Appropriate gestures and postures in bellydance

[Didi]

Dumb question, but how exactly do you do a "breast shimmy"? My teachers also emphasized the shoulders-only technique. In fact, one teacher was really adamant about not moving the breasts except as they naturally "come along for the ride." I spent a lot of time with my back against a wall, feeling the isolation of the shoulder muscle moving exactly forward and back, and now am just slightly annoyed that this is *not* correct.

Sigh.
Didi

 

[Shanazel]

It is not incorrect to learn a shoulder shimmy, a completely different movement from a breast shimmy. A breast shimmy is driven by the muscles in your upper back. If you shake your shoulders hard enough to get your boobs really wagging, it looks a bit frentic with all those different parts flailing about. Personally, I prefer the effect of the shoulder shimmy on both shoulders and breasts, and I don't encourage my students to do blatant breast shaking, but to each her own.