Atleast i think its a turkish hip shimmy, im not really sure . I started belly dancing a couple weeks ago, and I just can't seem to get it to look right! Anything to say is appreciated! Thanks!

There are lots of different kinds of shimmies. I'm not sure which one you might mean by "Turkish hip shimmy". Can you describe it, maybe tell us how your teacher describes it? And why do you think yours doesn't look right?

Maybe you can ask your teacher to help you figure out why yours doesn't look the way you think it should?

Sorry I woke up this morning thinking "hmm...i probably should've described it just in case.."

Well my teacher told us to do it by pinching our buttocks together like we were picking up a quarter, and then throw it down on the ground behind us (the "quarter" that is). Its a forward/up and down/back motion..like a pelvic thrust-belly dance style (horrible way to describe it i know! its the only way i can think of though, sorry!) The accent is on the down motion of it. It sort of looks too stiff, or like my butt is too involved. I'll be sure to ask my teacher, but if this is descriptive enough, help is still welcome! thanks again!

If it's the movement I think you're describing, I think it's supposed to be a bit stiff. Since it's almost a 'pelvic thrust' thing going on, you don't want it to be wild and crazy. It's supposed to be an understated move, and it's not supposed to be done more than once, otherwise it winds up looking crude and vulgar rather than artful.

Now if you're describing a different move, I'm altogether lost. I've never heard of it referred to as a 'turkish hip shimmy'. Can't remember what my teacher called it, but she was very emphatic about it not being overt.

I found this video, the move im talking about is about 48 seconds in or so. We did it slower than that, but im 99.9% sure thats the same move.

www.youtube.com . . .=

Not to mention I think she's just amazing anyway I aspire to dance as well some day!

Those look like pelvic drops to me. The dancer is doing them in a very rapid and smooth fashion...and yes...the up-ward motion isn't a very good idea!

Bweenana, thanks for the clarification! It sounds like you're thinking of the shimmy that I call the forward-and-back shimmy. One trick to doing this properly is to keep your knees loose.

There's an article on my web site with a bit of info about it: www.shira.net . . .

It probably won't help much with your specific issue, but I thought I'd mention it just in case there's something in it that you find helpful.

--Shira

don't worry about how it looks now, everything gets better with practice.