Thread: 10 basic movements

I have heard it said that dancers are essentially using 10 basic moves.
What would these be?


Circles
Figure 8s
Hip accents
Hip drops
Undulations
Shoulders
Shimmy
Front/ back step
3/4 shimmy
Hip twist

What would you add in or take out?

If I were breaking it down to broad-brush basics I go with these:

isolation
articulation
shimmy
undulation
circle
walk

if you get really specific, it turns into about a bazillion movement and movement variations that belly dancers do.

It really depends on how you look at it. I can shorten yet broaden the list considerably for me :)

1. Points (on the body and in 3 dimensional space)
2. Paths (curved, straight, continuous, or bounded travel between points)

There are honestly only so many ways in which to move the human body. All dancers, regardless of genre, use a lot of the same shapes and patterns simply because our bones, muscles, and joints all move in similar ways. The set of common points and paths in a specific dance form are two of the things that give it a specific flavor or style.

In belly dance, we tend to emphasize a different set of body points for our movement points and paths than say square dance.

A few of the common movement paths in belly dance would be

• Arcs (continuous, smooth or punctuated by point accents)
• Undulatory (sequential movement path of similar points such as shoulder/elbow/wrist or chest/abdomen/hips)
• Accented Points (line movement from one point to another with the accent on either the beginning or ending point - such as hip drops, twists)

Each movement can also be then smooth or percussive, continuous or broken, internal or external, and other defining characteristics.

I hope this makes sense LOL It always helps me when I am determining my teaching sequences. I tend to break it all down by body points, planes, and movement through body and spatial points with paths. This really means that the are thousands of movement variations - and that's even before you get into intention and timing. :)

Originally Posted by mahsati

It really depends on how you look at it. I can shorten yet broaden the list considerably for me :)

1. Points (on the body and in 3 dimensional space)
2. Paths (curved, straight, continuous, or bounded travel between points)

There are honestly only so many ways in which to move the human body. All dancers, regardless of genre, use a lot of the same shapes and patterns simply because our bones, muscles, and joints all move in similar ways. The set of common points and paths in a specific dance form are two of the things that give it a specific flavor or style.

In belly dance, we tend to emphasize a different set of body points for our movement points and paths than say square dance.

A few of the common movement paths in belly dance would be

• Arcs (continuous, smooth or punctuated by point accents)
• Undulatory (sequential movement path of similar points such as shoulder/elbow/wrist or chest/abdomen/hips)
• Accented Points (line movement from one point to another with the accent on either the beginning or ending point - such as hip drops, twists)

Each movement can also be then smooth or percussive, continuous or broken, internal or external, and other defining characteristics.

I hope this makes sense LOL It always helps me when I am determining my teaching sequences. I tend to break it all down by body points, planes, and movement through body and spatial points with paths. This really means that the are thousands of movement variations - and that's even before you get into intention and timing. :)

Makes perfect sense to me ..g.:as I have a similiar approach. I start with A. 3 body directions & B. 2 movement groups :
As above post, body can only move a few ways:
A. Body Directions
1. up/down : ex. chest/ hip lift/drop
2. front/back: ex. hip twist / shlder shmmy
3. side-to-side: hip slide
Combining produces "fancy" stuff
B. Movements
1. Smooth, rounded movement : ex hip circle/fig 8, camel/undulation, arm wave
2. Sharp percussive movements: ex hip drop, chest drop, hip/shldr shimmy
Combining = fancy stuff
That's about 10 basic
Next comes speed, level, travel, expression. That's my basic approach.

Thanks!! Your explanations gave me some things to think about. I like the more textural and spatial way of discussng dance vocabulary.

Nathalie LeBec of Quebec once taught a workshop in which she described all the way ribs and hips can move. If you can do these, you can do anything. I always miscount, but basically:

RIBS:
Side to side
Front
Back
Up
Down
Twist

Hips:
Side to side
Front
Back
Up
Down
Twist
There's also a 'pull' as I call it,or a thrust which is more a pelvic move.

I liked this approach so much that it's what I use for a map when teaching. For instance, we start by learning basics like a Hip Slide and Front/Back of hips. Now, when I teach Hip Circle, I remind them that they already know all the component parts. It also makes figuring out problems (that sticky point in a circle that many people get) easier. Go back to the underlying move and make sure everything there works. It amazes me how often a figure-8 problem, for instance, is really a side to side problem.

I think that is basic beginner level. Yes those are the base for more moves, but a few years ago I had to break down steps for an instructional DVD for advanced dancers. There were at least 75 distinct steps that I was able to break down and some that defied explanation.