Welcome to BellyHops.com.  I’m Samimi, and I love dancing.

I’ve been dancing for about 10 years now, and it just gets better and better.  Whereas some dances are almost strictly for the young and extremely dedicated, ahem… ballet, anyone can learn how to belly dance, and you can continue to belly dance for about as long as you can remain upright (well into middle-age I hope).  So no matter where you are in your life, no matter what background you have in the dance arena, belly dance is a great option.  It’s fun, it’s feminine, and if done on a regular basis it works out your core like nobody’s business.

I’ve dedicated this site to teaching because quite frankly, there’s not enough free tutorials for belly dance out there, although there are quite a few for hip hop (which is awesome).  I do like to mix my belly dance and hip hop, but if you’re brand new, I recommend getting acquainted with the techniques of belly dance first.  This will help you be able to move freely and easily into the combinations of belly dance as well as hip hop, and I highly recommend it.

Eventually this Web site will [hopefully] be broken down into several parts:

• Basic Tutorials.  Belly dancing is really not that hard to do, although it looks mighty impressive when done right.  What makes a good belly dancer is truly, practice.  Belly dance isn’t all technique and neither is hip hop.  Both dances need style, and an individualized flare can make your performances fun to do and fun to watch, but learning the very basics and then practicing them every day, over and over, is the fastest way to truly good dancing.  Learn your basics and have them in the bag.  I seriously recommend 20 -30 minutes a day of just practicing your basic movements (shimmies, chest slides, snake arms, etc.) in front of a mirror every day for at least a year if you’re just starting out.  Remember, your body can move this way, but it doesn’t move this way naturally, so you need to train yourself until it feels natural.
• Move A Day.  Move A Day will be a once every day combination set you are free to ‘steal’.  It will include belly dance, hip hop, and on rare occasions a little break dancing (I used to be really into break dancing, but like ballet, it’s a dance with a short shelf life).  Move A Day will show a combination, and then break down the combination.  It will not, however, teach you the basics of each move.  That’s what Basic Tutorials are for.  :)
• Weekly Challenge.  I want to prove to you that you can dance to literally anything, so to prove that, once a week I’ll take song suggestions, put out a poll, and whichever song gets the most votes I will choreograph and then perform to.  Due to stage costs, it may take a little longer to begin the weekly challenge than the rest of the videos.  It may even take into summer to get it started.  Sorry, but I live in a college town and everything’s cheaper in summer.  So no panty twisting over this – at least for a couple of months.
• Performance Perfect.  If you’re interested in performing, this is the page to go to.  It will include costuming tutorials, stage makeup, body art, and performance tips.  Belly dance outfits can be just stunning, but unfortunately they can also be incredibly expensive.  Don’t be turned off to this beautiful and feminine dance because of hangups about cost or costuming.  You can build it yourself.  I promise.
• Fustian.  This is the blog part of BellyHops (I just really don’t like the word “blog”) where you can find tips, info, ranting, and responses.

Check out the blog page (Fustian) for more information on belly dance, hip hop, costuming, performances, etc.