Thread: One Legged Shimmy

This is one of my favorite moves to do, even though it wasn't taught to me by another dancer. It's never come up in a workshop or class I've been in. I have had some local dancers ask me how I do "that shimmy on one side". I'm sure I didn't invent it - the idea is laughable - but I'm wondering how widespread of a move it is.

Basically, it's like doing the shimmy where you pump your knees but your heels stay on the floor (I learned its name as a Straight Leg Shimmy). The only difference is you only flex the knee of one leg, and your weight is almost completely on the shimmying side.

Anyone else perform or teach this move regularly?

I was taught this movement but have no idea by whom? It was taught to me with one foot in front of the other standing to the side. Maybe not the same movement you mean?

I do this often in performance and usually include it in my shimmy drills when teaching.

I can't really remember from who or when I learned it, but I know it often comes up in classes during shimmy time

Ava fleming used it during her workshop. Jillina taught it at her workshop a few years back. I teach it in class during my 20 min shimmy drill. Oh, Aziza teaches it during her shimmy drill too.

Nilaja

Anyone else perform or teach this move regularly?

I do it often! To me it is just a variation of a full speed or triple time shimmy with a weight change (and maybe a hip slide if I am in the mood). I teach it also, both as a stand alone movement and as a way to strengthen moving/walking with fast shimmies.

It can also be nice with a slight (low leg) extension of the unweighted leg, and/or a slight level change. I find it a sublime way to interpret kanoon taqsims*! :)




*For the record, I was thinking 'kanoon taqsims' in a Homer Simpson 'mmm, donut' voice. :Awink:

Apparently, pretty widespread indeed!

Please keep the responses coming, I'm especially intersted on the variations y'all are doing with it.

Shareen el Safy and Sahra Kent teach it. In one of Shareen's workshops she taught it weighted, walking. Unweighted, and standing still, I call it the "dog in heat" shimmy. :)

I use it a lot too, on a diagonal with open legs. It begins as a delicate shiver and proceeds to an emphatic heal driven bounce with the same side arm and hand lifting slowley over head, palm up.

I used to do a one legged "freeze" where the weight is not on it, but you tighten every muscle until it shakes. It may not be the same thing.

I have been doing a move very similar for years...I kinda angle my body to one side (bent knee side). I don't think it was ever taught to me, I just picked it up from watching other performers. I love it...I can get great tight little shimmies.

Sahra Saeeda (Ave and Jillina's teacher) Calls it a Winter shimme (pronounced Vinter, because she started doing it in Germany). . .

{{{{HUGS}}}

I learned this years ago from Horacio and we combined it with a very slow walk, Hadia taught it at one of her workshops I went to also (without the walk)

My advanced students were just complaining in class tonight because in our choreography, there's a section with alternating weighted and unweighted one-legged shimmies. Bwahahahaha!

Yup. Do it a lot.

Yes I teach it in Level 2 and up. Probably no coincidence that Sahra was also one of my teachers, and Angelika taught it too. I make my students drill it a lot more, though, that what I experienced as a student because it took me so darn long to really get it, so I'm trying to give my students a "leg up" LOL. In Level 3, one legged and weight-changing shimmies are part of our regular warm up - both with the standing leg and the unweighted leg.

youtube?

I have started doing this one a lot when I perform and I like to add a small hip circle only on the non-shimmying side while the other leg is shimmying away!

My teacher Najmat is always shimmying on one leg. Usually I'm mentally shimmying with both legs, but it seems to be the case that you can only shimmy on a weighted leg, so if one leg is not weighted, then the weighted leg is doing all the work anyway. The difference is that she intentionally shifts her shimmy from one leg to the other.

I do it with the non weighted leg. I am standing on the, say right leg and have the left leg sightly to the back and use that leg to do it. It does tend to be gentle, more vibration type movement for me. I sometime add an undulation over the top.

Originally Posted by faaria

I do it with the non weighted leg. I am standing on the, say right leg and have the left leg sightly to the back and use that leg to do it. It does tend to be gentle, more vibration type movement for me. I sometime add an undulation over the top.

Nice. To me that is a slightly different variation, also wonderful. An unweighted triple time shimmy. The stance is similar, but the focus and impetus for movement is different.
M.

yup, i do it too
standing leg
weighless leg
as a traveling transition
it kind of just happens when the music says to shimmy and my weight is unevenly distributed

I use it in my standard warm up, intermediate and above.

My single sided straight leg shimmy is weighted and I use it stationary by itself, for layering or while traveling (say with a basic 4 step). While I didn't 'learn' it from Aida Nour she uses a weight shifting shimmy alot and I get so much mileage out of it with her material.

Originally Posted by faaria

I do it with the non weighted leg. I am standing on the, say right leg and have the left leg sightly to the back and use that leg to do it. It does tend to be gentle, more vibration type movement for me. I sometime add an undulation over the top.

Oo, that feels good to. Your right, it is gentle... kind of like a secret shimmy :-)

I first came across it when Yousry Sharif slipped into a choreography in 1996. I showed the dancers back home and it became an instant sucess ,r:;

Yup, been doing it for years, I do a flat circle with it, emphasising the push to the front, with the weight on the leg thats bouncing, it's great for shimmy drills to get the girls to learn weight transisitions without breaking the move

I don't remember where I learned it first, but I do remember having it in a workshop with some Egyptian teacher (Dr. Mo?) with a variation of slowly twisting the hip while doing the shimmy.
And some other Egyptian taught the shimmy on the standing leg.

It's a shimmy that I teach and perform regularly.

MEISSOUN

Love it! Can't get enough of it. Do it all the time. Shadia of Boston taught how to do it while layering and doing different movements to it. Nourhan taught it by standing on one leg and pulsating the knee back. And of course she had us stand on the other leg. She wouldn't let us pick our heels up off the ground for this move.

Originally Posted by kina

youtube?

You can see me doing it in my Rakkasah vid as well as my raqs b. Look up tahira of Los Angeles.

{{{HUGS}}}}

Originally Posted by NandaDncer

Your right, it is gentle... kind of like a secret shimmy :-)

Sahra actually calls one of these "the secret shimmy." With the feet in one-and-a-half (i.e., back foot flat, front foot in demi-pointe), shimmy only on the weighted back leg. It's "secret" because the audience can't see where the movement is coming from -- they just see your costume shimmer under the lights. ..g.:

from the initial description, it sounds like the 'earthquake', or as aunt rocky puts it,'standing in the subway'...............i like doing it to oud taqsims, doing hip circles with the non-quiver side, one foot out with and undulation, layering's fun with that, cuz the audience is watching your fringes go 'wooba-wooba' and their eyes are popping out!