Prenatal Belly Dance in Harlem

The NYC Prenatal Fitness Initiative wants to extend its free belly dancing pilot to make this innovative form of prenatal fitness accessible to additional low income women in Harlem and other parts of Northern Manhattan and the Bronx. This workshop began in February and is hosted by Harlem Yoga Studio, which is offering use of its space free of charge. Classes are held once a week and taught by Nyota Nayo, a highly experienced yoga and dance instructor who has been teaching Egyptian belly dance (an ancient form of childbirth preparation) and prenatal yoga in the Harlem community for years. The NYC Prenatal Fitness Initiative promotes the classes through our targeted network of outreach partners, primarily health care providers that serve pregnant women at locations such as Harlem Hospital and New York Presbyterian's community clinics as well as through the Nurse Family Partnership Program. We conduct outreach in English and Spanish, work to attract a large number of immigrant women, women of color, and others who have limited access to quality prenatal fitness programming.  We also hope that participation in these exciting indoor programs during the spring will inspire many to join in outdoor community programming.

We will extend the popular donation-based prenatal belly dance classes once a week for an additional 8 weeks during the months of May and June 2012. These classes are held at Harlem Yoga Studio and are open to women in all stages of pregnancy. All classes are promoted through extensive outreach with community health care providers serving pregnant women in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx, with a focus on providers that serve low income women, women of color, and immigrants. Although classes are conducted in English, we conduct outreach in Spanish as well. Fliers are shared with staff at community health clinics and other organizations, and the classes are also be promoted by online/email-based listings. 

We began the successful prenatal belly dance pilot in February, and need to provide support for an additional few months to further establish the program.  It has been an excellent complement to the affordable prenatal yoga classes that we have helped make available for the past two years.    We hope that participation in these indoor classes inspires women to enjoy outdoor activities for the duration of their pregnancy, and also seek out environmentally friendly active living activities for their families in the years to come.