Transcript

We’re going to bring the hands together and then shoot them out. So, together and out.

As you’re bringing them together we’re actually going to lift the veil up and over. So, lift up and over.

So, the hands are kind of doing a circle, and down, going in, in the bigger circle, lift and the bigger circle.

Once we’re here, we’re going to drop the right hand, bring the veil forward.

So, Now my left shoulder is draped with the veil, my body is in front.

And now very quickly we’re going to bring the right veil back, and left veil forward. Bring left back, right forward.

This is where it gets a little tricky. You’re going to try to do both moves at the same time.

So, the hands are drawing down and up circles, going down, down and up, down and up, down and up, down and up.

A flick of the wrist is really what initiates the veil coming off the shoulder so let’s try that, from the lift.

So, the veil is in front of us. So, first move is the lift. Then one single drop and butterfly.

The butterfly looks nicer if you also add a little bit of weight shifting.

In the beginning it might be tricky to figure out a way to stop the veil from coming over your face. And it’s just about a really good chest lift and keeping the belly tucked, and a lot of practice.

Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

So now let’s try connecting the envelope to the butterfly.
We’re going to start with a single turn to the left.
On this one we’re going to hide.
Open. Half a veil switch forward. Up.
So let’s try that again.
Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

So the first step of learning how to balance things on your head is finding your balancing point.

So you want to stand nice and tall and keep your chin lifted at a natural angle parallel to the floor, not too far up, not too far down. And this is where you want to keep your head as you practice putting something like a book or a small box and just starting to find the spot where you can let go.

So at the beginning maybe you just wanna stand there and move your head around a little bit, move around a teeny bit just to find that sensation. So you should be able to feel whatever it is you’re balancing on your head, I recommend a book.

And when you feel a little bit more comfortable, turn on music and try walking around to the beat.

In the beginning it might be a relaxed walk so you might be just walking around.

Then maybe you want to try to speed up a little bit.

Then later if you’re comfortable try some of the belly-dance moves we’ve learned a little bit.

Some [inaudible 1:23] maybe. Maybe some hip drops. Maybe hip circles. Or upper body isolations.

Transcript

So now let’s try all four movements together.
We’re going to start with a veil switch, with a hip circle, bring it forward, sway right.
As you come through you’re going to start your turn to the left, bring it forward.
Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

Now we can try combining the 3 different sounds we can make. We can make many others, but for the sake of practice, keeping it simple would really help.

In the beginning, we’ll start with 2 [inaudible : 00:15] with single hit, chest circles for 2, and then up for 3 sounds. We’re going to backup with the Egyptian Basic. Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

So, the next movement is called The Envelope.

We’re going to bring your hands a little bit higher up, So, about shoulder level.

We’re going to bring the right hand to the left and just grab the veil, so my right hand’s completely free. So, all you do is grab.

You’re going to make sure that the edge of the veil is resting on the shoulder, and then you’re going to slide the hand and try to find the middle position, the middle point on the other side, the right side.

And the next thing is your hide in this little envelope, so you’re just going to come up.

Close. Slide the hand and press up. You’re going to keep this shape. And if you bring the hands down, you have a little window.

So, this is a different way of embellishing the dance, kind of hiding and taking a peek out.

So, let’s try this movement. And it looks a little bit more pretty. If you get into it while not just standing. So, we’re going to go into a spin.

Turn over your left shoulder. Step your right foot forward. And as I’m facing back, that is when my hands are going to meet.

And when I turn around, my envelope is complete.

Then just slide the right hand forward and open to release.

Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

The next step is to learn how to play a triple sound, which is often called the gallop. If you’re right-handed, you’re going to start with your right hand. If you’re left-handed, you’re probably going to start with your left. If you want to strive to be really, really good, you want to alternate the hands.

In the beginning, it will sound like this. You’re going to go right, left, right. Again, if you’re right-handed, you’ll go . . . and again, right, left, right. If you left-handed, you’ll start on the left side. If you want to really challenge yourself, alternate each time. You’re going to go . . . and will take one step per gallop. Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

So, whenever you’re more comfortable with balancing, you might want to try a prop.

So, in belly-dancing, we often use things like swords, canes or trays to balance on top of the head to demonstrate your strength and dexterity and to mesmerize your audience.

Now, the heavier the object, the easier it is to balance. If it’s lighter, it might slide off your head, you wouldn’t even feel it. So, try something heavier, like a heavier book or ultimately, a sword would be very helpful for you to figure out how to balance comfortably.

Once you’re comfortable doing that, having something on your head and moving to the music, you can add more dimension to your dancing if you add level changes.

So, to do a level change, I recommend having one foot in front of the other, coming up on toes and keeping your core really engaged.

The more you pull that belly in, the easier it will be to descend and ascend back up.

So, all you would do is come straight down and then come back up. So, let’s try that with music.

You can try to layer some movements.

The harder version is using your hips. Especially on the way up.

And another one that can definitely take the breath way is a sudden drop.

Transcript

In order to learn how to play finger cymbals and dance at the same time, you need to start very slowly. So what we will do is one hit and one step at the same time.

So let’s just try that with music. If it’s faster.

So now we can try to double up. We are going to play two hits per one step. And the hit will happen as a step occurs. So that’s the first one, and the second one will happen in-between as you transfer your weight. And I suggest alternating the hands.

You’re going to play right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left.

And if you step first with your right foot, your right hand and right foot will always coordinate. Right, left.

Then you’re going to step with the left foot, and it’s going to be your right hand. Right, left, right, left.

So as you switch feet, the hands stay the same.

Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

So now let’s take our stationary hip circles. They’re small. They are not influencing the upper body and let’s learn how to travel with them.

So just to review very quickly the knees need maintain this slight bent position. The lower abs are engaged. You are always protecting your lower back. You are always contracting under, chest is lifted, shoulder blades are pulling down the back, and neck is relaxed.

And we’re pushing away to the left, forward, right, and back. And if you pay attention to your feet you should feel the weight follow the hips.

It’s more of the hips following the weight, then the feet. So, when you push your weight to the left the weight is on the left foot. Your right foot should be there mostly for balance. I can actually lift my right foot off the floor, that is how comfortable I am in that position.

And keeping my hips horizontal to the floor.

When I push forward the weight goes into my toes. And I am contracting into the upper abs ever so slightly so my upper body doesn’t point up, but maintains the vertical position.

Now I push to the right. Again my left foot feels weightless and then back.

When I push my weight to the left the weight should be in the left leg, the right foot should be there mostly for balance. And I’m trying to keep the line on my pants horizontal to the floor. So, still no lifts. It slides to the side.

When I push my weight forward the weight is in my toes. And I’m contracting my upper abs ever so slightly as to not point my upper body up but keep it upright. So, the hips are coming forward and the upper abs are engaged.

From here you are pushing to the right and again the weight is entirely on the right leg. Left leg is there for balance.

When you push back the weight is in the heels and this time you’re contracting the lower abs elongating your spine.

So, side, forward, right, and back. And connecting those dots you are creating a circle. And you’re upper body stays pretty much in the same space and the other way.

So, now to take this move and travel with it, we need to pay attention to our weight.

When we push our hips to the left, like I mentioned, your right foot should be weightless. This is when you’re going to sneak it out to the side.

So, it’s a little bit of opposition.

Then you’re going to the weight in between both legs. The toes are weight bearing, to the right. And this is where you sneak your foot in.

So, from the side, as you pull your lower abs in, push the hips back. Your left leg sneaks in.

One, two, three, together. Step, forward, side, together. Same thing to the other side. Side.

Let’s do that with music.

Again.

[inaudible 4:10]

Transcript

Now let’s combine the Egyptian Basic combination with the Double-Hip Lock combination. Starting forward, starting with the arms up. 1, 2; 2 drops, shimmy, and immediately going into the Double-Hip Lock on the right. Left, undulate, undulate. To make it a little bit more fun, when you travel forward for the Egyptian, take a big step back, 2 drops, shimmy in a spot, slide diagonal, and in place. Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

Now, let’s combine four of the previous combinations. We’re going to start with Egyptian basic, go into the double hip lock, vertical circles, and the hip drop and kick. So to walk through the whole thing, starting with the arms up, one, two, step back, drop, drop, shimmy, to the right, to the left, one, and two. From here, immediately into the circles, one, sharp, sharp, drop, and kick into the circles. So let’s try it with music. Okay.

Transcript

So next, let’s combine hip drop and kick with traveling hip circles; pushing your weight to the left leg, having the right heel lifted.

Remember to keep the standing knee, the weight-bearing leg, the knee is always bent.

Keeping this heel up to push the hip up, and down, and then release into a kick.

Remember to always point your toe. And try to extend the foot carefully; don’t try to really kick too hard but extend.

Other side.

And now, with hip circles, we’re going to do small ones; they’re going come outside of our normal alignment. We’re going to push our weight to the left, then forward, right; and these don’t really affect our upper body, they’re just going around.

I’m going to travel with these, pushing our weight to the opposite side of where we’re going; weight is forward into the toes. Right side, bring the feet together, pull the lower abs in.

Remember to, again, tuck under, don’t release the lower back.

Taking little steps to the right, together; other way.

So combining these with hip drop and kick. One, two, three, four, step onto that foot, and around; we’re on the other side.

So let’s try that with music.

Double-time. Let’s change the hands a little bit; we’re going to keep them here, let’s frame the hips.

Last time.

Transcript

Now let’s try combining shoulder circles with chest circles, and lifts, and drops. So first, starting with just the shoulders, keeping the hands very still, try not to push the arms away as you’re working through the shoulder. Lifting it forward, up, back, and down, forward, back, up, and down, and connecting those ducts to create a smooth circle. And when we’re working with both shoulders we’ll alternate which one is moving first. So the right shoulder will move forward and then the left. Next is a chest circle. You want to remember to keep your lower abs engaged and keep the tailbone down so try not to arch your back as you’re moving your upper body. And the circle will come forward, right, forward, left. And then we’re going to do a chest lift and a drop. And remember that action is initiated from the upper back to lift, and the upper abs that squeeze to let the chest drop.

So now let’s combine them into a series. So right shoulder rolls, left, chest circle from right, to left, a lift, and a drop. One, two, three, four, and then the lift and the drop. Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

Now, let’s try combining mayas, which is the downward vertical figure eight, with belly pops, and reverse undulation. So, starting with the mayas, you lift in the heel, and you’re pressing your weight from side to side, keeping the chest, head, and arms very still. And remember to really squeeze the hip up. Remember, the hip bone wants to meet the rib cage. It’s going right up. Stretch out, drop the heel down, and switch your weight. Now, for belly pops, just a review, we contract the whole belly, and then we push the whole belly out. Contracting nice and tight, and pushing out. And reverse undulation, we’re starting with a lower ab contraction, upper abs, and then it’s just lift. Let’s try that with music. Full tempo. Switch feet, start on the left.

Transcript

Now let’s try combining the shoulder circle combo with a big hip circle, into the Maya, into the turn.

So, from the beginning, shoulder, shoulder, chest circle, lift, drop. Take a circle, head sides. One, two, three. Maya. One, two, belly pop. And reverse it.

And immediately into the turn. Figure eight.

Let’s try that with music.

Now let’s try that full-speed.

Transcript

Now let’s try combing the Maya combo with the three-point turn combo. So, starting with the right foot. Maya right, Maya left, belly out. In, reverse it up. And immediately were going to turn to the right.

One, two, three. Forward, back, forward.

Were gonna start again. Left, right, out, in, up one. Forward, back and forward.

Let’s try that with music.

Now try it with a little speed.

Transcript

So now let’s try laying a shoulder shimmy on the other movements.

We worked with our chest. But we can also continue a shoulder shimmy while working with our hips.

So, let’s go over our slides, nice and clean, and our small circles, going in either direction.

We can also work with our shoulders while working with our hips.

So, let’s keep our shoulders moving, and think of, actually don’t think about them. Think of putting it on autopilot.

So, you’re not even thinking about what’s happening in the shoulders. And pushing your weight to the right, and left, and right and left, and trying the circles as well.

Let’s try that with music.

A bit faster.

Transcript

Now, let’s try combining vertical hip circles with hand undulations. So, we’re going to do a stationary hip circle, pushing your weight to your right leg, lifting left heel up, keeping the belly tight, chest is lifted, lifting back, up, forward, and down. We’re going to frame the hips, bringing the left hand behind the hips and mimicking the same shape on top. Next, let’s create an interesting hand undulation frame for our body. So we’re going to bring the second hand up, cross them once, twice, around the chest and straight down. So, one, two, three, and four. Combining with the hip circle. Let’s try it with music.

Transcript

So now let’s try doing a Veil Switch.

This move is also known as Around the World. So, you might hear it by both names. And in beginning, just want to prep by holding the veil in-between your right hand and left hand, obviously, draping the veil around the index finger, or scissoring it between the middle the finger and the index finger. S,o it depends on how you hold it, it ends up being pretty much the same thing.

So you want to make sure that the veil is tight enough where you could lift it, and it could be pretty much in line with your shoulders. But also loose enough that there’s a lot of fabric on each side.

So usually we work with about three yards of fabric, two and a half, three yards.

And in terms of length, it should be at least from the waist to the floor, that’s how long you want it to be, how wide you want it to be.

So we’re going to start with the veil in front of us. And we’re going to bring the right hand, keeping the left hand still, bring the right hand all the way around, so we end with the veil behind us.

And then keeping the right hand still, bring the left around us, back and forward.

In the beginning you might want to just think about tracing the outline of your body, going past the arm, and then shoulder, the other arm. When you go a little bit faster, you actually want to avoid touching your body, so it floats around you.

And the hand will start to move, so you will not necessarily just hold the hand there completely still. You might do that if you’re going very slow, but when you go faster the hands will help, and they will move. And obviously you can go in both directions.

And normally we will actually start with the veil behind us, so let’s try that coming from the back. So it’s behind us, right hand around, and back. One full circle. Forward and back.

And we can also add a big hip circle. So as we come around, we’re going to push the right hip back, left, and forward.

So let’s try a combination. We’re going to do one circle upright, and one with a big hip circle.

Let’s try it with music.

Transcript

So now let’s combine snake arms with piston hips. We’re going to start with the snake arms first, with one hand at a time, and two. Remember to move one joint at a time, within the shoulder, the elbow, wrist, and releasing through the hands. One and two.

To walk with this move, we need to coordinate same arm, same foot. So as the right hand lifts, we’re going to point the right foot forward, push our weight on it, and switch.

Next, our piston hips. So it’s a downward accent. You want to make sure that you’re lifting the hip up so you have somewhere to go, and you switch your weight. And since you’re lifting your foot completely, it’s very easy to travel with this step coming forward or back.

So for this combination, we’re going to travel forward with the snake arms and back with the piston hips, taking two steps forward and four steps back and piston. Right, left, right, left. Let’s try that with music.

Transcript

Now lets come by in a traveling Hip-lift combination with the vertical hip-lift combination. So starting to the right one, two, three, four. Shoulder shimmy, lift one and two and down. You can go to the other side.

Let’s try it with music.

Transcript

Next, let’s combine hip slides with outward horizontal figure-eights with a twist. So first, let’s start with the horizontal slides. Knees stay bent, chest is up, lower abs engaged, pushing your weight from side to side. Remember to keep your hands, head, and chest in the same position, and it’s just your hips that are moving. And if you want to remember, we’re trying to keep the line on our hips completely parallel to the floor. There should be no lifts. You shouldn’t be sitting to the hips. Just a perfect little slide.

Now, outward figure-eight is exactly what I described before. So we’re going to push the right hip forward, going along the corner, back corner, and sliding through to the other side. Right and left. And they’re horizontal, parallel to the floor. And as you’re doing this move, you’re also pushing the weight from leg to leg. So as you’re circling the right hip, my weight is completely on the right leg. My left leg is there just for balance.

So now we’re going to add a twist. We’re going to start our figure-eight, as we normally do, with the right hip coming forward, doing a first loop, and then as you begin to transition pushing the right hip back, we’re going to focus on the left hip instead, and bring it forward and back. So once again, twist, forward, back. And then, when we return, we’re going to continue the figure-eight like nothing happened. Left side, forward, back. Right, left. Right, left. So it’s like a normal figure-eight with a hiccup.

So let’s try putting that together. Four hip slides. One, two, three, four, and out. One, two, three, four. With music.

Now full speed.

Transcript

Let’s link together the snake arm walk into the hip slides, into the hip lifts, and into the vertical circle.

Starting from the very top, 2 steps forward, 4 back, hip slides, figure-8 with a hiccup, back, shoulder shimmy, 2 circles, and a frame. Let’s try that from the top, with music.

[music : 00:48 to 01:36]

Let’s try it full-speed.