Mayas with a roll up

For today’s challenge we are going to reverse last week’s layers and combine down to up undulations with up to down figure 8s (also called Mayas). First make sure you are familiar with both movements, if you are its time to mix things up.


Start by doing a Maya on the right hip, after you center, roll up to a chest lift, then do the left half of the Maya and roll up again. Keep repeating the move, alternating between the right hip and the left hip for your Maya.

Try adding a shoulder shimmy the whole thing, then a hip lift shimmy to the whole thing. If both shimmies work for you, you can switch it up by doing the shoulder shimmy on the down to up undulation and the hip lift shimmy on the Maya halves.

Drilling the ¾ shimmy

No matter which version of the ¾ shimmy you are working on learning, this is a drill that should help. If you take classes from me we do a version of this drill every week of intermediate.

Since the hardest part of doing a ¾ shimmy is speeding it up to tempo, the easiest way to work on that is to use a song that slowly gets faster. I have two that I use in class, the first is Fellahin / Karachi / Ayoubby David Macejka. At about 33 seconds in to the song it gets very slow and speeds up for the rest of the song. Step on every beat and make sure you get all three articulations of your shimmy in during 3/4s of the beat with a pause on the last quarter beat. The other song I like to use is Zar Dance (Ayyub 2/4) by Solace. This song starts slow, speeds up then slows back down to speed up again twice. This allows you to regain your ¾ timing if you have lost it while speeding up the movement. At the end of Zar Dance the music is faster than it is at the end of the first song mentioned. Ideally you would work with both of them.

If you prefer a simple beat to follow you can download a click track series like Simple Click Tracks Vol. 1, 50-150 Bpm Subdivided (mp3 Metronome) instead. A click track series has 10 minutes of essentially a metronome sound at various beats per minute. Start with the slowest one and when you are starting to feel comfortable with it, advance to the next track (preferably with a remote so you don’t stop your motion). If you like the click track idea but don’t want to mess with having to manually advance the speed, you can use a program like audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to splice the various click tracks together making sure you use full measures for each speed so you do the same number of steps on each foot.

Hurdle stretch

This is one of my absolute favorite stretches. I could hang out in it for a really long time. If you are in my workout class, intermediate class or advanced class you have probably done this one with me. This stretch concentrates on the hamstring, but will also stretch your low back (which is the part I like).

Sit with your legs out making a V. Bring one foot in to your groin so you have one leg strait and one leg bent. First rotate your upper body and stretch over the extended leg with the same side arm. You can grab your knee, calf, ankle or foot, bring the opposite hand to the knee and hold. When you feel like you are ready to move on, sit back up and then lean forward with a straight back, hinging at the hips between the strait leg and the bent leg. Place each hand on the same side leg. Come up and rotate over the bent knee and stretch forward keeping your sit bones one the floor. Repeat the whole series on the other side.

Adding Zils to Monday's Combo

I wrote this and then forgot to post it yesterday.... ooops :)

For today’s zil pattern we will add zils to yesterday’s combo. The combo was:


8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first

The zils will be 3s ending in a single on the grapevine and 7s on the bicycle hip circles, so you will get:

e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
 RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR   R

e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
   RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR

e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
 RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR   R

e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
   RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR

Altogether you will have:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop (3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1)
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first (7,7,7,7)
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop (3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1)
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first (7,7,7,7)

Combination with Grapevine and Bicycle hips

Today’s combo will use grapevines and unweighted bicycle hips.

8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first

Of course you can reverse the bicycle hips and the combo becomes:

8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going forward first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going forward first

You can do both directions to Haboussou by Hakim or if you prefer a different song for each direction of bicycle hip, you can try the second direction to Inta Omri (DJ Mix) by Elie Attieh.

What to Keep in Your Dance Bag

Beginners should have a fairly light load. They just need their notebook, a pen or pencil and hip scarf as the bare essentials. To that I recommend adding a bottle of water, a small (hand) towel and some form of high energy snack in case you need to recharge.

Intermediate students should have all of the above and add a rectangular veil, small half circular veil and finger cymbals. Obviously if we aren’t working on the session for a particular veil you could leave it at home. But generally speaking veils don’t weigh much and I usually find it easier to have them with me and know where they are than to have to hunt one down when I need it. If we are doing the skirt or cane session then you would add that prop to your bag, but I wouldn’t carry either of them every week.

Advanced ladies should have everything the beginner and intermediate students have along with a large half circular veil. Other props you might have in your bag are tambourine, skirt, cane, feather fans, fanveils and sword, but you don’t necessarily need to carry all of them all the time.

For attending a workshop, I never attend with less than my notebook, a pen or pencil, non-coin hip scarf, a rectangular veil, small and large half circular veil, finger cymbals, a bottle of water, a small (hand) towel and some form of high energy snack.

Review of Jareeda

There are many belly dance trade magazines out there, Jareeda is the very first one I subscribed to. Jareeda just celebrated its 30^th year in print, so it has been around a while.  I stopped subscribing as they were having some publication problems a couple years ago, but re-subscribed in December when they were having a special rate. My first issue arrived early this month and I’m almost through reading it. The articles are written by belly dancers around the world and they cover a lot of topics. Some of the issues are based around a theme, this one is on troupes. I am pleased to say that the articles are longer than I remember and the magazine is back to almost 50 pages like it was when I first subscribed. (At the time I stopped subscribing it was down to around 30.)

Jareeda is printed on light weight magazine stock and while the cover is color as well a few pages front and back, most of it is in black and white. There are a number of ads sprinkled throughout the magazine, all for belly dance related products. The magazine also includes a teacher directory, though it is by no means all inclusive. In addition to the articles submitted by dancers, there are several regular contributors that write on various topics, including food and troupes. I do think it is a good magazine and I’m glad it has returned to what it was when I first started subscribing. If you are interested in subscribing you can do so at the following link. http://www.jareeda.com/