How To Belly Dance Like Shakira

Step 1: The Maya

We're going to come up on our toes as high as we can, and lift the right hip high, high to the sky. Once we've got it as high as we can go, we're going to push it out all the way to the right and then down. So push to the side, and then flatten the foot down. Lift up on the side, push out with our right hip, push out and down. And now on the left side - same thing. Squeeze the hip up, come up on the toes, hold it up, feel a sense of power in your belly, and then just push it out, really gentle. So there's that power contract up, then let it go.

Step 2: The Hip Drop

Drop one hip down while bending the same leg. Bend the right leg and lean down, and then the left, drop, drop. So, from up straight, just let the hip go down, hip comes up, and the other one goes down, drop, drop. It's almost like riding a bicycle. Shakira adds that fire to it, that little bit of oomph. She drops it as hard as she can, really really strong drop, drop, drop. As sharp as you can, you really want to pull the energy up from your feet, tap into your strength, and just drop it down, drop it down.

Step 3: The Shimmy

We've all seen how Shakira can shake her hips all wild and crazy. It's actually pretty easy to do. We're going to break that down. First thing is to get as relaxed and free in your body as possible. So whatever you have to do at home, just shake it out, let it all go, take a deep breath, and when you feel like you've got yourself really open and loose, we can start by simply bending the knee. Once you've got your hips and knees really loose and relaxed, you can start to speed it up, and then imagine that your hips are really big. When Shakira dances, we're not seeing this tiny little woman dancing - we're seeing big hips. Dance like you're ten times your size, and that's really going to translate.