Sabita Sookdeo juggles being a housewife, mother, business owner, and dancer. Belly dancing is her passion. Now she teaches the elegant Eastern form of dance along with zumba to women as a feel-good way to improve their fitness and health while having fun.
The instructor said the dance classes also help women overcome their initial shyness and improve their self-confidence and self esteem.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian at her Infinity Bellydancers Company Ltd studio in El Dorado on Tuesday, Sookdeo said "People are not taking care of their health and themselves, eating what they want and not exercising.
"I want people to practice good health because too many relatively young people are dying of health issues and developing lifestyle diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, strokes, cancer, and diabetes.
"We want to encourage people to come out and learn to try something new like belly dancing and zumba. Aerobics is fun but it doesn't do as much for your body as belly dancing or zumba."
The 33-year-old director and choreographer said the reason for this was belly dancing's slower movements worked the body's muscles faster and depending on the size and weight of the student, it burned more calories when doing movements such as snake arms.
She said before opening her studio at home, she tried introducing more dance classes at gyms in the Eastern area closer to home as she wanted to be closer to her three-year-old son, Sachin, who was her life, however she was not not getting convenient time frames.
Sookdeo said her prot�g� and best friend, Anita Chadee, who set up a studio and dance classes in her converted garage in Debe also inspired her to open her home studio in El Dorado with the assistance from her husband, Michael, and her father-in-law, Indar.
She said the studio which started offering zumba classes from Monday, which she taught, while Chadee taught belly dancing, catered for people in the area who would like to do belly dancing and zumba but didn't want to go too far out of the way.
Chadee, 30, said her job as a process engineer kept her physically active and it was very hard for her to put on weight.
She said there were other benefits to be derived from belly dancing.
Chadee said dancing was a stress reliever; she would put on music and dance her stress and any anger she had away. It also helped people sleep better, she said.
Sookdeo said people were happy with the time frame and the cost. If they can can come 3 or 4 pm, they will be accommodated because it was at her home.
Sookdeo said they sometimes did private house classes for small groups of people or a mother and daughter.
She said some people were shy and did not want to come to an actual class.
Sookdeo said they also catered for people's religious practices such as Muslim women who did not want to take off their hijabs in front of strangers.
She said the majority of students came from Chaguanas, Arima, Arouca, Trincity, Tunapuna, Central, and the furthest was Port-of-Spain.
Sookdeo said the studio also did charity work with The Lions' Club and sponsored The El Dorado Youth Group every Christmas with T-shirts and toys for over 200 children.
She said the studio also sponsored Divali programmes in Tacarigua to get villagers to come together to let them know about their culture.
Sookdeo said the studio also did performances for weddings, birthday parties, bridal parties and company functions.
She encouraged woman to pursue their goals in life "because it is an investment in themselves for the future and no one can take that away from you."
For more information on The Infinity Bellydancers Company Ltd studio contact: sabita.suraj@yahoo.com