Freyja is an internationally acclaimed belly dance teacher and performer. Her dance background includes ballet, jazz, hip hop, ballroom, salsa, club dancing, flamenco, Indonesian and Indian dance. She has developed her own unique style, drawing from many of these sources. Freyja has studied American Cabaret, Turkish and Egyptian styles of belly dance as well as American tribal style, which later led to tribal fusion. She has studied with a long list of teachers, and being a life-long student, she continues to study dance as well as other movement disciplines including yoga, pilates, qigong and the Alexander Technique.

Lift the right hip contracting the right oblique and the right glute, then contract fully into your lower abdominals while you are releasing the oblique and glute. In this position the pelvis is tucked and the tailbone is pointing slightly forward. Next contract your left obiliques and glutes while releasing the deep contraction in the lower abs. Now contract your lower back muscles slightly and completely release any tension in the lower abs as you release the left hip and glute. Here the pelvis is tilted slightly forward and the tailbone is pointing slightly behind your neutral posture but make sure that the lower back is not compressed and the spine is still elongated. You have just completed an umi to the left diagonal. Now rotate your hips slightly to the right so they are still facing slightly left of center and do another umi starting with the right hip, lower abs, left hip and lower back. Try to keep the ribcage facing directly forward. Now rotate your hips slightly right of center and do another umi right to left. Last rotate your hips to the right diagonal and do an umi again starting right hip, lower abs, left hip, lower back.

Now reverse the move in the other direction. Your hips are facing a right diagonal, your umi starts on the other hip, so it's going left, front, right, back. Then you rotate the hips slightly to the left so they are still right of center, and do another umi going left to right. Now the hips rotate left so they are slightly left of center, do an umi left to right (left front right back). Last rotate your hips farter left so you are facing a left diagonal and do one last umi, left, front, right back.

The feet and knees: The feet and knees are going to be following the hips in this movement. When you begin the move and rotate your hips to the left, you are going to shift the feet so they are pointing in the same direction that the hips are facing. The feet are parallel here. As you begin your first umi, you will rotate the right foot slightly to the right leaving your heels pointing together and your toes pointing away from each other. Your knees are pointing in line with your toes. If you look down at your feet, they should look like they are in a V position here (also known as first position in ballet). On the second umi, you will shift your left foot so it is parallel to the right foot, feet pointing in the same direction as the hips. On the third umi, you will shift your right foot again so once again your feet are in a V position. On the last umi, shift the left foot so the feet are parallel again and pointing in the same direction as your hips. Now you are ready to start the move in the other direction. Remember you switch the direction of the umi. On the first umi, rotate the left foot slightly so your feet are in a V position, on the second umi, rotate the right foot so the feet are parallel, on the third umi, rotate the left again bringing your feet to a V and on the last umi, rotate the right foot so your feet end in parallel and are directly beneath the hips, pointing in the same direction.