Thread: piston hips

argh!!!! please help...i look like a limping pigeon......cr.:

i would love some visuals of really good piston hips as well as some written description. Are your hips always going down with the beat? When are they appropriate musically? What type of dance do they go with? (Egyptian, Turkish. Am Cab??)

thanks!

What do you mean by piston hips, first of all?

sharp upward and downward movement of hips while standing on balls of feet...hips should stay on a narrow track.

Do you mean single hips while changing weight and/or walking? Either up or down, on the balls of the feet?

If you keep the hip movement down on the down beat, Soheir Zaki is a good example to look at. She does them 'straight' (one hip movement per beat) and with an extra '&a' (an extra down shimmy i between each beat).

I think one key factor in executing these (as with so many of our movements!) is a strong, lifted and open upper body posture. Keeping your ankles and feet steady and not lifting too far off the floor (or from the knee) is also important.

I have not personally heard the term piston hips that I recall, so if I am off base regarding what you are looking for...uh, never mind! ;)

Originally Posted by Monica

Do you mean single hips while changing weight and/or walking? Either up or down, on the balls of the feet?

that sounds right

Is there a youtube clip you could post that would show someone executing this movement.

There isn't any standardized terminology in belly dance, so one instructor's "piston hips" could be anything really.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YamDoDK71Ds&feature=related]YouTube - Sadie BellyDance[/ame]

starting at 35 seconds

Yup, that is what I call a Souhair Zaki hip drop, or sometimes hip "chonk".

You need first of all to be able to do them without any legs, ie a hip rock standing on the spot. You need to be conscious of the lengthening through the side, of the dropping down. Then, come up on the balls of your feet and do it. Then, take your knees out of it so your legs are softly straight. You need to be using the muscles of your torso to drive this drop straight down the side. It's also VERY advisable to tuck a little more than you might ordinarily, to protect your lower back and take some of the strain off the outsides of your thighs (thanks, Shareen el Safy) and DO NOT lean back, have your ribcage lifted up and a bit forward. Then try it while stepping. The hip goes down on the *weighted* leg. You're not hopping from leg to leg, you are just stepping - the hip movement feels independent of the legs.

To get particularly Souhairtastic you can also add a tiny tiny slide from side to side. (I haven't seen the shimmy version Monica describes and MUST, it sounds awesome. I've tried shimmying on one of these and it never works very well. There must be a trick to it.)

At 35 seconds, Sadie is doing what I would call alternating weighted down hips. These were Souhair Zaki's signature move (though stylistically she uses them differently). I'm very down hip oriented, so I use lots of variations of these.

When you first try them, it is pretty typical to look like a limping pigeon. Try keeping your feet close together. Your legs should be pretty straight but with a soft knee. And as Monica said, make sure you lift softly from the upper body.

To train some of the muscles used to do these, lay flat on your back, engage your lower abs to press your lower back towards the floor (not flatten it, just make sure you are not arching), Now point your toes and make one foot longer than the other, then make the other foot longer. Make sure you keep both buns on the floor.

Sadie teaches the down hip movement by contracting the glute muscle on the unweighted foot when you step. The glute contraction pushes the unweighted hip up, which pulls the hip of the foot you're stepping on down. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but for me, I found the movement got smoother and more isolated when I wasn't thinking about doing anything to push the hip down.

Such good advice above! These are so fun to do, and worth the practice.

Zumarrad and others, check this clip of Sohair out out...within twenty or so seconds starting at 1:20, she does some down hips with a little extra shimmy, straight down hips (what I call a one-to-one down and what was asked about here), then she pulls out these fabulous subtle shimmy down hips right around 1:35...for the latter it looks to me like she starts out flat-footed then goes on to the ball, but that is total conjecture since (argh!) we only see hip. Hiptastic, Suhairific hips, but only hip nonetheless.

I had a chance to take a workshop with Soheir Zaki about five years ago. Like I often do in classes with dancers I have only seen perform on video, I stared a lot at her feet, and she has many variations of these down hips. Endless possibilities!

Anyway, blah blah...to the clip!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH4q8gYlYEI]YouTube - Soheir Zaki[/ame]

Originally Posted by zumarrad

To get particularly Souhairtastic

Love it! ..l;,..l;,..l;,

If they are Suheir Zaki chonks you first need to be able to hip rock - ie lift your hip up and down using your lateral flexors - if you can't do that you are really going to struggle.

That given, contract those lateral flexors (quadratus lumborum and obliques etc) so your foot comes off the ground - don't use your leg muscles. While contracting, hip slide and then relax to place the foot back down. The trick is it is all in the abs - the legs just go along for the ride.

Good luck.

Oh how I love this move! Here's another visual, in addition to the excellent descriptions above:

Imagine being a puppet. Think of your upper body being held up by strings, being lifted in mid-air. You can just touch the ground with your toes. You're one of those puppets that has a solid wooden ribcage and pelvis and a gap at the waist, and legs hanging loosly off the pelvis. Imagine someone now pulling down one leg and then the other. Your upper body doesn't move - it's still hanging from the strings. But when your right foot is pulled down, your right hip tilts down with it. This makes your left hip raise and your left foot come off the ground.

The idea is to get the lift and separation needed to work just the hips, and to land with the weight on the correct foot.

With regards to when to do this move - it goes especially well with sharp 'tak' drum beats (a sharp hit of the hand near the edge of the drum). You can hear this in Sadie's video.

Originally Posted by lylagus

argh!!!! please help...i look like a limping pigeon......cr.:

No additional help; just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy this description!

You got great advice on how to execute so I won't be redundant, but I'm curious to know if 'piston hips' is a Suhaila term? I just heard it from a workshop teacher two weeks ago and I believe she has trained in Suhaila format and FatChance.

I know the move as down hips, or Soheir-style down hip, or even tic-tocs.

That Sadie clip is awesome and a perfect demonstration, not just of piston hips, but the mayas, omis and everything in between.

thanks for the advice...i will continue to practice my limping pigeon hip move...hopefully with less limping : )

Originally Posted by nasila

You got great advice on how to execute so I won't be redundant, but I'm curious to know if 'piston hips' is a Suhaila term? I just heard it from a workshop teacher two weeks ago and I believe she has trained in Suhaila format and FatChance.

I know the move as down hips, or Soheir-style down hip, or even tic-tocs.

I know this move as "piston hips" as well and I can't really remember where I heard the term. It was either the bellytwins or a BDSS DVD. I think more likely the BDSS one. Either their beginner/intro one or the Sonia drum solo one.

Sadie goes indepth on hip work in her new dvd, "Thrilin Drillin." I swear it's one of the best instructional BD dvd's ever! :O)

Originally Posted by nasila

I know the move as down hips, or Soheir-style down hip, or even tic-tocs.

I am with you on this one; I have never heard them called piston hips before.

Jillina teaches what she calls piston hips in her instructional DVDs.

Originally Posted by Zamira

Sadie teaches the down hip movement by contracting the glute muscle on the unweighted foot when you step. The glute contraction pushes the unweighted hip up, which pulls the hip of the foot you're stepping on down. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but for me, I found the movement got smoother and more isolated when I wasn't thinking about doing anything to push the hip down.

Yah! Her technique is glute driven...