i've been belly dancing on and off for a few months now, and i love it! i always feel wonderful after i take a class, but i'm finding that years of irish dance training have made my chest and shoulders VERY rigid. it's becoming an issue when i practice because i have a hard time getting through this and onto other movement....please help

What specific movements are you having trouble with? Your post is kind of vague. Is it movement or posture (arm positions) that you're having trouble with? What style of bellydance are you doing (tribal/cabaret/gothic/?)? Have you spoken to your teacher about this?

Given that it's only been a couple of months since you started bellydance, it's going to take time for your body to readjust from the Irish postures to bellydance. When you warm up, make sure you warmup your shoulders, twist your torso, and stretch your back. If you have a fairly sedentary lifestyle (eg, desk job), make sure you stretch your shoulders and upper back every hour or so as part of your daily routine.

If you're having difficulty holding your arms out for a given length of time, or working with veils, you'll need to strengthen your shoulders and make sure you don't use your neck to support them. If you're having difficulty with chest slides/circles/lifts, sit in a chair and focus on moving your ribcage left, right, up, down, without moving your shoulders (this is great to practice while stopped at lights when driving). If you're having some other issue, you may need to be a little more specific....

When I saw I was having arm issues a few years back I started doing this thing where I'd sit in a chair and dance just with my arms and upper body to improve my isolations and (what I call) arm artistry. Of course after a few weeks and you start to improve some, lose the chair, lol!

We sometimes dance with light weights, and I've found that that really helps to put a little oomph behind the arm movements, especially when you put the weights down again and suddenly your arms feel so much lighter and look more graceful.

ack, sorry for the delay in reply, i've had a crazy few weeks since i last posted. i really meant upper in general. it is improving with time, but i definitely need to build strength up there ie-shoulders, ribs and chest, and upper back as well. sorry for the vagueness *blush* i guess it made more sense in my head than on a screen.