My Core Curriculum: Serena’s 9 Basic Body Positions
Posted By admin on April 25, 2010
The 9 Basic Body Positions: Where do they come from?
Serena Wilson was my first instructor, and definitely one of the most influential in my belly dance training. An icon of the belly dance world and pioneer of the Vintage Orientale (or American Cabaret) style, she used the movements and rhythms common to Middle Eastern stage and social dancing to help develop a dance form that would entertain American and Middle Eastern audiences alike. In a 2001 review of the Serena Dance Theater, the journalist captures her characteristic style: “[Serena's] dancers, working those rhumba, chiftetelli, and kashlimar rhythms, showed classic Serena training — elegant carriage, willowy arms, and hips that make tiny flicks like a clock’s second hand.”
When I studied with Serena and her team of teachers, lessons were structured around a core set of movements that became the building blocks for nearly all the combinations we would later string together. Many of Serena’s students, myself included, carried these building blocks with us when we became teachers. They are the 9 Basic Body Positions.
…And why are they useful?
In an ongoing beginner class, there is often a mix of brand new students and more experienced ones – not always the same faces from week to week. Some beginning students get nervous, wondering if sessions will quickly become too advanced for them, while others who have been learning for some time are looking to progress. As an instructor, I sometimes find it challenging to accommodate the variety of skill levels and goals that my students have! Fortunately, I have a system.
As my students have probably (hopefully?) noticed, there is a basic structure to our weekly lessons that allows us to revisit the core curriculum but gives us some wiggle room. We start with a warm-up that includes isolations, light stretching, and basic footwork, proceed to shimmy drills and variations, focus on a few key movements, and usually repeat a few short combinations or a longer routine based on the eariler drills and steps. Sometimes I use snake arms to get us cooling down, and we finish with more stretching.
I always adapt this basic framework to meet the needs of the students who show up on a given night, to the best of my ability. For example, if I have a few newcomers or I feel that the class could use a technique check, I’ll lead a general, fairly quick warm-up and use the bulk of class time to cover the 9 Basic Body Positions. On the other hand, if everyone has had at least a few classes, I may extend the warm-up to include the 9 BBPs and spend drill time on combinations.
That is how the positions are useful to me. They will be useful to you as you learn the dance by helping you to develop fluidity, precision, and strength in your technique. They should also help to keep you on track with your practice sessions (which you should always do in between classes!).
The 9 Basic Body Positions
1) Shoulder Slant
Being aware of your belly dance posture (knees soft, ribcage lifted and slightly forward, chest open, shoulder blades gently pressed down, head floating on top), and standing with hands down at your sides, allow one side of the torso, starting with the hand and ending with the head, to drop straight down the side of the body. It’s as though you are holding something heavy in one hand and letting it take the upper body down with it. You should feel a stretch down the opposite side of the torso. Now try it on the other side. In class, we practice small and large variations on this position, as well as different frames.
2) Shoulder Slide
With your fingertips extended to the side walls, and arms lifted as though carrying buckets at shoulder level or slightly below, bring the ribcage straight out to one side, imagining that you are trying to touch the wall next to you. Repeat on the other side. Your shoulders should appear to slide easily from left to right as though gliding on a track. Combine this with the Shoulder Slant and Snake Arms to create a beautiful swaying movement.
3) Arch
Bring the ribcage forward as though trying to touch the wall in front of you with your sternum. Now bring it back to center.
4) Contract
Sink backwards from the solar plexus, allowing your upper back to expand while visualizing that you are touching the wall behind you with the spot between your shoulderblades. Combine this with Arch and Shoulder Slides to make a square and then a circle with the ribcage. Try going clockwise and counter clockwise.
5) Shoulder Tilt
Bringing the feet apart to second position (a little wider than your hips), take the upper body forward into a flatback position. Continue to look straight ahead. Your back should be straight, like the top of a table, and you may feel a stretch in the hamstrings. Engage the glutes and thighs to bring yourself back up to center.
6) Pelvic Tilt
Still in second position, focus on keeping the back in one line, and bend your knees to bring the upper body backwards. Continue to look straight ahead. You should feel your core muscles working to keep the back straight. Once again, engage the glutes and thighs to bring yourself back to center. The Shoulder Tilt and Pelvic Tilt are important to our undulations and hip circles, and in class we practice them with different degrees of depth.
7) Hip Slide
Just as we envisioned pressing our ribcage straight out to meet the side walls, we can do the same with our hips. You can practice this in second position, where it will resemble a side lunge with the hip over the foot of the bent leg, or with feet together (on the ball of one foot in Cabaret Pose or on flat feet). Combine Hip Slides with Shoulder and Pelvic Tilts to bring the hips side-front-side-back in a square and then a smooth circle. You can experiment with large, deep circles in second position or smaller, faster ones with feet together.
8) Side-Waist Contraction
Place all your weight on the left leg. Keep the feet close together and raise the heel of your right foot, resting on the ball. Frame the movement by extending the left arm up and bringing the right hand behind the right hip. Now squeeze the obliques and QL (your “hip-hiker” muscle in the side of the back) to bring the right hip up to meet the ribcage, and then release. Try accenting the upward movement to turn it into a Hip Lift or accenting the downward movement to turn it into a Hip Drop. Then switch to the left side!
9) Hip Extension
Revisit your Hip Lift, as described above. Take the arm that is framing the working hip and extend it toward the front corner of the room. Bring that foot toward the corner as well. Now continue the lifting motion, imagining that you are trying to hit the extended hand with your hip. Repeat on the opposite side.
I hope this has given you something to work with. Please feel free to e-mail me with comments or questions, or just talk to me when you see me next! :)
Serafina
