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Belly Dance - Chest Movements

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Diana: Hi! My name is Diana and I am a belly dance instructor and performer, and I am going to go over some chest oscillations. So, to start this segment, we are going to think wide and between our shoulder blades because this is where most of these movements come from. So we will start off with a chest shimmy, and to start with, we move one shoulder forward, and one shoulder back, the other shoulder forward and then the other shoulder back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, and then just forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, forward, back, and then you just, with time, you manage to get some speed. So, really the movement comes from a forward, back, motion of your shoulders, and you should concentrate in between your shoulder blades here, and then you just quicken it up, and that's what we call a chest shimmy, and that can be angled, you can go up and down with it, you can do all kinds of things and that is a chest shimmy. The next movement we are going to do is the chest lift. So, we think from in the middle here, right, imagine the center spot, and we lift up, up, up, down, down, down, up, up, up, down, down, down, good, up, up, up, down, down, down, and you can use this to accent the music. The next one we are going to do is chest drop, but we are going to do a little in with it. So that's one, two, three, one, two, three, good, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. The next movement will be a chest circle, and to get those, we lift up, we lift up in the center, we lift up on the other corner, and drop, lift, lift, lift, drop, lift, lift, lift, drop. And then we just smooth it out, and then we get a nice chest circle, good.

And then we can do that in the other direction, right, and then we can take the same principles and we can turn them into a Figure Eight. Just imagine these two things here, have pencils on them, and we are drawing a Figure Eight. So, what we are doing is going up, down, and then Figure Eight. And remember to breathe when you are doing these movements, good. And then we can reverse the Figure Eight and go the other way, good. and then we can do a circle, we go forward, to the side, to the back, to the side, forward, side, back, side, forward, side, back, side, and then just smooth it out, and this is another type of chest circle, great. And then we can go the other direction, wonderful. And that concludes this section on belly dance chest movement.

Expert: Dianna Dwyer

www.diannadances.com

P: (703) 447-9134

Email: diannabellydancer@cox.net

Dianna started studying the beautiful art form of middle eastern dance in 1994 and made her first stage appearance in 1996. She has participated in professional shows in Honolulu, New York City as well as Baltimore. She performs five nights a week at Casablanca restaurant in Old Town Alexandria and also at La Kasbah in Reston. Thursday nights she teaches at Fitness First in Tyson's Corner. One of the highlights in More »