Level Change in Belly Dancing

Series Summary

The various strains and versions of Middle Eastern Dance have become commonly referred to as Belly Dancing in the West, despite the multiple origins and cultural mysteries. It is generally accepted that the tribal and religious dances that we recognize as belly dancing originated in Egypt, though it's also true that Turkey and the Roma people practiced versions as well. Today, belly dancing is performed in the Western world as a form of entertainment, exercise and as a hobby.

In this free belly dancing instructional video, you will learn basic belly dancing moves such as the head slide, head circle and hip slide, as well as drills and exercises to perfect these moves. Our experienced instructor will explain and demonstrate these moves in different tempos. You will also learn moves created to build the muscles in your hips for belly dancing. Have fun, exercise and learn how to belly dance, all at the same time.

Video Transcript

"Often in belly dancing you want to do a level change to keep things interesting, you want to do things up high down low and various positions to keep your dance nice and exciting; and to express different feelings towards your audience. So a couple things that are very crucial remembering when you do a level change, you don't want to stick your butt out; this is not a level change. This is the leaning forward, it's not really a dance move. If we're trying to showcase our nice isolations, we want to do a nice smooth level change down. That's going to showcase our moves with starting to look sloppy and sticking our butt out, that kind of think o.k. So let's try it with our feet together; start with your feet together, belly button pulled in; chest lifted, shoulder's back and down and we're going to step forward with one foot. Now we're not stepping forward very much; notice the toe; my big toe is right in line with my heel. Now from here we're going to shift our weight to the balls of our feet. Now in this position we're a little bit lifted; it's good to practice your balance here, keep the ankles pulled in; pull your belly button in, lift the chest and we have this nice belly dance position. In order to drop down you want to sink straight down as if you're sliding your back down a wall. Practice this in front of a mirror because you want to make sure you're not sticking your butt out, it's very easy to let that chest come forward for balance. So as you go down you want to keep this nice and level so when you do other moves you can showcase what you're doing."