Figure 8

LadyLoba

New member
Befores I ever found this site...I bought some very basic belly dance instruction DVDs, and have dug them out of the drawer and started going through them again.

And while I'm getting most of the other very basic moves down...I cannot do a Figure 8 to save my soul.

I can do a hip circle....and I can put on that old 60's song and do "The Twist" and I can do hip lifts...so I'm not injured or anything...my 8's just look kind of...incomplete....

what could I be doing wrong?
 

mahsati_janan

New member
Befores I ever found this site...I bought some very basic belly dance instruction DVDs, and have dug them out of the drawer and started going through them again.

And while I'm getting most of the other very basic moves down...I cannot do a Figure 8 to save my soul.

I can do a hip circle....and I can put on that old 60's song and do "The Twist" and I can do hip lifts...so I'm not injured or anything...my 8's just look kind of...incomplete....

what could I be doing wrong?

Which kind of figure 8 are you trying to do? Horizontal or vertical?

It might just be that you haven't yet developed the extension or control to make it look the way it looks on the dvds. If that is the case, it will just be practice to get it right as the muscles become more accustomed to the dance isolations.
 

LadyLoba

New member
Horizontal....

I think it's the very first one you're taught...???? It's in both my beginner DVDs I have now.....

you are no doubt right....might just be a practice thing...as in....need to keep practicing.

I remember being able to do it well last year...but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in a LOT better shape last year....belly dance is part of me trying to heal from a tough year, and that year left me pretty much in a bed or a chair, eating more junk food than I need.....I didn't gain weight...but I didn't get any healthier or more toned either, that's for sure..:)
 

mahsati_janan

New member
Horizontal....

I think it's the very first one you're taught...???? It's in both my beginner DVDs I have now.....

Yep - they usually teach the horizontal 8/infinity first, but every now and then a video will pop up that starts with the vertical.

The first thing I would suggest is watching your posture and making sure your knees are staying softly bent. Next try going into each part of the movement separately. For example, twist hips, slide hips to corner, arc hip to side and then to the back corner, pull/slide back to center and then across to opposite corner. Sometimes breaking the movement down into each tiny part will help you to find the trouble spots. If you have a mirror available, also try both facing the mirror and facing away from the mirror. For some dancers, the mirror helps them perfect their moves, but for others it is just a distraction. As you keep learning to dance, you will find out which way works best for you.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I wish there was a ready made way to execute moves, but there isn't. It's practice like a mofo. It took me four years to do a reverse camel, and it can still be polished. Mayas are still not my favorite either. Some moves come easily, others take much longer to get.
 

LadyLoba

New member
OH good...I thought that was just me....that's exactly what I'm finding out...e.ven at the very basic level...some of the moves are so easy for me it feels like I've always been doing them. I got hip circles, the basic Egyptian shimmy that's in both DVDs I have, and the hip drop down as fast as a beginner could.....most of the rest of what I'm learning has come a little more slowly.....and then there are the Figure 8's...chest circles....and the Lebanese shimmy from amira's 101 DVD that are just going to take more practice and more corrections with me....
 

Farasha Hanem

New member
Start out with the horizontal figure eight and picture the 8 on the floor. Just follow through each part of the 8 with your hips, and it does help to imagine drawing the 8 with your hips. :)
 

luvnafctn

New member
Hi!
My teacher teaches it using a combination of the "pencil method" and the "way broken down" method. She starts off with having you imagine that a pencil is attached to your belly button, pointed down. Then while keeping the upper body turned towards the front of the room, you rotate your hips (like at your waist) towards the back right corner of the room, and then keeping them level, "draw" a circle with your right hip toward the forward right corner of the room, coming back to neutral. Repeat with the left side. She starts off by doing like 8 counts on each hip, then 4, then 2, then finally 1 until you are connecting the two circles with no break in between. She uses the same method for the myriad of figure eights that there are.

Hope that helps!
 

Kashmir

New member
When I teach I initially use the twist, slide, twist, slide, twist, etc method. That is with a long back, twist hip forward then slide it forward transfering your weight and with the weighted leg twist at amximum reach until you reverse the twist and slide back to the other leg.

This gets the shape locked into your head BUT - it isn't the way you actually do it long term. The aim is a more ab driven move which is gooier and kinder on your knees. Possibly the instructor on your video is doing the grown up version which takes most people months to get. Even if you have the right shape at this stage it may not look like the video.

Practice, practice, practice. Watch that you keep your hips in neutral and get a twist front and back on both sides. Eventually it will come.
 

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
Possibly the instructor on your video is doing the grown up version which takes most people months to get. Even if you have the right shape at this stage it may not look like the video.

See, this is my excuse for why I need every new instructional dvd that comes out -- maybe that dvd will show a variation of a movement that I don't already know, or that instructor will have a way of doing it that looks closer to how I do it.:cool:

LadyLoba -- there are many different ways to accomplish the figure 8, and as a result there are many different "looks" that the same movement can have. Probably right now your issue is a limited range of motion in the hips. You can increase that range of motion (ROM) by practicing small stretches every day.

Get a hip belt or fold down the top of your pants so you can see a horizontal line going across your hips. Now point your tailbone down, pull your bellybutton in to your spine and slightly up, and slowly slide your hips to the right. STOP when you see that line in your hips tipping up or down. You want to stop while your hips are still nice and level. That point is the right-most limit of your ROM. Do the same to the left. To increase the ROM (and make the hip movements in general much bigger) you simply do 50 slides (slowly) a day for a few weeks.

IT WORKS, seriously! Slide the hips to the limit of the ROM, and then just a hair past it. You should feel this on the sides of your waistline after a few reps. Do it slowly and do it everyday and you're practically guaranteed a better-looking movement. But you have to keep the hips level. If you tip them up or down, you won't be working the same muscles.
 

shiradotnet

Well-known member
Here's something to check on yourself: As you're practicing your figure 8's, pay attention to your glutes (butt cheeks, bum, ass, Po-Po) - they need to be absolutely relaxed. Your attempt to draw an "8" will come out badly if your glutes are tense.

Also, it might help to take a look at Arabella's article, "Exploring Figure 8's", which appears on my web site at How to Belly Dance
 

Belly Love

New member
What if you tried practicing them to your absolute favorite dance music, even if it's not bd music.

I suggest this 'cause I have been doing figure 8's easily for years (I just started bd) and I didn't start doing them on purpose- I was so into the music I was dancing to, that it just kind of happened.

This might sound like a silly suggestion, but it could help :)
 

LadyLoba

New member
ALL of these suggestions are very good! Thanks guys! I will try all of this...range of motion exercises included...I need more exercises...after a year of sometimes not even moving at all...and I mean sometimes not off of my bed for entire days....I'm probably in bad shape flexibility and muscle wise.

For a while I was all "relieved" because I went down a size in pants...but that was just because my waist got a little smaller...it had nothing to do with my strength, flexibility, or other indicators of health....there are many people who are bigger in clothing size who are much healthier...and I could have gone two more sizes smaller and still been stiff.
 

gisela

Super Moderator
Oh yes! I have had a bad year due to depression and stuff and those days where I am just buried in bed or on the couch makes me insanely stiff. Especially down the sides of the torso. Just ease into it and don't press too hard. Make sure you warm up good and stretch afterwards. Don't get mad at yourself if you can't do the moves really big at once. Think of the amazing improvement of working on a bellydance dvd compared to staying in bed all day.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Here's something to check on yourself: As you're practicing your figure 8's, pay attention to your glutes (butt cheeks, bum, ass, Po-Po) - they need to be absolutely relaxed. Your attempt to draw an "8" will come out badly if your glutes are tense.

I tell my students that tight a$$es can't dance.
 

LadyLoba

New member
That's true!!!! I WAS tightening my butt muscles....I followed everyone's advice on here...and I can do a Figure 8 now! Maybe not a great one...but...practice...practice...practice.

It wouldn't be worth doing if everybody could just jump up and do it instantly :):)
 
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