Thread: What is the VERY FIRST move that you teach bellydance students?

What is the very first move that you teach to new bellydance students? (or to those who remember as students - what was the first move you learned) And why?

The first moved I learned was "snake arms". I'm not sure why - they actually are sorta difficult to coordinate and hipwork seems much more central to bellydance than arms. Actually if you want to go way back, when I was in colorguard, we had a bellydancer come in and teach us some moves for our show - she taught us some hand and finger isolations (handflowers and waves and the like).

What my teacher called basic exchange of weight. Which was getting your hips working while changing sides.

We then went to side to side hips which is a slide.

After that, I don't recall. Of course, she only talked us through class and broke things down once! After that, it was the follow the bouncing butt method!

{{{HUGS}}}

What I call "dance walk."

It's simply what I consider to be a dancer's walk, the exact opposite of a regular heel-to-toe stride, where the ball of the foot comes into contact ever so slightly ahead of the rest of it. It looks good, feels different from the every day, and eliminates that "clomping," herd-like sound one often hears when folks enter and exit a stage. It's also a relatively easy way to practice posture and arm positions/patterns.

As is taught to beginners, they're instructed to have the feeling of ice skating -- moving smoothly across the floor with no bounce. It is one of the many ways that I help students learn how to be completely aware of everything they do while dancing: the idea of "ice skating," no bouncing, whatever, is absolutely transferrable to other traveling steps such as walking hip lift, etc.

Deborah

learning? I think step, hip with a basic arm position.

teaching - basic warmup, then basic isolations: chest then hips. Then step hip and we go from there.

after posture - articulated shoulder shimmies - because it takes a lot of practice to get them right. First hip move is a hip rock (weight balance, hips into armpits - not to side) as it is the basis of so many other movements.

The first move I teach as a basis for most technique in hipwork is a horizontal hip slide.

The first move I ever formally learned in a class was a hip circle.

Slides: Hip, Torso and Head.

I'm not a teacher, but the first move I learned was hip slides. And posture of course. :)

Unweighted hip lifts and drops. They're the first move I was taught, but that's not the only reason. I like to start getting them thinking about and using their obliques right off the bat, and I'm not sure there's any clearer way to do that than a hip lift.

Also (and I'm having trouble articulating this exactly) it seems to help to start with a move that is more straightforward and kind of screams "belly dancer" - when we start working on something like undulations or another move that is harder to understand, they are less likely to feel so frustrated because they already have a "real dance move" under their belt.

posture - piston hips - chest: slides & lift/drop & circle

Posture. Then hip lifts, drops, and then a little basic step hip walk. I've noticed that moving makes them feel like they're dancing rather than "learning moves".

Posture then I go head to to toe. Starting with arms/hands then upper and lower body. Start the nice arms first so that they come natural with everything else!

posture, then hip slides, and hip circle.

I teach it the same way.

Posture> weighted hip shifts> hip slides

[Posture-i guess I assumed this goes without saying in dance class, but perhaps not after all]
Hips up/down; slides; lg circles. Basically weight changes w how do you contract/release (anything). The weight change part seems to go right over beginners' heads, they are so intent on just getting the hip to move ANY way at all!

1. posture
2. hip slides
3. hip circle

Originally Posted by Hezzer

I'm not a teacher, but the first move I learned was hip slides. And posture of course. :)

Me, too.

Posture, and breathing while pulling the abs in and out. Then weight shifts from side to side, then hip drops.

I used to start with snake arms but decided they took up too much time in beginner class and switched to basic shoulder rolls which is challenging enough.

Thank you everyone for sharing. I am putting together my first syllabus and was going to start with hip clicks (aka piston hips). Now I think I'm going to start with the idea of weight shifts and slides as a preparation for most other moves. I also like the idea of the "walk" - good as a warmup before initial stretching and good for developing stage presence too and grace, I think.

Posture of course is a given. I will be covering it from the beginning and reminding people of it through to the end. I was even coming up with examples of the difference between good posture and bad posture and how it changes how the moves look.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

was going to start with hip clicks (aka piston hips). Now I think I'm going to start with the idea of weight shifts and slides as a preparation for most other moves. I also like the idea of the "walk" - good as a warmup before initial stretching and good for developing stage presence too and grace, I think.

Weight shift is important - but so is the idea of moving the hips without a weight shift - hip clicks/piston hips/hip rocks. If you start with slides many students will use their legs and hang off their ITBs. Then it is hard to break. If you start with hip rocks - you can stress they need to do it without moving to the side which may be easier to encourage good technique. And all up, I think far more moves use hip rocks as a base than slide s- think shimmy, hip lift, hip drop, mayas etc.

Walking is important - I'm amazed with each new intake how difficult many find it to walk with grace in time to the music.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

I was even coming up with examples of the difference between good posture and bad posture and how it changes how the moves look.

I enjoy using humor, and always demonstrate what NOT to do = Laughter and relaxation.
Demonstrating hip drops, for ex, with bad posture, or chicken arms, elicits a lot of fun. And they do get the point how different your moves will look depending on execution. I even have them try that so they can feel
how different it makes your dance.

Would anyone be willing to critique my syllabus if I were to post it here?
I want to make sure I'm not putting too much - or too little - into each class.

I can remember from my beginner class working on figure 8s for the entire hour, just trying to grasp it. Yet I fear that they will be bored if they only learn one move per class.

Not sure yet whether it will be a group of complete beginners, or returning students of other sessions. I _have_ been thinking of how to keep more experienced dancers entertained if I am working on basics with complete beginners.

Even if every teacher on Bhuz signed off on your syllabus, there's no guarantee it would be right for the particular set of bodies who show up at your class. Some students absorb material very quickly, and some take a long time. Some are diligent about practicing at home and come every week with good mastery of what was covered at the lesson before, and others will barely learn what was taught while they're at class, won't practice, and the next week will be back at Square One. The main problem of teaching is how to handle of mix of them, because someone will be bored if the class caters to the slower learners, and someone else will be lost if you try to please the quick studies. Sometimes all you can do is aim for the middle and offer suggestions to the extremes after class.

My first teacher taught one significant family of moves a week (e.g., horizontal figure eights), and one or two throw-ins that didn't require a lot of explanation to learn to fill out the lesson time. You could pencil in a simple combination or two--something that isn't the end of the world if you don't have time for it, but would be a different way to practice what's been taught if you find you're ahead of schedule. (Some teachers use this approach as a way to build toward their first choreography.) You can always fill up any leftover time with follow-along unstructured dancing or improv after they learn a few moves to string together. Another possibility is spending the leftover time talking about music or culture--that's always important.

Personally, I think it is easier to be on the brief side and pad up, than to over-plan and have to keep track of a running list of things that didn't get got to. Beginner classes tend to be somewhat cumulative anyway. Whatever you teach in Week 1 gets reviewed in Week 2, Week 3 reviews Weeks 1 and 2, etc., and that process eats up a lot of time in itself.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

Would anyone be willing to critique my syllabus if I were to post it here?
I want to make sure I'm not putting too much - or too little - into each class.

I can remember from my beginner class working on figure 8s for the entire hour, just trying to grasp it. Yet I fear that they will be bored if they only learn one move per class.

Not sure yet whether it will be a group of complete beginners, or returning students of other sessions. I _have_ been thinking of how to keep more experienced dancers entertained if I am working on basics with complete beginners.

One hour for one move is *way* too long. Personally, I count on about 15 minutes for a new move- if they haven't got it by then, then it's time to move on, and come back to it fresh next week. Move on to a different kind of thing altogether.

Originally Posted by kashmir

Walking is important - I'm amazed with each new intake how difficult many find it to walk with grace in time to the music.

I've had very few beginners over the years who look comfortable with the plain ol' walk. Even after a year. Even after two years. I get them to laugh so they relax a little before we start out, but so many people are so stiff and robotic with it!

It's one of those things that I've always thought should become "second nature" within a short period of time, but I've rarely seen it happen. Folks seem to want to work it too hard, I guess.

Ummmm . . . sorry for the tangent

Deborah

For a group of younger, active people, 15 minutes per move is probably more than enough. For older students or people who haven't taken any formal movement training since gym class in school, 15 minutes might not be enough time to go around giving corrections and making sure everybody understands the concept. If you bookend your lesson with a 10- to 15-minute warm up and 10- to 15-minute cool down, and you allow yourself a few minutes for questions and administrative overhead (do you have to collect fees or punch cards?), your effective instruction time for new material may drop to about 30 minutes out of a 60-minute class.

There's no sense drilling away on a move that needs time to sink in, but you can also leave your beginners overwhelmed and frustrated if you clip through things at the same pace that makes sense for more experienced students who can be trusted to figure some things out on their own. There's a learning curve associated with simply figuring out how to get your muscles to do things they haven't done before. It usually isn't much of a problem for students who have other dance or fitness experience, but sometimes we see students who need a slower pace, especially in those first classes.

One thing that I've found works really well with the moves that take more time is:

• teach the move for the first 15 minutes of class
• move on to something different
• return to the first move for the last 5 or 10 minutes of class

This seems to help everybody "get it" a little better, but it's particularly effective with the students who tend to overthink things.

Originally Posted by Aslahan

One thing that I've found works really well with the moves that take more time is:

• teach the move for the first 15 minutes of class
• move on to something different
• return to the first move for the last 5 or 10 minutes of class

This seems to help everybody "get it" a little better, but it's particularly effective with the students who tend to overthink things.

Interestingly, that's how the Pimsleur language programs work - introduce a concept, wait a certain amount of time (which has been backed up by research to work on our brains) and reintroduce it suddenly. Works like a charm.

And I know the feeling in class myself - when I'm not getting something after drilling it for a while, I need a mental break or I get all kinked up in it. But then if we come back to it later (or in the next class), suddenly it all happens naturally.

Okay, to that end, I'm going to revise my syllabus to have two very different moves per class - to give people that needed mental break. Maybe always have one "smooth" and one percussive.

Originally Posted by beafarhana

One hour for one move is *way* too long. Personally, I count on about 15 minutes for a new move- if they haven't got it by then, then it's time to move on, and come back to it fresh next week. Move on to a different kind of thing altogether.

Good point - in the same beginner class, I remember ending one class crying because we spent 45 minutes on belly rolls and I couldn't get my belly to move at all. In fact, it took me a good 4 years to develop the ability to belly-roll.

Wow. Interesting, scary, and perplexing reading some of the replies! hmmm

First thing that happens in my dance class is a step-together-step going from side to side, as the very first warm-up step. (Does a foot-pattern count as a movement in this thread?) We hold a diagonal-line arm position on the step-pattern, and also turn to face the front corner we're "traveling" towards.

Later in the warmup, we use wrist circles while stretching the feet & legs, so I guess you could call that the first real "bellydance move"...?

We finish the warm-up with hip isolations, contracting/releasing each side under the shoulders (what I call a sharp hip sway) starting slowly at regular tempo, then getting faster in increments of 3 until we get to a loose shimmy at the end.

Not trying to be cute, really! it's just that my "warm-up" uses a lot of bellydance moves...

The first official "bellydance move" per se (after the "warm-up") is usually a hip lift... complete with arm and foot pose -