Dancer's Arms

Reen.Blom

New member
Please come and share your thoughts on the importance of good armwork in belly dancing!

Whatever style you are doing beautiful arms are essential for any dance!

So share your tips, your arm excercise routine, links to resourses and thoughts on the ways of using the arms for EXPRESSION!

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Love,
reen.blom
 

Kharmine

New member
Everyone has a different style of arms. Samia Gamel's has a very balletic style, for instance.

You don't see "snake arms" much, if at all, in the old "Stars of Egypt" videos. Armen Ohanian, the Persian Armenian dancer, in the early 1900s speaks of her own arm movements that intrigued people who wondered if she had bones like everyone else. That sounds rather snakey.

Personally, I love the strong, yet lyrical arms that you see in flamenco dance, and to keep my hands in a graceful curve, I hold my two middle fingers together as is taught in flamenco.

I think any belly dancer should make her arms as essential to the dance as her legs. But, as with everything else, using arms can have many styles.
 

KuteNurse

New member
Delilah's workshop #1 has a wonderful teaching section on arms and hands that is easy to follow. I love the lotus.
 

charity

New member
my arms suck. they feel so awkward, i imagine like ballerina arms on top of bellydance, which is odd because i've never studied ballet.

i try to focus on my arms by not focusing on them at all. i'm hoping something more natural and relaxed will emege with this negligence :rolleyes:

EDIT:

FYI my head slides are starting to KICK ASS. i wanted to celebrate this in a post.
 
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Hi Everyone,I was taught that arm work helps embellish the dance and often evoke the mood of soft lyrical insruments such as the nay. Like everything else it takes time to perfect. My favorite arm moves are borrowed from Indian Classical dance. Beyond that strong and fluid arms are essential for veil work too.
Yasmine
 

Reen.Blom

New member


Thank you for the link!!!

I was also thinking how some dancers can express emotions in dance using arm movements like touching head or chest, or say what image creates a figure with palms up, like inviting, or palms down.... Just would be interesting different ways to express emotions in dance!

So if you have some thoughts on that do not hesitate to share!
 

Madeline

New member
Here are a few tips I can think of off the top of my head:

-To make snake arms more challenging, try holding weights.

-Rotating the elbows upwards, like in ballet or flamenco, helps to create fluid snake arms.

-Although holding the middle finger down is considered graceful in many dance forms, in Lebanon it’s an insult to hold your hands like this.
 
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Moon

New member
My teacher says the hands should look "relaxed" (so not fully stretched, but also not like claws), they should naturally follow the movements of the arms and it's best to not to do too much with them, cause that might look weird and exaggerated.
Also when I move my hands I try to let the movement come from the wrists.
 

Maria_Aya

New member
Hi there :)
Yes indeed hands are one of the last things to develop to a dancer.
Thats why (on my opinion) a teacher have to start from lesson one to teach hands also, and going 1 step further compining body movements with hands, so at the end they happen natural.
There are some rules about it, but its difficult to be explained throu writing :(

Here is a video of me teaching hand teaqnics level II.
Maria Aya

 

Madeline

New member
Here’s an exercise I always make my students do:
-Hold your arms out to the sides.
-Let your hands go limp.
-Shake your hands back and forth, and then fling them out to the sides.

This really seems to help with posing the hands correctly. Another thing to keep in mind is to always hold your fingers close together, so that the middle fingers don’t have a chance to dip down too far.

Maria, you are a very lovely dancer! :clap:
 

sparklyraven

New member
that is one thing I like about tribal is they seem to have great hands and arms. I was in a (Jane Archer) workshop recently where they did arms and hands and she talked about using your hands to tell a story and it was based on being expressive. I liked it a lot, I have always learned about arms framing your hips which is great, but I like to get more dimensional than that too.
Maria Aya, you are a beautiful dancer. wow!
 

Sara

New member
Next time to come to England you can teach me Maria :lol: I never know what to do with my arms.
 

Reen.Blom

New member
that is one thing I like about tribal is they seem to have great hands and arms. I was in a (Jane Archer) workshop recently where they did arms and hands and she talked about using your hands to tell a story and it was based on being expressive. I liked it a lot, I have always learned about arms framing your hips which is great, but I like to get more dimensional than that too.
Maria Aya, you are a beautiful dancer. wow!


Wow this is smth I would love to learn- "using your hands to tell a story" pity there is so little information available on the subject....

I have seen Rachel Brice has a DVD coming out called smth like "Arms and Posture"... wonder if it is any good...
 

KuteNurse

New member
My instructor teaches to put your middle finger down to your thumb and relax your hands and arms. Practice in front of a mirror doing circular motions like you are cleaning the inside of a vase, starting high and gradually working lower.
 
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