Thread: Shimmies, Gushes, Freezes

What's the difference between a shimmy, a gush and a freeze?

spiced

Originally Posted by spicedjellybeans

What's the difference between a shimmy, a gush and a freeze?

As much of the vocab is made up by whoever is teaching at the time it is very hard to say. However, I use "shimmy" to refer to a driven movement which is related to the beat - usually double time. I think a freeze is where the muscle tension causes the movement. (And a reverb is relaxed muscle/fat continuing to move due to another movement)

Never heard of a "gush"

The way I'm familiar with these terms is as follows:

A shimmy is a wobbling of some body part - shoulders, hips, etc. There's typically some amount of looseness to it. For example, with a piston hip shimmy, the hamstrings and glutes are relaxed. I teach my students to produce the piston shimmy by jiggling the flab on the backs of their legs. With a shoulder shimmy, the muscles driving it are in the upper back, and the pectorals are relaxed. And so on.

A freeze is produced by intensely tensing up muscles until they're so tense they vibrate from the tension.

As for gush (which rhymes with push), I've heard two different uses of the term.

• One use of it just means "do a fluid movement", such as undulations, hip circles, figure 8's, etc.
• The other use of it comes from Jamila Salimpour's methodology, and refers to a traveling step that goes sideways. That traveling step is a 4-step combination. On step 1, the foot closest to the line of direction steps to the side completely flat. On step 2, the other foot closes but up on the ball. On steps 3 & 4, you do another step-close, but this time both feet are up on the ball. So, you could cue it either step-close-step-close or you could call it flat-ball-ball-ball. The flat/ball activity of the feet leads the hips to create kind of a vertical figure 8 action layered over the traveling.

thanks that's the first i've heard of a gush

I will use it in a sentance: I'm going to gush into the kitchen and finish off that blueberry cobbler.

My teacher many moons ago referred to it as a "gooshie", but I don't remember it being a travelling step... seems like the footwork was familiar to what shira is describing, but it was in place, not travelling.

It was one of those I never got around to mastering, but I'm hoping to master all the moves this time around!:zillgallop:

In my learning, "gush" is not a particular movement, but what you add to movements such as an omi/ahmi/however-you-want-to-spell-it or a figure 8 or snake arms or a camel to add dimension and texture to your movement vocabulary. When a dancer adds "gush", it's as though the fig8 is being pushed through peanutbutter :)

See, this is where the different uses of common terminology gets confusing. ..c::
A gush, according to my current instructor, is an upward figure-8, the opposite of a maya. Whereas with my former instructor, these were just called "up 8's" and "down 8's".

Originally Posted by ghazallah

My teacher many moons ago referred to it as a "gooshie", but I don't remember it being a travelling step... seems like the footwork was familiar to what shira is describing, but it was in place, not travelling.

In the technique as Jamila used to teach it, a gush can be done in place, but still has the flat-ball-ball-ball footwork.

It can also be done traveling with half-turns that flip-flop with the turn coming on the fourth step. Or, it can be done with half-turns that are continuous rotations, which is harder.

Ah-hah! I get what you all are describing as a gush! I've never known a name for that. Haven't been told one in the entire 18 years I've been dancing Oriental!!! So... I've just called it a traveling or nontraveling upward or reverse vertical fig 8 ... and I guess that must come from somewhere ... so must have heard that before. However, to liven things up in class, I liken it to Axl Rose!!! (you know his wild swinging up hips and swaying feet movement back in the day :)

Originally Posted by Mirabai

Ah-hah! I get what you all are describing as a gush! I've never known a name for that. Haven't been told one in the entire 18 years I've been dancing Oriental!!! So... I've just called it a traveling or nontraveling upward or reverse vertical fig 8 ... and I guess that must come from somewhere ... so must have heard that before. However, to liven things up in class, I liken it to Axl Rose!!! (you know his wild swinging up hips and swaying feet movement back in the day :)

Axl Rose helped me visualize it!

And now I know what you're speaking of when referring to a "gush."

I think my very first teacher called it a "goosh." We did it with the heels of our palms against our hip bones and we would "push" each side of the hip down, either stationary or traveling sideways. That is an oldy but goody move... ..g.:

Thansk for that explination. here I thought you were asking about Effort / Shape!

{{{HUGS}}}

Originally Posted by loloup

I will use it in a sentance: I'm going to gush into the kitchen and finish off that blueberry cobbler.

..l;, ..l;, ..l;,

Not sure that does much to contextually enhance one's understanding of what movement you meant by "gush," but I certainly applaud the sentiment!

Originally Posted by Azhia

Axl Rose helped me visualize it!

And now I know what you're speaking of when referring to a "gush."

I think my very first teacher called it a "goosh." We did it with the heels of our palms against our hip bones and we would "push" each side of the hip down, either stationary or traveling sideways. That is an oldy but goody move... ..g.:

Thanks ladies, and especially Mirabai and Azhia. (Off to find some footage of Axl Rose.)

spiced

I've never heard of gush before..... it sounds disgusting... like you've just pissed yourself. What a horrid expression. Alternatives, pleeeese...