballet demands.

As adults, however, and with a little more body- and self-acceptance, they are turning to dance once again.

Folk said she tried hip-hop and street dance, "but I wasn't coordinated with them. With belly dancing I can get it." She likes the flowing movement of belly dancing and the way she can "use my body to accent certain things. The movements in belly dancing are more in tune with my body."

She has stuck with belly dancing because "there's so much to learn. There are so many movements, layering and combinations. It's really cool. There are a lot of different styles to learn, and Willow (the instructor) infuses Egyptian, Indian and other styles into the class."

She also appreciates dancing in an all-woman class which, she said, has a "different feel than a co-ed group. You get more comfortable with yourself when dancing with other women."

In each of the classes we visited there was a spirit of camaraderie and encouragement. Gone is the competitive atmosphere of childhood dance classes. These women are here for fun, fitness and self-expression, without the pressure and expectations of great performances.

About the wardrobe ...

While ordinary workout clothes can border on the boring, dance classes, especially those that derive from a foreign culture, allow for interesting wardrobe opportunities. Belly dancers can express their inner diva by wearing a bedlah (harem pants with a bra top) and elaborate beaded and fringed hip scarves. Ballet dancers can wear petal pink ballet slippers, leg warmers, diaphanous short skirts and leotards. Afro-Caribbean jazz calls for bright cotton prints, dramatic silhouettes and elaborate head dresses.

There also is a little of the "wannabe" influence going on in adult dance classes. The teachers often are exemplary models of fitness and beauty, with perfect posture and a lithe way of moving. It's easy to admire and aspire to such attributes.

Maria Jose Beltran-Rowlands, who teaches adult ballet at Ballet Hawaii, is the ballerina many little girls want to be. Graceful, elegant, with perfect posture and glowing skin, her students simply enjoy spending time with her.

Britt Reidl of Hawai'i Kai, a KGMB TV reporter and meteorologist who is six-months pregnant, has been taking ballet from Beltran-Rowlands for six years. Reidl described it as "yoga with music; it's my form of relaxation."

"Ballet will bring you the joy of expression and enables you to make the connection of mind, body and spirit," Reidl said as she strapped on her ballet slippers. She said her doctor gave her the go-ahead to dance "as long as possible" through her pregnancy.

Paula Wallace of Nu'uanu said she believes ballet is "good for the soul." Although her parents taught ballroom dancing at The Royal Hawaiian hotel, she preferred ice skating. Finding difficulty getting "ice time," she began ballet at age 46 to improve her skating form. Now she's hooked.

"It's a stress reliever. I love the music and the art of ballet. It makes me feel more whole. It's a way of expressing myself," she said. She also confessed to dancing ballet with abandon around her living room to the soundtrack from "The Pirates of the Caribbean."

Beltran-Rowlands said ballet is especially beneficial for women because it develops "strong, lean muscles and a strong back. It gives you knowledge about your body and where you are in space. It requires expression, mental work, and deliberate breathing. You start discovering things about yourself along the way. ... Once you come in touch with your body, you don't need a psychiatrist," she said with her bell-like laugh.

A touch of the exotic

Zoe Weston of Diamond Head takes belly dancing from Willow Chang at Kapi'olani Community College. "People come to Willow's class and they transform," she said. "They start out in sweat pants and T-shirts, and soon they're transforming themselves with gorgeous flowing skirts or harem pants, long earrings and their midriffs showing. They even start wearing makeup to class. She transforms you into a goddess. She makes you believe you can do anything she can do — and you can."

On Wednesday evenings, exotic sounds and pulsating rhythms waft from the windows of The Movement Center at 1225 Center St. in Kaimuki, home of Adela Chu's Afro-Caribbean jazz class. The environment is forgotten once Kim Duffet of Kaimuki starts playing his rhythmic drums, and Chu moves sinuously across the dance floor.

The beat is irresistible as the students warm up with stretches and exercises at the barre. Energy and excitement build as Chu picks up the pace and jazzes up the choreography, incorporating everything from shimmies to umis.

Chu, a Panamanian whose mother is Jamaican and father Chinese, offers an aerobic workout by building the class from stretching and body isolation exercises to movement across the floor to full-fledged choreographed dance numbers.

Chu's entire life has been about dance. "Dance is totally second nature to me," she said. "In Panama we dance from the time we can walk. I think of myself as a natural dancer. If you're a dancer, you're a dancer." She eschews the idea of formal training in dance: "People think they need to be schooled in dance, but they just need to do it. Just dancing is where it's at."

"Just dancing" is exactly what Dominique Schussler of Kahalu'u does. The anthropology major at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa also is a therapeutic recreation instructor. She takes all of Chu's classes, wherever and whenever she can. "I love the live drumming; it brings an energy into it. And her classes enable you to move all the parts of your body and to enhance your assets, if you know what I mean. It's sort of tribal, getting at the core aspects of being a woman and being feminine."

Cultural roots

Schussler's interest in anthropology is tweaked by Chu's stories about the origins of the movements and the culture from which they derived.

Chang's students echo the importance of the culture to their study of belly dancing. Dorothy Wheeler of St. Louis Heights can recite the history of belly dancing, dating back to the Ottoman Empire. She is familiar with styles originating in Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Lebanon.

Wheeler is horrified that some people perceive belly dancing as "anything explicit or sexual." She sees it first as a cultural communication and subsequently as a form of dance, movement, exercise and "a great stress buster. If you're sitting at a desk all day, you can come to belly dancing and suddenly you go into Scheherazade, the Arabian nights, another world. Even if you're shy, you can just let it rip in class. You have only to present yourself as a woman, not a teacher or a worker or a mother or any other '-er.' "

Rosalie Woodson has been teaching adult classes in ballet, tap and jazz for 45 years. During the past year the classes in her Moanalua studio have doubled in size. Why? She attributes the popularity to "doctors pushing exercise because it's so beneficial for older people."

Yes, seniors can walk around their neighborhoods or malls or go to a gym, "but that's so boring. It's better to have a pattern and a teacher to follow. And with dance you're working many parts of your body and you have to think about it and be aware of what you're doing," Woodson explained with characteristic enthusiasm.

Chang also has seen dance transform many of her students, including Ednah Folk. "In the three years that I've had the pleasure of having Ednah as a student, I've seen her blossom into a more gregarious and outgoing person," Chang said. "She has a greater sense of self, and she seems much more comfortable in her skin."

While there's no question that dance is good for the body, these Island women, and hundreds others, "gotta dance" for the good of their minds and spirits as well.

Reach Paula Rath at 525-5464 or prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Where to find classes for adults

While there are dozens of dance studios offering classes, these are a few we visited. Each class represents different cultures, music and movement. All are appropriate for beginners.

Ballet Basics

• 10-11:30 a.m. Saturdays
• 6:30-8 p.m. Mondays
• Ballet Hawaii studios in Dole Cannery
• $12 per 1-hour class
• Information: 521-8600

Afro-Caribbean Jazz

• 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays
• The Movement Center
• 1225 Center St., Kaimuki
• (above the Goodwill)
• $10 per class or $99 per 11-week semester (starting March 29)
• Information: 735-8641
  
  
• 10:30 a.m.-noon, Saturdays
• Hemenway Hall, U.H.-Manoa
• $50 per 5 classes (New sessions began yesterday)
• Information: 956-6468

Belly Dancing Beginners

• 5:45-6:45 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Maile Dance Studio, Kapi'olani Community College
• $10 per class with dance card or $12 for drop-ins
• Information: www.willowchang.com or 292-0820
  
  
• 11 a.m.-noon Wednesdays and Fridays
• Body Balance Center, 320 Ward Ave., Suite 201
• $10 per class with dance card or $12 for drop-ins
• Information: www.willowchang.com or 292-0820

Belly Dance Boot Camp (focus is on flexibility, endurance and strength training)

• Noon-1 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays
• Body Balance Center
• Same prices as above
• Information: 292-0820