What is a hip drop and when do we use it?
Learn to do hip drops for bellydance. This is one of the most basic of all bellydance moves. Typically, dancers use it to “fall into the beat” before starting a piece or at transition points in the music. It can have a playful and light feel or a very heavy drop, depending on what’s happening in the music.
Bellydance hip drops are an accented form of a hip lift or hip up and return back down. The hip elevates then comes back down. What turns this into “hip drops” is the way it comes down. By emphasizing the down we get a heavy feeling that falls into the beat.
What else can you do with hip drops?
Hip drops build into drop kicks, also called hip kicks or drop release. Drop kicks are a very common in this style. They are one of the most recognizable movements that signal “bellydance” in the viewers brain. In a drop kick, you release the foot from the floor in a slight “kick”. Alternate a hip drop with the foot in place with one releasing the foot to make a pattern we call the drop kick.
You can divide hip drops into parts to further emphasize rhythmic patterns in the music. You can come down in 2 parts with a tiny pause halfway. Additionally, you can even do it with 3 or more parts on the way down and a very heavy “sit” at the bottom. Basically, by combining these divided, multiple drop parts with the drop kick you have endless options to play with the rhythms and accents in your bellydance music.
How do you practice hip drops?
Some practice ideas…. start with a single hip drop on the downbeat of the music (pay attention to the dum in the rhythm!). From there you can try making your hip drops smaller or larger, using a big/little pattern with the bigger on the downbeat and the smaller between the beat. After that, try alternating one of these patterns with drop kicks – now we’re really having some fun!
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