breast shimmies so taboo

I am curious as to why breast shimmies are so taboo?

I tend to do them more in CERTAIN shaabi dances, but am curious why they are sooo taboo?

You answered your own question in your "asexual dancing" thread!

oh hehe, thanx.

Chest shimmies are taboo?

Are they taboo? News to me. Personally I think it depends entirely on the music - which in turn drives the dance style. If I'm doing folk or Fifi styled beledi they are in. If I'm doing a refined Orientale I'll use a shoulder shimmy instead.

However, as a DD I have to be careful when doing a breast shimmy I don't injure myself or appear foolish. In fact, when I have done comedy belly dance a breast shimmy was a must.

Breast shimmies???? Not sure exactly what you are talking about here. I know when I do shoulder shimmies, since my breast are larger, they tend to take on their own momentum after a sec or two. However that is nothing I can control unless I cut them off or down to a smaller size. Can someone explain to me what a breast shimmy is?

~Diana~ said:

Breast shimmies???? Not sure exactly what you are talking about here. I know when I do shoulder shimmies, since my breast are larger, they tend to take on their own momentum after a sec or two. However that is nothing I can control unless I cut them off or down to a smaller size. Can someone explain to me what a breast shimmy is?

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In American Cabaret style, the shoulder shimmy is preferred. In Egyptian style the shimmy moves a bit lower and includes the chest area. I've seen clips of Nagua Fouad and Fifi Abdo doing the breast shimmy, but don't have the links at my finger tips.

Dunyah said:

In American Cabaret style, the shoulder shimmy is preferred. In Egyptian style the shimmy moves a bit lower and includes the chest area. I've seen clips of Nagua Fouad and Fifi Abdo doing the breast shimmy, but don't have the links at my finger tips.

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The way people keep differing "shoulder shimmy" vs. "chest shimmy" is kind of funny to me. They are both one and the same... if you move your shoulders, your chest is going to move. Unless you are doing some crazy isolation with your shoulders where just your shoulders are moving, but I have literally NEVER seen that before.

Sure, you can emphasize the chest more, or de-emphasize it, by changing your posture, changing speed, strength, emphasis, etc... but at its core, the movement is still the same, generated the same way.

But I keep seeing people claiming that there is a chest/breast shimmy, and a shoulder shimmy that is somehow completely different. But I've yet to see someone demonstrate the difference to me, or point me to a specific video where a dancer is doing one, and then another video where a dancer is doing the other.

Can someone please refer me to a video that features this mythical breastless shoulder shimmy? (No male dancers please, that would be cheating!)

~Diana~ said:

Breast shimmies???? Not sure exactly what you are talking about here. I know when I do shoulder shimmies, since my breast are larger, they tend to take on their own momentum after a sec or two. However that is nothing I can control unless I cut them off or down to a smaller size. Can someone explain to me what a breast shimmy is?

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I began with two teachers: one who preferred Egyptian style and the other American Cabaret. The Egyptian-styled teacher taught us what she called a "chest shimmy," which was basically powered by your upper abs and biceps, isolating the top part of your body in a twist. The Am. Cab. teacher taught us a "shoulder shimmy," which was powered by our shoulders and pectoral muscles.

I'm not a teacher so I probably explained that horribly =/ But I know when I do either shimmy, my chest jiggles a bit and I'm not that large.

Yame said:

The way people keep differing "shoulder shimmy" vs. "chest shimmy" is kind of funny to me. They are both one and the same... if you move your shoulders, your chest is going to move. Unless you are doing some crazy isolation with your shoulders where just your shoulders are moving, but I have literally NEVER seen that before.

Sure, you can emphasize the chest more, or de-emphasize it, by changing your posture, changing speed, strength, emphasis, etc... but at its core, the movement is still the same, generated the same way.

But I keep seeing people claiming that there is a chest/breast shimmy, and a shoulder shimmy that is somehow completely different. But I've yet to see someone demonstrate the difference to me, or point me to a specific video where a dancer is doing one, and then another video where a dancer is doing the other.

Can someone please refer me to a video that features this mythical breastless shoulder shimmy? (No male dancers please, that would be cheating!)

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I googled chest shimmy vs shoulder shimmy and this is what came up...not sure how accurate she is...

Chest and shoulder shimmies: the difference - YouTube

Marissa-Julia said:

I googled chest shimmy vs shoulder shimmy and this is what came up...not sure how accurate she is...

Chest and shoulder shimmies: the difference - YouTube

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Same movement, different posture and different emphasis. In the first one her chest was lifted, her shoulders were back and moving in small, quick motions. In the second one her chest was slightly dropped, shoulders slightly forward and moving in big and much slower motions (not even quick enough that I would call it a shimmy, it's more of an isolation or accent).

It's generated the same way. Also, during her "shoulder shimmy" her chest is moving even more than during the chest shimmy, because she's moving her shoulders in such a big and sharp motion in order to emphasize them, so I don't think that's what people are talking about when they speak of the Mythical Chestless Shoulder Shimmy.

Uhhhhmmm....... I think they automatically come along for the ride no matter what you do...... Just sayin....

Yame said:

Same movement, different posture and different emphasis. In the first one her chest was lifted, her shoulders were back and moving in small, quick motions. In the second one her chest was slightly dropped, shoulders slightly forward and moving in big and much slower motions (not even quick enough that I would call it a shimmy, it's more of an isolation or accent).

It's generated the same way. Also, during her "shoulder shimmy" her chest is moving even more than during the chest shimmy, because she's moving her shoulders in such a big and sharp motion in order to emphasize them, so I don't think that's what people are talking about when they speak of the Mythical Chestless Shoulder Shimmy.

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As for it being the same movement with a different posture and different emphasis, I agree. But couldn't that still make it 2 separate shimmies? Just curious. I wouldn't know any better. Could be bc they're from 2 different styles of dance that it's the same shimmy, just by more than one name.

As for this video, I agree with you on that her "shoulder shimmy" looks way more like a shoulder accent.

That video doesn't illustrate shoulder shimmy to me, the shoulder shimmy as I've known it is just as fast as the chest shimmy. The difference, when I look at myself in the mirror, is that with the shoulder shimmy my breasts move less. My awareness is in the upper part of my shoulders. With the chest shimmy the breast movement is bigger and my awareness moves to the chest/rib cage area.

As a well-endowed dancer with an American Cabaret style foundation, I've always done the smaller movement. I only do the big let 'er rip breast shimmy in class, to illustrate the difference to my students.

I get a kick out of seeing the Egyptian dancers like Fifi and Nagwa do it, though.

I've always looked at it the same way Marissa-Julia explained, though I don't know for sure if any of my teachers ever described it in a detailed way. I've definitely had two different teachers explain each way independently. I also had one teacher illustrate a "stripper shimmy" which we are NEVER to do, which more or less isolates the chest in a quick shimmy that generates lots of boob shaking, and little shoulder movement. But aside from that, if I slow down a "shoulder shimmy" I'm moving my shoulders in an articulated movement, and my chest is down (neutral), if I let my posture lapse, my shoulders might curve up a bit. My chest twists, but the primary motion is the forward and back of the shoulders in relation to both general space, but also my chest (more or less). When I do what I consider a "chest shimmy" and slow it down, my upper torso is twisting, and the shoulders are coming along for the ride--they're down and a bit back, and my chest is slightly lifted. There's no articulated shoulder movement away from where I'm holding them in relation to my chest (hopefully). Sped up, they're almost identical, I guess, but layering with them feels different, and depending on the added layer, might be easier with one than the other. The shoulder driven one is also really tiring, but it involves less jiggle (I'm a full D).

For example, layering vertical movements, like camels, I like to use the pectorals more, but for layering horizontal circles, which I'm not so good at, I like to use the shoulders primarily. If I engage my upper torso in the shimmy on those, I tend to get caught up at the back of the circle.

What Jane said. The torso and shoulders are connected, so moving one will move the other. Breasts have a lot of fat in them, so they pick up reverb in the body. Just walking without moving the torso will cause them to jiggle, so if you move your shoulders or torso they're gonna join the party. It's the same as when you move one hip the other moves in opposition. You can accent one of the movements, but both hips will move.

I can't see the video (getting an internal server error), so I can't comment on that. When I mention shoulder or chest shimmies, I'm referring to the body part that's driving the motion. For a shoulder shimmy I'm alternately moving my shoulders forward. For a chest shimmy I'm alternately contracting back muscles. I have no idea what they are called; they are in the middle of my back. Both will make my breasts shake but to different degrees and with a different overall look. It's the same with hip shimmies - you can get them to move in different ways with different looks.

AndreaSTL said:

I can't see the video (getting an internal server error), so I can't comment on that. When I mention shoulder or chest shimmies, I'm referring to the body part that's driving the motion. For a shoulder shimmy I'm alternately moving my shoulders forward. For a chest shimmy I'm alternately contracting back muscles. I have no idea what they are called; they are in the middle of my back. Both will make my breasts shake but to different degrees and with a different overall look. It's the same with hip shimmies - you can get them to move in different ways with different looks.

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This is the first explanation I saw that actually made some sense. What I am picturing here is that for one shimmy, you are driving it by sliding the shoulders forward and back at a quick speed.
For the other, you are driving it by using the back muscles to twist your upper torso forward and back at a quick speed.

However whether you are focusing on your shoulders or your back or your chest as the "driver" of the movement, both movements are essentially the same. The shoulders don't really ever "drive" anything, because the muscles responsible for sliding your shoulders back and forth are your back and chest muscles (scapular adduction: rhomboideus major, minor, and trapezius. scapular abduction: serratus anterior, pectoralis minor and major). When doing a "shoulder-driven" shimmy, those are the muscles actually driving the movement.

When I attempt to do a shimmy by focusing on my back muscles (twisting the upper torso forward and back as a whole without trying to use my shoulder to push), my guess is that those same muscles are driving the movement, plus a few others. Hence, why the movement ends up looking so very similar.

In the end, I think this question doesn't even matter because chest shimmies are such an accent move, to be used once in a while and not all the time... and they look different on different people, not just because of different techniques but because of different body types and boob sizes and costumes and whatnot. So you literally can do it in almost any way you want, and it won't be "wrong" unless you're doing something like tensing your shoulders up to your ears or something.

Here's a clip of Nagwa Fouad doing the chest shimmies right off the bat. You can see that her shoulders aren't moving much:

[video=youtube_share;NDjPUL8epd0]http://youtu.be/NDjPUL8epd0[/video]

Would the difference between a chest shimmy and shoulder shimmy be one of how large a chest someone had, where obviously the movement would get other stuff in the vicinity moving especially stuff that there is no control over, where perhaps another doing exactly the same movement who was not as large would appear to be doing a different movement because focus would not be on what was not moving or moving much where perhaps humanity has a fixation with breasts and so can be both intrigued and repulsed at the same time ?

Andrea: That's how my teacher described the chest shimmy to me except instead of using back muscles she told us to use our upper abs. Makes sense, especially when thinking of them along the lines of what you do with hip shimmies!