What are the toughest moves?

KEL

New member
Hi everybody... I'd like to know what moves are the toughest to carry out in belly dance. I'd love to hear from your experiences, as I intend to do belly seriously. ciao!
 

Farasha Hanem

New member
I think it varies from person to person, since everyone's body and coordination level are different, as well as one's ability to pick up and learn new things easily. One student may have trouble with snake arms, another may find the 3/4 shimmy to be confusing, while another might have trouble layering a shimmy on top of a maya (my current trouble -_- ). As for potentially dangerous moves, such as backbends, it's best not to get over-enthusiastic and try to do something your body may not be prepared to do. Unless you've had previous experience, don't try any movement that can potentially hurt you without being under the instruction of a competent teacher who can work you up to the more difficult moves. Anywho, that's my two cents, hope others will join in with their opinions. :)
 

jenc

New member
The hardest moves can be the simplest - as you progress you still need to practice basic moves and gain perfect control. It worries me when beginners start talking about difficult moves. you need to look as though the music is being channeled through you and you can do this with the simplest steps as well as more complicated.
It's much better to dance doing what you can do beautifully, than to strive for things that you don't quite pull off.
 

Kashmir

New member
It will depend on what you can "naturally" do. For me headslides, walking 4/4 shimmy and sideways undulations are "normal" - although I know other dancers who find each of these difficult - while it took me ages to get a walking 3/4 or a full body camel/undulation that didn't look spastic.

Difficulty will depend on your range of motion ie flexibility and the way your bones and joints are assembled, what neutral pathways you already have and the complexity of the layering. (That's assuming you mean "toughest" as in most difficult rather than most dangerous)

The hardest thing is to make it look like a walk in the park. A thrashing about dancer is not a good dancer ;)
 

Aisha Azar

New member
Tough moves

Dear Kel,
I find that with beginners, the movements that tend to be the hardest to understand and execute are fundamental undulation and fundamental sway. For some reason these two consistently give trouble to at least a third of my beginners.
Among continuing students, I find that maintaining a big blurbly shimmy while layering it with other pelvis generated stuff tends to be the biggest challenge for the longest time.
Regards,
A'isha
 

Snake

New member
I think it varies from person to person, since everyone's body and coordination level are different, as well as one's ability to pick up and learn new things easily.

I agree. And as many people who learn bellydancing have a background in another type of dance, you definitely see how an extensive experience in other forms of dance can both make moves a lot easier or a lot harder to learn.

It's funny because while most people move from ballet/modern/jazz, etc to bellydancing, I went from bellydancing to flamenco which I guess you can say is fundamentally closer to ballet. When I first started my teacher kept reminding me not to do "African" movements which was not an issue for students who were starting with a clean slate!
 

Aisha Azar

New member
Dance etc.

ooh, that's ME! I don't feel so alone any more :D


Dear Aniseteph,
In the over 30 years I have been teaching now, I have found that this is one of the most challenging elements for continuing students to learn and maintain. I have taught all over the States and in Canada and find that it's a pretty common thing to have trouble with big shimmies and layering. I wish I was there because I could show you a few things that might help.........oooohhhhh, it's SO frustrating not to be able to pop myself here and there to show somebody something, because I am not good with explaining movement without using the human body!
Regards,
A'isha
 
Dear Kel,
I find that with beginners, the movements that tend to be the hardest to understand and execute are fundamental undulation and fundamental sway. For some reason these two consistently give trouble to at least a third of my beginners.
Among continuing students, I find that maintaining a big blurbly shimmy while layering it with other pelvis generated stuff tends to be the biggest challenge for the longest time.Regards,
A'isha

Same here. In fact these were difficult moves for me as well. But once they were unlocked..I had a greater connection to my body.
Yasmine
 
eeeh gawd! i'm overwhelmed! there are sooooo mannnny toughest moves out there...well for me...

1.TURNS!! and pivoting yes,i hate turns! it does not come naturally to me. i never came from a western training backround except one ethnic form, flamenco.

2.reverbs with varies of moves way egyptians do it!



4. i still think fundamental/basic stuff,drilling is NOT that easy! it can be difficult sometimes, because it is more too it than what dancers think!
 
Last edited:

PriscillaAdum

New member
I still have trouble with reverse camels after all these years. From the very beggining it was the one move that just didn't feel "right" to me and took me about a million years to be able to do. It still feels funny when I do them, (I tend to grimace at the same time) and I imagine they probably look funny as well so I avoid them as much as possible when I dance ;)

Regards
Priscilla
 

Farasha Hanem

New member
*holds up hand* You'd be talking about me, A'isha

Dear Kel,
I find that with beginners, the movements that tend to be the hardest to understand and execute are fundamental undulation and fundamental sway. For some reason these two consistently give trouble to at least a third of my beginners.
Among continuing students, I find that maintaining a big blurbly shimmy while layering it with other pelvis generated stuff tends to be the biggest challenge for the longest time.
Regards,
A'isha

I am SO THERE. -_-;;

I'm stil having trouble layering a shimmy on top of mayas and figure 8's, and we do a lot of those in class; you'd think I'd be getting better by now.

When it comes to just good ol' plain camels, undulations, or whatever, I do just fine if that's all I'm doing, and if I'm doing it slowly, but right now, our teacher is trying to teach us a move that's actually three layered moves, while holding arms up in a "V." We walk backwards, one step at a time, while holding our arms up, and as we step back, we do a full body undulation, then throw our hips out, right-left-right very quickly, then take another step backwards and repeat. It's so hard! :( I kept trying to do it on tiptoes for some stupid reason tonight, and was crossing my feet instead of just stepping back, so I kept losing my balance. Not only that, I'm convinced that I'm built like a little barrel, because my undulations look hideous, anyway, and I can't do them that fast. :( My chest is small, and I have no waist, so I don't see a pretty "roll" in the mirror. :( I look like a little "L'il Smokie" sausage trying to undulate. :(

I gained some weight around Christmas time, and even though I'm back down to 107, I still feel like my body can't execute certain moves because I'm so short and squat. :confused: How do I get my body to look right when doing moves that involve the chest and waist, and not look like a dancing sausage?
 
Last edited:

jenc

New member
I'm actuallly having trouble reconnecting with my burbly shimmy. I find that now I have more control over my body, the shimmy has become tighter and I can't go on for as long a I could... Any ideas?
 

Jane

New member
I don't do backbends anymore due to injuries.

For me it's not the physical move that's hard, it's getting the small nuances of the move to look exactly right. It's always less authentic than I'd like it to be. :(

My worst ones are the Egyptian pelvic push tilt motions that go forward and back. I think mine are either too tight or relaxed, not angled quite right, too much or not enough leg push or something. I avoid them because I know I haven't got them down. I need to start a list.
 

Jane

New member
I'm actuallly having trouble reconnecting with my burbly shimmy. I find that now I have more control over my body, the shimmy has become tighter and I can't go on for as long a I could... Any ideas?

Are you experiencing "shimmy glitch?"
 

eden eyes

New member
ugh i get shimmy "glitches" all the time.

i was drilling my students the other day (i teach at the University gym haha) and was making them do the shoulder shimmy with the arms out...gaahhhh....my arms were about to collapse! but since i was the instructor and supposedly invincible, i had to keep my arms up anyway....

everyone else was dying, so it made me feel better

i think the hardest move for me is the belly flutter or quivers being layered with the pelvic roll lol
 

Demelza Aradia

New member
I find layering shimmies on other stuff so difficult - I get all confused and start jerking body parts around that have got absolutely nothing to do with it!! I'm just focusing on being able to shimmy whilst doing everything else at the moment - cooking rice, reading a magazine, cleaning windows etc. so i get so used to it I dont even think about it any more.

Turns - eek! I meant to have learnt how to do spins for one of my dance classes and, honestly, it just makes me feel sick! I have no idea how it's done! I have heard all the focus-on-an-object-and-leave-the-head-to-the-last minute stuff, but I still feel like voming every time.

And drilling - it's exhausting! But i feel so proud of myself after I have spent an hour or so with my Ariellah DVD drilling the basics :D
 

teela

New member
sometimes I don't think its the moves per say, its learning the moves with weightshifts and transisitons so that when they are put together with the music. Learning not to rush the moves so they glide and flow with the music. Learning to hear the different layers of music and choosing which one to dance to instead of just hearing the rhythm base line. Even when choosing a fast piece, learn not to rush and look like you are in too much of a hurry.
 

bopeep

New member
I found it's not the moves themselves that are hard, but the things that are peripheral to the moves - the weight shifts and learning to listen to the music, learning to make the moves smaller and not so exaggerated. And then there's layering moves...

I'm finding that there aren't too many moves that are too hard for me to get *in isolation*, but layering them is another thing altogether!! I don't have anything down to the point that it's automatic, and I can do it without concentrating on it, and I think that's what is needed before I can start to put things together properly. I've just started to be able to travel and shimmy, but only two or three steps before my shimmy blows a gasket. :lol: I've only been dancing since September, so I'm not feeling frustrated about my progress - I'm not a 'natural', but I think I'm learning quickly and I do practice almost every day.

BP
 
Top