Introduction:
Whether you are new to belly dance or brushing up on the basics; this blog post takes a deeper dive on your understanding of 10 fundamental moves. Because belly dance moves can vary in name, execution and description, my choices are made based on clarity and physical description. Your teacher may explain it differently. Learning different ways to perform a basic move is the beginning of your journey into playing with your dance moves and can grow into skills needed for creating choreography and improvisational dances.
Here Are Ten Moves Every Belly Dancer Should Know:
HIPS: Slides, Circles, Twists, Horizontal Figure 8’s, Hip Bumps, Hip Bump Shimmies
ARMS: Arm Circles, Shoulder Accents, Snake Arms, Shoulder Shimmies
BREAKDOWN:
Note: Don’t forget to warm up before practice. When practicing any of these moves, you can choose a set number of repetitions or a time duration or just pick a song and follow the music. Abbreviations: CW means clockwise and CCW means counterclockwise.
BASIC STANCE: Start with your feet: “hip width apart”. This means under your hip bones (not the outside of your hips). Feet are parallel. Weight is even and centered over your feet. Knees are softly bent. Pelvis is tucked under slightly so that the tailbone is pointed down. Lower abs are engaged to support our lower back. Chest is lifted. Shoulders are rolled back and down and are relaxed. Arms are out to sides at chest level and slightly forward of your body with hands soft, relaxed and fingers slightly separated.
HIP SLIDES: We are sliding our hips side to side and shifting our weight in a horizontal line using our side/oblique muscles. To keep the movement parallel to the floor (our hips naturally move up and down as we walk), we need to keep our knees soft and level. Don’t bend and straighten as that will cause the up and down movement we are trying to avoid here. Think of touching each side wall with your hip as you move side to side. We can also slide our hips forward and back.
HIP CIRCLES: Push your hips forward, to one side, to the back and to the other side. Bending opposite knee as you shift weight. Upper body is still. When circling to side, your inside leg is bent and your outside leg is straight. Keep knees soft. Practice in both directions. CW. CCW. Tip: Imagine tracing a circle on the floor.
HIP TWISTS: Twist hips forward and back without moving upper torso. Keep hips level and alternate from side to side. This can be a smooth and rhythmic movement or sharp and snappy in the forward motion but don’t overdo it. Keep knees and legs relaxed for movement.
HORIZONTAL FIGURE 8’s x 2: Figure 8’s use a combination of hip slides, twists and single hip circles. With our horizontal figure 8’s, we can imagine tracing the number 8 on the floor with our hips. Each hip traces one circle or half of the figure 8.
FORWARD FIGURE 8: Direction is front to back.
Start in basic stance with soft bend in knees. Now, bend right knee more and let hip drop, twist right hip forward and then circle out to the right CW and back to a centered position (basic stance). Now, bend left knee more and drop hip, twist left hip forward and circle out to the left CCW and back to center position. Repeat and smooth it out so that you are not stopping in the center. The movement is flowing first to the front and then to the back. Note: weight will shift some from side to side.
BACKWARD FIGURE 8: Direction is back to front.
This is the same movement but in reverse so the movement is flowing to the back first and then to the front. Start in basic stance with soft bend in knees. Start with a right hip twist to the back, circle hip CCW around to the front and back to center. Now, twist your left hip to the back and circle hip CW out to the side, front and back to center. Repeat and smooth it out. Again, expect weight to shift from side to side as you slide and circle 1 hip and then the other.
HIP BUMPS: Knees are bent. Push hip up and to one side as you straighten the knee of that leg (like bumping a door closed). Shift weight to the leg that straightens. Alternate side to side with hip bumps and weight shifts. Note: your knees always stay soft meaning a little bent even as you straighten.
HIP BUMP SHIMMY – The hip bump shimmy is a variation of a vertical hip shimmy requiring a deeper knee bend for increased range of motion. Because the knees are bending and straightening, they move the hips up and down. At shimmy speed, the hips are moving up and down but also side to side giving it a looser, more wobble effect/wobbly look.START: Start with your hip bumps side to side. Never lock knees. Stay relaxed and upper body still. Double time. Increase speed to shimmy. If you lose your rhythm, just slow down and work up speed again.
ARM CIRCLES: Use both directions CW & CCW. Sunrise Arms direction is from in to out (CW) and Sunset Arms direction is out to in (CCW). SUNRISE ARMS: Start with arms down in front of the body with wrists crossed, slowly raise arms up front of body and over head like taking off a t-shirt. Then, circle arms out and down in front to repeat or circle out to sides and into new arm movement or to reverse. SUNSET ARMS: Start in same position with arms down and wrists crossed (Variations: arms by hips or out to sides), circle out to sides, up overhead and slowly down front of body.
SHOULDER ACCENTS: Include shoulder rolls and pushes. Shoulder accents can alternate left and right shoulders or just use one shoulder repeatedly. PUSHES: Push one shoulder forward and back in a horizontal line. Practice one side only at a time, then other side. Then alternate.
SHOULDER ROLLS: Arms are out to the sides. Right: right shoulder circle forward, lift up, pull back and circle down making a full circle. Left: left side does the same. Practice alternating with arms both out to sides or one arm only and keep other hand on hip.
SNAKE ARMS: Start with arms out to sides in basic position. In this movement, we are isolating one arm, lifting up the elbow, wrist and hand, then dropping the elbow, wrist and hand. Switch to the other arm. Now alternate. As one arm/elbow goes up, the other goes down. Create resistance in your arms as if moving them through water or honey. For bigger snake arms, lift the shoulder first, then the rest.
SHOULDER SHIMMY: Our shoulders are alternating and pushing forward and back: Right, left, right, left. Alternate at a slow steady pace, picking up speed. TIP: Think of your shoulders sliding forward and back along a straight line horizontal to the floor.
Summary:
These are fundamental moves. More to come in a future blog post. I ordered these moves like building blocks: simple into more complex. Ex: hip slides before hip circles, then hip twists before horizontal figure 8’s. For more practice with teachers who give detailed breakdowns: check out belly dance YouTube channels: Sahira Bellydances and Mahin’s Bellydance Quickies.
Kelly Picard Books 