Those mesmerising hip slopes and shakes, with belly muscles vibrating to the upbeat Arabic music, belly dancing is one dance form that will ensure to give you the perfect hour-glass figure you need. A common misconception is that belly dancing gives a lot of cramps and is meant only for beach bods! If you have the flair to learn the dance form and if you think your hips don’t lie, then here’s are a few steps you can begin with. These steps help tone your muscles and get your body flexible.
Hip slides
One of the most basic steps in belly dance. Its an excellent exercise to activate the sides of the waist. This is how you can do it:
Stand with feet parallel, hip distant apart. Slight bend in the knees, you can keep your arms straight. Slide your hips side to side without bending your knees. Repeats two sets of eight and start increasing the range of motion with every set.
Chest slides
This is same as the hip slides but the movement happens in the chest. Here is how you can do it:
Stand with feet parallel, hip distant apart. Slight bend in the knees, you can keep your arms straight. Move your chest horizontally side to side without moving the hips. Repeat 2 sets of 8 and start increasing the range of motion with every set.
Chest up
This is also basic to beginner movement in belly dance. It activates upper back and upper abs. This is how you can do it:
Stand with feet parallel, hip distant apart. Slight bend in the knees, you can keep your arms straight. Engage your upper abs and lift your chest vertically up towards the ceiling and come back to the starting position without drooping the chest and shoulders down. Also keep in mind not to engage the shoulders while doing the movement.
Hip drops
This is a beginner to intermediate movement in belly dance. But I will be talking about a more basic version of this. This is how you can attempt it:
Stand with feet parallel, hip distant apart. Slight bend in the knees, you can keep your arms straight. Now you can slightly turn at an angle, preferably diagonal but turn your chest and shoulders in front, so you will initiate a twist in your body. Now shift the weight of your body to your inside leg and keep the front leg at a relieve (a movement in which the dancer rises on the tips of the toes) position. Keeping the weight on the left leg, move hip up and down in a vertical space. You can use your weighted leg to initiate the movement in your hips. Repeat to the other side.
Snake arms
These are excellent for arms and upper back. Here is how you can do it:
Stand with feet parallel, hip distant apart. Slight bend in the knees, you can keep your arms straight. Relax your shoulders down and think about arms in three parts. Shoulders, elbow, wrist and fingers. We will be lifting each part one by one. Lift shoulders up, elbow, wrist and fingers. It happens one by one and as the movement shifts from shoulder to elbow, the shoulder relaxes, similarly for elbows when the movement goes to the wrist and eventually fingers. You can start with sharp moves and eventually make it smooth. You can also visualise a ball rolling down from shoulder to elbow to wrist and fingers.
