SLOW
HIP MOVEMENTS
HIP
CIRCLE
Stand with your feet together, stomach in, chest lifted and slightly
forward, hips tucked under, and knees straight but not locked.Switch
your hips from side to side by bending and straightening the knees,
alternating first one and then other. Notice that this is different
from the slide.
TURKISH
EIGHT
HORIZONTAL
INWARD FIGURE EIGHT
Twist your right hip to the front, keeping the left foot flat and right
heel lifted. Twist from the waist, but keep your chest lifted and
facing forward, stomach in. Shift the weight from your right foot to
your left foot, pushing the right hip diagonally back from the right to
the left without changing the foot position so the right heel down so
both feet are grounded flat on the floor. Lift the left heel as you
twist the left hip to the front, keeping the right foot flat and left
heel lifted. Twist from the waist but keep your chest lifted and facing
forward, stomach in. Shift the weight from your left to your right
foot, pushing the left hip diagonally back from the left to the right
without changing the foot position. Set the left heel down so both feet
are flat on the floor. Merge the movements together to make a smooth
Figure Eight
EGYPTIAN
EIGHT
HORIZONTAL
OUTWARD FIGURE EIGHT
Twist your right hip to the front. Carefully draw a circle to the
outside with your right hip until it is facing diagonally back. Feel
that your weight is still on your right foot. Shift your weight to the
left foot and cross your hip to the left diagonal front. Draw a circle
to the outside with your left hip until it is facing diagonally back,
keeping your weight on the left foot. Shift your weight to the right
foot and cross the hip to the right diagonal front. Merge the movements
together to make a smooth Figure Eight.
SWAY
HORIZONTAL
INWARD FIGURE EIGHT
Stand straight, stomach in, chest lifted. Keep both feet flat on the
floor as you push your right hip out to the side.
Lift your right heel as your right hip comes up.Cross the right hip
diagonally down to the left, shifting your weight to your left foot as
you push your left hip out to the side. Both feet are now flat again.
Lift your left heel as the left hip comes up. Cross your let hip
diagonally down to the right, shifting your weight to your right foot
as you push your right hip out to the side once again. Both feet are
now flat.
MAYA
VERTICAL
OUTWARD FIGURE EIGHT
With both feet flat on the floor, push your left hip out as you put
your weight on your left foot. Lift the right hip up directly under
your ribcage as the left hip remains out to the left, in what is known
as a “sideways contraction”. The right heel comes
up as
well. With a circular motion, arc the right hip up and over to the
right, placing your right heel down, right hip out, and both feet flat,
weight on your right foot. Lift the left hip up in the
“sideways
contraction” directly under your ribcage, as the right hip
remains out to the right. The left heel comes up as well.
With a circular motion, arc the left hip up and over to the left,
placing your left heel down, right hip out, and both feet flat, weight
on your left foot.
THE WHEEL
Make the circle parallel to the wall in front of you starting in the
back. Tuck the hips in, lift up, drop forward, tuck under and back.
Roll your hips like a wheel forward. One foot will be in front of the
other just slightly. Now try reversing the pattern and you will get a
back wheel.Try to do the same move with your chest in a circular way,
think the circle parallel in front of you. Circle your back slightly,
lift up, drop forward, tuck under and back again. By combining both the
hip wheel and the chest wheel you will get what we call the Camel Walk.
TORSO
MOVEMENTS
SLIDES
Stand straight, stomach in, back and hips straight, do not move your
hips. Try to move your ribcage right and left. Do not slide your
shoulders separately from your ribcage.
RIBCAGE
CIRCLE / PARALLEL CHEST CIRCLE
Imagine you are in the middle of a triangle and try to each point with
parts of your body. Try to reach the left point with your left breast,
slide your chest to the right and then reach the right point with your
right breast, then reach the point in the back by slightly bending your
back. Start the move again and the faster you do it you will get a nice
chest circle. Remember that the circle is parallel to the wall in front
of you. By combining the ribcage circle with the hip circle, you will
get what’s often called a HELIX or Coffee Grinder. The hip
and
the chest circle should be about the same size.
THE
DOME
Kick your hip to the left and you will trace a pattern from the left to
the right but a little bigger than half a circle, keep your hip bones
parallel to the wall in front of you. Slide to the right, tuck under,
then to the left and tuck again. Concentrate on leaving your chest
straight.
ARMS
WRIST
ROTATION
Imagine your hand is inside a giant vase and you are washing the inside
of it. Stretch, extend and rotate your fingers to wipe the jar clean.
When your hand completes the circle, flip it and start exactly where
you left off. Try both hands. Bring them up your hand and
slowly
proceed up and down, stretch and up to begin again. You can move your
hands in air design you like as you are doing the wrist rotation.
EXHOTIC
ARMS
Begin with your left, as you bring your arms down; imagine you are
pressing against something under your arm. As your elbow, forearms,
wrist and lastly finger pass through the lower area, lift up and let it
flow again and let your finger finish. Make the moves graceful and let
your body stay centered. Try to revolve the arms around the body too.
Bring them low around the belly.
SHOULDER
WAVE
For the shoulder wave, start from the right side with the fingers by
doing a slight wrist move, lift your right shoulder slightly and push
your shoulders slightly to the left. Drop the right shoulder down, lift
the left shoulder up slightly and finish with a wrist move on the left
hand.
ZILLS
zills are a nice addition to the dance if done right. There are
different ways you could play the zills while dancing. You
could
either dance on a song that already have the zills's rythms playing and
follow with your own zills. You could also add the zills' sound to any
other song with more celebrating and fast rythms. Both of these are
easy ways to play the zills and a good way for learning how to play
them as well.
The other way to play the zills and the hardest is with a solo drum.
Playing the zills with solo drumming requires the dancer to be familiar
with the basic rythms of belly dancing music. We will cover four basic
and more common rythms: Egyptian, Beledi, Turkish 9/8, Masmoudi and
Chiftetelli.
Egyptian
Beledi
First, let's start with this simple exercise before we get to the
actual Beledi rythm. Start counting 1,2,3 and 4 with a slight stop
between each number. At each count, play the left zill, do not use the
right one.
1 ....... 2 ......... 3 .......... 4
AND
AND AND
Now, play the left zill at each count and in between, play the right
zill twice.
LRRL
Turkish
9/8
The turkish 9/8 is a very
common rythms. Again using the right and left zill, it should
play like this:
LRL RRR
Masmoudi
8/4
Masmoudi is a very long and complicated
one but it's
very easy once you get the feel of it. To practice the Masmoudi start
first by this simple
exercise.
Simply play the LRLRLRLRLRL ..... over and over .
The Masmoudi rythm goes like this.
Teca
Doum
Teca Doum
LRL
LRL
Teca
Ta
Teca Ta
LRL
LRL
Teca Doum
LRL
Teca Teca
Ta
Teca Teca Ta
LRLRL
LRLRL
Chiftetelli
This rythm balances the slow
and fast sounds so when you play the zills to this rythm, you need to
show the slow and fast rythms.
Doum
Ta Tec
Ta
Ta Tec
Ta
Doum Doum Tec
L
LRL
LRL
LRL
slow
Fast
Fast
Slow