Basic Moves

Dance Posture

Stand with your feet hip width apart, knees soft (off lock i.e. bent), bottom tucked under, and imagine a rope pulling you up from the top of your head, up towards the ceiling.

Circles

Hip Circles
Stand with feet hip width apart, and knees soft (off lock). Gently push your hips out to the side, round to the front, other side and back. Try to keep your knees bent the same amount, bending one knee more that the other will produce an undulating circle (try it to feel the difference)
Arms; touching the behind head, or going round with the hips (like offering a plate of sandwiches) or touching at front when bottom at back and vice versa.

Chest Circles:
Push your chest out to the front, to the side, into the back and other side. So your get a gentle rotation all the way around your spin -, it may help to hold your hips still with your hands.

Eight's

Front to Back 8's;
Bring one hip to the front so it's on a diagonal, then push it round to the back so the other hip comes to the front. Push this hip back and you have your 8.
The centre of the 8 is in your belly button and you're standing in the loops of the 8. Try to keep your feet firmly anchored on the floor.

Back to Front 8's
These go the other way - so the emphasis is on the hip coming to the front.

Hits

Think of your dance posture of feet hip width apart, bottom tucked and a string pulling you up to the ceiling, now think about whacking that car door shut with your hip. One knee bends a bit so the other one goes almost to straight as you slide your hip out to the side. Then repeat on the other side.

Twisty hits
Turn one hip towards the front, then the other -your should be twisting at the waist, then add some force to it, it's quite a sharp move and the emphasis needs to be on the hip coming forward.

Shimmies

Hips;
Place your hands on your hips and then gently rock your knees - bending one and straightening the other, so you feel one hip going up and the other down, gently work up your speed. Let all the muscles in your bottom and thighs go loose (don't clench!) these muscles (or wobbly bits you might prefer to call them) are what is powering the move, and eventually you'll feel it move into these rather that the knees. It goes completely against everything you have probably been doing all your life, i.e. sucking it all in - what you have to do is let it all hang out and wobble it! Try to keep your hips isolated from your torso.

Shoulders;
Bend you arms at the elbow and have them at right angles to your body, gently push one shoulder forward and then the other so one goes back and the other one comes forward, but you don't want to push your hands forward! Try to stay relaxed and not hunch up, you want a nice gently slide. Increase your speed and watch it doesn't drop straight down to your hips. In time you will loosen up, and you'll forget how hard it once was!

Hip drops

Start with soft knees then take one foot slightly in front of the other and lift your heel, the small amount of weight on this leg is taken through the ball of the foot. Make sure that the (other) supporting leg is still bent slightly. Lift the whole of the hip up within the joint and then drop it down, the emphasis is on the downward movement not the up - make sure that your heel is still up DO NOT DROP IT WITH THE HIP. Variations on the drop include; N's dropping to the front then twisting it to the back, M's dropping to the front middle and back. Turning on the spot, and travelling.

 

© Copyright 2002 Kookie Kaftan, All Rights Reserved