10 Is A Magical Number

Remember that 10 day practice theory that I talked about in my post about the Rachel Brice workshops?  Well, it really, really works! 

Rather than waiting until all my bead work related deadlines were met and I had enough time to create my own 10 day practice I decided to jump right in with one of Rachel Brice's DVDs.  For my experiment I used the 45 minute practice session from her "Tribal Fusion Belly Dance:  Yoga, Isolations, and Drills:  A Practice Companion with Rachel Brice."  If you're not into Tribal or Fusion styles of belly dancing please don't let that title fool you.  The isolations and drills are universal and can be applied to any style.  

I think I know what is on you mind right about now.  You're thinking that if you do the same practice for 10 straight days, especially if it's from a DVD, that you will get very bored very quickly.  Trust me, you won't, not if you know how to practice.

I spent the first 2 days getting familiar with the practice then picked something different like arm paths, zils, or layering to make each day a little different and challenging.  One day, when I was feeling overly tired and had a nasty, nagging, backache, I did the entire practice sitting or laying on the floor. 

What results did I see?  Exactly what I was hoping for; more flexibility and range of motion when doing upper body isolations.  My upper body undulations have always been smooth, but somewhat small because my upper back, shoulders, chest area are too tight.  But now I'm gaining the ability to create a larger, more dynamic undulation.  

While I'm working towards completing my next bead related deadline I'm going to keep on doing the 10 day practice with different DVDs from my ever growing collection.  The question is, which one?  I have about 50 or so to choose from.