a good class

I wasn't planning to go until next month, but finances looked a little better than I thought they would so last night I went to Najmat's class at Green Street Studio in Central Square. I was very impressed and will definitely be returning for more. The class is all Arabic style, very internal and focused on deep muscle work (discovery of the night: my lowest tier of abs needs strengthening. I can use them and isolate them, but they are comparatively weak next to the middle and upper tier. Posture will improve if I work on these muscles). She teaches by demonstrating movements and combos, more or less assuming that we know what she is talking about, then circulating around the room to help people figure it out/refine it and of course taking questions from the start. Breakdowns happen along the way rather than as an introduction to a move; this would not suit everybody's style of learning, but for me it works well. She didn't teach me any movements that I was unfamiliar with, so I didn't need a basic breakdown, but I did learn to get more out of those movements and create them with more oomph. She does tend to let people work very independently, which sometimes meant that each dancer was dancing to her own rhythm, which I did find a little confusing at times but eventually I got somewhat used to it (on a side note, the class doesn't specify a level, so we were mixed levels. no real beginners, but I was probably at the higher end of the levels present). If I didn't have the timing right, she let me know. She also packs a fair amount into an hour and a half class; I'd say we did 5 or 6 combos with variations, about half of which were new combos to me. And unlike nearly every dance teacher I've studied with, she does a cooldown at the end of class, hooray for health precautions! So all in all, a very valuable evening.

It was a little more than I ought to have been doing, given how sick I still am, but it felt good to move and sweat a little. I'm finding that a combination of decongestants and Gyspy Cold Care tea enables me to breathe pretty well. I'm having to sleep up on piles of pillows though, so my neck is all achey. Poor me. At least I can expect a quiet day at the office. I have rather tedious tasks awaiting me, but I can play music to keep me sane. I even remembered my mp3 player cable.