Belly Dancing Lessons » Beginners

Basic Snake Arms for Belly Dance

Lisa — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:45:20 +0000

This video from Live Strong features Nadia Moussa demonstrating how to do Snake Arms in BellyDance.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: belly dance snake arms, Belly Dancing Lessons, snake arms

Basic Hip Movement Variations

Lisa — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:51:59 +0000

This lesson comes from a series from Belly Dance Boulevard. They have created a whole series of basics for beginners which can be viewed here on their website (I highly recommend you go and work through all of them).

This video shows a variety of basic hip movements.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: Belly Dancing Lessons, hip movements

Circle Step Turn

Lisa — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:40:29 +0000

Amira Nagi is a dancer with Samadhi Tribal Fusion Belly Dance. Here she shows you how to perform a Circle Step Turn:

It’s a fairly basic move but the turning can really throw beginners.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: circle step turn

Side to Side Torso: Basic Upper Body Isolations

Lisa — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:43:30 +0000

I’ve just found some great videos from Everybody Bellydance. They are recorded in Spanish but with English subtitles. This video shows some basic upper body isolations – the side-to-side torso movement:

Be sure to check out their website for more videos: http://www.everybodybellydance.com/

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: Belly Dancing Lessons, side to side torso movements, upper body isolations

Belly Dance Basics

Lisa — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:49:46 +0000

Cassiopeia has many instructional videos on YouTube for all abilities. This is one of her beginners’ videos aimed at showing some basic moves – in this case hip lifts while pointing your foot in front of you and while moving, plus some arm movement.

You can learn more about Cassiopeia at her website http://bellyrolls.com/index.html and I hope to bring you more of her videos soon.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: belly dance hip lifts, belly dance hip raises, hip lifts, hip raises

Snake Arms

Lisa — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:58:17 +0000

This is quite a short video on Snake Arms but I wanted to introduce you to someone I found through Twitter (if you use Twitter then follow me at (http://twitter.com/bellydancing). VelvetMoxie on Twitter has a website called The Gypsy Kiss where she has a number of tutorial videos – some showing basic belly dance moves and others showing how to do Tribal makeup and costuming. These videos have also been posted on Youtube so I may feature some more in the future but in the meantime you can head over to her website and take a look at: http://www.thegypsykiss.com/

Here is the video:

Sorry, but this video has now been removed by the creator – visit their website for more videos

Focus on moving each part of the arm in the order described – at first it will seem quite stuttery, but once you have the movement you will be able to create a fluid motion.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: belly dance snake arms, belly dancing snake arms, snake arms

Maya Close-Up

Lisa — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:28:09 +0000

In the previous video, Queen Cassie showed how to perform Mayas or Vertical Figure 8s. In this video she gives a clearer view of the legs and hips from different angles (please note, that she has donned shorts to enable a clearer view – for the students’ benefit).

She also shows how to lower these closer to the ground in dancing and useful exercises that will make these easier

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: maya, Mayas, vertical figure 8, vertical figures of 8

Mayas or Vertical Figure 8s

Lisa — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:26:31 +0000

Vertical Figure 8s or Mayas are performed by moving the hips up, around and down – first on the left and then on the right. The hips remain facing forward (so that you could perform this movement with your body flat against a wall or lying on the floor, without having to lift your hips).

This video from Queen Cassie is a little dark and the audio is low, but she shows in slow motion how to put the elements of this move together.

In the next video Queen Cassie shows the leg and hip movements for Mayas more clearly.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: maya, Mayas, vertical figure 8, vertical figures of 8

Figure of 8

Lisa — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:59:43 +0000

I love Figure of 8s (or is it Figure 8s or Figure of Eights?). They look so beautiful and flowing.

Here is a video of Meital from 5min.com demonstrating how to perform them. She actually goes beyond the basic Figure8s which is why I have posted it under Intermediate as well.

If you are a beginner, concentrate on the basic move both back to forward and then forward to back. Try to make the mo

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: figure 8, figure of 8, figure of eight

Belly Dance Hip Raises

Lisa — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:19:04 +0000

Now that you have the correct posture, it’s time to learn some more simple belly dance steps.

Aubre shows you how to do both static and moving hip raises:

If you are new to Belly Dancing it is important to remember to isolate the upper and lower parts of your body. That means that when you are performing a move in the lower part of your body – such as these hip raises – it does not impact on your upper half and vice versa. You can see that Aubre is moving her hips but her torso remains still. Eventually you will be able to perform separate moves at the same time in isolation from each other.

As with many Belly Dance moves you may hear these called different names. In this case they are often called Hip Snaps, or Hip Accents.

Bookmark to:

Technorati Tags: belly dance hip raises, Belly Dancing Lessons, hip accents, hip raises, hip snaps