Shimmy Power Up is the latest program from Datura Online. Designed to be a one-week intensive, each day you have a different set of shimmy videos to check in and tune up all of your shimmies. How did I do?
Day 1: Three videos with Sedona Soulfire, with a focus on the Egyptian Shimmy (a big, loose, knee-driven shimmy). Starts with a nice long warm-up that includes a seated drill for accessing your knee shimmy. I like that she varies the speed of this drill and also has you change the position of your legs. You will probably want to sit on a cushion or yoga mat if, like me, you have a hard floor and a bony booty. After getting nice and warm, you will do an 18 minute drill of non-stop Egyptian shimmies with different layers. I managed to get through the whole thing but there were a few times where my shimmy got really fitful. I’ll definitely be returning to this segment repeatedly until I feel confident about my Egyptian shimmy. This lesson concludes with a gentle five minute cooldown stretch. This lesson is ideal for the experienced beginner or intermediate dancer, because Sedona does not really break down how to do the isolations that are layered over the shimmy, the expectation is that you already know your basics and just want to practice combining them.
Day 2: Thirty minutes of slow, relaxed shimmies with Tamalyn Dallal! I just adore her. Something about her voice makes me feel calm. She just seems so relaxed and down to earth when she teaches. I want her to adopt me and be my cool belly dance aunt. This class goes over relaxed, knee-driven shimmies and spends a lot of time exploring how to pass them from leg to leg and how they’re different with bent and straight knees, then goes over how to layer them on slow moves, for a juicy qanoon shimmy or something like that. Then you get a nice 7 minute relaxing cool-down with Sedona. This class challenged me because I don’t normally do my shimmies this way and I rarely do one-leg shimmies, but the pace was relaxed enough that I didn’t break a sweat.
Day 3: This one is all about 3/4 shimmies with Ashley Lopez. First there’s a warm-up that focuses on accessing your obliques for shimmies. Soft shimmies, and oblique locks, ups and downs, and calf raises and walking and more. This leads into 20 minutes of walking 3/4 shimmies… In this case, a 3-beat shimmy per step, rather than a shimmy that holds on the 4th count. I had some trouble with this one. First, my legs were sore and tired from the past 2 days (I did ballet class on Day 2, so there was a lot of releve and other leg stuff), so I felt like I was not really doing my best. Plus there’s a foot pattern that involves traveling forward for 8, to the right for 8, back for 8, and to the left for 8. I have a pretty small dance space so I had to take wussy small steps and/or step in place for some of it. I probably won’t be returning to that video, but I may return to the warm-up when I want to work on oblique shimmies. This wraps up with a nice 5 minute cool-down that focuses on the legs and back.
Day 4: Back to Sedona! This starts with my new favorite warm-up, vibration shimmies with an arm workout layered on top. You’ll need small handweights or a couple cans of soup for it! I am definitely going to be using this one when the weather gets cold and I really need to get warm. After that, there’s more shimmying with some layers. Then a cute combo which uses the 3/4 shimmy and little knee-shimmy accents. Then a nice relaxing cool down. I really enjoyed this one even though I was sore and tired from doing DJ Dance Cardio the previous day.
Day 5: This one starts with a short but difficult warm-up with Ashley Lopez. Well, difficult for me. My hips don’t like doing leg lifts out to the side! But there’s some good balance work in here so give it a look. After that, you learn a combination from Sedona which uses 4 different shimmies: a waggle, an Egyptian, a choo-choo and a Turkish shimmy. There’s layers and traveling and other moves thrown in, so it’s really dynamic and fun. I found myself really getting into it and dancing it like I was performing it. If you want to do a quick check-in on the status of your shimmies, this video is a good way to do it. This practice ends with a cool-down specifically designed for recovering from a shimmy workout, also lead by Sedona.
Day 6: This is a really short one! You start with Rachel Brice’s Shimmy Drill Warm-Up, which is one of my favorite warm-up videos on DO. It’s based on Rachel’s warm-up from when she was on tour, so it’s designed to get you warmed up fast in a small space… perfect for my living room! This is followed by another fun combo from Sedona, with a few different shimmies and some traveling. There’s a lot of shoulder shimmies in this one. Even by the end of the video I found I was still getting some of the transitions wrong, but otherwise I had a good time. This session ends with the same cool from day 3, which I forgot to write about. It’s a good leg and back focused on with Ashley Lopez.
Day 7: Another shortie, maybe the shortest? Starts out with a good warm-up by Ashley Lopez. Although it has more side leg lifts like in Day 5, they were an easier variation. Also there’s a nice shimmy section with arms and floreos, which I think is a good way to get warm. Then you learn one more shimmy combo from Sedona. Like yesterday, I still didn’t “get” the combo by the end, though I was close. Sedona ends the lesson with a cool down, I think it’s the same one from Day 4. All in all, a pretty quick and well-rounded practice.
Closing thoughts: I think this is a nice and very do-able series of classes for the experienced beginner or intermediate level dancer. There’s a good assortment of warm-ups, a great variety of shimmies combined with different layers and foot patterns, and some gentle cool-downs. Because the videos are pretty short you could easily round out your daily practice with more DO videos or whatever else you want to work on, but if you’re short on time you’ll get a complete practice for your day. It’s also good if you’re new to DO and want to get a feel for several of the teachers before deciding what to do next. This program helped me discover a new favorite warm-up and gave me an idea of what shimmies I should be drilling more often. Definitely worth the time I put into it!