How to Belly Dance

Okay, this is nothing 'butt' natty as well as nasty. The moves, the hip shaking, the shimmie - whoa it is mesmerizing and enthralling! Talk about this thing and it reminds me of Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie'. Yes, I am sure by now that you have guessed what am I leading to! Have I enticed you enough?? You are bang on! It is the belly dance! Belly dance is basically a Middle Eastern dance and also has liaisons with Arabic culture too. It is a great exercise and when performed well, belly dancing is absolutely sensational! Want to learn to belly dance? Here you go!

Basic Steps

Shimmy
This is fast up and down hip movement. These are the steps where in you can do shimmy.

• Slightly raise your right knee and then let your right hip snap upward.
• Then raise your left knee snapping your left hip forward.
• You can either shimmy both hips one after the other or one hip over and over by lifting and dropping a single knee.

Shimmy, but with a Shoulder
This is shimmy but with shoulders. Try this out.

• Lean forward a little bit and then pull your right shoulder up.
• After you pull the shoulder up, dip it down in front of you.
• Once it falls back in its original place, do the same thing with your left shoulder.
• Make sure that you isolate and then move your shoulders without moving your chest.

Slide
Slide is another step you need to know. For the slide, start off with a feeling that your hips are on a horizontal plane. Now with hips and abs tucked in and knees slightly bent, slide your hips to the right and then left. Remember that hips should always move from side to side and never up and down, akin to a shimmy.

Hip Circle
Simply put, this is a full rotation of your hips. The hip circle is done like this-

• Tuck in your hips and abs.
• Taking a small step to your right, push out your right hip.
• Move the hip slightly back on the path of a big circle, leaning forward just a bit.
• You need to continue the circular movement, so for that, push out the left hip, as if to complete the circle.
• End the move by leaning back, gently pushing both the hips forward.

Arabic Walk
The Arabic walk is a way to move in a group as well as in a solo performance. Arabic walk starts with snapping a side of your hips, while the other side will remain steady. Now, you would let that snapping motion let your other leg to move to a side or ahead. An important thing to remember here is that you would always step using the leg opposite of the hip you snap.

Snake Arms
The earlier ones, except shoulder shimmy was all about hips and legs, apart from the shoulder shimmy. Let's do another step using arms.

• Hold your arms at shoulder height.
• Ensure that your shoulders are tucked in and back.
• Now move your right up and then back. This will start at shoulder and will move on to the elbow, the wrist and then ultimately your fingers.
• Repeat this with your left hand and try to keep the move as fluid and smooth as possible.
• When this movement is done in continuation, it resembles a slithering snake!

Congratulations! Mission accomplished! All you need now is a little practice and improvisation. There are a few other steps like hip twist and undulation, which you would get to know as you go along! If you think self learning is not your cup of tea, join a class and learn.

It was hopefully not very tough to understand these steps and the beginners can surely pick these steps. Believe it or not these steps are great for toning muscles, working out the whole body and improving self-confidence. All the best. Have fun!