Thread: a whole lot of shaking going on

So I'm actually here for technique help. I know we can always ask our teachers, but I love Bhuz for its variety of opinions.

My question is about "isolation", if you will, of a shimmy.

So, Egyptian knee shimmy (or whatever you want to call it -hamstring shimmy, straight-legged shimmy). This will heretoforth be called EKS for short.

When I took a workshop with Bozenka (and this has been echoed by others), she said that one sign of a properly-done EKS is that it will reverberate up your stomach, whereas a hip shimmy with bent knees will stop at the hips. Due to this statement, I never worried too much about isolating the action of the EKS.

However, I recently saw a video of myself where I do - and this is a very common and frequent move for me, so it must be corrected - an EKS layered on some travelling moves on releve. I noticed that the tremor was extending up into my upper body, shoulders, head. Just slightly, but enough to be noticeable and disconcerting. As much as it feels natural to me, it looked tense for the shimmy to be showing up - up there.

Around 2:59 - 3:18, I do a lot of these layered shimmies and that's where I see the tremor extending up into the head...but maybe y'all will tell me that's normal and fine, who knows... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L9F3PFDLRQ"]YouTube - Amira Jamal's Recital 2008 - Nepenthe[/ame]

At any rate, I have identified this as a key issue that I need to resolve in order to improve my dancing. Has anyone else struggled with this and learned how to deal with the problem, or seen this in a student? Maybe instead of layering the straight legged shimmy, I'm supposed to be using the hip shimmy?

If I want to layer a shimmy with a traveling step, I invariably choose a torso-driven shimmy. I just find it difficult to impossible to travel if my thigh muscles are occupied with producing the shimmy. So to me, a torso-driven shimmy seems the way to go.

Also, any time I want to do a shimmy that "stays put" in the hip area, I do the hip shimmy. As you said, the thigh shimmy tends to travel up into the rest of my body. But if I want a big, loose look to my shimmy and for the energy of the shimmy to travel around my body, I frequently go with the thigh shimmy (unless I'm traveling).

One more thing, and this is just a matter of opinion...To me, the thigh shimmy looks weird if the dancer strikes a pose where the movement of the legs is very noticeable. I think the thigh shimmy looks best where the movement of the legs is not as apparent. But that's just me.

Nisaa

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

When I took a workshop with Bozenka (and this has been echoed by others), she said that one sign of a properly-done EKS is that it will reverberate up your stomach, whereas a hip shimmy with bent knees will stop at the hips. Due to this statement, I never worried too much about isolating the action of the EKS.

However, I recently saw a video of myself where I do - and this is a very common and frequent move for me, so it must be corrected - an EKS layered on some travelling moves on releve. I noticed that the tremor was extending up into my upper body, shoulders, head. Just slightly, but enough to be noticeable and disconcerting. As much as it feels natural to me, it looked tense for the shimmy to be showing up - up there. Unfortunately I don't have a youtube to demonstrate the problem.... (perhaps soon - I just got the video back where I noticed it and need to upload it.)

You get the movement creeping up the body if you have tension in the muscles. For me if you have that tension it ceases to be a shimmy and becomes a quiver. However, if you want that look, tense around the drivers. If you don't relax. You can do a EKS without tension - I've never heard before that tension was a requirement.

But for travelling I'd never use EKS - I prefer a shimmy driven by obliques etc so they can be kept separate.

i do the knee driven shimmies for traveling. its really fun, imo

the main secret to containing the vibration to the lower body is major lift in the torso...without tension
think soft, controlled major-up-lift like ballet.
lifted but with mobility and fluidity

also try experimenting with variations in ankle flexion and tension. this can help divert excess tension/movement down into the floor instead of up into the torso.

Originally Posted by kashmir

You get the movement creeping up the body if you have tension in the muscles. For me if you have that tension it ceases to be a shimmy and becomes a quiver.

That's what I thought might be happening as I was watching your dancing. I was wondering especially if you are keeping your inner-and-back-of-thigh muscles tight as you shimmy, as this often results in a faster, tighter 'quiver' that does tend to travel up. If you try and let your thighs wobble (slap 'em together!!!) and knees relax (even when on releve) as you shimmy, the movement should stay lower in the hips. It seemed to me that your ooey-gooey moves are just that, really flowing, and then your shimmy is contrastingly quite tense, as though you've stopped relaxing and have perhaps straightened your knees and tensed the thighs.

Having said that, I don't like the idea of being a shimmy-Nazi and thinking there's a 'correct' way of doing it - I think it's good to have a repertoire of different shimmy types that you can use as you choose. And I don't think having a shimmy that travels up is a problem per say - I just love Fifi's all-over body wobble.

By the way, your dancing is lovely! You have a really engaging demeanour as you dance.

I see a wobble of unknown origin (Knees? Ankles?) that causes a slight twisting action of the hips during the shimmy.

now that you've posted vid, i can see the slight tension you are talking about

i suggest the torso lift i mentioned above, but with a counter force of pressing down slightly through the shoulders, reaching through the top of your head to maximize neck extention, and pulling down through the lats and scapula. the counter forces of the lift up and pull down through the upper body should stabilize

so it would effectively be:
lift up and pull down simultaneously while remaining fluid in the upper body.

i usually teach this with imagery exercises. try imagining the upward forces in one color and the downward forces in another color along your body. assign a third color to your degree of torso fluidity. then you can adjust the intensities until you get the stabilizing force you want.

once you get the stability where you want and feeling natural, you can relax back into the expressive gestures and postures while maintaining the torso stability.

hope this helps. enjoyed your dancing

Thanks gals...I copied this thread into my Dance Notes and am off to my studio to try relaxing the lower body while increasing the lift in my upper body.

For me, when I do that shimmy it is more visible in my belly but that's because my fat is there. I think it can be acceptable for it to travel all the way up the body, when you want it to. A dancer friend of mine studied with Nagua Sultan and apparently she demands that the shimmy be "vigorous", and that means making your hair bounce (according to Caroline Evanoff, who also studied with her). So sometimes a big ol' crazy shimmy is just the ticket. Other times you want to keep it lower down. For me that involves making it a bit smaller and keeping the buttocks and backs of legs as relaxed as possible.

one thing I love to see in a dancer is her strength and control being demonstrated with a shimmy, with her femininity simultaneously expressed in the lovely jiggle and reverb up the body. embrace it! love it!

that said, yes, I think the other posts above that saw some tension were right, and they all gave great advice. another thing to try to tone down the upper body reverb is another way of looking at what sabrina wrote: with her lifting up/pressing down action, play with expanding/contracting from the inside out to go for firm muscle control in the ribs and upper body. it might take some playing around to find the right mix of tension so you don't look stiff. but lift your torso up out of the hips, firm the muscles that wrap around and between your ribs (intertarsals? I always screw that up and call them interstitials. lol!), lock your shoulderblades back and down, see if firming up your upper abs and diaphragm helps, see if taking the firming-up down to the lower abs and pelvic floor helps or makes it harder.