June 2013
I am SO confused
My belly dancing teachers in Montreal, as well as this belly dancing dvd I own, emphasize that the “shoulder shimmy”, in Egyptian Style, should be focused more on the breasts. Okay fine. I’ve been doing that for 8 months.
But now I have a different teacher and she was positively HORRIFIED and told me that the focus is on the shoulders and that doing a shoulder shimmy focused on the breasts is very, very offensive.
I don’t know anymore T-T Help
——— It’s in the name really — shoulder shimmy. The emphasis here is on isolating your shoulders, alternating between pushing one forward and the other back, then speeding up the movement (and making it smaller) until you have a shimmy. Your breasts will mostly likely also move and that’s fine, but the emphasis is on the shoulders. This movement is usually quite delicate and can be quick, soft, and delicate or slow, sharp, and defined - whatever the music calls for.
The large, vigorous shimmy where you use your breasts for momentum is used more in burlesque, which is perhaps why your other teacher was a bit shocked.
That said, there is also a move called a chest shimmy, which involves rotating your rib cage slightly around and speeding up. I believe this is an Egyptian move (Dina does it?), but I’ve never been taught how to do it. I also don’t think the emphasis here is necessarily on the breasts (men can also do this move).
