Chest shimmy vs shoulder shimmy

[PracticalDancer]

. . . and, one (or more) of them gave me this wonderful advice:

Chest Shimmy: This is what most people do when they think they are doing a shoulder shimmy, because they start by thinking about it as "forward and back and forward and back."

Shoulder shimmy: The trick to making it a Shoulder shimmy is to never think "forward" -- only think "back, back, back, back, back," so that when you move, you are only moving your shoulders between the "back" and "neutral" points. By never allowing the movement to come forward, you minimize the vibration in the bust. I have practiced this by standing (in dancers posture) with my back to the wall. I start slowly, touching my shoulders one at a time to the wall, and gradually increase speed. There will be a slight complimentary movement of the rib cage, but the -- ahem -- components of the bust will move as a cohesive unit and not as independent pieces. If I start to see them moving independently, then I stop, and start over slowly. Gradually, you will build muscle memory so that you can do a shoulder shimmy the majority of the time, only accenting with a chest shimmy on those few occasions that you choose to exercise that option!

Regards,

Anala

[TribalBellieNE]

that is a very helpful post
alot of people aren't taught the difference between the two.
i wasn't specifically, but ive only been at this for a year.

i also watched the eHow videos on ribcage vs. shoulder shimmies
very informative

i dont use the shoulder shimmy too much because it DOES usualy end up being a bust shimmy, and i'm no the larger side and dont know what will or wont offend people
going to learn to do them this way, and only use the bust for emphasis, or more subtley like the Reyhan video

[Kashmir]

.Shoulder shimmy: The trick to making it a Shoulder shimmy is to never think "forward" -- only think "back, back, back, back, back," so that when you move, you are only moving your shoulders between the "back" and "neutral" points.

Looks like another variation completely. Something else to add into the bag of things to try on a rainy day!

[Oona]

And yet another version of a shoulder shimmy I learned recently was taught by Medea (over here in the UK) who was teaching Persian dance and tried to teach us how to do the shoulder shimmy used in Iran. I can't explain it exactly, but the move was generated by whatever muscles moves the scapula up and down (what I refer to as my wing bone...hehe) and no one in class could come anywhere near to doing it as fast and controlled as Medea. Hers were amazing!