Kashmir

Yes, you don't want that rigid look. One I like is where your hands start pinkies together and open out in a sorta giving gesture - all with a delicate shoulder shimmy.

And don't forget the Saudi shoulder shimmy layered on the shoulder roll! :-) (mmm smilies aren't working)

sedoniaraqs

I questioned the technical validity of a similar description by someone else on bhuz a while back, and never really got an answer to my question.

It is my understanding that in terms of generating movement, the hamstring curls the leg and the quads extend it. Also, that the hamstring works as an antagonist to stop, slow, or control the action of the quad.

So when you are shimmying, your hamstrings are working hard not in "pulling the knee" or "straightening the leg", but in decelerating, stopping, and reversing those motions.

Yes? No?

Sedonia

Aniseteph

OMG that IS scary.

Shimmies are my pet peeve - not bad at home or with some shimmy-tastic music, but in class I tense up and try too hard so they go wrong.

And lately my shoulder shimmies tend to turn into a bingo wing wobble if I'm not paying attention. Yuk.

adiemus

Hi there - I think the BEST description/analysis of the muscles involved comes from Kashmir's site - Hip Rock - as taught by Kashmir
Normal hip shimmies are faster versions of this (or should be).
The Hamstrings and gluteals should be relaxed - or you are using them to stop an uncontrolled movement...

oh yeah - Kashmir's right, Pat and Renee got the idea for shoulder shimmy practice in the car from her!!

I have decided never to shimmy in the supermarket again, it's way too embarrassing, but the shower is good!

Hamstrings flex the knee, and extend the hip.
Quads flex the hip and extend the knee.

If you're really keen (and it's YOUR body, you should be interested!), head on over to Muscular System - Tutorials & Quizzes On Skeletal Muscle Anatomy and take a look at the origins and insertions of each of the muscles, and the weeny animations that show the muscle and the movements. Fantastic stuff!

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Zumarrad

Now, I have not worked with Fifi but I internet-know people who have, and they commented after recent workshops with her that she was most particular about her shimmy NOT being driven by the knees. She apparently said "not leg". And indeed I recently watched some closeup footage of her shimmying and it was most definitely more of an up-down hip rocky type of shimmy than the slightly side to side quality you get with a vigorous Reda-style straight leg shimmy. Although I have no doubt she probably uses more than one.

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

There are so many shimmies and so many ways to do them. Basically a shimmy is any move that can be done on a smaller(and therefore) faster scale. The goal of any shimmy is to be relaxed and work on control first. Speed will follow.
Yasmine

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jenc

This is good news for those of us who are kneefically challenged. The bellydance police round my way have been insisting that it has to be knees shimmy even when trying to walk with it.

Aniseteph

I have no idea how that'd work, though I am shimmifically-challenged! I discovered I can actually walk with a shimmy, and it's not knees, it's the hip rocking type on the leg my weight is on. Weird, it just happened in a workshop and I was thinking where did THAT come from?!

I can walk with a 3/4 shimmy but only because we learnt it starting so slow and broken down that my brain thinks it isn't a shimmy at all.

Zumarrad

I use a walking 3/4 all the time - I find it really hard to walk with any other shimmy. So I don't! LOL.

adiemus

oh yes, that's me! especially 3/4 shimmy...sigh...
back to going slow and ensuring the tongue IS poking out while shimmying down the hallway....

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