Belly Dancing

My GOODNESS, it's been waaay too long since I posted on here!! I've been a tad busy with intermediate lessons, looking after my nephew and reading the belly dance articles available on this website:

www.gildedserpent.com

I'm telling you, this website is amazing; it's jam packed with useful and interesting articles from working belly dancers as well as links to great dancers around the border of the homepage.

And to make up for lack of seasons greetings, I wish all of you a Merrychrimanewyearellow!

Peace out :o)

I was doing a wee bit o' surfin' and came across this website especially useful for Londoners:

http://www.londonbellydance.com/index.htm

Copy and paste that into your browser bar window thing and have a quick glance, this site has some really good info for London events and haflas (belly dance shindigs to those not familiar - you buy a ticket, you turn up, sometimes have a little to snack on and dance dance dance!) as well as restaurants that have belly dancers and LOADS more!

:o)

Just a list of moves that I've learnt in my beginners class - you could use it to refresh your memory of your own classes or might be able to find a tutorial or two on youtube.com.

Fast Moves:

Hip drops - single and double.

Half moons.

Triples.

Bouncing hip drops.

Leg twist hip drops.

Hip twists.

Shimmy - static/moving/hitting/back leg/hip drop.

Bouncy breaks.

Side to sides.

Turkish drop.

Hip circles.

Undulating hip circles.

Duck.

Slow Moves:

Forward eights.

Back eights.

Lateral eights.

Mayas.

Breaks.

Travelling:

Sides to sides - single and double.

Camels - forward, back, side, bobbing and circlar.

Egyptian walk.

Travelling hip drops.

Hip ups.

Step out.

Kick outs.

Twists.

Skippy twists.

Hip twists.

Leg twists.

Moving back eights and back eight circles.

Walking - slow and sassy.

Others:

Arms - Egyptian, snakey, circles, wavy.

Hand circles.

Shoulder shimmy - fast, slow, eights.

Rib cage slides, drops and circles.

Body wave.

Try mixing up a combo of these moves to your fave piece of belly dance music; for example, stick couple of back eights and mayas whilst doing some nice fluid snakey arms in the slow bit. When the beat kicks in, throw in some travelling hip drops, hip twists, shoulder shimmies and triple hip drops. Over a very fast, rolling drum show off your shimmy. POW!!! There you have it. Instant dance. Give it a go - remember, it doesn't have to be perfect, just try and co-ordinate yourself with the music and enjoy moving to it. You'll get such a buzz when you hit those beats perfectly!! Dance like no one's watching!!!

xxx

Muchos apologies for extreme lateness, I have been mondo busy and haven't been able to bang out something new for your lovely eyes to look at. So here we go, here's my, in no way comprehensive or exhaustive, but relatively quick guide to belly dancing:

H'okay, so, I 'm not going to define belly dance for you. It's dancing using your belly... sometimes. What more do you want? It's pretty self explanatory if you ask me. However, I have a quick guide to some of the different styles of belly dancing and their main features for your informashunzzz.

Style

• Egyptian: emphasis is on the hip drops and isolations. Baladi (means "of the country" in arabic) folk dancing utilises canes and smooth, graceful bobbing moves for a sweet, flirtatious dance.

• Turkish: utilises stomach rolls, spins (whirling dervishes anyone?) and veil work as well as zills (finger cymbals) and of course the usual hip drops and stuff.

• Tribal Fusion: This is a large genre, but the particular one I know of has been created by Carolena Nericcio in the early 1990s. I like to think of this style as a gothic, rock version of belly dancing, full of attitude!! Small, extremely controlled movements, fluid and almost rigid contortions with locks are the hallmark of this style, originates in America.

• Cabaret - performances are choreographed with the stage in mind, bigger movements, uses a large range of moves from different styles.

And now, I present to you the benefits:

Benefits of Belly Dancing

• muscle tone - get some nice abs if you do dance enough!

• cardio workout - that's fat burning, huffing and puffing workout to you and me.

• flexibility - you can become all bendy if you train in back bends and floor work.

• strength - famous for building up your "core muscles" around your stomach which will help support your back, as well as extra thigh strength.

• Confidence in the clubs: as with any style of dance, you'll understand your body and its relation to music more, so although drum solo music doesn't play in normal clubs, you'll still be able to bust a move to the music.

• Confidence outside: becoming proficient at any skill makes us feel good and with belly dance especially. If you let it slip that you're a dancer, you'll receive a lot of impressed looks and questions about it. Unless you're speaking to a group of very religious people, then they may wish to burn you at the stake for it, you harlot.

• And of course, you look sexy doing it!

To those of you considering whether you should start waving veils around being all alluring and junk, ask yourself some of these questions:

Is Belly Dancing For Me?

• Do you want a fun form of exercise?

• Would you like to learn a form of dance that doesn't require decades of practice and foot deformity to perform beautifully?

• Do you like dressing up?

• Are you big/little/short/tall?

If the answer is "YES!!" to any of these, I think you're ready, grasshopper. So you wanna try?

How Do I Find a Teacher (in the UK)?

Hee, I added in parenthesis in the UK because to be honest with you I couldn't tell you if you were in France or America or wherever. If you are from another country, try using a search engine with your local area added in the keywords, it's likely you'll find something.

For us UK dwellers, here's a link or two that will help you locate something in your area:

http://www.wiggle.org.uk/index.htm

http://www.londonbellydance.com/index.htm

Keep your eyes open, its likely that you'll stumble across an advert in your local library or church hall. Also, ask your local authority for adult ed. courses, that's where I go for mine - it's a bit cheaper than normal lessons too!. If all else fails, check the Yellow Pages baby!!

I Cannae Find a Teacher, Cap'n!!

For now, maybe a video will do. Check out your local library for dvds and video tapes about Belly Dancing. Don't forget to look on www.youtube.com, there are PLENTY there. Personally, I started out by copying Hilary Thacker videos I got free from my library! However, you still need a real teacher to make sure you don't, y'know, hurt yourself and/or look like a spaz because you don't know how to do a move correctly. A teacher will break it down for you nicely and unlike videos, you can stop and ask for some direction, y'know?

Now, serious bit here, the "be carefuls"!!

Precautions:

• If you're pregnant, it's best if you find a teacher who has experience with teaching dancers like you, since some moves may harm your little bean and/or you. Generally I hear good things about belly dancing and pregnancy, but you don't really want to take chances really.

• Tell your teacher of any health problems that you have so that she can give you a few alternatives to warm ups and knows not to push you too hard.

• Tell your teacher of any sudden aches or pains that you get whilst or after dancing, since it may indicate wrong posture or technique. For instance, I went and strained (not seriously mind) my lower back doing hip drops with my hips tilted forward. Hips must always be horizontal! I told teach' and she straightened me out and now I don't feel a thing.

• Most importantly HAVE FUN!!!

Well, that's all for now folks. Hopefully, if you're new to this stuff, this article has given you a bit of an overview of what's to come. If you're already into it, do you reckon I've missed any key points out? Add them in the comments and I'll squeeze them in.

It wasn't really that quick a guide, was it?

:o)

Just a quick post so I can get this Hub up and running!!

I'm Soraya and I'm here to bring you a Belly Dancing Resource - somewhere you can go to for some information on this exotic dance as well as practical tips to improve your shimmies, hip drops and choreography.

I'll be trying to update everyday and hopefully I'll have something rather substantial for all to enjoy by the end of the year, so keep checking back for new articles, peeps.

Over and out. xxx