Women Learn About Heart Disease Prevention Through Dance

Lead by head dancer Tammi Galloway, the Benefits Spirit of Women Day of Dance introduced women to an exciting way to burn calories and stay away from hart disease: through dancing. Women donned their most comfortable dancing clothes and shimmied their way toward knowledge and illness prevention.

Galloway stressed how belly dancing, a form of dance that has roots in Persia and and much of the East, can be a truly unique and fun alternative to exercising. She began the program by sending five belly dancers to demonstrate to the audience who were in their best dance attire that day.

Spirit of Women and outreach coordinator for the community, Lacey Gallagher couldn’t agree more. She too believes that dancing is good for the heart and the figure.

A yearly event that takes place in different areas all over the country, the Day of Dance program aims to educate women about the risk of cardiovascular disease.  Gallagher hopes that through an engaging and artistic activity such as dance, they are able to reach out to women who need more information about their cardiovascular health.

Aside from belly dancing, women who participated during the Day of Dance were introduced to Pilates and Zumba and enjoyed a flash mob presentation to the tune of Michael Jackson’s megahit “Thriller.”

A credited laughter yoga instructor, Martha Jones delivered a talk and presentation about the transformative force of laughter, also called “joyology,” which according to Jones does wonders for the heart.

Jones believed that getting a good laugh, whether or not intentional, once every day can be good for one’s well being. The audience in response gave a hearty laugh.

There were also other related activities headed by the Montana State University who sent nursing students to offer body mass index and blood pressure checks during Day of Dance. Many of the participants did not only rely on their dance accessories and moves but also got a health checkup. Both the checkups are known to be significant in one’s cardiovascular wellness.

For those who did not bring their dance gear, there were booths that gave out information about stress and diabetes and sleep and cholesterol.

There were booths that focused on the importance of nutrition and proper diet, where interns stressed the important of controlling portions during meals to maintain a healthy weight.

Participants in turn learned about how we consume certain food twice as much compared to people’s diet 20 years ago. Back in the way, a plate of spaghetti only contained 500 calories, compared to the 1,025-calorie serving we have today. The bucket of popcorn we take to the cinemas has 630 calories.

Women are the target participants because many still believe that heart disease affect mostly men. This is only one of the myths that Day of Dance wants to eliminate, according to Gallagher, who added that heart diseases do not choose its target across the age brackets.

Dance of Dance got many women to think more about their cardiovascular health and add dancing to their daily routines.

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Move Like Miss America with the Right Dance Accessories

Nearly every little girl dreams of one day becoming a beauty queen. And the Miss America pageant, which began as a beauty contest in 1921 but has since become a scholarship-giving body, is the foremost annual national competition in the country that brings together young women from all 50 states as well as from the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands to vie for the title as well as to win a scholarship grant to their chosen educational institutions. The recent Miss America 2012 pageant featured not just beauty and brains, but a wealth of talents, with nearly half of the contestants opting to showcase their dancing prowess in the preliminary talent competition and during pageant night. And for little girls who want to one day compete in and become Miss America, it is important to start honing dancing skills early on. This includes taking dance classes and wearing appropriate dancing attire and dance accessories.

Though the young woman who eventually won the crown – 23 year-old Miss Wisconsin Laura Kaeppeler – sang the operatic vocal piece “Il Bacio” by Luigi Arditi, the coronation night saw five of the Top Ten finalists performing dances. First Runner-up Miss Oklahoma Betty Thompson did an Irish step dance of “Warriors” by Ronan Hardiman. Third runner-up, twenty year-old Miss Arizona Jennifer Sedler, performed a jazz dance of “It’s About That Walk” by Prince. Miss California Noelle Freeman who ended up 4^th Runner-up performed a ballet en pointe of Black Swan from Swan Lake. Others in the Top Ten who performed dances were Miss Illinois Hannah Smith who showed her dance skills with a ballet en pointe of “Palladio”, and Miss Louisiana Hope Anderson who did a contemporary dance en pointe to “Sway”. The last time a contestant who performed a dance number won the title was in 2006, when Jennifer Berry of Oklahoma performed a ballet en pointe.

As a popular form of performing arts, dancing requires discipline, and this is shown in the routines of the contestants. As a visual feast, along with the music, another vital component of any dance number is the costume. Wearing attire appropriate for the genre of the dance will not only help the dancer move freely and more comfortably, it also helps establish the mood of the presentation and impress the audience. The fit, design, and cut do not only have to match the dance, they also have to match the dancer as well. And the tights, ballet shoes and lyrical shoes, and dance accessories worn by the Miss America contestants enabled them to move with grace and poise and deliver powerful performances.

Appropriate dance attire and accessories are therefore important, not just for Miss America contestants but for everyone – from professional ballerinas and tap dancers to little Miss Americas-in training. Alyce Dancewear is the leading online source of dance shoes, tops, bottoms, leotards, bags, and accessories carrying leading dancewear brands Capezio, Little Stars and Funky Diva for ballet, hiphop, jazz, lyrical and tap dance. Email [email protected] today to find the best dancewear and dance accessories for you.