Belly Dance Footwork & Travel Steps Improv Tech with Neon

A lot of modern bellydance is footwork and floor patterns with hip accents here and there - what we call nowadays step combinations. Since the Western image of a dancer is that of fast gliding motion, turns, and busy footwork, bellydance has adopted the footwork of various folk dances of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as ballroom dance and jazz to create this image of whirling, walzing, gliding, etherial dancer.

For a lot of us when we start in bellydance, the holy grail is being able to improvise freely and effortlessly without the stress of thinking every moment : what do I do next? The goal of this 3-class course is to commit a wide range of travel steps and combinations to your muscle memory so that you have improvisation-ready travel-steps vocabulary.

In class 1  we’ll practice footwork common in modern bellydance - with occasional hipwork accents. Our goal, however is just to get all these footwork patterns deep in our muscle memory so you can go on autopilot when improvising and enjoy.

In classes 2 and 3 we'll study and practice 2- and 3-count travel steps including the 3/4 shimmy.

Any piece of hipwork can be layered on practically any travel step pattern. So to start we’ll take one movement pattern and fill it with different types of hipwork. Very often when you practice travel steps in the studio across the floor, or at home in your own practice, you just repeat the travel step again and again to work on technique. The better way is to combine this with instilling improvisation-ready patterns in your muscle memory and performing your travel step with a finishing combination that allows you to change direction.