Bollywood Dance Hand Movements

Kajal Mehta: Hi, I am Kajal and this is Priya and we are the Managing Directors of Dhoonya Dance. Welcome to how to Bollywood dance. We wanted to show you a short choreographed routine and break down the footwork and the arm movements that go into this Bollywood dance piece. So, we are going to start with the beginning, which is a basic hip movement with your hands on your right hip and your right foot on its toe and you are just going to take it going up, then down; up, then down; up, then down; and then with the music it'll be a little faster, so that you are going, one, two, three four, five, six, seven, eight and then you will switch to the left; one, two, three four, five, six, seven, eight and then you will repeat on those sides.

After this move, we are going to take it back with the basic one, two, three steps, starting with our right foot. The difference from going side to side is that you are simply stepping back first. You are going to take your hands into the aaja or the come here step and you will go, one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three and then you are going to take it up with a shimmy with your shoulders; starting with your right foot again and its one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three. Now, to add a little bit of flavor to that, as you are going back, you want to lean; you want to turn your body to the side, so that its one, two, three; one, two, three; back and then as you go forward, take it down, up, down, up. After this move, we are going to do the around the world step with the toe touches, so that your toe will touch each corner and your arms are going to be up, shoulders moving and your are going to take it out, one, two, three, four; then the other way with your left leading going one, two, three, four. This will move into the basic limp step, but your body will be going from down to up with a roll. So, its one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and going straight into the turn. So, as we cross our right leg over, our arms go down and then we unwind; bring your arms in and open up as you unwind.

So, let's try that again. It's cross and up. This goes into the chorus step which will be repeated and you step with your right foot. We are going to do a basic step-touch and our arms will follow in the same direction, so that it's one, two, three, four; then moving into the limp, it's one, two, three, four. You are turning those wrists like we turn those light bulbs in the air; you are turning them down. Then you move back to one, two, three, four and then hands at your face. You are talking about the pretty henna on your hands. Then its one, two, three, four and then we talk about the bells in our feet. So, our arms go down, wrist still turning, one, two, three, four and then step out again to the left and then take it into a jump; jump, touch; jump, touch.

Alright, so, let's repeat that. We are stepping, one, two, three, four and then the bangles on our hands; then one, two, three, four, the henna; two, three, four; one, two, three, four; our anklets, one, two, three, four and jump, jump.