Wild Kat’s exciting Aladdin-themed bellydance course Three Wishes has us all abuzz, and to celebrate we’ve asked our resident bellydance babe what her Top Three Wishes for beginners are. Read on to discover how to level up your bellydance skills, even as a beginner!
Tip #1: Posture & Poise
This seems like such a simple idea, it but sometimes it takes focus to ensure you are always poised and using your body correctly. After a while of focusing on these tips, you’ll find yourself falling into good habits. Start with a simple one: “Don’t look down!”. Looking down at your body will not only ruin the illusion of the dance, but cause your posture to be incorrect. Practise in a mirror, or book in for classes at a professional dance studio (which should have mirrors). Ensure you don’t hunch your shoulders – open them up you proud, fierce bellydance babe! When dancing, focus on isolating your muscles, keep your spine straight and your head up.
Claire Alexander
Tip #2: Confidence
We know confidence isn’t always something that you can fake, but there are certainly ways to help you gain confidence, no matter how new you are to the art of bellydance!
The first seems obvious, but again, it’s easy to forget sometimes: Breathe. Keeping your breathing as steady as you can will keep you calm and focused, even if performing onstage. Another important tip to remember is that if you’re jiggling, you’re doing it right! The beautiful thing about bellydance is that it’s a wonderful style of dance for all shapes and sizes. Instead of worrying about the wobble, embrace it, and know that you’re performing this sensual and hypnotic dance the way it is meant to be done.
Claire Alexander
Tip #3: Feel the Music
Bellydance is a fluid and freeform style of dance – whilst most classes in our dance studio dance to strict counts of eight, bellydance sessions often use cues from the music in order to structure a routine. Because of this, we recommend listening to your music regularly, even if you’re not dancing to it – memorising the sounds will contribute to your muscle memory too. Bellydance is all about flow, so be sure to flow with the music and its tempo and dynamics. Let these guide the intensity of your movements, and you may even find that you become more comfortable with improvising your own choreo, simply based on the sounds and structure of your music.
Johannes Reinhart
With enough practise, you may even find yourself mixing elements of different dance styles, and incorporating bellydance technique into other routines as you feel the music. Wild Kat’s Three Wishes course is combining Hip Hop with Bellydance in a fresh new Disney-inspired routine that we can’t wait to share with you!
To find out more about group or even private bellydance classes, contact Lady Velvet Cabaret, and be sure to follow LVC and Wild Kat on Instagram!.
