Dancing muscles

Janet Lindup, a former principal ballet dancer with Capab (now the Cape Town City Ballet Company) says that strong core muscles are very important for all dancing, which trains these muscles. “Core muscles include abdominal as well as back muscles and these are important for stability, including posture,” says Lindup, describing the benefits of dance, including belly dancing. “Strong core muscles help to avoid injuries,” says Lindup, now a Pilates instructor.

Belly dancer Gertie Store, a member of the Hip Circle Studio, said she started belly dancing in 2010 to lose weight. “We worked muscles we never knew existed, from our head to our toes and got more than a workout,” she says. “I started feeling good about my body weight and got the confidence to dance alone,” says Store.