Thread: Fish????

Hi everyone,

Can someone explain this move please. I feel mentally challenged and physically retarded.

Thanks
..c:: ..c:: ..c:: ..c::

Which move? Did you mean to attach a video?

Hi Azhia,
Nope, didn't mean to attach a video. I've read of the move called "fish" and was wondering just exactly what it is and if I know it by another name.
I enjoy reading your posts tho.

Fish hands?

I think (I am not positive, though - I have only ever heard that online) that it is a vertical upwards/inwards figure 8 of the hips, often also called a reverse maya.

Was it a Jillina move? She does what she's referred to as a fish tail.

Hi Anala and Steffib

Nope not fish hands but I think that Steffib has hit the nail on the head. Reverse maya is what I was thinking it would be.
Thanks girls, I'm waiting for the day when we have a global vocabulary for the moves.

Hi Nasila,
Thanks for you reply but, it wasn't a Jillina move.
You have to love the internet, all of your replies were faster than a phone call and I'm on the other side of the world. :o)

Yeah, Yasmina Ramzy has a traveling move called the traveling fish or something like that where she does something like the reverse maya. I'd have to check on that though.

Originally Posted by anala

Fish hands?

It's the one where you fall over, a la fainting goat, and flap around on the floor as though hooked. It's a move brought on by having to participate in a particularly ponderous and mind numbingly dull choreography.

Been there done that ..l;, ..l;,

Got it! I'm more familiar with it as a down-to-up figure 8. Come to think of it, it does look fishy!

And thanks Miss GloWorm! :0)

I believe it can be done 2 ways: heels flat or heels lifted.

If you execute it heels flat, according to Suhaila format, you are engaging the obliques and the hip shifts down, goes out, and then comes up. The other side is then ready to go b/c it is already in the "down" position.

If you execute heels lifted, you start the same way but as you come up, you actually lift the heel and use the oblique to guide the hip back down. If you do it this way, be sure to keep the knee, ankle, and toe aligned, do not allow the ankle to "sway" outward. If you keep it all in one line, it stays very "juicy" and is safer for your ankles.

i vote not to call any hip area movements "fish" ..c::
its wrong on so many levels

It is a Yasmina Ramzy term. It's a flat footed tight upward figure 8. By tight I don't mean stiff...just not a big loose movement.

Originally Posted by basil1

It is a Yasmina Ramzy term. It's a flat footed tight upward figure 8. By tight I don't mean stiff...just not a big loose movement.

Super correct; you probably wouldn't be able to do the lifted heel version very fast. I love this move. First person I saw it on was Suhaila.

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

i vote not to call any hip area movements "fish" ..c::
its wrong on so many levels

..l;, My thought exactly! Eeeewwww ..l;,

I have to agree about the term "fish" not becoming part of the dance vocabulary.

The vertical 8 on the up has been knick named a "gooshie" in my part of the world.

Originally Posted by anala

The vertical 8 on the up has been knick named a "gooshie" in my part of the world.

Funny, I first heard that in a class in your part of the world and couldn't figure out what the heck Myra meant! I thought it was some kind of styling on top of the up-up figure eight, yet she never did mention the figure eight itself...And I'm thinking: What else do you want? I'm being gooshy! How much gooshier can I get?!
Then the light went on: duh! Stupid east coastie. ..c::

Originally Posted by kharis_UK

It's the one where you fall over, a la fainting goat, and flap around on the floor as though hooked.

You just described floor work.

Bet we were in class together Zana...Myra was also trying to get us to do an inward pull on the top stroke, moving the 8 into a slightly more internal (and horizontal plane) at the apex of the movement, just before it droped into the other hip on the downslide of the slight weight shift. Does that make any sense at all?

Azar always called that move "the basic", I think because if you think about it, it's an exaggerated basic walk (with or without the walk), was teaching it to my students last night. Simply, knee goes down - the hip goes down (making opposite hip go up), weight transfers controlled and smoothly to the other side as that knee goes down .

I've heard my dance instructor call a Taxim a fish - just the reverse of a maya.

I learned a "Fish" step when I first started dancing . . . it was more in the feet and not the hips (well the hips follow). It was aloooooooooooooong time ago. I am getting a visualisation of hands on top of cane and my feet going 1-2-3-pause-1-2-3-pause with a swing of the hips on the pausing feet part. Hard to explain.

To me the reverse of a maya is a vertical fig. 8 or hip roll . . . lol!

Originally Posted by anala

Bet we were in class together Zana...Myra was also trying to get us to do an inward pull on the top stroke, moving the 8 into a slightly more internal (and horizontal plane) at the apex of the movement, just before it droped into the other hip on the downslide of the slight weight shift. Does that make any sense at all?

Yes! Exactly!!!
If you were in that class I happened to drop into, what a funny coincidence! I don't get out your way nearly as often as I'd like to, so if it turns out I could have met you years ago and didn't, well...that's just poopy.
Going to have to coordinate this better next time. ..g.:

I learned an Egyptian folkloric step many years ago from Suhaila & Jamila. This would have been in the early eighties, when they first fell in love with Egyptian style dancing and were bringing teachers from Egypt over here.

So hard to describe a dance step, but I'll try.

You are walking backward on a diagonal, tiny steps, while doing a lower body undulation "over the barrel," i.e. the undulation that starts just below the chest and travels outward, down, and under, some people call it the "cat throwing up" motion but keep it below the chest. Keep the chest lifted.

Your arms are extended in front of you at mid-level (slightly lower than chest level and slightly above your navel). One hand is resting on top of the other hand, fingers closed. The two thumbs are making little circles - the "fish."

You do one undulation per footstep.

I seem to recall that they said it was based on a big fish in the Nile River. But who knows?

It's a really cute step that I still use.

Love the thumb-fish. That does sound really cute, Dunyah.

Yo Zana...what a hoot!

Dunyah - I call that undulation "hairball" I say that word emphatically while doing the undulation...it sure gets the point across.. ;-)

Wow thanks girls. What a wealth of information we have here.

You are walking backward on a diagonal, tiny steps, while doing a lower body undulation "over the barrel," i.e. the undulation that starts just below the chest and travels outward, down, and under, some people call it the "cat throwing up" motion but keep it below the chest. Keep the chest lifted.

*tries*

OMG that is insanely cool.