Belly Dancing Shimmies: Foundation & Basics

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. There are a number of different individual dance moves that can be performed within the realm of belly dancing, and among these are a variety of shimmies. In this free video series, a belly dancing director will demonstrate how to do a number of shimmies, including the vibration, the butt shimmy, the Egyptian shimmy, the choo choo, and the 3-quarter shimmy, among others. With these belly dancing tips and techniques, any dancer's repertoire will be instantly more diverse.

Video Transcript

"Let's learn how to shimmy. Let's start with a basic way to do a foundation shimmy. There's many different ways of doing a shimmy. This one we're just going to start with, bending and straightening the knees kind of like a hip bump; basically is one where you're lifting the hip up into the ribcage. Let's start nice and slow first, cause' I like to make these nice and clean. The important thing to remember about a shimmy is that the movement is even. You can always count it with the music, so it's different than other moves. So one two, three, four, five; speed it up a little bit, good. And now we're going to drill it a little faster. Okay, so now we're shimmying. We started slow, and we built up to it. So the shimmy; you want to keep your feet flat on the floor, keep the knees soft. The weight is in the heel. Make sure your belly button is pulled in, your chest is lifted, your shoulders are relaxed, and your arms are out from your body for right now, just to practice it. Now it's really important to keep breathing nice and steady. Relax, let the knees do a lot of the work, and also use your side muscles to pull the hip up, and keep the movement nice and smooth. Practice this in the mirror, so that you can make sure your movements are nice and even."