Belly Dancing Egyptian Walk: Basic Drill

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 is the Egyptian walk. In this free video series, a belly dancer will demonstrate the Egyptian walk steps, as well as how to add different styles to the dance. Some of the examples shown will include traveling with the Egyptian walk, Saiidi arms, circling, extra hips, and the folkloric version of the Egyptian walk. With these tips and techniques, the belly dancing Egyptian walk will immediately diversify the routine of any dancer.

Video Transcript

"Now, for our basic Egyptian drill, let's make sure both knees are bent, belly button's pulled in, chest is lifted, shoulders are down, arms are out, palms facing towards the floor. We're going to put all our weight on our right foot, left foot up, make sure you're not collapsing your ankle and we're going to lift that hip. We're going to bring the hip down, switch our weight, lift the other heel and lift that hip. Now, as we go, make sure you don't have straight legs. You want to have your knees nice and bent. Otherwise you're going to get a very sloppy movement so you want to stay nice and low. So we're going to step, hip. Step, hip. Good. Step, the hip is crunching up towards the rib cage, the rib cage isn't coming down towards the hip. So, it's as if you were dancing on one side of a low fence and your neighbor had no idea you were dancing. So keep this upper part of your body nice and still. So, step and hip. Step and hip. Good. There's many variations. What we teach is the step the first and then the hip. Step and hip. There's no right or wrong, there's just many variations and of course what's wrong or right for your body. Good."