Arabella Shimmy Up?
“Shimmy UP”…. Sorry what? Shimmy up? When Dandash said this it blew my mind! For 25 years the focus of my performance and teaching Shimmy has been DOWN. I know how to Shimmy, Relax your glutes and alternate your hips down, down using knee bends to shake your bottom vigorously, but “NO”. Dandash streamed on Zoom from Cairo was absolutely clear on this, NOTHING lost in translation just “NO, OPPOSITE”. What??? Now don’t get me wrong I’ve heard of the infamous ‘Modern style Cairo Shimmy’ or as it’s become known the ‘Cairo Shimmy’, but as I discovered it has become completely misnamed!
The Modern Cairo Shimmy is in fact ‘Vintage’ and not modern at all!!! It is the Shimmy of Golden Era Greats, the elegance of Samia Gamal, the Grace of Nagwa Fouad the ease of a aims Akief and even the basis of Baladi Bombastic dancer Fifi Abdou’s shimmy. Dandash stood before us and Simmied just as she has for 40 years but I saw it and saw her for the first time. Dandash is a unique artist in the history of dance evolution and an incredible resource for us.
As I watched Dandash and we all asked so many questions, seeking fine details and in depth understanding of her technique, I had a Eurika moment. You CANNOT breakdown into words her movement. Her movement just is. You have to just watch and drink it in. Initially I tried to trace the movement up from her knee and up to her hips and then I realised even that was wrong. She explained the movement starts in her brain, she thinks it and her body does it. This might seem like a given, but I tried it and the experience of the dance was completely different. Previously I have ‘driven’ the movement in my body, hips or knees or quads, but consciously starting with my head and ‘thinking’ the body parts to move was completely different!
The learning style of the West is to use description and words of instruction and in doing so the ‘UP’ element of the Shimmy got lost in translation and became ‘Down’. Belly dance instruction went viral with this mis-information. Dancers then went to Cairo and found they could not shimmy like the Cairo dancers. So they went to Master teachers like Dandash and started from scratch with their technique. We in the West observed this change in shimmy style and labelled it ‘Modern style Cairo Shimmy’, when in fact it was what it has always been ‘old school shimmy’!
Yes Dandash does have a straight leg style and yes it looks like a vibration shimmy, but not as I have ever learnt it! From her brain she controls a squeeze in her glutes which she maintains throughout and from what I observed the lower tummy muscles vibrate the hips up. The knee does have a part to play, but it is not up and down. With the leg out to the side, the knee creates a gentle circular motion inwards. This creates the appearance of the hip making a vertical circle but this is an illusion and it would be wrong to try and drive this shape from the hip.
I love that this is the dance that keeps on giving and there is always more to fall in love with and more to learn. I will certainly be taking this new knowledge forward into my own teaching as we transition from zoom into ‘hybrid’ learning offering options in person and online!
Find out more about my classes here; https://arabelladances.com/
