Woman Offering Unique 'Bellyrobics' Classes In Greer

Lora Amy Bright, recently back in Greer after spending years in Hawaii, is offering an exercise class to women she says is sure to tone and firm in ways no other exercise can. 

Bright will be leading a six-week "Bellyrobics" class beginning April 1 at a dance studio that specializes in dance fitness exercizes that are, well - anything but ordinary. 

The North Pole Dance Studios, which primarily offers classes in pole dancing - a skill the business says helps tone and improve flexibility - hired Bright, an experienced belly dancer, to teach a different kind of class based on belly dancing. 

Bright, who had lived in the area before, lived in Hawaii for six years before moving to back to the Upstate. While in the Pacific, she began taking belly dancing classes, along with ballet and jazz dance class. 

"I did it for a while, and then started performing with a troupe, and doing some solo performances as well," Bright said. 

When she returned to the Upstate, she began searching for a way to teach belly dancing, the seductive Middle Eastern dance often associated with Egypt, to others. 

"I was looking for a studio. There aren't a lot of belly dancers in this area," Bright said. "Trying to find a studio that caters to ethnic dancing at all was difficult in the Greer and Spartanburg area." 

Bright's 6-week classes, which combine aerobics and belly dancing moves, are offered in two sections: 

• April 1, running through May 6 (for Mondays) 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
• April 6, running through May 11 (for Saturdays) 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

You must pre-register at The North Pole Studio's web site to take the class. Bright said skeptics would be suprised at the way belly dancing can help tone a woman's body. 

"It uses muscles, and tones muscles, and targets muscles that aren't usually used, and it does so in a way that fits a woman," Bright said. "And you can modify it to fit your body. The fun thing is, you learn new moves while also learning some new music."

Bright said she primarily sticks to traditional Egyptian music for her sessions.

Classes are $75.