bulletHip Energy Part I      Side-Side Hips

    Let’s explore the energy sources for the most basic of hip movements, the side-side hip. This movement is a natural extension of how we walk. The hip moves when we transfer weight from one foot to the other and we expand on what is natural. When you walk with one foot in front of the other (ala runway models) we see that the hip sways gently from side to side. Two images of a swaying hip walk are Mae West and Marilyn Monroe. They took from nature and extended it into a special movement uniquely their own. An extended side-side hip.

    For the side-side hips, energy moves in straight lines across the hips reaching toward infinity. We reach from the center of the hip area, approximately where a bikini would rest on our hips. With a straight movement across the body we feel a stretching from the waistline as opposed to putting pressure on the hip joint. The energy stretches the hip away from center. Be very careful not to use the hip joint for creating the side-side movement. It will ultimately cause pain in the joint and the phrase ‘no pain, no gain’ has lost its power over us. It should feel like a stretch, reaching toward infinity.

    To start the movement, stand straight, abs. and glutes in, weight over the balls of the feet, and rest your weight on one foot, again, being careful not to put pressure on the hip joint. Feel your hip, reaching towards the side. If you have difficulty finding the right spot on the hip, gently pull the fabric from your pants at the bikini hip line. Pull straight out and feel the hip stretching away from your center. Keep shifting your weight and stretching the hip.

Hip Energy Part II      Up DownHips   

    Up Down Hips is a beautiful expression of the music that we use in so many ways. The energy source of this movement is used not only for hip accents but also for snake hips and hip rolls. To feel the source of the hip’s energy truly adds to our movement vocabulary.

    While one hip travels down, the other hip comes up so it is important to realize which hip has the action. When the hips pulls away from the waist, we feel muscles stretching down from the rib cage. When we lift the hip up, we create a muscular contraction. Both are valid movements that we want in our dance vocabulary but there are more possibilities with the hips stretching downward. In using this hip stretching technique, as we speed the movement up we create the shimmy (see Accent on Shimmy.htm )

    Center yourself, weight forward on the balls of your feet and with both knees bent, stretch the hip down from the waist. Make sure that you keep your abdominals pulled in and your gluteals tucked under (no duck’s behinds!) The importance of keeping the gluteals tucked under is that your alignment stays true; the spine remains straight, the hips have a full range of motion, lower back pain is prevented, and as an added benefit, your posture look better and you feel stronger. The knees will move along with the hip’s actions but concentrate and feel the energy from the hips.

    Stretch the hip down, first one and then the other; feel the stretching in the waist. Now, lift each hip up and feel the muscles contracting. Recognize the difference between the energy moving upwards or downwards. (A little hint; if the feet start coming off the floor, you are working the hip up!) An exercise to feel the difference between ‘up’ and ‘down’ energy is to do 8 counts concentrating on each hip stretching down followed by 8 counts on each hip reaching up. Again, feel the stretch and make sure to keep the abdominal and the gluteal muscles active. One of my ladies who had trouble finding the stretch down said that as soon as she really pulled in her stomach, the movement came to her! Remember that the more you do these movements the easier they become and the more natural they look.

All articles are written by Aszmara.

Respectfully, do not copy without first attaining permission and giving proper credit

Back to  Dance Movement of the Month