Belly Dancing Posture

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 video series our expert belly dancer will teach you how to do upper body belly dancing moves. You will learn a variety of ways to use your hands, arms, shoulders and head to accent your belly dancing skills, such as the head slide, wrist circles and falling leaves moves. You will also learn chest lifts, shoulder hits and shoulder lifts and falls. If you are interested in belly dancing, our instructor will show you a variety of ways to move your arms and upper body.

Video Transcript

"First thing I'm going to speak to you about in this series today is posture. Posture is very important when you're dancing. At the beginning stages, at the advanced stages. You always want to make sure you are in correct posture, otherwise you could hurt yourself, or the move may not translate the way you want it to. What you want to do, is you want to make sure your chest is lifted, you want to make sure your tail bone is tucked under. And your knees are always going to be slightly bent. Unless told otherwise, you should always be in this posture. Now how I tell my students to make sure that they are in that correct posture, is do big huge shoulder roll, and that will help lift the chest. You want to keep that chest really lifted, and you can do that just by bringing your shoulders up and around and back. Another thing that you want to do is make sure that your tail bone is tucked under. What I tell my students to do is I have them tuck under and pop out. Tuck under and pop out. When you tuck under, this is the way you should stay. Another way you can keep this posture, is either by sucking your stomach in in the lower abdomen, or you can tighten your butt. Another thing you want to do is make sure that your slightly bent at the knees. You don't want to be sitting too far into it until we're learning a specific move later on. Just a slight bend, keep it tucked, and keep the chest lifted. Another thing you want to do, is almost keep your chin at eye level with other people if they're standing, or just keep it up upright. You don't want to have your head down or up too far when you are dancing. So again, just keep your chin straight. So this is your correct posture to apply to all your dance."