Belly Dance HOW TO secrets:
How to learn shimmi
Shimmies need a right technique and regular practice.
Shimmies are done from moving our knees front and back,
while standing in slightly
sitting position, so that knees don’t become completely straight. The
movement of hips comes spontaneously from moving knees.
Move your knees just enough to move your hips and not strain the
upper body. Stay relaxed. I explain in details this technique in my DVD “
Bellydance: basic hip techniques”, and also on my course “
Bellydance-Fitness”. The technique is easy to learn and my students always
learn it from the first time.
But it is not enough just to learn technique in order to
perform shimmi-shake. It takes some practice to move your knees with the
same rithm, especially when you want do it fast. Therefore I recommend
following step-by-step procedure:
Start counting your knee-movements. On each count
the right knee moves backward. (the
left knee moves opposite but we don’t count it). Make four counts and stop.
Make another four counts with the left knee and stop. Choose your own rithm.
When you can do it with the same rithm, make 8 counts with the right knee.
Then stop and make 8 counts with the left knee. Continue this exercise with
the same rithm. Usually before you complete 8 counts, if the tempo is too
fast, there will be happening a little abrubtion. In this case reduce the
tempo. But keep the same rithm. Remember, you should succeed 8 counts
smoothly, without any abrubtions. Tempo does not matter now. Just focus on
perfect rithm without abruptions. When you succeed with 8 counts for each
leg, do the same with 16 counts. When you succeed with smooth 16 counts at
slow tempo, you can start a whole building up
procedure from the beginning
(from 4 counts) on a little bit higher tempo.
Do this exercise every day. Gradually you will build up a
stable shimmi with any tempo you like. More over, this technique allows you
to controle your shimmi so good, that you can insert any short
shimmi-fragment inbetween other movements quite easy.