Dancing bliss with two favorites but never mind the obsession

Last night at my dance class, where we learn American Tribal Style Belly Dance, we drilled two favorite moves, the Arabic Shimmy with Arms and Turns and the Ghawazee Combo. These two moves have a very different feel between then, but they compliment each other nicely. These moves also leave me grinning like a kid.

The Arabic Shimmy with Arms and Turns is a pair of 8 count moves performed on the ball of the feet. Likewise, the four components of the Ghawazee Combo are also 8 counts, flat to audience with a wide, flat footed, almost earthy kind of dramatic shimmy, turning to each side of the box with the same wide shimmy, back to the flat front, and finally the half turns on the diagonal.

Last night, on the way home from class, not long after I left the building, my phone played a song I’ve wanting to perform to. It’s almost as if Mo, my phone, was paying attention in class, because it played that song.

I’ve admitted before that I evaluate my based on two requirements: I either belly dance to it, strip to it, or better still, do both. I’ve also admitted that I can be something of a fan girl too. I love it when these two intersect like this.

The song in question is Abney Park’s “Under the Radar”. Since I’ve wanting to dance to this song for a while and even envisioned using these very same moves, I figured I’d spend some quality time with continuous-repeat. What I discovered is that music breaks down neatly into blocks of 32 counts, or the length of doing the Ghawazee Combo from start to finish.

I want to see where this goes and how it turns out. Either way, it promises to be fun.