How to Do a Traveling Twist | Belly Dancing

Belly Dance Lessons - full playlist here:    • Belly Dancing 101   Belly dancing is sexy, fun, and burns up a lot of calories to boot! In this video, belly dancer Irina Akulenko teaches you how to do the belly dance move known as the traveling twist. You'll be shaking it like Shakira in no time. Now let's try the travelling hip twist. Keeping the knees bent, just lift, the lower abs engaged, tailbone down. We're going to twist front to back, keeping the movement horizontal to the floor. So we're just twisting the hips. Now we're going to just take a step with the right foot, crossing the left behind. And again right, and crossing behind, right, crossing behind, and make sure you are taking very small steps keeping the movement right underneath your hip bone. We're going to switch the footwork. We're going to start with the left, crossing the right behind, and left, right behind. And again, keeping it really small. The smaller the movements are, the easier the hip work will be. Now, we're going to combine the two movements together. We're going to bring the hip back. We're going to release the right foot, so this is the right side that's active right now. We're going to step into the right leg and push the right hip forward into a twist. Then we're going to bring the left foot behind, bringing the hip back. And step forward, cross back. And forward, cross back. And forward, cross back. We can switch the movement, as well, so starting with the left foot, we're going to bring the left hip back, lifting the left foot off the floor, stepping onto it, pushing the left hip forward, and bring it back. Step forward and back. And we're focusing on one hip at a time where the other hip is obviously working. So, let's try that a little bit faster, and try it with music. And forward and back. And left, cross, left, cross, left. And this movement is a little bit easier if you're travelling faster, if you come up on your toes. So, starting with the right hip, and forward. And remember to keep the knees slightly bent no matter what. Chest is lifted. And faster. And that's how you travel with a hip twist.