Perfect My 3/4 Shimmy (January 2012)

Ok, still haven’t got this perfect. My troupe members say I have it, but I’m not convinced. I have the DOWN 3/4 all right, but the UP (which should be easier) gets sloppy after about 15 seconds of doing it. This is such a beautiful step and so critical if I want to delve farther into tribal belly dance.

On a side note, I got moved up into the Master class level at my cabaret studio and my tribal studio teacher said, “I have my eye on you!” Man, I was over the moon since I idolize these women!

If there isn’t a parable about someone needing three teachers to learn something, there should be because that’s how many it took to gel the 3/4 shimmy for me.

Teacher A teaches it “right, right, left, left” weight and hip on those respective sides

Teacher B taught it up up (R ), up up (L) ...down down, down down when you’re doing the down 3/4 shimmy, hips are like pistons alternating.

Teacher C finally taught it up-even up-even (R ), up-even up-even (L). The “even” part being the opposite hip. To avoid turning a 3/4 into a one to one shimmy, the opposite hip doesn’t go up after the emphasized hip, it just reverbs back to neutral. This probably sounds goofy written out, but the point is: I GET IT!!

Even when you say it fast “up-even, up-even” it has the triplet rhythm that you’re going for (and she didn’t even do that, I came up with it!). She did go into the down 3/4 though and solved the great missing “grace note” beat reverb accent that I feel when I sway and do the down 3/4. It’s like a little extra bounce in your booty when it moves outward and then back in for the side you’re on. It looks BADASS!

And now I understand why it’s all so freakin’ hard to speed up! It’s a total coordination thing (which I knew, but I didn’t KNOW, ya’ know?). Teacher C has taught me so much and I’ve only taken two lessons with her and two with her sub. She even had us turn around and do the 3/4 away from the mirror so we can really FEEL it, and just BARELY started to feel it in my hips. Getting the steps and really FEELING them are so different, and really it’s that difference that makes you performance ready. Once you can’t NOT feel it (yes, that’s a double negative!), then you know you HAVE it, and like riding a bike, your body never forgets the weight and the balance of that feeling.

I’m so excited about this discovery, I’m just about ready to puke with happiness. (Yeah, that’s a lot of happy :)

So I started taking tribal classes and the teacher there taught the 3/4 shimmy in a totally different way (a way I’ve seen before on other dancers), and I was able to do it at half speed really easily! I think this maybe the method that I stick with because in belly dancing it’s not about conformity in technique, it’s about style and personality and this style fits me like a glove. :)

I’ve been working on this shimmy for probably six months or more. I have successfully gotten the downward 3/4 shimmy, but the upward one just doesn’t want to go! It’s pretty fun trying though, and even when it turns into a 1:1 shimmy, it still looks pretty good on me :)