egyptian isolated hip circle

Nebetmiw

Member
This is one killer circle. I can really feel this in my abs. Since I am not using legs at all in this small circle. Doing the big circle is such a relieve after this one. :lol: I cant imagine having to do many reps on this to get up strenght on it. It will take my belly way down working on it, or kill me, not sure which will come first. :shok:

This was one exercise I totally forgot about when I took classes way back. I will have to work hard on it just to get my waist back. Another exercise to pratice with house work. :dance:
 

Nebetmiw

Member
egyptian isolated hip circle.

Jenc,

The title of this thread is the name of the circle as I know it. One does it from core ab muscles not using legs. I am doing egyptian style so it is worked different than the other style like American, Turkish ect. It is a small circle just done with hips not really going beyond shoulders.
 

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
Although I teach a DANCE class, I know a lot of students sign up hoping for some type of "workout" so I try to give tips along the way on how they can use the dance for exercise. This is one of my favorite core strengthening exercises :) The way I teach it, you're really using and isolating the obliques, with the help of the gluteus medias and low abs. If you really FOCUS on the movement and concentrate on it, it can be a GREAT toning exercise!

I have a personal preference TOWARDS movements that create dynamic tension in my core. I know it's arguably not quite the most Egyptian technique, but when I can dance and really feel those muscles being active, it adds a whole new depth of feeling for me. Yum!

Hey Nebetmiw, try doing these SUPER slow, really feeling the abdominal muscles working and getting warm all the way around the perimeter of the circle. It's a delicious feeling!
 

jenc

New member
I'm puzzled - I use my legs to some degree doing all hip circles. - or do you mean that they don't drive it. If I try to leave my legs out my hips don't move!
 

amy.an8

New member
I just took a class from a new teacher - neither teacher has identified their style (not, I know, ATS). The new teacher had us doing hip drops and lifts differently from the way my first teacher did - legsand abs v. abs only to do the work.
Is there a difference between Egyptian and American oriental styles in terms of using the legs to drive the hips v. using the hip and ab muscles to drive the hips?
 

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
Is there a difference between Egyptian and American oriental styles in terms of using the legs to drive the hips v. using the hip and ab muscles to drive the hips?

Yes. I think for the most part, Raqia and Reda-trained instructors teach a lot of movements as coming from the ground up -- so you use the legs more and sometimes push against gravity. (But not all Egyptian (style) instructors teach this way, and I think Morocco seems to teach movement as coming from the torso.)

A lot of American instructors keep the muscle action pretty much in the abdominal area. It gives a slightly different look, but a much different feel.

There are like a dozen different ways to do something as simple as a hip lift :)

It's arguable whether or not the little pelvic circle is a part of the traditional movement vocabulary in Egyptian style. I've been told that what looks like a pelvic circle is really a one-hip circle, allowing the movement to occur in both the horizontal and vertical planes. :think:
 

Zumarrad

Active member
I'm puzzled - I use my legs to some degree doing all hip circles. - or do you mean that they don't drive it. If I try to leave my legs out my hips don't move!

If it's absolutely flat and *small*, done on a small base, the only leg movement should be the swaying that occurs as your weight shifts from side to front to back to side. You can do it with your legs completely straight. No knee movement whatsoever. If you have your feet wider apart and you're trying to keep it flat, you do have to allow your knees to bend at certain spots. But this is not a tilting circle. At all. There is no tilt.
 

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
If it's absolutely flat and *small*, done on a small base, the only leg movement should be the swaying that occurs as your weight shifts from side to front to back to side. You can do it with your legs completely straight. No knee movement whatsoever. If you have your feet wider apart and you're trying to keep it flat, you do have to allow your knees to bend at certain spots. But this is not a tilting circle. At all. There is no tilt.

Are you talking about those real tight little circles a la Fifi? She would travel around in a circle doing them?
 

Zumarrad

Active member
I haven't watched enough Fifi to be able to tell you that. It's a basic technical drill really. You can layer it with leg stuff to add various sorts of texture, but it's just a completely flat circle in the hips.
 

Kashmir

New member
I'm puzzled - I use my legs to some degree doing all hip circles. - or do you mean that they don't drive it. If I try to leave my legs out my hips don't move!
Your legs hold you up but the obliques do most of the sideways movement, the lower abs pull the pelvis back and the glutes drive it forward. A good test is to try it in a very deep pool - I think you'll find you can do a circle without using the legs.
 

Kashmir

New member
It's arguable whether or not the little pelvic circle is a part of the traditional movement vocabulary in Egyptian style. I've been told that what looks like a pelvic circle is really a one-hip circle, allowing the movement to occur in both the horizontal and vertical planes.
Dr Mo Geddawi insists the flat circle is part of teh traditional Egyptian Orientale movement vocabulary - but the tilting circle is not. Being "African" (yes, I know Egypt is part of Africa - but that was the distinction he made)
 

Zumarrad

Active member
Dr Mo Geddawi insists the flat circle is part of teh traditional Egyptian Orientale movement vocabulary - but the tilting circle is not. Being "African" (yes, I know Egypt is part of Africa - but that was the distinction he made)

When I think about it Tahiya and Samia both do that kind of circle at times, don't they? Or at least parts of such circles. And he's of the generation to have been very inspired by them (in fact I think he's one of many youths who got a bit of a crush on Tahiya Carioca at a defining age, isn't he?)
 

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
I haven't watched enough Fifi to be able to tell you that. It's a basic technical drill really. You can layer it with leg stuff to add various sorts of texture, but it's just a completely flat circle in the hips.

Ok, I think I gotcha :) It's what I think of as a Fifi circle. Not pelvic, and not wobbly.

OP - disregard my comments about the pelvic circle :)
 
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