Description of Challenge
Belly Dance is a Western-coined name for 'solo, improvised dances based on torso articulation' originating from the Middle East.Raqs baladi (Arabic: رقص بلدي; literally 'local dancing', or 'folk' dance) is a folkloric dance style, danced socially by men and women of all ages in some Middle Eastern countries, usually at festive occasions such as weddings. However, this naming is used synonymously in Egypt with Raqs sharqi, as a generic term for 'belly dancing'.
Solution
Belly Dance takes many different forms depending on the country and region of practice, both in costume and dance style. New styles have evolved in the West as its popularity has spread globally. Belly Dance has:
• Percussive movements – Staccato movements, most commonly of the hips, which can be used to punctuate the music or accent a beat. Typical movements in this group include hip drops, vertical hip rocks, outwards hip hits, hip lifts, and hip twists. Percussive movements using other parts of the body can include lifts or drops of the ribcage, and shoulder accents.
• Fluid movements – Flowing, sinuous movements in which the body is in continuous motion, which may be used to interpret melodic lines and lyrical sections in the music, or modulated to express complex instrumental improvisations, as well as being performed in a rhythmic manner. These movements require a great deal of abdominal muscle control. Typical movements include horizontal and vertical figure eights or infinity loops with the hips, horizontal or tilting hip circles, and undulations of the hips and abdomen. These basic shapes may be varied, combined and embellished to create an infinite variety of complex, textured movements.
• Shimmies, shivers and vibrations – Small, fast, continuous movements of the hips or ribcage, which create an impression of texture and depth of movement. Shimmies are commonly layered over other movements, and are often used to interpret rolls on the tablah or riq or fast strumming of the oud or qanun (instruments). There are many types of shimmy, varying in size and method of generation. Some common shimmies include relaxed, up and down hip shimmies, straight-legged knee-driven shimmies, fast tiny hip vibrations, twisting hip shimmies, bouncing ‘earthquake’ shimmies, and relaxed shoulder or ribcage shimmies.
