Do you know what rhythm you are bellydancing to?

Knowing the music and rhythms you are bellydancing to is key to be a terrific bellydancer. There is a wide variety of Arabic or Middle Eastern rhythms; each one has a specific pattern played by the percussion. Learning and training the ears to identify these rhythms, within the music, will give you a high degree of expertise and authority in your belly dance, as well as an intense amount of excitement.  

Most popular bellydance rhythms 

There are like fifty or even more rhythms when it comes to bellydancing. The most common ones are: Beledi or Baladi (depending on the region is called), Saidi, Masmoudi, Maqsoum, Malfouf, Fallahi, Warda Kabir, Zaar, Ayyub, Chiftetelli and Bolero (even though Bolero is coming from either Spain or Cuba, rather than the Middle East, is a low-tempo, with earthy feeling music, commonly used with a lyrical song in bellydancing), among others. Very frequently, we can find several bellydance rhythms within the same song, which gives a complex structure of music; therefore it is imperative to recognize them, as well as knowing what belly dance steps or moves can be performed when bellydancing each of them. 

Repertoire of movements for bellydancing 

As well as rhythms, the variety of bellydance moves is huge; bellydancing steps or movements have been taught by example and named by a similar description of what they represent. Depending on the region, belly dance moves are also called different. Even today, it does not exist a worldwide standard terminology to describe the movement repertoire for the bellydance. However, we can classify the bellydancing moves into four big groups: fluid, percussive, traveling and layering. 

Fluid movements 

These are smooth moves that have a flowing quality, giving the illusion of being performed by only muscles and bellydancers seem to not have bones. They are like waves or water, one melts into the other. Perform them during the taxim or slow tempo music; they can be arrhythmic if you don’t want to follow any specific meter in the music. Examples of fluid belly dance moves are snake arms, Persian arms, figure 8s, undulations, body rolls, camel, chest and hip circles. The Bolero rhythm is ideal for using these types of Belly dance movements, as its low tempo allows time to perform a fluid figure eight that can be melt into a reverse undulation, from the pelvis and all the way to the head. 

Percussive bellydancing moves

Sharp, exact, strong and mechanical are the characteristics of these types of belly dance movements. A drum solo is a perfect example where they are applied; you can also do percussive Bellydancing steps to fast tempo music, as they have to look mechanical and precise. They must be performed rhythmically, otherwise, you will look and feel odd, because you will be out of tempo. All types of shimmy, hip drops, pops and lucks, twist, chest drops, pops and lucks are these exotic percussive bellydancing movements. 

Traveling steps 

Or moving steps where you travel from one point to another, as the same name refers to. All the variations of walks such as Egyptian basic, Algerian walk step, traveling turns, grapevine, shuffle step, chase step and others. 

Layering 

To layer is one of the most important components of the belly dance. It’s the process of adding one move in the top of another to perform them simultaneously; as the name refers to, you are layering your bellydance moves when you do a medium hip circle with shimmies on top, or a Turkish figure 8 with shimmies, for example. As you can see, these are a mix of fluid and percussion movements or percussive and traveling steps.

As we all know: Practice Makes Masters!

We encourage you to practice your bellydancing moves, listen to many belly dance songs and watch as many dancers bellydancing as you can, to become a great unique expert bellydancer! And as our StepFlix instructor Francesca Sahar recommends: always remember to breath, point your toes, follow the move with your head and enjoy! 

Here’s a StepFlix tool to help you master your belly dance moves as you learn to identify the Bolero rhythm when bellydancing

More Bellydance lessons

Also, you can check and do entire StepFlix Belly dance intermediate routines, dance lessons series

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