How to Do Snake Arms in Belly Dancing

Series Summary

The art of belly dancing is based largely on one of the dances native to the Middle East called Raks Beladi. It is a dance of celebration for social gatherings such as weddings and birthdays and is danced by both sexes and all ages. Historically most of the known forms of this dance have segregated the sexes so the men dance with the men and the women with women because it was thought that a “good” woman would not be seen dancing with anyone but her husband. The exact origin of belly dancing is unknown however. Some believe ancient Egypt and others, Rome. It is a popular belief that it has developed from a religious dance into the more mainstream version of today.

In this free video series our expert will demonstrate perfectly how to do a complete belly dance from the simplest arm movements to very complex hip movements. You will learn each step of the dance in succession and detail as well as special techniques particular to the dancer such as the Umi and the Choo Choo shimmy. Upon completion of the series it will all be put together into a complete dance for you to review and evaluate your improvement.

Video Transcript

"Hello! My name is Naimah, and on behalf of Expert Village, I will be demonstrating the basics of belly dance. We will begin with snake arms. You want to go shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers. Now, we will move to the head. We will begin doing head slides, just moving the head side to side not tilting the head and not moving any other part of the body. Just side to side, and that end the first segment with snake arms and head slides. "