Dancing without knees - Page 3

Reen.Blom · 07-19-2008, 10:50 AM

Thank you for the link!

It is still confusing.... LOL It looks like the shimmy I was doing, without knowing it, when i do it I have glutes relaxed(although I wanna learn the glute driven one) and the knees only move as a response to hip movement? I just found the knee shimmy too jerky and uncomfortable, so I focused on rocking the hips up and down, and it never crossed my mind that the movement originates in abs, always felt likie coming out of hips lol...
Thanks for clarifying...

enisa · 07-19-2008, 05:24 PM

Dear Jenc, I deeply simpatize with you. Had the same problem some years ago, after a ws where I was desperatly trying to do something the instructor called "knee shimmy". I could not see the diffrence between what she was doing and myself but she kept saying "No, not like that. Do it from the knee", so at one point I started really jerking my knees. Needless to say they got all swollen and I could hardly walk for 2 days. My knees where never the same since than.

There is some great advice posted here already on what to do when this happens, and how to avoid it with better technique. Just adding a few thing I learned since than:
- do the shimmies relaxed; when I try hard, with tense mucles - also my joints feel sore
- never ever jerk my knee, the "streight knee shimmy" is an illusion - it is still slightly bent
- do shimmies softly, when I have to use sharp moves for accent always absorb the impact by tightening muscle (e.g. the glutes), you can get really crisp accents like this, using the muscles, not from the knee

Also, I have my own variation on the RICE: when this happend, I used ice first, but it was terrible. As soon as I took the pack off, even for a couple of minutes the swelling increased. But if I kept it on long, my skin turned blue. So, I tried out some folk medicine and found that cabagge, salad, any green leaves (no, I'm not jokeing here) work great as a compress for swollen joints.

What also helps: strapping the knee occasionly, massage, voltaren gel

07-19-2008, 10:50 AM	#21 (permalink)
Reen.Blom V.I.P. Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: SA now UK(Newmarket) Posts: 2,251	Thank you for the link! It is still confusing.... LOL It looks like the shimmy I was doing, without knowing it, when i do it I have glutes relaxed(although I wanna learn the glute driven one) and the knees only move as a response to hip movement? I just found the knee shimmy too jerky and uncomfortable, so I focused on rocking the hips up and down, and it never crossed my mind that the movement originates in abs, always felt likie coming out of hips lol... Thanks for clarifying... __________________ Join WORLD BELLY DANCE DAY! www.worldbellydanceday.com

07-19-2008, 05:24 PM	#22 (permalink)
enisa Junior Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 11	Dear Jenc, I deeply simpatize with you. Had the same problem some years ago, after a ws where I was desperatly trying to do something the instructor called "knee shimmy". I could not see the diffrence between what she was doing and myself but she kept saying "No, not like that. Do it from the knee", so at one point I started really jerking my knees. Needless to say they got all swollen and I could hardly walk for 2 days. My knees where never the same since than. There is some great advice posted here already on what to do when this happens, and how to avoid it with better technique. Just adding a few thing I learned since than: - do the shimmies relaxed; when I try hard, with tense mucles - also my joints feel sore - never ever jerk my knee, the "streight knee shimmy" is an illusion - it is still slightly bent - do shimmies softly, when I have to use sharp moves for accent always absorb the impact by tightening muscle (e.g. the glutes), you can get really crisp accents like this, using the muscles, not from the knee Also, I have my own variation on the RICE: when this happend, I used ice first, but it was terrible. As soon as I took the pack off, even for a couple of minutes the swelling increased. But if I kept it on long, my skin turned blue. So, I tried out some folk medicine and found that cabagge, salad, any green leaves (no, I'm not jokeing here) work great as a compress for swollen joints. What also helps: strapping the knee occasionly, massage, voltaren gel