Hip Drops and Hip Lifts are two sides of the same coin. Accenting the Hip-Up or accenting the Hip-Down changes the energy and appearance of the movement. With Hip Drops, the accent is down but the hip must first come into the Lift position to drop down. The reverse is true for the Hip Lifts.

    Hip Drops and Hip Lifts done with proper body alignment give the dancer an increased range of movement. Hips that are accurate and clear can better accentuate and articulate the rhythmic pulse or melody line. The more control we have of the movement, the more vocabulary we have to enhances and expresses the music

The Basic Hip Drop:

First the "classic pose" stance: Abdominals pulled in - gluteal tucked under, Legs together with both legs completely relaxed, knees slightly bent. Standing leg has all the weight - working leg’s foot is one inch forward of the standing leg’s foot and on the ball of the foot with no weight on it.

Lift the Hip straight up from under the gluteal muscle without twisting forward.   Think about the hip kissing the rib cage

Stretch the hip into the up position - stretch it into the down position.  Feel every moment of the movement.

    Is your working hip’s foot or toe pushing into the floor? Try to lift the hip with your toe a quarter of an inch off the floor. That will help you to put the control in the hip and out of the leg. Is the hip twisting? A twisted hip means the movement is coming from the pelvis and not the hip. By slowly stretching the hip into the lift and drop position, we can concentrate on using the energy of the hip instead of the leg, foot or pelvis.

    Now for the Accent on Drop. Imagine a drum at the base of your gluteal. Use the hip to beat the drum on the bottom of the movement - beat, not with force but with a gentle rebounding action. The hip falls with control to center; that is, your original "classic pose" stance. Don’t allow the hip to go past center but to gently rebound from your imaginary drum. With practice, you can feel every moment of the movement and control it as the hip journeys upward and downward.

Rhythm of the Hip - Accent on Hip Drop - Part II

    For movements to accentuate particular rhythyms (i.e. Beledi 1& 3 4 ) - the 1& doesn’t give you enough time to drop the hip fully. Utilizing a rebound action, we can easily achieve quick accents with a clean technique. Picture a ball hitting the floor. The first bounce falls again to rebound. Our hips are reacting in the same way as the ball. We drop the hip to rebound for the next drop. As a result the second hip lift is not as high as the first and with practice, can be done cleanly and effortlessly.

    You can add variety to this rebound technique by first using a soft then a sharp energy to the hip drop movement, reverse the energy to sharp soft, or by making both energies sharp or soft. Experiment with different rhythms and the different energies on both the drop and the lift.

    Try using your hip drop with a figure 8 hips, or while doing a hip roll, or with a hip circle... the variations abound!

Next month we will discuss "Hip Energy" - the source of our control.

All articles are written by Aszmara.

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