Belly Dancing: Three Quarter Shimmy - Women's Fitness

Belly Dancing: Three Quarter Shimmy - part of the women's fitness video series by GeoBeats. We are going to learn how to do a three-quarter shimmy, which is perhaps a little bit more advanced, but still, a reasonably coordinated beginner can get the hang of this as well. So what I want you to think about first is tranferring the weight, and notice as you shift the weight from the right side to the left side, the hips will slide side to side as well. So what I am going to do is I am going to step my right foot slightly in front, shift the weight to that foot, contract the obliques to lift the foot and drop it down in front of me. Transfer the weight to that left foot, contract the obliques on teh right side to lift the foot and drop it down in front. So, if you imagine that there is a brace on your knees and you cannot bend your knees, but you need to step forward, you have to use your obliques. These muscles right along the side. They are going to contract to lift and drop the foot. Sso tranferring the weight, use the obliques and release, transfer the weight, contract and release. Transfer, contract, release. And a one, and a two and a three and a four. Now, you want to be mindful to keep the upper body nice and steady and relaxed. It does not get to come to this party, so you have to just keep it out of the equation - really think about pelvis and below. Let us try it backwards. I am going to shift the weight to the right foot, engage the left obliques to lift that foot, step it back. Transfer the weight, contract the obliques, and release. Shift the weight, lift, and drop, one and a two and a three and a four and a. So when you get this and you start to feel comfortable with it, I like to have the accent on the down: and a one and a two... You may get tempted to take it a little bit faster, which is completely fine, just make sure you do not lose the integrity oif the movement and turn it into mush. When it is fast it looks like this, when it is slow it looks like this. One and a two and a three and a four and a. Some people like to have the accent on the 'a', perfectly fine. Just what the music calls for and what your preference is. So let us do four forward and four back. One and a two and a three and a four. Going backwards, one and a two and a three and a four. And that is your three-quarter shimmy.