Ouch, that sucks! If it's a stitch, it may be that you haven't warmed up sufficiently. Make sure you warm up the torso before dancing, as well as the legs, arms, etc. Try sliding your hips very slowly from side to side, leaning to the side to stretch your sides, and doing some very slow movements like hip, pelvic, and rib circles (vertical and horizontal), figure 8's (vertical and horizontal), undulations, etc. before you do anything faster at all. I find yoga very helpful as well. If you find yourself speeding up maybe putting on some slow music will help.
I used to find that I would get bad cramps around my ribs every single time I did a shoulder shimmy. It hurt so much I'd have to stop and just stand there with a pained expression while the rest of the class did it. I asked the teacher why this could be and she wasn't sure; she just told me to keep my chest lifted. That's very important (keep reminding yourself that if you don't already) but it didn't fix the problem. I realized that I was putting too much of my chest into it, and when I just put the movement into my shoulders, it didn't get sore anymore, and I'm very comfortable doing them now (and so are my boobs, lol...). I wish a teacher could have explained it earlier though.
Hope this helps.
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