Belly Dancing Technique: How to Shimmy

Every new belly dancer wants to know how to shimmy, and every intermediate bellydancer wants to know how to shimmy better.

Basically, a shimmy is just a fast vibration of the lower body - but there is much, much more to it than that! Join any belly dance forum and you'll even find lively debates on how they should be driven - hips, thighs or glutes.

First, as inspiration, let's look at someone who really knows how to shimmy - in fact, she's choreographed a whole routine using nothing else!  - Georgette, a performer and teacher from Sydney, Australia:

Beginners assume that the shimmy comes from the hips, but it doesn't. The shimmy is always driven by other muscles - the hips just come along for the ride!

If you try making a shimmy with your hips - which is the obvious thing to do - two things happen. One, the muscles tense up and you won't get that gorgeous wobble. Two, there's a tendency for the hips to sway out to the side instead of straight up and down.

The most common driver is the knees. When you practice, try to focus on the knees and let everything else relax. That doesn't mean you should let your core go - make sure you are holding your stomach muscles gently so your butt doesn't stick out. It may look sexy, but doing shimmies in that position will injure your back!

The video above shows a very "big" shimmy which affects the whole body. If you keep your heels on the floor and relax your upper body, you'll find the shimmy is confined below the waist. By varying the speed of your knees and varying the flexion (i.e. how far you bend them), you can vary the shimmy.

Changing the emphasis of your movement will also change the shimmy - try concentrating more on bending for a while, then shift your focus to straightening, and see how it affects the hips. The video on the right shows the effect when a dancer varies the way she moves her knees. 

Not everyone agrees that using the knees is the way to go.

Below is a demonstraton of a shimmy driven from the thighs. It looks the same on the surface - the knees are still bending and straightening - but if you look carefully, you will see the movement is more controlled. Done by an expert, this shimmy will produce a sharp, shimmering vibration, in contrast to the jelly-wobble of the knee shimmy.

Some people claim the glute shimmy is the only "right" way to shimmy. Others argue that the knee shimmy is more traditional. Personally, I think there's room for all varieties.

Suhaila is the queen of the glute shimmy. If you want to emulate her, the exercise below (from her belly dance DVD) is an essential drill. The shimmy itself is just this exercise brought up to speed - alternately tightening and releasing each glute.

Like the thigh shimmy, the glute shimmy is sharp and shimmery rather than soft and voluptuous.

Whatever your preference, once you've mastered the basic shimmy standing still, you can layer it with a multitude of moves - figure eights, hip slides, turning, walking, on one leg, etc.

There are variations too, with various names depending who you learn from, what style you're learning and what country you're in - the rocker shimmy, the choo-choo, three-quarter, washing-machine - the list goes on!

And I haven't even mentioned shimmying with your upper body - that's a whole other subject!

Happy shimmying!

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Text copyright Marisa Wright. Photo courtesy of John M on Flickr.com.