loose hips sail ships

so my belly dance instructor tells me today as we're doing ribcage figure eights that i have loose hips. which made me smile.

try doing a ribcage figure eight. move no part of your hips, don't lead with your shoulders, but use the bottom rib to jut out forward and up, circle around and drop down and back. your butt must be very clenched (sorry, no delicate way to say that), and your pelvis pushed as far under as you can get it. this is the belly dancer's natural stance. an upright pelvis. (or a pelvis standing on its toes makes more sense to my mind).

once half the eight is done, alternate with the other bottom rib jutting out (which happens naturally as the first rib juts back). the trick is, moving just the ribcage, not leading with your chest or shoulders. it's difficult.

so we did isolations today, and everything on me wants to move with everything else, but i've been working on isolations for nearly a year now (i can't believe it's been that long, more like nine months), but still. long time.

the trick is to get your ribcage moving independent of your hips. your shoulders naturally follow your ribs but they do not initiate the action.

to do this, i have to fix the image in my mind, and often, close my eyes to see my body moving in the form i'm trying to make. it's not natural movement by any means. but i can see how far i've come. i've farther yet to go, that's for sure. but it was nice to hear her say i have loose hips. they do like to shimmy and shake. i can put a wiggle in just about anywhere. and no harm can be done from shaking what you've got, right?

i've started dancing more at work. when the girls are looking and (hopefully) customers aren't. there are these great songs on and the girls laugh. which is my whole point. it's quite something to see someone's hips moving independent of their ribcage. it's a peculiar movement. something one works up to.

we're so blocky, we don't use many abdominal muscles in our instant age.

i've danced for no one yet. i thought about dancing for my sister and mom, but was glad i decided against it, i was just too tired.

so i dance for no one. i dance alone.

i hope to study flamenco next. i can get into that dance. it's gorgeous and shares many postures with belly dancing.

peace.