Dance Moves Handout Sheet

Basic Stance: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with your weight distributed evenly.  Bend your knees.  Tilt your hips under (tense your butt muscles) – this protects your lower back.  Pull your ribcage up, to separate it from your hips.  Roll your shoulders back, and lift your chin so you’re not looking down.

1. Hip bumps: this is the “slam the door closed on the car” move.  Quickly move your hip to the side with a sharp motion, like you are slamming the car door closed with an arm full of groceries.  To do it in doubles: out a little bit, then out all the way (really a one-and-a-half).  To walk with it: every time you take a step, the hip moves.  If you step with the right foot, the right hip snaps.  The step and the movement are simultaneous – it’s like your foot meeting the ground creates a circuit that powers your hip.

2. COMBO: Triangle combo – facing on a diagonal (to a corner), do double hip bumps on each side, then pivot and repeat.  For example, facing teh front left corner – double hip bump on teh right, double hip bump on the left.  Then pivot so you are facing the back left corner.  Double hip bump on the right, double hip bump on the left.  Arms are out when facing front and down by the sides when facing teh back.

3. Hip ups: stand with one foot slightly in front of the other, pointing your toe.  All your weight should be on your back foot – you should be able to lift your front foot off the ground with no problem.  Raise the hip that belongs to the foot that’s in front (e.g. left foot in front, left hip).  You can think of this as sitting down to find someone has put a tack on your chair, so you are leaping up.  Your front leg will almost straighten when you are doing this – you are essentially using your knee to help push your hip up.  For hip downs: same posture.  Lift the hip up slightly and drop it down like you are sitting in a chair and someone pulled it out from under you.  Egyptian basic: do hip ups on alternating hips – on one side and then the other, returning the feet to center in between.  To walk, do the hip up on the foot that is stepping forward.  To walk backwards, do the hip up, then step your foot back.

4. FCBD arm pulls:  with arms over head or in rounded front position (like you’re holding a tree), do hip ups.  Every time the hip comes up, the arms “pull” down to meet it.

5. COMBO: FCBD Egyptian Basic:  Do Egyptian basic with FCBD arm pulls – once on each side to the front, then pivot and repeat to the rear.

6. COMBO: Turning Egyptian Basic:  Facing front, do Egyptian basic – one hip up on each side, with arms out to sides.  Then arms go up over head and walk in a small circle doing hip bump walk.

7. Shoulder Shimmies: Make sure your ribcage is lifted up and separated from your hips.  Push one shoulder to the front, and then the other one.  Your arms should be up and out from your shoulders.  DON’T MOVE YOUR HANDS!  When you’re comfortable, speed it up.

8. Flat hip circles: push hip to side, then to front, then to other side, then to back (using stomach muscles) – round it off into a smooth circle.  Imagine you’re cleaning out the inside of a barrel.  It’s easy to tilt your pelvis during this move – this is not wrong, but it is not the basic move.  To change direction: stop at back or side and just start going the other way.  Hip arcs/half circles: begin the circle, but don’t complete it all the way – for a forward arc, go side-front-side.  For a back arc, go side-back-side.  Squiggle: step sideways with a step together step together motion.  Use the hip circle to push you sideways – you will do one and a half circles.

9. COMBO: Squiggle Combo:  Arms down, squiggle to one side, then squiggle back the other way.  Hip arc on one direction, then the other.  Then shoulder shimmy (arms up) to finish the move.

10. Hip shimmies:  Version 1: pretend your hips are the agitators on a washing machine and twist them backwards and forwards.  As you get comfortable with this, speed it up.  Version 2: hips go up and down instead of back and forth, using the knees as “pistons”.  Version 3: drum your heels on the floor.  This one is often harder to keep even.  Remember: you’re just shimmying your hips, not the rest of your body!

11. Head slides: easier to practice with your arms straight up.  Pretend your ear is magnetic and is attracted to your arm.  Slide your head sideways on your neck so your ear almost touches your elbow.  Repeat on the other side.  Try to take your arms down and keep it up.  Don’t nod your head!  Head bobble: pretend you’re a little spring dog on someone’s car dashboard.  Just sort of shake your head from side to side and back and forth, keeping your neck very loose.

12. Chest pops:  with torso strong, use your muscles to lift your chest sharply.  It’s like trying to hit yourself in the chin with your breastbone.  You can feel what it is is like by inhaling sharply and then letting your breath out, but DO NOT breath to do this movement (you will hyperventilate).  You can do this to each corner (chest V) or as a three point “trident” (chest W).

13. Hip locks:  in basic position and using your lower abdominal muscles, release your hips back slightly, like you are trying to smack a child in teh face with your butt.  DO NOT go forward: that is a thrust.  Hips return to basic position after they have locked back.

14. COMBO: Pop-lock:  Chest pop, back to center, hip lock, back to center.  This feels a little “hip hop”.  To add variety, you can do chest Vs or Ws, or you can add a slight level change (deeper bend to your knees) during the lock part.

15. Flat horizontal figure eight:  You are tracing an infinity sign on the ground underneath you.  Twist your hips so one is more to the front than the other.  Slide the front hip out to the side, and then around to the back.  Your other hip should be naturally twisted to do the same movement on the other side..  This is also called an “outside” figure 8 because the movement goes OUT from the core of your body.  To do an “inside” figure eight, the movement is the same.  Twist your hips, but this time start with the hip that is to the BACK.  Slide it to the side and swing it around to the front.  Repeat on the other side.

16. Mayas/Taxims:  Mayas look like the McDonald’s “M”.  Using your foot to help push your hip up, lift the hip, slide it out to the side, and then bring it down, returning onto the flat of your foot.  Repeat on the other side.  Taxims are the same movement (an infinity sign in the air in front of you), but you are starting on the bottom.  Bend one of your knees more than the other so one hip is lower.  Push the lower hip out, then come up on your toe and bring the hip in toward the center.  It is like you are beckoning with your hip.

17. COMBO: Rolling Maya (box-step):  Maya your hips to each corner of the room.  Starting on the right, go to the forward right corner, then go to the back left corner with your left hip.  Then go to the back right corner with your right hip, and the forward left corner with your left hip.  Fprward back, back forward.  Right, left, right left.

18. Snake arms (also called Egyptian arms): place your arms by your sides with a slight curve to them.  Remember to always keep them curved gently, as though you are holding a big beach ball.  Take one arm and start to lift it up at the side: start by raising your shoulder, then your elbow, then your wrist.  The elbow stays facing the ceiling until the last possible moment.  When your arm gets above your head, let your hand flop over so your palm is up towards the ceiling.  Come back down: drop the shoulder, bring the elbow down, then finally bring your wrist down so your arm is by your side again.  The hand moves as though you are painting.  Repeat on the other side, then alternate – when one goes up, the other is going down.  Half snake arms: Same as regular, but stop either halfway up or halfway down.  If you do these on the bottom half, they look like “seaweed arms”.   To the front: same movement, but in front of the body.  To keep a gentle curve, the elbows point slightly out to the side on the way up.  Try to avoid “petting the cat” by not going to fast and making sure your hands are always moving in opposition.

19. Flame hands:  Ripple your hand from the first knuckle.  This is like petting a small cat, but DO NOT let your fingers dip below the level of your palm (practice on a flat surface).  These can accent other movements or trace the line of your body.  You cna use the flame hand as a small “light” as well.

20. Hand circles and figure eights:  Rotate the hands in circles and figure eights from the wrist.

21. Lotus hands:  Do a figure eight motion.  Splay your fingers to the maximum amount so it looks like they are fanning out.  Stationary version: with pointer finger pointing away from your body and little finger pointing towards you, splay your fingers into a “lotus” shape.  You can leave it like this or “sprinkle” yourself by bringing it sharply in towards your wrist.