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| Tuesday, May 02, 2006 |
| Shimmy to the left |
Today Ata attended her first bellydance class in... mm... two years.
In retrospect, selecting a class being run by the school's principal dancer - a woman who apparently has at least twice as many joints as she should have - was perhaps not a brilliant idea.
When taking up an activity that one used to do, but has not done for some time, there is always that moment of realisation where one says to oneself - "This is harder than I remember." Shimmies are that realisation for me.
Ata has never been a brilliant shimmier. For the uninitiated, a hip shimmy is when you wiggle your be-hind. A shoulder shimmy is when one wiggles ones shoulders. There is also the bust shimmy, where one wiggles one's - well, you get the picture.
Hip shimmies (hereon referred to as 'shimmies') are harder than might be anticipated. Certainly Ata found that, way back a few years in her first beginner class.
"Shake my bottom? I can do that."
Of course, it is not quite so simple as just shaking that thang. The movement must come from the knees, while the hips are left loose, the back remains straight, bottom tucked in, chest up, arms up, and SMILE! Well, alright, you don't have to smile. But it took Ata a goodly portion of the ten-week term to get an actual bum-wiggle as opposed to awkward wobble that began at the bottom but quickly transferred itself upwards, like a dog shaking off water. Even once she began to be able to produce the required shimmying motion, keeping it restricted to the under-waist level remained a challenge. And keeping it going for more than a few beats - somehow, even once a good shimmy is up and running, it frequently seems to wobble itself out of existance. Where it goes is anyone's guess, but Ata has certainly found that there are many challenges to the shimmy. Particularly once extra movements are added. Wave your arms about mysteriously like this! Step forward like this! Add a hip lift! Now stretch that leg out! And now some undulations! Stand on one foot! Controlling one action is almost more than Ata can cope with - memory of the struggle of keeping arms steady and in position whilst carefully controlling hips and knees and feet at the same time comes flooding back. And to top it off - now she wants it done with legs almost straight, to give better control and a finer shimmy.
Naturally, it is not just the movements themselves that are tricksy. Remembering what to call them is equally difficult. Shimmy - easy, I know what that is. Hip drop, hip twist, hip slide, hip sway, figure of eight - fairly simple to recall, the names are self-explanatory once you've learnt the moves. But then there are the more fanciful names.
Arabesque! Cairo glide! (all good, Ata is keeping up)
Crescent! (yep, still with you)
Three-quarter shimmy! (ahh- oh, right, like that. Got it, good, keeping up now...)
Maya! (okay, don't actually remember what it is but the name is familiar)
Jewel in the Crown! (WHAT? Has this woman been chewing her incense sticks?!)
Ah, well. It is good to be back in classes, and I'm sure Shamira will have even Ata whipped into shape in no time. Some kind of shape, anyway. Or possibly just whipped. |
posted by Ata @ 2:15 pm  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Am I the only one who tried to shimmy after reading this?
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I didn't.
And that is, believe me, a good thing.
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Am I the only one who tried to shimmy after reading this?