is it rigged? If its rigged, just select the curves and animate using the control curves. If its not rigged, ...good luck! lol

And yes animate using keyframing the curves which control the joints, in turn the joints obviously control the geometry.

Im guessing by this post you havent done alot of animating, so check out

https://www.learning-maya.com/58-0-an...tutorials.html

good luck