I was thinking the same thing, it looks more like body paint.
She’s certainly fun to watch, but I don’t think her dancing talent is all that unnatural. Most good hula dancers manage similar movement pretty well.
It isn’t just the movement… it’s that heavenly ass.
Carnac the Magnificent
Thank you for that link. That made my whole week and probably the rest of the month also.
I have to listen to her CD to actually enjoy her music, which I think is just as good as her dancing, but if I watch her, all the other senses start to go numb. She should have a warning on her for pacemakers.
AP
It’s creole. That’s her secret. It’s Latin Passion, Middle Eastern Tantra, and a good booty shake del Norte.
Part of what I was getting at in the OP is this: Just how rare is Shakira’s ability–nay, gift–to move her hips like that?
We seen belly and hula dancers do similarly, but there’s no way that every, not even most, women even with lots of lessons could pull that off. I’ve seen a few women after a few months of Bellydancing 101. It isn’t pretty.
If Shakira is exhibit A of Bellydancing 101, I’m afraid a grad student would be lethal.
I haven’t watched the whole thing, but she’s doing shimmy, basic hip kick, a little bit of undulation, vertical and horizontal hip circles, and up/down hip isolation. She looks to me like maybe a level 2 Intermediate at my bellydance school. She’s pretty decent.
Most women can do that after about two and a half years, maybe three. Her isolation is decent, but her posture makes me cringe- she’s got her butt stuck out in a way that looks sexy, but must be hell on her back. Crunching up her vertebrae.
Anyway. She’s pretty good, but not spectacular. Lots of women can do that. Of course, most of them don’t wear those pants. 
In many of the clips she’s wearing a regular bellydance hip scarf, but she’s got it rucked up. I assume that’s to show off her butt.
Oh, and when I’m in training (haven’t taken class in a year) I can move my hips like that. I don’t look as good as she does, though.
To answer your most recent question, at least 50% of women can be trained to do that. Pretty much any of the two hundred upper-level students at the dance school I attended can move their hip like that, and many can do it better.
I read somewhere Shakira took belly dancing lessons from relatives when younger.
Not only is she a good singer, but she produces all her own songs and plays several instruments.
I don’t particularly like her songwriting style, but she must be the sexiest thing on stage, anywhere. I was in a bar last year where they showed an hour-long video of a concert of hers, and was rendered mute for the entire thing, much to my wife’s irritation.
“It’s nice here, isn’t it?”
- “Nghhurr?”
“Good view.” - “Mwwrbb.”
“You’re not listening to me, are you?” - “Blblblbl.”
“You don’t even like this music. Why are you watching the screen?” - “Nghrwrble.”
More people can dance like Shakira than like Fred Astaire I think. I don’t know if that answers the question.
I’m a Shakira fan and I’ve worked out a lot of her moves over the years and I am decent at it. People do ask me to do my Shakira dance for them and to teach it to them! But I watched the Whenever, Wherever video many many more times than any normal person. At least more than any normal straight female person. I am a pretty good dancer but I’ve known plenty of people who are better than me. I think of myself as better than average but I really like dancing and do it a lot whether I’m good or bad at it. I would say that most women I know think Shakira looks like a spaz and are embarassed on my behalf for the fact that I’m a fan. Even if you think she looks good, you will look like an idiot and a spaz learning to do her moves and it can also be frustrating to learn a dance when you don’t get it right off the bat and your body keeps zigging when you want it to zag. So many people hate to feel like an idiot and a spaz. But the long and the short of it is that I truly think most women could do it as long as they kept trying. I don’t think she’s double jointed in any way. I do think she is creative and the average woman wouldn’t make up the things she comes up with. She has her own blend of moves that come out looking unique. It’s like it says in Hips Don’t Lie, it’s unexpected and that’s what makes you stare. Where will Shakira’s bum go next? You never know, it’s forging new frontiers and you can only follow. 