Step-Touch-Step
There are two keys to giving the basic ‘Step-Touch-Step’ a Middle Eastern flavour: foot placement and hip accentuation. When moving to the right, your left foot should be facing forward and your right foot should be at a slightly less than 90-degree angle to the left foot, feet a little more than shoulder-width apart. Don’t take too wide of a stance when you are just starting. Push off the floor on your left foot to stick the left hip and buttock out and flex the left buttock. Next pull the left foot in close and repeat, then switch directions.
To take this to an advanced level, try adding a shimmy to the back leg:
Standing still, left foot facing forward, right foot at a slightly less than 90-degree angle. Feet a little more than shoulder-width apart. Put your weight on the right foot and raise to demi-pointe (tip toes) on your left foot. Shimmy only from your left knee, moving, straightening and bending the knee slightly, just like in the ‘Cabaret Shimmy,’ but only from the left leg. This should make your leg jiggle all the way up to your bum. When you get good, the shimmy should move all the way up your body from your knee, to your bum, to your stomach and breasts – everywhere that you’ve got a little extra something to jiggle! Incorporate this one-legged shimmy into the ‘Step Touch Step” or simply do it on its own for some goooood vibrations.