Belly Dance Beginner Starts Right Project - Part One

1. Trailer: Have you ever wondered how belly dancers move the way they do? And would you ever consider learning how to do it, yourself? Be it, for the purpose of connecting yourself with your body or just simply for the sake of exercising? Would you like to take up this chance to learn this beautiful artform? Hi! I'm Mee, a professional belly dancer & instructor from Malaysia. And I'm here to guide you through your first step into the dance. I believe starting right is very important when you're learning any new skills. Therefore, this program or course focuses on the foundations that are important in the dance and will slowly guide and help you train progressively to build your dance skills. In this course, we will work on posture, muscles, techniques, combinations, and a short and sweet dance choreography for you to apply what you've learned. The beginner belly dance starts right project consists of three parts. And this is just the first part for you to start your journey correctly and applying good dance habits from the start. So what are you waiting for? Join me today and start your first lesson now. 2. Intro, Outline and Projects: Hello everyone. Welcome to the beginner belly dance starts right project, Part 1. Before we actually start, I would like to briefly go through with you the outline of the course, ok? to make sure that you actually start right. We will go down to the very foundation of the dance, starting with the right posture. And then I will introduce to you, two belly dance buddies that is really useful when you actually do the dance, all right? I will not let you know what they are. You will know in the upcoming lessons, alright. And then, after we get to know our buddies, we will start going through some of the very basic techniques that is used in the dance. We will also have three combination practices to help you, to get used to the posture, to the muscle group that you need to use, and also to the techniques. All right. So after these three combos and the techniques that you're going to learn in this part 1 of the course, we will end the course, with a simple, short and sweet dance choreography for you to apply what you have learned in part one. And also, I would like you to know that all the lessons in this course are recorded in a mirrored view, which means that my right hand is directly your right. All you have to do is imagine that I am the mirror image of yourself. So this is my right. So if you lift up your right hand now, all right. So it's at the same side as my right and this is my left and usually my left, I have my wristwatch here Okay. And I will also have some indications on the video on the right, at the top right corner and the left. So that you will know your directions in the dance. Okay, and then we're learning the short choreography, I will also have a back view of myself so that you can actually synchronise your legs, your body angle, and your hands with the back view video. So all of this is to make sure that you'll be able to learn smoothly and easily. All right? And lastly, before we start, I would love for you to actually record yourself. as your project in the course, okay, to record yourself. All the combos and also the short dance choreography. This is beneficial for you as you will be able to compare the movements that you do with the movements that I do. So this is what I do and I am learning, as well. All right, I will actually compare my video with my teacher to see what are the differences. Is it because of the arm position? Is it because of the technique that I did and also her leg placements? How do I try to copy her? Okay. As a student, I find that the first thing you need to do is copy. After that. Once you are done copying and you know the proper way to do it, then you'll be able to put in your own personality so as the project, alright, I will encourage you, okay, it's not compulsory but truly encourage, okay, for you to record the combo practices that you have learned and also the dance choreography, okay, you can post it as part of the project in the course or If you feel shy to share it with everyone, you can also just email it to me and I will give you my personal feedback to help you improve. All right, so are you ready to start? Let's move on to the first lesson. 3. Keep Dancing Safe with Proper Posture: Hello everyone. How are you today? We're going to start the class by learning the belly dance basic posture. It is important to basically know your posture so that you can do the dance safely and also prepare body to the movements that you need to do. All right, so let's just get started. Okay, I'm showing you my profile now. In our normal body posture where we stand up straight, you will notice there is a curve at the back. All right, this is our normal posture. But for belly dance, we would like to lengthen the spine a little bit. Over here you see that the spine is arched. So in order to lengthen the spine a little bit, we're going to relax our knees and then we're going to slowly bring our tailbone down by lengthening the spine, softening the knee, bending it a little bit. All right. And tuck it in at the bottom. So this is the normal posture. This is our belly dance posture lengthening the spine. All right. So this is neutral. This is lengthened. This is neutral. This is lengthening. So the reason why we do this is so that we can protect the back. Okay, when we do our movements, later on you'll learn some techniques you will basically usually use our oblique muscles. All right? So by doing this movement, lengthening the spine, you're actually engaging your muscles in front. Okay. So the first thing is to lengthen the spine relax the knee, okay and open up the chest. roll your shoulder back. activate your back muscles here. Alright. Bring your shoulder blade closer together and bring it down. You do not want to lift our shoulder up. So you roll to the back and bring it down, lengthen your neck open up the chest arms at the side. Okay, so now we got the first two things we need to do for our posture. First, lengthening the spine. Second, open up the chest activity your back muscles. The third one now is to make sure that your neck align with your body. So you don't want to have your head protruded out this way. Okay. You want it to be aligned with your spine Okay. So just make sure that you bring your chin in And then how about your legs? how far apart that you need to be? Okay. So over here, just simple guideline. Just make sure that this is your hip joint, right? So your knee just go down directly in front and down to the leg. or you can also put a palm in between your legs as a measurement and make sure that your knee falls directly in front. You do not want your knee, alright, when you bend to go inwards or outwards So you do not want to stand this way or this way. Okay? You want your knee to be facing front Alright, just adjust your footing. I know everybody has different structure. Okay. So some of you may need to open your legs, your toes wider in a "V" shape slightly "V" shape, so that you can get your knee front so adjust yourself to make sure that your knee falls straight front So these are all you need to do for your basic posture. Number 1, tuck it in to lengthen your spine Lengthen your spine. Open up the chest, alright. head is in, alright And then legs are hip-width apart. All right. So you usually will be in this posture when you're doing any of the belly dance techniques, any of the belly dance movements But you don't always be in this position when you dance. All right because we do walk around when we dance. So when you walk around, you walk like a ballerina. Okay. You bring your body up and stretch But when you start to do your belly dance movements, like some hip movements, you will have to be in the posture. So it's basically a transition between your normal self and your posture Okay? So don't worry too much about it. I will remind you in the upcoming video whenever we need to be in the posture. So for practice, Let's just do some simple movements i'm just bending and straightening the knees. You don't have the bend too much that you feel tiredness on the knee is basically just a little bit so that you can tuck in. All right. So we have a soft knee when we dance And another thing that I would like to mention is in belly dance when we say "straighten the legs" We don't really fully straighten our legs OK, This is fully straighten, when we push our knees straight back. But in belly dance, because we need to be in a posture when we say "straighten the leg" We usually just straighten it a little bit but, it's not fully straighten. This is "straighten" in belly dance This is fully straighten so this is a "NO". We don't fully straighten our legs but we straighten a little bit So that it's straighter than the other leg. Alright, so these are some of the terms that we use in belly dance. Okay, So now, let's just be our neutral posture I would like you to really feel the lengthening of your spine. I want you to put your hands behind your back at the curve of your hip All right. And then, as you tuck it in, I want you to feel like it's dropping. Okay. Feel that your hip is basically moving and tuck.. and tuck you should be able to feel it. If you don't feel it, it could be that you're not pulling your lower abs in to bring the hip down. If you find this a little bit difficult for you, just imagine that you're going to sit down on a chair. So imagine that you pull your skirt in, as you bring your hip in and then, you sit down. You don't sit this way, right? I'm not sure, but when you wear a skirt, a short skirt, you tend to do this. So when you do this, you notice that you're actually automatically bring your abs in here and lengthen the spine. Okay? But don't go too down. All right, just imagine that you're sitting down, high up This is a good exercise also, to relax the spine. Do it gently. When you're doing the posture. Try to have a mirror in front of you to check. Okay. Number 1, number 2, 3, and number 4, check your legs. Can take a picture of yourself take a short video to basically check if we don't have any mirror. All right. So this is the posture of a belly dancer. This will keep you safe when you dance And will help you to utilize the muscles that you need to use. In our next two upcoming videos, I will share with you our two best belly dance buddies alright, see you! 4. Getting to Know Your 1st Belly Dance Buddy: Welcome back. How was it? Have you tried the posture? Take a picture of yourself to check all the alignments of the body. But today you don't have to worry about that today we're going to work on something else. I'm going to introduce to you our first belly dance buddy, why I call them buddies? alright, the first and the second belly dance buddies. Because I find that they are very important to help us make the movements in our dance more precise and sharp. Okay, so what are the two belly dance buddies that i'm talking about ? Todau, I'm going to tell you the first one, which is our glute muscles. You can call them our bum bums In belly dance, we utilize this muscle, our bum bum, okay, to help us make our hip movements stronger with more impact. So let's just get started. Alright, so now we're down on the floor because we want to work on these Two big muscles at the back here. just sit down comfortably. I'm going to face this way so you can see the glutes. Just relax your knees, your legs in front or you can, if you find it hard to sit this way, you can just put your hands at the back a little bit. make yourself comfortable. All right. We're going to try to squeeze both of our glutes, okay? so just squeeze and squeeze, and squeeze. and squeeze and squeeze. Try to concentrate on just the squeezing of the glutes. Without squeezing anywhere else What I mean by this is try not to squeeze your abs Some people tend to squeeze together with the abs, try not to move any other muscles group. No abs muscles, no thigh muscles. Only the glutes. Imagine that you have a pencil in between the bum bum, and you're tightening it. Okay. Bring them together and squeeze. Alright, I am not sure whether you'd be able to see these.. just squeeze If you find that, okay. Both glutes are squeezing now, it may take some time at the beginning to really find this muscle, but you'll be able to get it right. Once you get these done I would like you to try to squeeze single glute. So let's just try to squeeze on the right glute All right, So you're basically put your weight on the opposite side. be comfortable, put your hands here, and squeeze it, starts slow and making it faster. Slowly and Steady, Okay? Now let's try on the other side. Okay. Comfortable. Weight is fully here And just squeeze your left glute. You'll notice that sometimes it's harder to squeeze the left side. that is normal, alright. So don't worry about if you cannot feel the movement. Use your hand to touch. a small contraction is alright. Okay. Slowly you will progress. And you'll be able to get bigger movements. Okay. How is it? Now? We're going to start playing with them. Okay? Take your time to practice this. It might not be an instance that you get the glutes moving, but you will eventually get it. Give yourself time, okay, and don't give up. All right, now let's just try sitting on the floor, open up your legs this way as far as wide as you can. You don't have to open it very wide. Open it this way. The wider that you can it depends on your flexibility, or, if you find that it's very hard for you to be in this position. You can grab the chair, but make sure the chair hard enough. If it's too soft, you might not be able to feel the movements. ok. try a find a chair that is hard enough sit on it and try to do these glute exercise. Okay? So I'm going to be in this posture, I'm going to bring the bum bum up and I'm going to go slightly forward so that there are space behind for the glutes to move okay, so I'm going to face back so they can see my glutes. Okay. We're going to start by squeezing the right glute first. Okay. You can hold it to feel and then make sure that the other hand, you feel the other glute there is no movements, the one on the left Okay. there's no movement on the left. And I can feel some movement on the right side. So I'm just squeezing. Let's do it slowly first. Squeeze Release Squeeze and Release and try to check whether there's any contraction on the leg muscles. We do not want that or on a belly. All right. This is a contraction on the leg muscles. Okay. You don't want to have this keep it relax and just concentrate on the glute. Alright, and then let's try to go a little bit faster. Squeeze, Squeeze. alright, how's that? Okay, good job. Get it going. If you find it's too fast for you can do it at your own pace as long as you feel the squeeze. Now let's try to do it on the left side. Both hands holding on the glutes. But this time you want the glute on your left to squeeze. And the other hand on your right is basically to check, make sure there's no more movements on the left, oh! on the right side. You're squeezing on the left now. Let's try to go little bit faster. Again. Follow your own pace. If you find this is too fast for you, slow it down and just feel the movement. Sometimes it's good to just close your eyes. Feel them make sure other muscles group are not contracting. Checking yourself. Okay. Nothing is moving on my thigh. My stomach muscles are not contracting as well. Yes. It's only the glute. Let's try to alternate the movements. Okay, relax the muscles. Alternate the movement we're going to do, right squeeze left squeeze, right squeeze. You can use your hand to feel. Make sure that you're squeezing the right side. Right now. Left now. right, left, right, left, right, left. At the same time checking no other muscles group are squeezing. right left Okay. Let's bring this exercise up to notch. we're going to do double squeeze on each side. right right. left left right right. left left right right. left left So now, just for some fun, we're going to play with this. You're going to start by squeezing both glutes for eight counts, 5678. And now we're going to do the alternate each side, alright, for 8 counts again, right left 345678. And then, we're going to do the double squeeze Right, right, left left. again, 12345678. The last one we're going to do, right left, right, left, right, right, left, left. So let's try this, 567 and go squeeze both 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 single 12345678 doubles 12345678. Again, 12345678. Now singles 1234 doubles 5678. Repeat this. 1, 2, 3, 4, doubles 5, 6, 7, 8 both again, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 alternate right, left, right, left, 5678 doubles 1, 2, 3, 4, right, right, left, left again, 12345678, single for 4 1234 and double 1, 2, 3, 4, single for 4 234 & double 5678. Alright, so try to do these simple glute squeeze exercise. All right, try to practice these. Okay, You can do this anytime, anywhere while you're watching TV. Sometimes I even practice this. while I'm.. erm not really when I'm driving, when I actually stopped at a traffic light. When I'm in the lift. Of course, you don't want people to see the glute so you make sure that the wall is behind you. ok or, while I'm waiting for something. Okay, so you can actually practice this anywhere, even when a standing up So try this. Okay, and I'll see you in our next lesson. 5. Getting to Know Your 2nd Belly Dance Buddy: Did you get that glute going? Today, before I introduce to you our second belly dance buddy, i would like us to reinforce what we learned earlier. All right. in our posture. tuck it in the chest. neck in, chin up, in your posture, Okay. Holding your glute, now you're standing up. Okay, let's just do some simple exercise with the glute, right left right left double right right left left I hope that you get that. And if not to try again and again and again, don't ever give up. So now let's work on our second belly dance buddy. Okay. This is important to get impact to get sharp movements on your hip on any of the hip movements. The next thing that we're going to work on is our oblique muscles. We're going to do some simple movements. to get these muscles ready, okay, for you to find them. Alright, so be in your posture. tuck it in, it's very important to do this. Otherwise, instead of working on the front muscles, you'll be working on the back muscles. And you might pull some muscles or two and you'll get some back ache. So it's important to be in this posture. Be in your posture. and lift up one of your heel I'm actually lifting up on my right, now. Bring your hands to the side. Imagine that you are doing side crunches Just feel the muscles, tuck it in. And then just bend, your body to the right. And here is basically stretching But because you're tucking in and you're not pulling the muscles at the back. All right. If you're not in the posture, you might be pulling the muscles at the back. So do tuck it in, be in your posture you see my standing leg is basically slightly bend. And I go into the side, I'm going to squeeze the muscles here I'm just going to lift up little bit so that you can see the muscle squeeze. feel the muscles tighten here and come back to neutral. Squeeze them again, come back to neutral. Squeeze them again. Come back to neutral. Do you feel that? tightening of the muscles here? All right. Let's change side, make sure you're in your posture tuck it in, your hand at the side. and squeeze this muscle to the side I'm not lifting my hip at the moment. basically I'm just trying to feel the muscles by bringing an upper body down, side crunching standing up. Feel the tightening of the muscles, when you press it down. you can feel the tightness. If you don't feel it yet. Maybe your muscles over there a little bit weak but this okay. Just practice. Okay. So now, I'm going to change this because we don't really belly dance by squeezing this way, right? The reason why we need this oblique muscles to work for us is so that we can lift our hip later on. So tuck it in. Now, I'm going to ask you to balance yourself All right. Okay. Put your weight on the standing leg. Bring up your right leg. Make sure you're tucked in, you see my left leg is in a relaxed mode, it's slightly bended and I'm tucking in. If you find you can't balance, find something to hold on to. Okay, tuck it in. And now I'm going to ask you to basically use this to lift up your hips. Put your hands here. Ok. while another one is holding here and bring it up. Bring it up. Bring it up. Bring this up again, so that, you can see So holding on to something, if you can balance, that's fine. And up, up, up, up it, up, up, up, up, up. Be in your posture again. Now we're going to switch side. Try to find something to grab onto. to hold on, Okay. balanced yourself, lift up the left leg. Put your hands on your hip and bring it up. these exercises simple exercises that you can do every day to work on these muscles So that when you dance you can immediately use them. So for now, I'm going to give you some exercises that you can try to work on by yourself at home to strengthen these muscles. Balance yourself. We're going to do 8 slow counts without any impact, just basically squeezing and releasing squeezing and releasing. make sure you're in your posture 345678. Now change again, posture. You're going to go slightly faster. and with a quicker squeeze for impact, really you need to balance yourself here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Change. Tuck it in, relax and go. 12345678. Relax. pull it in, posture Going for slow again, 1,2 3,4 5,6,7,8 and change tuck it in and go 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 relax, tuck it in for the quick & strong one 12345678 relax and change, 12345678 relax So do you feel the muscles now? You can also do any of the usual side oblique muscles exercises to help you strengthen these muscles alright, but importantly, is to really be in a posture when you do this to make sure that you're not really using the back muscles, but only the front ones. And remember while we're doing the movements, just now if you notice, I am not going up and down. My body is basically stay at the same level and I'm only focusing on the oblique muscles. So this is our second belly dance buddy. So try to activate them and work on them so that we can use them. In the upcoming lessons. I'll see you! 6. Technique - The Hip Sway: Hello everyone, welcome back. Have you been practicing with your belly dance buddies? are they your good buddies now? I hope they are because they are very useful for you in the dance, alright. Today. Finally, going to start to work on the first most basic technique in belly dance And this is called the hip sway You're not going to use any of the buddy for this movement because this movement is a very gentle movement. First, Remember be in your posture, tuck it in, shoulder roll back, your neck is aligned Okay. Knees, hip-width apart, arms just keep it at the side. All right. And now push your hip to the side. Alright. Extending the leg at the same time and bending the other one further down. So your weight will shifts to the right. And then you're going to change as you shift your weight to the left. straightening the left side little bit more. Remember our straightening the leg here means that you're not fully straighten and lock the knee, but it's basically just slightly straighter than the other leg. And push it out a little bit Make sure you're in your posture. You do not want to push the hip out and then tuck your bump out at the same time. So bring it in and do it at the site. Okay. All right. And then just alternate them, tuck it in, posture alternate the movement, straightening, pushing the hip out, straightening and pushing the hip out. weight on the right leg. weight on the left. You will feel some stretch at the hip joint it's a gentle movement so it's good for the joints. Alright. You do not want to hyperextend it, as well. just make sure that you feel comfortable when you're doing this movement. This movement is basically a slow movement, a smooth, gentle movement There's no impact that is involved. Make sure you remember your posture. Is it still tucked? lengthen? Check yourself. It's good to have a mirror so that you can check yourself. Or you can record yourself in a video and look at yourself to make sure that your butt is not tucking out. your chest is not dropping down, it's holding up. And you have a beautiful smile. All right, So hip sway. Another thing that you want to take note on hip sway is that you are allowed to OK. To push the hip away from your body frame. This is my body frame. Okay. I will put my hands here to show you. This is my shoulder my body frame is here. I can push my hip out from my body frame Okay? Not all belly dance technique will allow you to do this. But because this is a gentle movement, you can do this. it will not harm your body in any way, but it provides you a good stretch and also you get to exercise your leg by bending and straightening. Okay, let's try to add some arms here. I'm basically just imagine that I have imaginary thread that pull my hips side-to-side. Pulling it to the left, pulling it to the right and left and right and left. And I can slowly bring my arms up when you bring your arms up make sure your shoulder stays down. Okay. You do not want to lift up the shoulder as you bring up the arm. Okay. Remember the posture, you still have to press the shoulders down. Adding some challenges here. feeling the tuck, bring it down. Bring it down. So this is the hip sway. In our next lesson. I'm going to work with you on another hip technique movement, which is similar to hip sway, but with some accent. All right, so practice this first. Make sure that you feel comfortable with the movements of your knees and the movements of your body. And take this chance to really focus on your posture as you're doing this simple movements to get your body used to this. so that when we add on more techniques later on. Your body automatically goes into the posture whenever we do any belly dance movements. All right, I'll see you in the next lesson. 7. Technique - The Hip Bump: Hi there, Welcome back. Today we're going to work on a similar technique called the hip bump or, there are some that call it the hip push, the hip lock or hip pop. ok, not hip hop. It's hip pop. Okay. So again, let's be in our posture. tuck it in, lengthen the spine, shoulder rolled back activate the upper back muscles Align your neck, with your hands at the hip, so that you can feel the movement. similar to the hips sway You move your hip by straightening one leg and bending the other. Remember, straightening the legs. doesn't that mean fully straight, right? It's slightly straighter than the other. still on a relax knee, knees still slightly bended Okay. But this time, unlike the hip sway, we're not going to push it out Because hip bump or hip lock or hip push comes with an accent. Alright? So you do not want to push with an accent out on the hip and hurt your hip joint. Okay, So tuck it in hands at the side just to feel the hip movements. And then we're going to just straighten ok I'm keeping it within my body frame I'm not pushing it out. Okay. So it's just straighten. My weight change to the right leg as I'm straightening the right leg and when I change to the left, my weight slightly shift to the left ok while i'm straightening the left. It's not a very big weight change. but just a slight one. Okay. So right hip left hip, it's faster so that you can feel the accent. Do you feel the movement is like tighter? The movements is smaller And then because of the fast movements of the knee which you straighten, it gives an impact to the movements and you will feel some vibration. Okay. Because we do have a little bit of fat in our body, you should feel there is some vibration as you quickly straighten the leg, pull it in instead of, just like this. in the hip sway which is a gentle movements, right? But this one is like you really pull it faster. pum! and keep it within the frame. You see I'm not pushing it out and keeping it within the frame. As I feel some slight weight change When I do my right hip, I feel a little bit of my weight change to my right side. But generally, I'm basically still balanced on both sides. All right. Do you feel that? if you really relaxed everything you will feel some jiggle on the body as you are doing the hip bump. Just imagine that you're trying to bum something away Now, after you get this movements, I want you to try to incorporate your first buddy, okay? For you to wake them up, Let's just squeeze them, tuck it in, squeeze the right side. ok, I'm just doing the right. squeeze the right. And now let's try to squeeze the left. in your posture. Squeeze the left, Hey, wake up. You need to get them to respond. And now, let's try to do this movement together with our glute squeeze. You should feel that the movements get tighter. Okay? The reason why we do this is as you're squeezing, it's actually pulling the muscles up and making your legs straighter So it gives tightness to the leg and make them movements looks sharper. Okay. All right. So let's try now. I want you to just focus on one leg. Tuck it in. as you straighten the right knee Okay. Remember don't lock the knee. Just straighten. In your posture and squeeze the glute at the same time Okay. So facing in front it will look like this I'm squeezing the glute while, I'm straightening the leg. My weight now is mostly on my right leg because I do not want to keep shifting them. Okay. Because I'm just working on the right. So as I straighten, I squeeze, squeeze. So looking at the side way, squeezing the glute as i'm straightening the right leg my weight is basically on the same leg that is doing the movements. which is the right, now. Changing to the left. All right. Looking in front, tucking in, in your posture, I'm now putting my weight on my left. Okay. And then straightening the left. At the same time, I'm squeezing the left glute now. Focusing on the left. squeeze, squeeze. Squeeze, ok looking from the side way, in my posture. Squeezing the left, as I'm straightening together up, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, straighten, straighten. Remember don't lock the knee. Be in your posture. All right. So now, it's warm I think they are awake now. So let's tuck it in. Be in your posture. Okay, let's just do this alternately with the glute squeeze So let's go right bump, left bump, right bump, left bump, right bump, left bump, right bump. Left bump, right and left. Right. and left. Bom bom. Bom, bom. Right, left, right, left. If you notice, and if you're glute squeeze is strong enough When you're doing this movement, you will feel the jiggle more I actually feel it up to my belly, all right? So sometimes it's not that the belly dancer is doing a lot of shaking. It's because she is doing the glute contraction, the contractions of the muscles that is so strong that you will feel the after effect. Alright. the vibrations ok from the audience it looks like, Wow! She's like shaking so much, but it's not. Okay. So all these are just the after effects, the vibrations. So try to feel it. Feel some jiggle feelings, on the belly ok, left and right and left, arms just put it at the side. ok, you see I'm not pushing my hips away like I did in the hips sway Push. This is the hip sway. This is the hip bump. And putting it in. I'm doing it within my frame. Okay. Squeezing the glute. And my foot is flat on the floor. I'm not lifting the heel up or anything. it's glued to the floor. Now let's try to do double bumps, okay. Be in your posture, instead of alternately during the bumps, I'm gonna do two bumps on the right and change two bumps on the left. So while you are doing two bumps on the right, you basically just straighten and straighten. So I'm going to stay on the right for two counts and then shift to the left and stay on the left for two counts because I'm doing two bumps. So now let's try on the right let's do this slowly, so you're going to bump bend the knee again to prepare for the next one, bump while I maintain the weight on the same leg now, I'm going to the left, bump. my weight is now on the left I bend, relax the knee and I'm doing for my second one, bump Alright, so my weight is on the left. Now I'm changing back to the right. bump bump changing to the left bump bump right bump bump left bump bump right bump bump left bump bump, feel the squeeze of the glute, right, left, right, left. arms to the side. Bring it high up. Remember, the shoulder. Bring it down and frame the hip and to the side bring it high up, press the shoulder down, you don't want the shoulder to go up, bring it down and frame the hips. So just practice this. In our next video. We're going to work on some simple combinations for you to practice the hips sway and the hip bump So see you in the next lesson. 8. Practice Combo 1: Today, let's put the two techniques that you've learned The hip sway and the hip bump into a simple combinations which you can practice and work on. we're going to start. be in your posture. shoulder roll back, we're gonna bring our right arm to the side and you're going to look over to the right side. Okay? And then, you're gonna do the slow hips sway, you're gonna do 4 hip sway in 8 counts So you're going to push 12 and then bring it back you're still looking to the right 34 pushing to the left 5, 6, 7, 8. This hand is basically going to frame you're not going to just let your hands die at the side So you're going to bring it up a little bit of elbow and frame it, nicely But this hand is extended out and softly bend at the elbow. softly bend at the wrist and just look to the side, this way Again 1 2 make sure you're in your posture 3 4 5 6, 7, 8. And then, at the same position we're going to do the hip bumps Remember the glute muscles? Okay. 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Bring the hands down. So you're seven will be on your right. leave the weight on your right and bring the hands down on the eight, as we're gonna change to bring your left arm up and look to the left and remember to frame your right hand And then, we're going to repeat the sequence again starting with the soft hip sway to the left now. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Remember to be in your posture and now we're going to go for the hip bumps still looking to the left. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Again on the 7 and 8, weight stays on the left side, Left-hand, maintain. You don't have to bring it down. Just bring your right hand up and place it on the mouth. And now you're gonna do the double bumps on the right hip. So you go right and right. And then the single bumps for 3 4. Okay? So double bumps 12 on the 34 is alternate single bumps 34 Looking over to your right side, looking down now. Okay? And then you're gonna change now, you're gonna do double bump on your left, 1, 2, and then the single bumps on the 3, 4 on the right left. ok, let's see this again 12 34 change 56 78 Alright, repeat again. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. And then we're going to repeat the whole sequence again. by doing the hip sway and look to the right. I 2, 3 4, 5 6, 7, 8. Bumps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Weight stays, hands down and change now to the left, 1, 2 3 45 678 and bump 1234567, arms up, double bumps, 12345678 right side again double bumps, single bump double bumps, single bump And then we just repeat the sequence for a few times. So let's try this with some simple music for you to try this out ok? are you ready? tuck it in position yourself and ready, 5 6 7 go 12345678 and bump 2 3 4 5 67 change to the left 5 6 7 8 & bump left right left double bump right right left right and left, left right, left and right right left right and left left right left let's just repeat and change. Make sure you're in your posture. double bumps one last time and change, hip sway and bumps double bumps alright, so I hope that you will take this combination to practice the hip sway and the hip bumps take this chance to get used to the dance posture And also practice the glute muscles I'll see you again in the next lesson. 9. Back to More Techniques - The Hip Lifts: Welcome back. Today, we're going to work on the hip lifts And this time we're going to use our second belly dance buddy, which is the oblique muscles. This is the normal posture for a hip lift one leg will be at the ball of the foot and the other are usually flat. All right, so in this position you need to be in your posture. Tuck it in. Your standing leg, which is your left leg, will be slightly bent so that you'll be able to bring down our tailbone, lengthens the spine Your right leg now is basically on the ball of your foot, focusing on the weight on your big toe. All right. So placement of your leg would be something like this. tuck it in. shoulder rolled back. arms at the site. We're going to concentrate on trying to bring this hip up. Put your hands here so that you can feel the lifting of the hip, alright? Make sure you're tuck it in so that you're able to utilize the muscles in front. And you're going to contract this and lift up the hip at the same time, slightly straighten the front leg. Alright, so now this leg is really bend. And I'm going to help to bring up the hip by straighten it a little bit. All right. straighten and down while my standing leg stays the same. Okay. There are no movements on the standing leg. But the one that is on the ball of the foot is straightening and bending. Straightening and bending. Alright. So this is the mechanism of how your legs is going to work to help you to bring the hip up, make sure you're in your posture. Now we're going to incorporate the oblique muscles. The oblique muscles will really help to bring the hip up. As you release. It will go back down. Contract. It will bring it up. Make sure you're in your posture so that you will be able to use the front muscles and release try to put your fingers on the ribcage, under the ribcage, here and one, on your hip. As you contract, you will feel that the gap between the two is smaller and bigger, smaller and bigger, smaller and bigger. If you notice, when you're contracting your oblique and lifting the hip, your hip is basically being pulled across and in. see i'm pulling it in towards my rip and relax up and down. pull it in and in and in. I know the standing leg is feeling sore now. It's normal because we are putting our weight on that leg and it's not straighten and lock. All right. When you lock your leg, you don't really use your muscles much. But when you're not locking and you're tucking in, you feel the strain on the standing leg, that this normal. Okay, so now let's try this. Let's give the leg a little bit of rest. weight is on my right leg now, tuck it in. right leg is slightly bended so that I'll be able to tuck in and activate the muscles in front. my left leg now is on the ball of my foot, focusing the weight on my big thumb (toe!). and my hands is on my rib and my hip, in the posture, i'm going to squeeze it up and release Squeeze it up and release. Now I'm pulling my left hip in Pull it in and release So the oblique muscles will really help you to pull the hip up, higher. And into your rib. All right, so this is the hip lift Make sure when you're doing this, one more time I would like to stress, be in your posture. If you're noticing that you're feeling some strain at the back, it means that you have arch your back and you're pulling the hip up this way. Okay. If you're arching and you're pulling it this way, you will feel strain on the back muscles. So bringing this tailbone down, lengthen the spine activate this and pull it in. So now let's do some simple exercise for you to practice this I would like you to try to do the slow version without any impact. And then the fast version with some quick up oblique squeeze to give you some impact. So in your posture is going to look like this. I'm going to put my arms here so that I can feel the lift, tuck it in, chest lifted and go 1234 letting it go 5678, again, 1234 5678. And now I'm gonna do fast 8 with a quick squeeze on the oblique. 1 So if you notice there is a fast and sharp movements, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. While you're doing all this, makes sure that you do not move your standing leg so that you stay levelled The only thing that is moving is your hip. So you don't bounce up and down, this way. If you bend and straighten your standing leg, then you'd be bouncing. So make sure your standing leg is firm and stable. All right. Let's try the other side, tuck it in, weight is on the right leg now. Okay? hands at the side, we're going for the slow one, 4 lifts on the slow, 12345678 22345678. Now the quick 8, 12345678. Step Touch, posture and up and relax. bring it in and relax feel your muscle, in and relax. And relax. and in relax now the 8, 12345678 last set, tuck it in, up and relax and up and relax and up and relax Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and relax. now, fast 1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 change side, tuck it in and up, relax. bring it up, relax Try to maintain your height up & relax and going 12345678 Good job. So this is the hip lift. I would like to just mention the difference between the hip bump and the hip lift. the hip bump, you're actually placing your foot fully flatten on the floor. Although when you straighten this leg it looks like the hip goes up, right? But the movement is more on out, out, to the side, to the side. And you're squeezing the glute Alright. You're not actually doing using any of the oblique muscles. You're basically using your leg and your glute. For the hip lift, we usually, one is at the ball of the foot, and you're squeezing your oblique muscles, bringing it higher up, higher up. Alright. So try to see the difference between these two. Okay? 10. Technique - The Hip Drops: Have you managed to practice the hip lifts? Now, we're going to learn how to do the hip drops And this is also the technique that will allow you to utilize your buddy 1 and 2. Let's get started. The hip drop has the posture exactly the same as the hip lift So you tuck it in. One leg is flat footed, one is on the ball of your foot. Again. Try to put the weight more on the big toe Tuck it in. Before you actually able to drop the hip, you must use your oblique muscle to silently pull it up. You don't want to make a drastic movement that will attract your audience because you just want them to see the drops so you silently squeeze and bring up the hip. It's like there is a imaginary string that is pulling up the hip. And then you're going to immediately cut off the string and the hip drops. Alright, so be careful, again, not to have any movements on your standing leg because you don't want to have you body bounce up and down. So steady yourself on your standing leg. Use your oblique muscles to pull your hip up. Use the scissors, invisible scissors to cut it down and let the hip drop, without dropping your body. All right. So pulling it up and drop. Pulling it up and drop Pulling it up and drop. And when you drop, you really just let go. All right. Let's just try the other side. Again. Tuck it in. My weight is on my right leg, it's on my soft knee, i'm slightly bended so that I can tuck it in and i'm going to pull my left hip up with the invisible string and then cut it off. pull it up and letting it go, bring it up and letting it go. I'm being careful not to do any bounce So my right leg has to be really steady, as I'm dropping. There's no movements there. All right. So this is the hip drop. So now I'm basically just using my obliques to pull it up and then I'm just letting it go. All right. Now I want you to try to incorporate our buddy number 1, our glute. Okay? So as you pull it up using your oblique muscles, when you drop it down, you want the movements to really go sharp down. So what you do is you squeeze the opposite glute. Why the opposite glute? Because when you squeeze the opposite glute, this leg would be slightly straighten And when this leg is straighten, this hip will drop down. So tuck it in, use your oblique muscles to bring the hip up. Now squeeze the opposite glute, which is standing leg to bring this down. Squeeze. Pull it up, squeeze, opposite glute down When you use the glute to squeeze at the opposite side and you drop, All right, I'm going to face front, so you can see. It will avoid your hip from pushing out. I noticed that there are some beginners that when they lift up and drop the hip. They tend to fully let go and put all the weight to the hip joint here. Pushing the hip joint out In long-term, you will basically feel soreness on this side and it is not really healthy for the joints. What I want you to do is when you bring it down, squeeze that glute. And as you're squeezing, stop it here because your legs are going to be straighter and then you will not be able to push the hip out. If you've pushed your hip out, you won't be able to squeeze the glute. All right? So doing this, you keep your hip joint in place. And then you'll be able to do this 100 times without really feeling much soreness on your hip joint. All right. You can try this out and you'll feel it. All right. So don't do this. Don't drop and push your hip to the side. But use your glute, squeeze and block the movements. Let's try the other side. Tuck it in, bring it up Now it's your right glute. Again, don't push it out Alright, don't extend it. you will feel the soreness on the joints and we do not want that. squeeze the opposite glute, Lift the oblique on the left. Squeeze on the right glute. Oblique on the left. Squeeze on the right glute. Oblique on the left. Squeeze on the right glute. All right. So this is the hip drop. Let's just try to do some practice, so that you can get used to this movement. Okay, We're going to start on the right hip. Tuck it in. Hands on the side again so that you can feel the drop So, you're going to go up You're gonna do slow 4 and fast 8 similar to the hip lifts. we're going to go 1. Again, squeeze the glute. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and then the fast one, 12345678. And change, tuck it in. going slow for 12. Squeeze the glute now, fast squeeze on the glute and Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, change, tuck it in. Slow. Now, I'm squeezing my left glute and 1234, squeeze and squeeze. fast now, 12345678 change, tuck it in and slow. 12345678 fast 12345678 remember not to bounce, tuck it in So that's it for the hip drops. The next lesson, we're going to work on some simple combinations, combining all the 4 techniques that we have learned so far. 11. Practice Combo 2: Welcome back. I hope that you have spent some time to practice. hip lifts, the hip drops. Today. We're going to put the hip sway, the hip bump, the hip lift and the hip drop into some simple combinations. I would like you to reinforce what you have learned earlier and slowly they will be able to progress, better than before. All right, so now let's work on combinations. We will start. Facing front, in your posture, shoulder rolled back, arms framing your hip. Remember to bring the elbow up a little bit. All right. cause we don't want our hands to die off, right? Bring it up. Putting in some energy into the hands, and then, we're going to look over to the right as we sway our hip to the right All right, so there is only one sway movement to the right, as we push the hip over and look over. And then we're going to do two hip bumps after that, starting on the left side. And now, I'm going to look back front Okay, it's going to go left right. So we're gonna do the sway, now on the left for two counts, 12 as I'm looking over to the left now. And then I'm going to bump right-left by looking front, right left. Repeat this again. Looking to the right into two counts and left right. Looking over to the left in two counts and right left. So we repeat it this for 4 sets. So now your weight is on your left leg after the bump, you're going to bring your right leg front for 12. So your hands also is going to cross and open. So it's going to be 1 2 make sure you're still in your posture. So from here, you go 1 2 on the 34, you're going to drop lift, 3 4 And then, 56 you're going to turn your palms in and open. as you open, bringing it down. So big one. it's not only at the wrist it's the whole hand. All right? And then you're going to repeat 7 8 Okay, So let's see this again. From here you go. 1, 2, drop lift 5678. Okay? make sure, this is pulled back. Alright, and then, you're going to step on 1 2 in your posture and then, 3 4 is down up 5 6 is turn and bring it in. And then 78, drop, lift. And then close this leg, And you're going to repeat the sequence by going to the left side, alright. So now let's see the left side now. So you go 1 2 bump bump, 5678 1 2 3 4 5, 6, 7, 8 Now your weight is on the right, you're going to bring your left front. You go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. As you're doing this, you're just going to keep your hip up 56 and then drop 78 change, 1 2 when you do your 2 slowly lift it up So it's going to, 1 2 prepare on the 2, right? Then you go down 34, turn the arm, 56, still keeping it lifted, so that you can drop it later on. 7 8, and then step and repeat from the front Alright, so let's try this with the music. Are you ready? Tuck it in. Shoulder rolled back. 5 6 7 and sway bump bump And arms and drop lift and change and drop lift. and arms and drop lift Now left side and arms and drop lift and arms and drop lift and arms and drop lift. Back to the right. and arms and drop lift And left side, and arms and drop lift I hope that you can practice this as much as you can. for you to get used to your movement and also to make sure that you note your posture and practice those muscles. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 12. Technique - The Hip Twists: Welcome back. In this lesson we're going to learn how to do the hip twist. in your posture. All right, so hip twist is basically twisting your hip, front and back, while you're trying to maintain the upper body still without following the body (hip). Okay? If you're actually following the body, you will see that you're not really focusing on the hip, but the whole torso, so the whole section here. So the important part here is that you separate your upper body with lower body and then you basically just twisting the hip. If you notice, the knee is basically stays together. There is no bending and straightening of the knee here. So your knee basically stay at the same level for both sides. weight is balanced on both legs and then basically you're just twisting the hip, front and back. Just for practice, we're just going to twist front and back. Relax. Try to maintain your hands still at the side, although there will be some slight movements, but it shouldn't be in this manner. Alright? Keep the focus only on the hip. And remember you're still need to be in your posture. And now let's try to open the leg a little bit and continue the twist and close. Let's try to open back on the left leg and close. And open and close This is so simple, right? So I'm going to see in the next lesson where we're going to bring the twist from the bottom up to the shoulder. 13. Technique - The Shoulder Shimmy: All right, As we mentioned in the previous lesson, we actually do the twist on the lower part of our body, which is the hip. This time, in this lesson we're going to work on shifting the twist up to the upper body. Okay? So you are basically going to move your shoulder front and back, while ensuring that you're not moving any of your lower body parts. So just tuck it in. Make sure that you are not moving any of the lower part. Okay. Arms at the side. And then you're going to basically move your shoulder, front and back. I would like to basically focus on thinking of moving the shoulder to the back as this will basically avoid me from lifting up my shoulder. If I'm thinking of going to the front, I may. Okay. I may actually focus on pushing the ball of the shoulder here, the joints here, Pushing it front, this way and lifting and twisting this. Alright, while you're doing the upper body twist or we call it the shoulder shimmy. right, we call this, This is called the shoulder shimmy, while you're doing the shoulder shimmy, there should not be any twisting of any of the joints at the shoulder. It should basically just ride on top. So it's basically moving your ribcage. And your shoulder basically just ride on top of this. So by thinking of just going to the back, It's easier. So in your posture, focusing on thinking of pushing, shoulder to the back, to the back, to the, back, to the back. When you're pushing this to the back, this will automatically goes to the front, right? So just let it go. 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, arms slowly come up. You may notice that you're starting to lift up your hands. to the side, your shoulder might not be twisting anymore. or your ribcage is not basically twisting, instead it becomes the hand is moving. This is one of the common problem for beginners, but it's not something that you cannot fix. So just focus on the ribcage here and just twisting front and back and slowly go faster as you're doing the shimmy and making sure that nothing is moving at the hip. 14. Yay! The Last Technique - The Thigh Shimmy: Hi everyone. We have arrived to the last techniques that we're going to learn for this course Okay? And then after this, we basically to apply all these techniques that we've learned in a simple dance choreography. Okay, So let's get onto it. In belly dance, I think everybody knows that a shimmy is the technique that is most widely use in the dance. All right, so today we're going to work on the thigh shimmy. or the Egyptian shimmy or some event call it the knee shimmy. Okay. For the thigh shimmy, our weight is going to be placed at the ball of the foot. Okay. So it's like you're tip toeing but you're not really fully putting all the weight front that you're gripping your toes to the floor. So you basically just shift your weight over to the front, to the ball of your foot. Okay. And for thigh shimmy, you actually need to do it on a straight leg. Okay. So our usual posture would be this, right? So for thigh shimmy, we're going to be focusing on doing it on a straight leg. But we will try not the tuck our butt out, as we are putting our legs straight, we're still going to try to tuck it in a little bit. Okay. So your weight will be in front and then you're going to bend the knee and bring it to the back. So the focus on the thigh shimmy is basically relaxing the knee and then straighten it to the back, and to the back, and to the back. And try when you're doing this straightening of the leg, do not try to contract the muscles here. and jam the knee Okay. Because this is not good for the knee if you do that. So make sure when you're doing your leg straightening. All the muscles here on the leg is basically in a relaxed mode because we need to do this fast. Okay. So let's try to work on the left leg now. Okay. I'm just putting my weight in front and relaxing my left leg and I'm straightening it. While I'm maintaining my body. In elevated mode, feels like somebody is actually holding you high up. And as you're bending and straightening the knee, you're not dropping the body down, okay. If I'm being lazy and when I bend, my body drops down and straighten, my body comes up, then I'll be bouncing a lot. So what you want to, is that you imagine that you're being hold up and as you're moving your legs, you don't have any movements on the rest of your body. Okay. Just imagine that you're being hold up and you're bending and straightening the knee, focusing on going to the back and back, back, back. As you're relaxing your knee, your heel might come up a little bit. All right, that is all right. Although there are some teachers that actually prefer to not lifting up the heel, this is based on your preferences, ok because your weight is basically in front, there might be some times, when your heels basically come up from the floor a little bit So that is all right. Okay. So let's try to go faster on the left leg. i'm actually putting more of my weight to the right side. And I'm trying to hold my body so that I don't bounce that much. Now let's try on the right leg. Okay. It might be a little bit difficult on the left. but now let's do it on the right. Okay. Again, straight leg, weight is on the ball of the foot. Without gripping onto your toes. Try to tuck it in a little bit. because we don't want to arch too much. Okay, and I'm gonna relax the leg and straighten. and straighten. focusing on going to the back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back. Slightly faster. try to make sure that you're not bouncing up and down, moving a body upright and then, going faster. So try to practice one leg at a time first. And now we're going to go on to the technique very actually needs to alternate the knee. So as this knee is going straighten, this will become a relaxed knee. left leg is straighten, right leg will be a relaxed knee. Alright, so alternating this. weight is in front holding up your body. Right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, left, left. And you go faster. When you go faster, you must make sure that your movement is strong. You don't want to go faster, and then your movement is small and tiny and then you won't be able to feel the vibration. So you have to make big knee movements. and fast. the important thing in a shimmy is the consistency of the leg movements. You do not want the knees to get locked, right? You do not want to like doing it fast and then suddenly it got opps! Jammed along the way. But this is normal for beginners. Alright? And you must also make sure that it's balanced. Meaning that if I straighten the right leg this much, my left leg has to be the same. And it's not only one leg that is working. Okay? Balance the movements on both legs and make sure that it's consistent. You don't have to do it super fast. You can do it slow But as long as you maintain the consistency of the movements. One of the way that i would like practice with my student to test on the consistency of the knee movement okay, So this is usually what I practice with them. you're going to do an odd count starting on the right leg So this is going to be one and even count on the left leg, Two. Okay, So let's see this from the side. So it's 121212. I'm lifting the heel up higher so that you can't see the difference. 1 2 But usually we don't do this because I do not want you to focus on bringing the knee up. Okay. Do not do the shimmy this way. Okay. So odd numbers on the right leg, even numbers on the left leg. Ok, so let us try this out, slowly. Okay, we go 1212 from here, right, left, right, left. 12121212122, going faster 121212121212121212121212. Okay? So we will start with this and then I'm going to basically do 8 counts So you're going to be one on the right, two on the left, three right four left, 5 right, 6 left, 7 right, 8 left. So every time I will basically stop on the 8. it will start something like this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. And pause. 12345678 pause. 12345678 pause. And it passed onto 12345678 So every time when you reach the eight is always on the left. So did you get that? Practice this, and you will basically improve on the consistency of the shimmy. All right, so this is the thigh shimmy or the Egyptian shimmy. 15. Practice Combo 3: Alright, now let's do some simple combinations for you to practice the shoulder shimmy, the hip twist and the thigh shimmy, alright? We are going to start with the shoulder shimmy. We're going to do the shoulder shimmy. In a faster movements. 1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8& Make sure when you do this, you're not doing it very hard but in a soft and gentle movements Okay. So we're gonna do this. You're going to put your right leg, front on 1234. And then you're going to shift your weight to the back on 5, 6, closing 7, 8. And then we're going to change. stepping left leg front 1, 2, 3, 4 shifting your weight forward to the front and then shifting your weight back again on 56, close the leg on 7 8 let's see these again, 1234 5678, 1234 5678. So you're going to do this together with the shoulder shimmy. hands just basically putting at the side. So you go 1234 5678, 1234 5678. And then we're going to shift our hands to frame the hip. And then, we're going to do 2 8s of the hip twists. It's going to be 12345678, 12345678. So the hip twist, I'm doing it at 1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8&, But if you find this speed is too fast for you you can do this 1234562578 I would like you to encourage to do the faster version of this. Okay? So after we finish with this, you're going to have a bounce Alright, this is another technique in belly dance, which is called the bounce. So here you're basically after you finish this, we're going to do a bounce and our hands will come up and slowly come down as we do our thigh shimmy on 8 counts, 12345678. And again, so when you go up on an 'and' and I go down 12345678 So our hands for the thigh shimmy will be here, you go. and, so you comes up. And is that you're following your body up and down with the thigh shimmy, and up and bring the hands up. scoop it up. So let's see all this three again with the shoulder shimmy, you go 12345678, 22345678, twist 2345678 22345678. And shimmy 2345678 12345678 and repeat. Okay, So let's try this with some music. All right. are you ready? we're going to start with the shoulder shimmy, 5 6 7 12345678, 22345678. and twist 5678 & 22345678. and shimmy and 12345678, repeat. 12345678 22345678 and twist and shimmy last one 22345678 22345678 and thigh shimmy 16. Dance Choreography - Intro and Entry Combo: Hi, welcome back. You have completed all the techniques in this class and also did some combination practice. Now it's time to learn a shot choreography for you to apply all the techniques that you have learned, in this class. We have five sections altogether in this short dance. The first one will be the entry in which we will learn in this lesson. And then we will have combo one, combo two, combo three. And then before we go to the final section, which is the ending, you will repeat the combo one. All right, and then only proceed to the ending And so let's just get started. For the first section, the music will come in. You will basically just have a relax 8 counts in which you just stand in place and just sway your body side to side. Alright? And after this, you're going to do eight hip sway in two sets of 8s. All right? So the first sets of eight, you're actually going to do 4 hip sway starting to the right, you go 12345678. This is the first eight. And then we were going to continue for the second eight, another set of 4 hip sway, 22345678. So for the entry, it is as simple as this. Now let's just add on the arms as you work on the hips sway. The first 8 counts of the hip sway, you're going to slowly bring your hands up. All right. And on the second 8, you're going to bring it down. Remember when you slowly bring it up, make sure that your shoulder stays down as your arm lift up, press your shoulders down, and bring it down. Okay, so tuck it in. Let's do this together with the hips sway. We go 12345678 down 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. All right, so this is the entry. Let's see this again without the music, first. I'm going to sing for you so that you will know, when to move when music really starts. So the music will start like this [singing] [singing] Let's try this with the music. Ready? Music is slightly faster, right? Don't worry about it. Let's try this one more time. Take some time to practice this. It's very simple, and then move on to the first combo in the next lesson. 17. Dance Choreography - Combo 1: Alright, now let's proceed to the first combo. So at the entry, you actually finished with your weight on your left as you sway to your left, Now, for combo one, you're going to do the bumps. So you're still in your posture. So you're going to slightly open your legs to the side. Just a small opening. Alright. And then as you're doing this on your right hip and your hands is going to be placed at the side of your mouth. All right. The other hand is going to extend out. And then you're going to look over to this side. It's basically looking slightly down, in front. All right. So you're going to do two bumps with the right Remember to squeeze the glute. And left And then you're going to do double bumps on the right. right right. Okay. So let's see this again. You finish your sway over on the left side. Get ready your hands, and you go bump right, bump left And double bumps right, double bumps. And after this, you're basically bring your hands down and slowly twist your body to face this side. So after you finish from here, you're looking over this side, in 4 counts you're going to bring your hands down and look over at the audience, at this side. And we're going to repeat this now, doing the opposite side. So your left arm is going to cover your mouth, your right arm extended. And now you're going to bump on the left, bump left, bump right And then double bumps left, bump bump And again, you're going to bring your hands down, slowly twist your body a little bit, and look over to your left audience. Alright, so let's see this altogether. Tuck it in. Your weight at the moment is on the left. So you're going to start, go looking to the right. 1234, 5678 now left, 12345678. As you are bringing your body facing to the side, you can actually bring the knee closer. And then just sit on the standing leg, alright, similarly to here. bring the knee closer. So this is the first part of combo one. The next one, we're going to bring our right leg slightly front, to go into our drop lift. so from here, just bring it front your hands are down So from here, you just bring it up and then you're going to go for a drop lift. But for this, for the drops, I would like you to have some layering so as you drop, sit a bit further down and then as you do the lift, come up. So it's a 1 2 slightly sitting down as a drop. And when you lift, bring yourself back up. All right. Remember your posture. And then we're going to go, step to the side. on the right now touch on the left, in your posture, we're going to do the same. Drop as you go down a little bit, up and come up. let's see this again, you finish here. Bring up the hands, bring the leg in front a little bit and go down, up and change, down, up. And then repeat this again, change, down up Again, step, down up, and step. So when you step back here, your weight is on the left. All right, so now let's add some wrist movement to make this movement looks nicer. All right, decorate it a little bit. So from here, after you finish, bring your hands down, look at the audience. You're going to look back front you have a 'and' which you bring your leg front and turn the wrist and place. So there is a 'and', 1 2, and then, you're going to step to the right, right? So when you step to the side, bring your hands to open palms up. So turn and open on 34, then, 56 and then you're going back on 78, prepare, bring the palms down again. And then you're going to repeat this, right? 12, step again, 3, 4, open up the palms. 56. And then you're going to just step back on 78 weight on this side. So after you step on the 78, your weight is on the left side, your hands is at the side. We are going to do two bumps, right, left. Okay. So we go right left quickly and then, we pause And after that we're going to shift our weight to the right and left with the shoulder shimmy Okay. So from here you come back. Let's see this again. You go bump, bump, right, left. And then shoulder shoulder, as you change your weight, right and left when you do your shoulder shimmy with the changes of the body weight, you can actually do the tilt a little bit as you put your weight on your right leg, tilting down on your right shoulder, bring the shoulder down a little bit and then change and tilt the shoulder down the left side. But if you find it too difficult for you, you can basically just stay levelled But with the weight change this will make it look nicer. All right, so let's see the last set of combo one before we put them all together. Okay, So from here, we go and, 123456, 78, 12345678. bump right left And shoulder, shoulder So if you notice, there's a bump bump and then, there's a pause, then only, right left Okay, so let's see the whole combo one, all this together. I'm gonna sing for you so that you know how the music goes with the movements. alright, so let's start you finish entry with weight on the left leg And then we go [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] Okay. So let's see this again. The last part. You see when I bumped [singing] you don't do anything. And then [singing] All right. let's try this one more time. but I will sing faster for you because the music are not that slow Okay, so from here, we go [singing] [singing] All right, so let's try this with the music. It's a little bit fast, right? don't worry, the steps are simple Just take time to work on the combo, slowly getting it foster and faster. Let's try this one more time. Alright, take your time to practice this combo one. Okay? We are going to repeat this later on in the dance after we finished combo three. I'll see you in the next lesson. 18. Dance Choreography - Combo 2: Are you ready for combo 2? For combo 2, you finish here, We're going to start with a walk-around. We're going to do four steps. You're going to walk 1234, try to look at your audience, to connect to them. Don't ignore them as you're turning, alright? So this is the first section. And after you finish on the 4th step, we're going to bring our hands down as we bring this leg front and then we're going to go lift So this is the first lift we are going to continue with another 2 lifts 00:00:42.170 --> 00:00:45.200 it's gonna be 2 3 All right, So we do 3 lifts, and then we're going to step to the side and touch to change. So from here, as we change, step to the side on the right leg, your hands gonna come down. And then as you touch on your left leg you're going to bring the hands back, it doesn't matter which hand stays on top of the other, it's based on your preference. So as long as you have this, okay, So from here, you finished lift, and you step and placed, again. So from here, you're going to do two lifts instead of three, so it's going to be 1 2 And then, you're going to drop on the three, drop. And then, slowly do the shoulder shimmy and open up your hands to the side. All right, so let's see this again. Up and up. And then pause a while and then drop and shoulder, shoulder, shoulder So let's see this altogether again. From this side, you're going to go and 12345678, 12345678, 5678 So, on the 7 8, you do your shoulder shimmy, all right. Let's see this again. 12345678, 12345678 And then, from here we're going to repeat exactly the same thing and lift for 3 times 23 and change lift for two times and drop and shoulder shimmy If you notice, I like to tilt my body slightly this way, when I'm doing the movement. So from sideway, it will look like this, when i'm doing the lift, I'm still tucking it. All right, By doing this slight adjustment of the body angle, it will make your movement looks nicer. All right, so now I'm going to sing for you the whole combo two so that, you knoow how it works. So from here, we go. The first part will be some drum roll. All right, so it's [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] So if you notice when I drop, I actually sit down a little bit as well. And as I do, the shoulder shimmy, I slowly come back. All right, so let's try this with the music. Alright, it's very simple, right? let's do this one more time. 19. Dance Choreography - Combo 3: So now let's continue on to combo three. So you finish with the shoulder shimmy here You're going to lift this left arm here your right arm is going turn and open to this side. So you're going to take one step to your right facing here looking over to the corner here, as well. So from here and open to the side, bring the hand down, as you bring this leg in. And then we're going to do the thigh shimmy Bring up your hand. Okay. As you greet the audience here. Okay. And then you're going to lift this hand here, but turn the palms as you're going to go up to this side, now you're looking over to this side, bring the legs in as the hands come down, and then, shimmy to the audience at this side. And since you already greet your audience on the right and audience on the left, now you have to greet the audience in front, okay? Because you don't want to ignore them So you're going to go step one step front. a small one, bring the hands in, this way. And then shimmy, bring the hands down. So let's look at this one more time. Now I'm basically add some spices to the movements to decorated it a little bit. So open up And shimmy and open up and shimmy. And open up and shimmy. So the 'and' is going up on the ball of the foot before you dropped it down and then, shimmy This is the bounce So after you finish the shimmy here, you're gonna do the twist. So from here, shimmy shimmy, shimmy, shimmy. And then turn your wrist. You're going to do the twist starting with a right hip, a fast one 12345678, And then we're going to finish the combo three with a shoulder shimmy again, changing the weight to the right and to the left. So let's see this from the last thigh shimmy shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist. shoulder shimmy right shoulder shimmy left Okay, so let's see the whole combo three and I'm going to sing for you [singing] So now let's just try this with the music All right, when you do your arm movements, I want you to really use the full-fledged of the arms and put some feelings to it Let's try this one more time. From the hip twist to the shoulder it's quite fast, right? [singing] I'm like dropping lazily to the right and left after you finish combo three the dance will repeat combo one again, before we go on to the ending. But let's move on to the ending first before we place all these different, different components, different, different sections together to form the full dance. 20. Dance Choreography - Ending Combo: Reach to the ending section of the dance. So remember, after you finished combo three, you actually goes back to combo one. So at the end of combo one, you actually finish with the shoulder shimmy. Your weight is on the left side. Then we will do our thigh shimmy, so you go, shimmy, shimmy, bring your hands down. And then this time we're going to bump again, the two bumps, bump, bump. But this time we're going to start on the left. When you finish combo one, you actually bump right, bump left, right? and then shoulder right, shoulder left But after you do your thigh shimmy for the ending. you're going to bump left, left right pause. And then shoulder shimmy left, shoulder shimmy right. Okay. And then, we're going to continue with the thigh shimmy again with the bounce first and shimmy shimmy, shimmy. So your hands from here, you can open up this way. And then, shimmy, shimmy shimmy, shimmy, shimmy shimmy down. And then we're going to finish this dance with the fast twist. Right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left. And then again, shoulder weight to the right, shoulder, weight to the left and a pose. You are free to do any pose that you like. shoulder shoulder pose. All right, or shoulder shoulder pose or shoulder shoulder pose Okay. So up to you, to play with your ending pose alright, be creative and this is the ending So it's basically utilizing some of the movements that we have done in the previous combos and just putting them together for the ending. Okay? So let's see the ending again. You finish with the shoulder shimmy. you're going to do the thigh shimmy. Thigh shimmy. 5 6, 7, 8, bump left, left right. And shoulder weight left, shoulder weight right. and shimmy again. When you bump, you basically open your leg a little bit but when you shimmy, your leg close together Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy. And then, we do the twist. 12345678. shoulder shimmy weight to the right, shoulder shimmy weight to the left and a pose ok. so let me sing this part for you so, it's going to be [singing] [singing] drum roll [singing] [singing] [singing] Let's try this with the music. Let's try this one more time. Congratulations, we have finished all the different sections of the dance. See you in the next lesson, where we will put all this together for a complete dance. 21. Finally! The Full Complete Dance!: welcome back. Finally, we are at the end of the course. I hope you have enjoyed yourself so far. And now we're going to basically put all the combos that we have learned for the short choreography into the complete dance. okay. So we will start with the entry where we will basically just relax, and move our body side to side. for 8 counts. I'm going to sing for you now. All right, combo entry section. [singing] [singing] [singing] combo one. [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] walk, combo two walk walk walk, lift. [singing] [singing] [singing] combo three [singing] [singing] repeat combo one. [singing] [singing] [singing] and then the ending [singing] [singing] again, shimmy. [singing] twist [singing] alright, so this is how the placement of all the sections, of all the combos, that we have learned earlier So let's try this with the music. [music] [music] [music] So this is the full dance. you can practice this as many times as you want. Feel free to actually perform this. for your family members and friends. Alright, so I hope that you have enjoyed learning so far. And I'll see you again in the next course. 22. Closing and Good Dancing Habits: I hope that you have enjoyed learning the course and before we really, end part one of the course, I would like to share some good belly dancing habits with all of you so that you will be able to apply these habits from the start of your journey in the dance. As I understand, once you got a bad habit, it's really hard to change later on. So it's beneficial to start right and applying these good habits from the beginning. Okay? So the first good habit will be, again your posture. Okay? So always remember maintaining the right posture when you're doing all your belly dance movements. And remember you don't have to be in this posture all the time. If you need to walk around or you're doing this step touch you basically just standing straight up. Alright, so posture is very important. And remember, similarly to the posture, never to bring chest down. As part of the posture, remember you need to open up the chest. Opening up. Okay? The next one, a very, very important aspect in belly dance, is the body control. Isolations in belly dance is very important. Isolation means when you're moving one part of the body, for example, when I'm moving the shoulder in my shoulder shimmy, other body parts are not really moving. For example, my lower body are not moving as well. So this is called isolation. You may actually sway side to side or go down and up. But all the movements actually come from the upper body only. Alright, so this is called isolation. So it's part of body control. I know at the beginning it's really hard, but you have to always bear this in mind when you're moving the hip twist, try not to move the upper body. as much. of course, there will be some minor movements as our bodies actually connected to each other. But it should not be a big and very visible one. Okay? So isolation is important and part of the body control as well when you're doing your hip drop and hip lifts, remember we did this earlier. Remember I mentioned that you don't want to bounce, so much. So you don't want to do things like this So body control, make sure your standing leg is firm and you're actually using the muscles to do the movements. Another part of the body control that you need to take note is your heel. If you notice, when I'm actually moving my hip, I'm basically only using my oblique muscles and my legs to move. As for the heel, I'm keeping it steady. I'm not going, I'm not moving it with my heel up and down as well. So all of these are part of body control. Okay, so this is a second good habit of belly dance. Control your body and only move the parts that you need to. Okay. The 3rd one that I would like to mention would be the placement of your legs Okay. In which, I actually categorize this as the footwork. All right. So remember I mentioned that whenever you place your legs for the hip lift, hip drop, you basically need to point your toes. Point your toes. Make sure that it's really straight, you don't want to point you toes, this way You have an angle here. You want everything to be smooth and long. And then you basically put your weight on your big toe and then maintain it straight. maintain this leg, straight you don't want to have this kind of angle when you're standing. Okay? Try not to have any angle. You want your vision to be basically smooth and straight. This way, it will make sure that it looks long and lengthy. Okay. So do this. And your heel try to keep it at the back. Okay. You don't want your heel to be shown this way. So put it behind. All right. So this way. point and then place it on the big toe and make sure that it's straight and not this way. Okay. This is the 3rd good habit that I will need you to take note when you're doing your hip lift and your hip drop or any other techniques that you will learn in the future. where you need to be in this position. Okay? The 4th one, will be keeping our knees close Especially when you're doing things like this. Try not to open it too wide. Okay. Try to always bring the knee closer together. All right. Even when you're doing a hip bump when i actually do this bump, I don't want it to have too big gaps between my knee. I will usually try to bring my knee closer. So this is very important because in the dance we usually wants to be more feminine. So we would like to close our knees closer together. Okay. And the last habit that i would like you to take note, is the placement of your hands. Okay. So coming closer. When you actually put your hands to the side. Alright. Try to have a smooth long arms. You do not want to have a big angle like this, and a big angle this, you don't want to dance like this. Okay, this is something I call the chicken wing, you want it to smoothen all the angles. All right, so lengthened it You don't want it to be so straight. All right. And then he just softened it you can put it down. All right. This way. Make sure your wrist is straight. Don't want to arch this way or this way unless it's really intended to. All right. And then your fingers try to bring them closer. Okay. I will usually try to put these three together and the palms will come down and that inky finger is relaxed at the side Okay, you can just keep it soft. Alright, And place it. Right. Or you can just imagine that you're holding a cup. Keep it close. You do not want to have you do not want to dance with the fingers wide open, this way Okay. so keep it close. relax. You can put the middle finger down. this way. The important thing is the wrist here, the joints here you don't want it to be this way. You want it to be smooth. ok? And again with the arms, when you go up, always remember, never bring up your shoulder, this way. Always press down on the shoulder and bring up the arms Even when you're doing this in the dance earlier, you don't want to lift up the shoulder when you lift up this, you need to press this down. So always remember when the arm goes up, the shoulder stays down. Okay. So these are the few good belly dancing habits that i would like you to take note when you practice all your combos and the dance so we are almost at the end. Okay, I just would like to remind you of your course projects. Remember, after you finish all the combos, record yourself. Okay, you can send it to me if you're shy to post it up. Send it to me via my e-mail so that I could give you some constructive feedback so that you can improve yourself further and to know whether you're doing it correctly or not I am looking forward to seeing your videos and I'll see you in Part 2.