Moves

Listed below are some of the moves that Helen typically teaches in beginning and early intermediate courses.

Class moves

• Background on dance
• Posture
• Egyptian walk (w or w/o shoulder rolls)
• 3-point turn

• Hip thrusts (front, middle, back, front with rotation, tush push)
• Hip lifts
• Hip drops
• Hip slides
• Pyramids
• Regular shimmy (knee or Egyptian shimmy)
• Washing machine shimmy (Turkish shimmy)
• Hip circles (African, Arabic, Egyptian)
• Figure 8s: forward, backward, mayas
• Alphabet hips: n, m, u, w, o, writing your name
• Forward and backward (not side to side) hip thrusts
• Walking with most of the above

• Rib slides
• Chest lifts
• Chest drops
• Rib circles

• Exotic arms
• Basic arms (aka sun-moon cross)
• Basic arms turned inward
• Snake arms
• Nile arms
• Wrist rotations
• Finger articulations
• Lotus arms
• Cobra arms
• Falling leaf arms
• Headache arms
• Shoulder wave
• Finger flicks
• Hand shimmy
• Strong arms, arm and hand placement

• Head slide

• Shoulder thrusts
• Shoulder shimmy

• Veils:
• Edging, wraps,
• Basic move, butterfly and variations
• Front frame, over and behind head, over and behind head with lunge and catch
• Envelope, pulling down to show eyes, moving behind veil (close or further away)
• Turns: paddle, step, toe, 3-point, windmill, butterfly with turn
• Turning with veil stationary
• Matador and tidal wave

• Rhythms (beledi)
• Zaghareet
• Zills: bell, ring, clap, tick
• Zills: Baladi rhythm (DOUM DOUM tek a tek DOUM tek a tek)