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Bellycore online belly dance lessons

Greetings, and welcome to a free sample of BellycoreTM Online belly dance lessons online. This is a taste of some basic belly dance moves you can learn in my online classes! In the real classes, you'll have a video to watch for extra helpfulness, and you'll see the moves at different speeds and used in different combinations.

This online class is for healthy, uninjured individuals only. Please check with your doctor before beginning any sort of physical exercise program. Please warm up sufficiently (5-20 minutes) to feel loose and comfortable. If you feel any pain at any point, stop immediately and get checked out. Never force or strain anything!

FIRST: Snake Arms, the classic belly dance arm move!

Keeping the rib cage lifted and your shoulders pressed down, lengthen your arms by pressing the hands away from your body. Then lift the hands to slightly below shoulder height and soften the elbows so there's a slight curve to them. Your elbows should be pointing slightly backwards.

Leaving your hands pretty much in place (to avoid flailing!), roll your shoulders gently back and down, alternating right and left. The motion should send a wave down your arm, making a pretty undulation. Keep the rib cage lifted, and be sure to press the shoulders down and back, then relax them to return to neutral. Lifting the shoulders in this roll is not as pretty, and shortens the line of the neck, so keep the shoulders away from the ears!

By now, you should have a lovely wave rolling down each arm, finishing in a slight motion of the fingers and hand. Well done!

THEN: Hips! The iconic hip lift and drop.

Ah-- the good stuff! Here's that nifty hip work everyone thinks of when they think of Middle Eastern Dance!

Still in good alignment, keeping your knees soft, pull in with the stomach (to isolate the hips and keep the rib cage from moving) and pull the left hip up towards the bottom of the rib cage. Your right knee will bend slightly to let the right hip slide down and out of the way. Keep the left knee slightly soft as well-- you'll be able to change hips faster if it remains unlocked.

Switch hips-- relax the left hip and let is go down as you pull the right up towards the rib cage, using the stomach and side muscles.

The hip drop is simply pushing one hip down (still keeping both knees soft; just one softer than the other) on the beat or with a stronger accent.

The emphasis can be sharp or smooth, depending on the music; you can also call attention to the moving hip by using your arms.

Interested in more? Check out the online bellydance video classes! You'll get exercises for locating and training the muscles used in these moves, plus photos of the movements for easier learning, and a video of the movements strung together in a choreography for each class, so you can learn smooth transitions between them. Learn more about my online classes here.

If you're in or near New York City, come check out my live classes! You'll get extra detail on how to do the moves, personal attention, and much more Pilates work. Details are here.

 

Melissa, melissasdance.com, Rough Diamond Productions, LLC,and anyone or anything else associated with this site takes no responsibility whatsoever for injuries, physical or psychological trauma, serious addiction to belly dance and/or shiny things, the state of the world, or anything else. Period. Your use of the information contained in this site constitutes an agreement to these terms. Have a nice day.