Yes, THE Jill Parker of Ultra Gypsy.
THE Jill Parker I used to only see in Youtube and other videos.
THE Jill Parker who taught Rachel Brice and Sharon Kihara.
THE Jill Parker Sharon Kihara said had the strongest and most graceful arms.
Okay. I'd better stop there.
Anyway, the first one started at 1 PM for about an hour. We began with a yoga-based stretch and moved on to warm-ups. Jill didn't take too much time explaining or breaking things down, but when we asked, she would so meticulously put things into perspective.
She showed a very good way of making sure your body is in natural position by imagining you are holding a bowl of water inside your stomach. If you are tilting either way, the water will spill. So you have to make sure that the water doesn't spill.
The way the class works is that after warm-up, Jill asks what things we'd like to drill on for the day. Today, we practised on hips on the down and ups, three-quarter shimmies, omis, and more shimmies. I'm telling you, my shimmies had never felt so perfect. Of course when I got back to the hostel and tried to re-shimmy, I sucked. I was just too tired.
After the Beginner class ended, Jill said that anyone who'd like to stay for the Intermediate class were welcomed. So I stayed. I mean, the Beginner class was very nice and I could follow everything, but I also needed a challenge. The Intermediate class turned out to be quite challenging and I loved it. We even began with the Suhaila glute exercice (I hate it so much), but I could feel the squeezes greatly improving after the initial contact with glute exercicse with Sharon Kihara last year in the Bellydance Evolution workshop in Bali.
Nearing the end of the Intermediate level class, the students rehearsed a very complex choreography with Jazz fusion and there was another newbie in the class so the two of us just followed along. I'm telling you, it was a work-out. I am not at all familiar with Jazz so there are just so many things I need to work on, including layering a bodywave with a shimmy.
At the end of the class, I introduced myself to Jill. She congratulated me on doing a great job following the choreography (well, a bit), and I apologized if I had disrupted the class's atmosphere, but she said it was fine and she enjoyed seeing men dancing.
I was so glad.
Well, I can't wait for next week!
Oh, and like the cool girls from Unmata, Jill also appears to not shave her underarms. It was noticeable at first, but like, after 30 seconds later, I wasn't even aware of it. Here's a thread on Tribe about hair on underarms.
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