Yes! I know exactly what you mean!

In Northern climates, there are no traditional dances that have hip/pelvic moves, therefore people are not used to naturally move their hips by just watching a dancer. They need to spend time in a dance class by detailed and broken down explanations, so they can learn to move in this new way!!!

I live and teach in Wales UK and discovered this by trial and error. When I first started teaching, I didn't understand why it was taking so long for some people to do it. For me it felt so natural that I was taking it for granted!

I am from Greece and in my country we have a folk dance called Chiftetelli, which is a style of bellydance, using basic moves and dancing improptu on the spot. We don't learn in dance schools (of course you can attend dance lessons if you want) but we learn by imitating others in parties.

Also, people who have little or no experience with dance before are often not aware of isolated movements. So for example, you demonstrate a simple maya, or a shoulder shimmy (or just rolling one shoulder, then the other), and they are moving all over the place! Its just that many people have not (yet) developed the bodily awareness that is needed.

This may be especially true of people from cultures which have tended to distrust embodied existence, so they are largely "in their heads."