Hip Lift-Egyptian-Vibration Round Robin Shimmy Drill

Today’s shimmy drill is one I use occasionally in my intermediate class. We are going to work with the hip lift (bent knee) shimmy, Egyptian (straight leg) shimmy and the vibration.

The difference between the hip lift and Egyptian shimmies can be found in their secondary names. The hip lift shimmy is performed with the knees maintaining a bent position. This keeps the shimmy in the hips and belly. The Egyptian shimmy is performed with the knees in a straight (but not locked) position which causes the shimmy to travel up the body. The Egyptian shimmy also has more of a side-to-side direction to the vibrations while the vibrations in the hip lift shimmy move up and in towards the center of the body.

For beginners, this exercise is virtually the same as the one from last week. Work up to the shimmy like we do in class, starting with slow hip lifts, alternating every two counts, then going faster to alternating every count, up to alternating twice per beat of music then all the way to a shimmy. Check and make sure you are keeping your knees bent and maintaining a hip lift shimmy. Watch the vibrations to see how they are traveling, notice if it feels like your whole body is shaking or just your hips and belly. Finally, as another test to make sure you are doing this shimmy correctly, if you try to bend forward at the hips, you should not be able to keep the shimmy going. Try to keep the shimmy going for as long as you can, if it peters out start back with the slow hip lifts and speed it back up. Keep this up for the whole song.

Intermediate and advanced students start with the hip lift shimmy for 8 counts, switch the Egyptian shimmy for 8 counts and then move on to the vibration for 8 counts, keep the round robin going throughout the song. You could also do the rotation using 16 or 32 counts for each type of shimmy.