Belly Dancing 101: How to Belly Dance

Transcript Kelly: Hi, I’m Kelly. I’m an intern with howcast. I saw the belly dancing series, I thought it was really cool. And I figured why not give it a try? The first video that I saw that sparked my interested was the choo choo shimmy. So Irena, help me out. Irena: So what we’re …

Transcript Now let’s try the travelling hip twist. Keeping the knees bent, just lift, the lower abs engaged, tailbone down. We’re going to twist front to back, keeping the movement horizontal to the floor. So we’re just twisting the hips. Now we’re going to just take a step with the right foot, crossing the left …

Transcript So now we’re gonna try to isolate just the upper abs. Keeping the knees bent, chest lifted and feel the lift coming from your upper back so you wanna feel the support lifting you up. Try to relax your abdominal area, keeping the knees bent, hips neutral. You’re going to relax the lower abs, …

Transcript Now let’s try the opposite hip pushes, keeping the knees bent, lower abs engage, chest lifted, arms out, shoulders back. We are going to take a step over to the left side with the left foot, the same time we’re going to lift the right heel off the floor and push the right hip …

Transcript So now we’re going to learn how to do the Basic Egyptian. Come back to the neutral position keeping the knees bent, once again chest lifted, lower abs in. And you’re going to touch the right foot in front, and come back, touch the left, and come back. Touch the right, and come back, …

Transcript So now let’s try the “walking hip shimmy”. In order to prepare for it, let’s keep the knees really bent. Let’s think about those hip lifts we did earlier. Nice and slow, lifting one hip at a time. And you want to really feel this in your sides more than pushing through the knees. …

Transcript So this is what a normal hip scarf usually looks like. It’s a square piece of fabric covered in some kind of embellishments, usually coins. And basically what it is, is just a visual aid for the students to feel their hips a little bit more and see their movement when they’re practicing in …

Transcript [music playing] So a sword is prop that belly dancers very often use in order to demonstrate their flexibility and the sense of balance. So it’s a very beautiful prop and also has a sense of dancer and definitely mesmerises the audience very often. And what often is done is it’s balanced either on …

Transcript So this is what typical finger cymbals, or zills, look like. They’re rounded in shape, there’s lots of different versions of them. And there’s always four of them and you wear one on the middle finger, one on the thumb. And, you basically can accompany yourself with the music so while you’re dancing and …

Transcript Belly Dancing – How to Use Veils: So this is what a normal belly dancing veil looks like. It’s usually either a silk veil or chiffon or some other light fabric and the reason for that is we use it as a prop for entrance. It’s a very lyrical, very beautiful material and it …

Transcript So a cane is another balancing prop that is often used in belly dance performances, and this is a more traditional prop which often is associated with the region Egypt. What happens is that it is very playful and you can do a lot of twirling with it. A lot of really fun playful …

Transcript Now let’s try a reverse undulation and make it travel. So, keeping the knees bent, we’re gonna try the reverse undulation stationary first, contracting the lower abs, dropping the chest down, lifting it back up. We can connect some footwork to this as well, so we’re gonna step the right foot and then the …

Transcript [music] Now let’s try the travelling undulation. What you’re going to do is combine the basic undulation with some foot work. So when we contract our upper back to reach the chest up we are going to step on the right foot, as you contract the upper abs you are going to step on …

Transcript So now lets try a travelling hip lift. Keeping the knees bent, tail bone down, chest lifted, abs engaged. Your going to lift the right heal off the floor and your going to keep the left knee bent. So make sure your in this position at all times.Now your going to just take a …

Transcript Belly-Dance-Moves-ChooChoo-Shimmy Now let’s try the Choo Choo shimmy. So what we’re going to do is step on the right leg and the left leg and the right and the left, keeping the knees really bent, chest lifted, tailbone down, and we’re going to do this really fast and with each step we’re going to …

Transcript Now let’s try doing the figure 8 only on one hip, switching your position coming back to standing on the left leg, keeping you left knee bent, brining the right foot forward heel up. We’re going to lift the chest up, extend the arms, lift the right hip up, drop it forward, bring it …

Transcript Now let’s try reverse undulations. Assuming the same position, keeping the knees bent, we’re going to contract the lower abs first, then contract the upper abs to bring the chest down. Then squeeze between the shoulder blades to lift the chest back up. And again, contracting under. Chest down. Up. And releasing slightly into …

Transcript So now let’s try the basic undulation. Keeping the knees bent, lower abs engaged, we’re gonna slide the chest all the way forward. Lift it back up. Contract the upper abs to drop the chest down and then contract the lower abs to bring the hips under. And then untuck. But make sure that …

Transcript Now let’s try the horizontal figure 8’s, these figure 8’s will travel in the dimension parallel to the floor. Before we were doing vertical figure 8’s, we were working from side to side, now we are going to be working in the surface in front of us. Keeping the knees bent, we are going …

Transcript Now let’s reversing the horizontal figure 8 — now it’s going to be traveling back to front. Keeping the knees bent, twisting the hip back first — so we’re going to focus on the right hip first — twisting all the way back, pushing through to the back corner, coming along the right side, …

Transcript Now let’s try the Reverse Figure 8 going down-to-up. So keeping the knees bent, tailbone down, chest up. We’re going to drop the hip down, reach hip out, lift it up and you’re going to lift the heel off the floor, contract the hip back in and release it back down to neutral. Bend …

Transcript Now let’s try Vertical Figures on both hips form up to down. Keeping the knees bent we’re going to lift the right heel off the floor, push away into the right hip. Now we’re going to slide it out, drop the heel down, bring the hip down and contracted back in towards the centre. …

Transcript Belly Dance Moves: Interior Hip Circles From: Irina Akulenko So now lets try interior hip circles. Keeping the knees bent, legs are underneath the hipbones, chest lifted. We are going to contract the right hip up, contract the lower abs in, contract the left hip up, and come back to neutral. Lifting the right …

Transcript Now let’s try doing a vertical hip circle on just one hip. So, coming back to the same position we use in order to do a hip drop and a hip lift, stand the knee the left leg for now is bent. Stepping the other foot next to it, heel is lifted. Both knees …

Transcript Now let’s try isolating our lower abs only. Keeping the knees bent, tailbone down, chest lifted, shoulders back, arms out. You’re going to contract about an inch below the belly button to pull the muscles in. In the beginning you might try to rotate the hips under which is fine so just find that …

Transcript So now let’s try a smaller exterior hip circle. Stepping once again underneath your hip bones, knees are slightly bent, we’re going to push the hips out to the side, forward, left and back. And right. And forward. And left. And back. And this hip circle is a little bit smaller than the one …

Transcript So now we’re going to try a large, exterior hip circle. Step out right underneath your hip bones, so nice and wide, keep the knees slightly bent, chest up, arms out, lower abs engaged. We’re gonna shift the weight all the way out to the right, and again all the way out to the …

Transcript Belly Dance Moves: Chest Circles: So, now let’s go over the basic chest circle. Before we did our chest slides going from side to side as well as lifting your chest up and down. Now we’re going to combine these into a chest circle. Now we’re going to slide over to one side, keeping …

Transcript So now we’re going to try a downward hip accent or as we can call it piston hips. So, now we’re going to keep the knees really bent. We’re going to lift the right hip up and we’re actually going to take the right hip off the floor as well completely. Then we’re going …

Transcript So now let’s try the hip drop and kick. Let’s come back to the same position we were in before, so keeping the knees bent, the left leg is stationary, that’s your standing leg, the right foot is in front, heel lifted, chest up, arms out, lower abs are tucked in. So now we’re …

Transcript So now lets go for the basic hip drop. Lets shift the weight over to the left foot, step the right right in front, keep the heel lifted. Bend both knees, especially the bend in this knee- you want to make sure this knee remains bent no matter what throughout the entire movement. This …

Transcript So now let’s try isolating our whole belly. Keeping the knees bent, tailbone down as usual, chest lifted and make sure that your still breathing comfortably. So, you want to lift your rib-cage up but, still breathe. Roll the shoulders back, arms out. Your going to contract the whole belly in super tight as …

Transcript So now we’re going to go over the basic double hip lock. Come back to your neutral, bent knee position, chest lifted. And you’re going to straighten one knee to lift that hip up, release it back down, and lock it up, one more time, and release. So it’s the two accents on the …

Transcript So, now we’re going to isolate our hips, going front to back. Let’s assume the basic belly dancing posture position, knees are bent, chest is lifted, make sure the lower abs are engaged. Now you’re going to attempt to slide your hips going forward to back. Sliding the right hip, twisting it all the …

Transcript So, now, we are going to go over the basic hip lift. Let’s assume our basic belly dance posture position. So, the legs are right under the hip bones. Knees are bent. Lower abs are tucked, chest lifted, arms out. And now you are going to bend the knees even more than before and …

Transcript So now we’re going to learn how to do wrist isolations and wrist circles. Bring the hand out. And now you are going to try to keep the wrist in exactly the same spot and draw circles, leading with the middle finger and going away from your body. Pointing all the way down, coming …

Transcript Belly Dance Moves Chest Lifts: Now we’re going to try to do the chest lift. Let’s assume our basic belly dance posture position, arms out, chest lifted, knees pressed together, tailbone down and you’re going to feel the muscles in your upper back. Try not to slide the shoulders down the back, you’re going …

Transcript Now we’re going to isolate the chest and we’re going to slide forward to back. Assume the basic belly dance posture position, the knees are bent, the chest is lifted, the tailbone tucked down. From here we’re going to press the knees together and press the feet into the floor to keep our balance. …

Transcript So now, we’re going to isolate our hips. Let’s assume the basic belly dance posture position. So, knees are bent, feet are hip-width apart, chest is lifted, tailbone tucked under, lower abs engaged. We’re gonna flight from side to side. Chest lifted, make sure your still breathing and your gonna shift your weight out …

Transcript Now we’re going to try to do the Snake Arms. Bring the hand down, keeping the palm facing the floor. Now you’re going to lift the shoulder all the way up, drop it back down, lift the elbow and be careful to keep the palm facing down no matter what. Drop the elbow down. …

Transcript Now, we’re going to try the chest slides, we’re going to go side to side. Let’s inhale the arms up and come back into our normal belly dance posture, so that means our knees are bent, tailbone tucked under, chest is lifted, shoulders back, chin up, wrists still. Now, we’re going to slide the …

Transcript Now we are going to try shoulder isolations. Let’s inhale the arms all the way up, exhale, bring them all the way out and reach side to side as far as you can. Once you’re here, drop the shoulders down the back, and you’ll have this tight feeling as if you have both shoulders …

Transcript So before we get started, I’d like to talk to you about the basic belly dance posture. Keeping the knees really bent is very, very important in order to be able to do a lot of the belly dance isolations. So, what’s important is keeping the legs right under neat the hip bones, keeping …

Transcript My name is Irina Akulenko and I’m a professional belly dancer, choreographer, and teacher in New York City. I got into belly dancing purely by accident. I was a dancer my whole life, but I just saw a belly dancing performance once and I saw I thought it was really magical and beautiful so …

Transcript Now I’m gonna try a move called The Head Slide. Now before you attempt this move make sure you warm up your neck either with head circles going in both directions. Or adding a small stretch pressing the ear down and make sure you do that on both sides. Now once you’re ready, nice …

Transcript Isolation is one of the most fundamental principle of belly dance. For that isolation there is no belly dance. Isolation is the ability to move one part of the body, for eg. Like your head, your chest, your hips, or your wrists. Move it while keeping rest of your body completely stable. In belly …