Hip Participation
Do you dance to perform or
participate? If to perform (or both), you already know more
moves, more techniques, and more muscle groups than I do. If
to participate, you don't need to know any of these things. 
Just pair movement with music and have fun. Of course,
learning new moves and styles can be a lot of fun, too.
But if
the only dancing you do is the middle-school shuffle, or if you're a
wallflower through and through - or if you're just feeling a little
stiff and stuck in a rut
- try the following exercise. It's based on some basic belly
dance (a.k.a. Oriental dance, Middle Eastern dance, Turkish dance,
folkloric, tribal, caberet, triberet, and that old gaudy hat, hoochie
coochie) moves, and will help you get out of your head and into your
hips.
Give Your Bod the Time of Day
The Short and Sweet:
If you do yoga or body work, stand up straight (in mountain pose), take
a few minutes to acknowledge your body, and skip down to Hips,
Shoulders, Ribs, & Toes. If you and your bod have
been ignoring eachother lately, read on:
The Full Monty:
Put some music on and stand with your feet a few inches
apart. You can look in a mirror if you like, but it's best to
do this by feel.
Pretend that you are being gently suspended from the base of your
skull. Let this suspension lift up your head so that your
spine hangs naturally beneath it. Let your shoulders hang,
not forward in a slouch, but restfully to the sides. Feel how
this take pressure off of your neck and the area between your
shoulderblades.
With this sense of levitation, it is no longer restful to slouch into
your hips: instead, create space between your ribs and your
hips, and take any weight off of your lower back. You might
tuck your tailbone slightly. Now that your hips are balanced
and loose, let your knees bend just a little, so your legs are engaged.
Hips, Shoulders, Ribs, and Toes
Feel the music in your shoulders.
Let your head, ribcage, hips, and legs remain still, and just play with
those shoulders. Lift and drop them in time to the
music. Push them forward and back to the beat.
Alternate, one forward, one back. Et cetera - just play.
Now, let your shoulders become still, and bring your awareness to your hips.
Can you move your hips from side to side while keeping your ribcage
still? Can you circle them? Bump them from side to side? Can
you focus on just one hip and lift out in a half circle like in the
photo? Bend one knee slightly, then the other in quick succession; when
you get fast enough, you'll shimmy!
You will need to engage your core muscles and your legs for these
moves. (This is one reasons why belly dance is often done in skirts and
loose pants - if you can't see all the legwork going on, the hip moves
look all the more impressive.) Focus all the energy of the music into
your hips, while your feet and upper body remain still.
Move your awareness to your rib cage.
Keeping your hips and shoulders at rest, slide your ribs side to side,
front and back, then in a circle. Lift your rib cage and drop
it, all the while keeping your core muscles engaged.
Now, focus the music into your arms.
Let them float and glide. Be specific with your hands:
imagine you are plucking flowers from a tree or scooping out great
balls of air.
Finally, move your feet to the music.
Try stepping your right foot forward, left foot in place, right foot
back, left foot in place, and repeat. Move across the space
or turn in place.
As you get more comfortable with individual moves, try layering
them. Step forward and back while you shimmy your shoulders,
or let your hips reflect the movements of your arms. But any
time you feel like your dancing is getting lazy or uninspired, refocus
the energy of the music in just one body part.