HAHAHAH.... I swear this move's name changes more than any other! When I was in London it was an Egyptian walk, then in many places in the US it was referred to as a 3/4 shimmy and then, I believe because tribal became popular and they call something very specific a 3/4 shimmy, this became an Algerian shimmy.

I loved the way I learned the Algerian shimmy! We did a Frankenstein walk! R foot steps forward lands with a dropping of the R hip, R hip goes up, L hip goes up, repeat on other side. Looks aweful slowed down, but once I got use to it, picking up the speed was beautiful and easy.

Choo Choo, I've even had teachers show me the pounding into the floor method! For the most part, I'm up in Relevee and schooch my feet along the floor. I'm not sure they are ever completely off the floor, but they do have virtually no weight on them at some point in the shimmy.

Flutter shimmies are what's killing me right now! I was lying in bed to go to sleep last night and practiced a little, My boyfriend was immediately totally grossed out because I had tons of liquid in my belly! The Diaphram moving around really made disgusting squishy noises! It was fun :)

hi arad...

i had attended a workshop before conducted by Tamalyn Dallal. She showed us (algerian shimmy) briefly of how's it done. but back then i wasn't ready enough to take so much info and had forgotten the proper techniques to execute it. And later on i attended Kaeshi of BellyQueen workshop and there was this move again. but if you have a nearby bookstore or library that carries Tamalyn's book, you can see there's a page dedicated to it.

as for it being called a 3/4 shimmy, im not too sure beacause i had learn another technique which is called a 3/4 shimmy, which is totally diffrent from algerian shimmy.

this is from what i've learnt:

3/4 shimmy: the break down is like somewhat doing a small hip drop on each side of the hip. Count 1: shift your weight to the R hip. Count 2: lift L hip up. Count 3: Drop L hip. Count 4: Hold.

algerian shimmy: i've only seen this shimmy done travelling forward. basically it look a bit like u cycling a bicycle. where u bring the foot forward simultaneosly do a small hip crescent from back to front. im just boggled by whether had anyone done it with 2 feet parallel...

"The dictionary of belly dance is not uniform. "

Now THAT'S the understatement of the year!!
I think someone with way too much time on their hands should make video clips of specific moves and then we all submit the names we use for them.

Wouldn't that be interesting??

is the algerian shimmy the so call hagallah? if so, i learned it in a Mahmoud reda workshop ages ago

naomi, i am so curious to know where you learned. this is the same "algerian" i teach in cincinnati- seems to be a pretty specific tribal move...

btw, it sounds like what everyone else is describing as "algerian" is what i learned as "bedouin"

and our 3/4 shimmy goes "r-l-R, l-r-L" so that if you were wearing anything jingly it sounds like "chic-ka-CHINK! chic-ka-CHINK!"

The Algerian and the Choo Choo are both Jamila Salimpour Format terms. :) Over the decades, I think people have morphed them a bit into their own way of doing things, or other people adopt the terminology for a different movement.

Let's see if I can describe...

The "choo choo" is single hips on the up, so that when you step on the right foot, your right hip goes up, and when you step on teh left foot, the left hip goes up. It can be done flat or in releve. (Although in Jamila's class we generally stay flat until we take it double time, and then we come up into releve). When one foot is on the ball and one is flat, the downbeat is on the flat foot and it's called "running choo choo."

The "algerian shimmy" is when your hips are moving so that the L hip is up on the beat, full time. (alternating gluteous squeezes, full time, downbeat L). This means of course that your right hip is *down* on the downbeat. You then are alternating touching one foot forward and returning to home postion (feet together and parallel), quarter time. (touch right foot forward on the ball count 12, back in count 34. Left foot touches forward 56, back in on 78). It can also done at double these speeds (feet and hips)! Very important to keep both knees bent the entire time, both so that you have hipwork and also so that you keep your knees safe.

Both of these movements are broken down in detail in Jamila's manual, "The Danse Orientale" which is still available from Suhaila's website. :) They also have a dvd series of Jamila's format, which has Suhaila teaching at, like, age 14 (not sure exactly, but young!)!!! I love that series! Filmed in the 80s, it has striped leotards, big hair, it's too awesome!

And of course, Jamila still teaches a class once a week at Suhaila's studio. She's 81 years old and kicks my butt every week! The schedule's here: www.therealsuhaila.com

Oh! And they just started a Jamila Format certfiication program with weeklong workshops in California. The first one is in September!