Tips on creating belly dance choreography – Part 2

Level changes – during your belly dance choreography, a good tip is to use different levels i.e. moving upwards and downwards, on flat feet or on tip toes.
Use spatial plans – another way to spice up your bellydance choreography is to use different plans, especially when posing. For example, standing with your whole body facing front or sideways or with your hips facing forward and the upper body slightly rotated in a diagonal.
Watch videos and performances of other belly dancers, not to copy their routines step by step, but to get inspiration and new ideas.
Symmetry vs asymmetry – in dance, symmetry can be expressed through a body position or movement (i.e. arm waves with both arms at the same time), in movement across space (i.e. step turn to the left, then to the right) or within a group of dancers (i.e. split the group in 2 parts doing same movement, but mirroring each other). Asymmetry is the exact opposite, i.e. step turn to the left, then move forward etc. During a dance choreography, you should ideally use a little bit of both: symmetry gives structure, but too much makes a performance boring; asymmetry spices things up, but too much of it creates an unintelligible mess.
Make sure the choreography is not predictable. This is connected with the symmetry vs asymmetry point above. Too much symmetry can make the choreography predictable. Also, if you are repeating the same sequence more than once throughout the song, you can make the last repetition a little bit different from the rest.
If the style and music allow, use your arms instead of keeping them still by your side (without exaggerating though).

Go to Part 1 of belly dance choreography.

Go to Part 3 of belly dance choreography.

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