Twerking is gaining some traction in the music scene and stepping into the limelight of pop culture. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Megan Thee Stallion’s music video, Body, is a great example of twerking gone mainstream.
So twerking, or dancehall (the actual style of dance), originated in Jamaica and has been around since the ’80s. Now it’s exploding. Like many women, I wanted to know; how do they shake their booty like that?!
My Post-Baby Bod
As a new mom, my sexuality and body image have both been disturbed. I would liken it to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, in the sense that I feel totally different from my pre-baby self. Bigger breasts, fuller hips and a pouchy belly to feel self-conscious about–my body changed–for better or for worse.
For me, I felt awkward in this “new body” of mine. I thought I would just snap back to my old self, but that hadn’t been the case. To outsiders, I may have seemed to “get my body back,” but to me I felt no matter how much exercise I did, I couldn’t shake the mummy tummy. Loose skin on your abdomen is normal of course because your stomach just stretched to accomodate a human. Duh! It seems common sense, but it also left me estranged from my body. Even sexual intimacy didn’t seem appealing to me anymore. I felt like Austin Powers to say the least–Oh no, I’ve lost my mojo!
My Dancehall Journey
Dancing has helped bring me back to loving my body and feeling sexy again. Last summer I attended a dancehall class my friend Liz convinced me to take. The Swedish instructor, Johanna Enough, was visiting Toronto on her dance tour. Her Instagram twerking videos (@johannaenough) are mesmerizing and with zero experience, I thought I would give it a try.
I love reggae and dancehall music but I never knew how to dance to the fast tempo. I attended the full class at Cadence Dance Academy amongst dozens of women. Once I got over the initial embarrassment of shaking my booty, it was actually quite liberating and fun. What amazed me was that all the women uplifted and supported each other and I felt like my post-baby body positivity was blooming.
Twerk Terminology
We learned the beginner hips and booty techniques that fall under the umbrella category of twerking but are actually different movements. Most of the dance moves require isolations of the hips and booty. Here are a few of the basic moves that I learned:
- Whining: a circular hip rotation
- Tic toc: isolations in a clockwise direction like a hand on a clock
- Jiggle: shaking the booty quickly
- Puppy Tail: wagging the tailbone side to side
- Indicator: Alternate isolating bum cheeks
- Twerk: Lifting and dropping booty
- Fast Twerk: bouncing the booty
Let me just say that it is surprisingly hard. I broke a full sweat after five minutes of squatting in the twerk position. For a person who works out, I was literally out of breath! Disclaimer: Twerking is a physical exercise and it takes time to get good at it and build up strength.
Practise and More Practise
After leaving the class the lessons stuck with me. I studied twerking videos on Instagram. I practised constantly in front of the mirror in my room. I twerked in the morning after my shower, I twerked after my workouts. I twerked around the kitchen every time the song Dumpling came on the radio. The payoff? Within a year, my “stiff in the hips” body began to relax and I could finally shake my booty!
At the same time I started weight training and building my glute muscles and to my amazement, I finally had a round peach to shake! It took a year of solid weight training and resistant band work. FYI: Resistant bands and heavy weights are the trade secret to building your booty.
Twerking and Healing
After the pandemic hit, Johanna began offering twerking classes online over Zoom and I jumped at the chance to learn more. I continue to take classes (online) and can see the visible improvement in my mobility and the tone of my backside. I even purchased a pair of twerk shorts from twerk icon, Nastya Nass, whose twerk videos are Insta-famous. (@nastya_nass_)
Suffice to say, I’m serious about twerking now and it has also led me to feel sexy in my body again. Having a baby had taken a blow to my body image, so had the long recovery and years of sexual abstinence thereafter. It has been a blessing but also an adjustment. I no longer had the urge to be creative or feel sensual for sometime which made me feel disconnected from my divine feminine.
Dancing activates and heals your sacral chakra, also known as your womb chakra that is directly connected to your divine feminine energy. Moving your hips is actually a healing exercise if you have any trauma to the sacral chakra like I did. I’ve included some more information on womb healing and the sacral chakra below.
If there are any moms that feel me, my advice is to try something that makes you feel sexy again. Something just for you. Move your hips and dance for yourself. It took me a year to cultivate my skills, but also something I’ve enjoyed working towards. I’ve watched myself and my body transform to be different than I was before having a baby, but more bootylicious.
Try Online Classes
If you are interested in learning how to shake your booty, Johanna Enough is offering another series of Zoom classes this January. I will definitely be there! You can sign up online through the link in her bio on Instagram or here. She’s offering four classes that cover various techniques. Each class is approximately $21 CDN. Please check her page for updates, but for now here’s the class schedule:
If you are a beginner, I recommend taking the first one on January 2, 2021, 1 pm EST “Let’s Get Started – Super Basic” to get your feet wet and learn the foundational movements. Maybe you will love it as much as I do and take all four classes! What else is there to do now a days?
