Class 1 – The Walk

We’re going to walk, and as you take each step, let each hip fall to the side, Don’t push it, just let It naturally fall as your weight shifts. Now we’re going to change the sway. Instead of swaying side to side we’re going to sway forward. Sometimes it helps to think of walking in the sand. Just sway forward – you don’t have to worry about the back part, it takes care of itself. Put your arms up. Now if you do this much in a Middle Eastern environment and throw in a few isolations you can fake it. If your arms get tired put them down, move them around gracefully for a little bit and put them back up. 

Class 2 – Basic Step

The Basic Step is called the Basic Step because it’s so basic to belly dance. Dance styles vary by country or region. We’re going to get a feel for some of the different styles of dancing through variations in the basic step. So we’re going to stand on one foot, and put the other foot a little bit forward demi-toe, and then tighten the abdominal muscle above that forward foot to pull the hip on that side forward and up. Point, tighten forward and up and then step down, and do the same thing on the other side. Make sure you’re using the muscle on either side (muscle above hip) rather than your foot to push it up. It’s always better to have little moves done right than big moves done wrong. Now walk with it – foot forward, tighten side of ab forward and up – step and then the other side. Arabic dancing is very grounded and earthy, lots of flat-footed dancing in the Arabic style. And one secret I’ll tell you is the more you bend your knees the more your hips move. If you love big hip movements, bend your knees. So for Arabic, what we’re going to do is just sort of drag our foot and not even pick it up off the floor between the basic steps. Persian dancing is very light and ethereal. So for a Persian styling we’re going to stay the whole time of the balls of our feet and do a little tuck up from there. Turkish and Greek style are similar because of the invasions. Very Gypsy-like, more wild and free .For a Greek variation we’re going to twist the hip forward instead of tightening it up. So we’re going to go Twist, Step, Twist, Step. 

CLASS 3 – Put the Belly into Belly Dance

Start with putting your hands on your belly and just breath in out. Breathe like a baby. So when you breathe in let your belly expand and when you breath out let it fall back in. Make sure your hands are up high enough (just under your bra) so you can feel your diaphragm move – that’s what should be moving in and out. You can just move your belly in and out to the music. Flutters are when your beads or coins or whatever is draped down here you can make it bounce and look really fancy. Flutter are done by panting like a dog. You train the diaphragm muscle to voluntarily go in and out just a tiny amount - without the panting. But you start out panting – don’t hyperventilate. And then eventually you get to where you can smile. One of the wonderful things about Belly Dance is that you can pick and choose what things you want to work on, and what things don’t work for you. No one has to do everything. Next we’re going to take our belly button for a Ferris Wheel ride. Start out down on the ground. Go FORWARD, UP, IN, BACK, DOWN. No pelvis, just the abdominals. Then reverse that. Next, we’ll do a Belly Roll. We have three major muscles in the abdomen. We have one that is just above the pubic bone, way down low. We have one in the middle, and we have one up here by the diaphragm . For a Belly Roll just tighten that bottom muscle, then release it. Tighten the middle one, release it. Tighten the top one, release it. Tighten the middle, release it. Tighten the bottom, release it. If you have difficulty feeling the muscles, practice lying on your back moving your hand over each muscle as you tighten and release. And now, full Undulations. Start by rocking the pelvis forward. Then tighten the abs, like someone is going to punch you in the stomach – you just tighten the abs. When you tighten the abs, your shoulders roll down, so all you do for the last part is just put your shoulders back to where they were. It’s not a big upper body movement – it’s just going back to neutral. So, it’s rock, tighten, neutral. Rock, tighten, neutral. Then we’ve got a couple other moves that aren’t really belly moves, they’re hip moves, but I teach them with the belly moves because they make interesting things happen in the belly area. The first is a hip roll. You push the hip out to the side, then you pull it up, roll in, and then pull the energy down and over to the other side. It’s kind of like a vertical figure 8. A Maya or a Bicycle is not quite the opposite of what we were just doing. Pull the hip up in the center, then roll out to the side. Up in the center, roll out to the other side. And if any of you have the flexibility, this move looks really cool if you can do it as you bend your knees and lower yourself to the ground and come back up.