One of the things I love about our dance is how adaptable and elastic it is. People throw the most amazingly odd things into it, and it just takes them in and makes them work (mostly, lol). It’s bizarre how free everyone feels doing this, too. Of course, some things work better than others, and some things work so well, they become core elements of the dance. For example, the veil.
When I was first involved in the dance, back in the days of the Five Part Routine, the veil was regarded as an American innovation in the dance. Though Muslim women often cover their heads (and faces, and bodies), they do not use the hijab for dancing. Is not an original component of the dance.
Badia Masabni introduced the veil in Egypt, according to Yasmin Henkesh, after seeing it at work in the Rudolph Valentino film, Son of the Sheik. Samia Gamal is also credited with introducing the veil, reportedly after her Russian trainer had her use a piece of floaty fabric to improve her arm carriage (and it sure will do that). Turkish dancers in NYC used the veil, primarily wrapping, unwrapping, and rewrapping as they danced and played finger cymbals. Yes, everyone played finger cymbals with their veil work back then.
But I suspect that the rich, sweeping, sumptuous use of the veil in the US came in from the burlesque and vaudeville circuit. There were Salomés with their dances of the seven veils, and fabric artists such as Loie Fuller in every show. The were Little Egypts in those shows, as well–and you can bet they all saw each other’s acts, and (like artists everywhere), adopted what they liked.
And I’m soooo glad they did!
I LOVE the veil. One of my main teachers and mentors in the dance is Elena Lentini, a true artist. And one of her signature arts is the veil. She pioneered the 4-yard veil and her work is exemplary. Here is some recent footage of her veil work (and here is some older)
So I came to this love through a LOT of learning. And this love affair has never ended.
The veil can be a dreamy, sensual accompanist; a good friend; a mischievous trickster and so many other things ; ). However, so much veil instruction is hinged to choreography. People learn tricks and counting and it all feels rather static and contrived. I mean, it can be very beautiful, but often it is paint by numbers, and you see all the lines.
What I like best is the veil’s fluidity as an improvisational prop. It becomes an extension of the arm, the body, the soul, as it swirls and sweeps, wraps and rolls, conceals and reveals. Here’s a tiny bit of veil work I posted earlier this year.
When I teach veil, it’s usually a one-off workshop, usually hooked to the Five Part Routine. We get to do basic technique (which is special and specific), practice a few wraps, and that’s about it. There is so much more! There is sooo much artistry and glory to the veil!
We get a whole five weeks to explore, practice, and integrate the veil in all its glorious magic, from Slow Movement to dazzling swirls.
Visionary Veil runs Tuesdays at 4pm EDT for five weeks, from Sept 14-Oct 12, 2021. See this in your time zone (add to calendar button in link). Each class is recorded (instructor view only). Each recording is available for the full duration of the course.
Come revel in the richness of one truly great western contribution to Oriental dance.
Registration is here. Visionary Veil starts this Tuesday, Sept 14. I hope to see you there!
There are a lot of ways to chart music. The most standard is proper written music with staff lines and notes. But most of us can’t sight-read music, and besides, as dancers, we don’t need to see the notes–we need the space to write what we’re going to do.
There are many methods of doing this, and like formal outlines, they don’t all appeal to everyone. So most folks make up their own methods. This is perfectly fine. Some people count, some draw diagrams of the music, some write descriptions. All are valid methods. What’s important is that it makes sense–to you. You can totally invent a method, as long as you know what it means. Once you start including others in your pieces, it also has to make sense to them.
Here’s a sample from Dawn Ventimiglia. The picture below is Dawn’s map to the first part of the ES Posthumus song, “Pompeii”: http://youtu.be/ GusLypfx7OQ Dawn said, “The double lines on the left are the section that repeats (though this shot is missing the extra tidbits later in the song). Also, off to the right (out of the shot), those horizontal lines continue, and I jot choreo notes next to each section.
“This is a HUGE newsprint pad – super cheap, and great for doing this stuff. I hate working small on this kind of thing – sort of inhibits my thinking, AND, this way, I can view it while working on the choreo.” Listen to the song and see if you can follow Dawn’s notation.
We do what works for us. I use a spreadsheet. I put columns for the time, the measures, the mood, instrumentation, and then a big long one for what I’m going to do. It keeps everything organized, and I can print it out and write on it by hand, then transcribe it later.
We are not the only people who write out music to suit ourselves. Here’s a lovely article about Caroline Shaw, 2013’s years Pulitzer Prizewinner for music. Though she wrote the musical score itself in standard form, she wrote all kinds of whimsical sound directions instead of the Italian classics–such as “mixy,” “floaty head voices,” and “plainchantish improv on these two pitches.”
Breath is pretty miraculous–it keeps us alive, for one. And it helps us thrive.
A physical therapist was telling me about a mutual friend who was depressed, sitting home staring at the TV. She burst out, “The sympathetic nervous system runs down either side of the spine. You can google sympathetic chain,” she added. “You’ll get a picture showing it going across. It goes onto the other side of the spine, and it will show what organs it links to.”
I also got really interested. We were talking on Skype, so I flipped on my call recorder. This is a transcription of our convo.
“This sympathetic system gets regulated by physical thoracic movement. Movement in the thoracic area of your spine. The number one way that movement happens is proper breathing. So when you breathe correctly, then you have a constant sort of massage from the slight movement happens in that area.
“When people sit at a desk, for example. All day they hunch over and look at their computer screen—or if they have experienced a variety of things in their life, pain, increased levels of stress and anxiety, traumatic experiences, injuries? They will also adopt postures that—either sitting or these extreme postures—close down the thoracic spine, so you end up breathing only at the bottom, front part of your lungs (or in some postures the top front).
“So what happens is you don’t get that massage to the back of that sympathetic nervous system region. A lot of people — most of us in this country, don’t get that. You wonder why so many people are on anti-anxiety meds, can’t sleep very well, have poor relationships and a lot of stress. It’s purely based on our posture!”
Of course, all I think about is belly dance. I said, “That’s very interesting. Because I’m connecting all of these benefits that you get from oriental dance practice with every day life. It’s not just, “Oh, it’s a nice dance.” It’s like, “This is something that is going to transform your life, just by doing it.”
And this is one of the ways—because when you do the dance right, you allow the breath to be integrated properly. Now you’re just telling me exactly what is the benefit of this breath, and what the purpose of it is. That’s very exciting.”
She said, “Yes, isn’t it interesting? We really take breathing for granted in this country; it’s extremely under-appreciated. If you look at a lot of other cultures, eastern … Look at Yoga, I’m sure dance, and any kind of meditation, Tai Chi, Pilates, how do they all come back to the breath? It’s always an underlying theme and we completely ignore that. We spend a lot of time here holding our breath and breathing with very little inflation.”
I said, “Yes, breath is included in every mind body practice. The focus is on the breath and somehow, we forgot about all that or else, we just do it, in terms of, our practice and we don’t bother doing it in the rest of our life, or like in oriental dance, it’s never been integrated, or rarely.”
And here let us look at the Breath info from Spark that links Oriental dance with all the mind-body breath practices… Thanks to Zara’s Zouk and Dandash for the workshop in which I learned this!
My PT friend continued, “I have two things to say. One: If your body is able to breathe correctly and you can fully inflate your lungs in the correct way, then in theory, the rest of your body is actually working really well, because in order for your lungs to fully inflate, you need to have full trunk stability, which means that everything else is, sort of, working perfectly.
“Two: I would be willing to bet that in order to fully grasp and fully utilize the breath within your dance practice, for example, you would only be able to actually do that, if you were fully integrating breath throughout your day. You can’t sort of turn your lungs on and off, right? You have to be able to use them fully, all the time. You almost have to make it a daily practice in order to make it part of your artistic practice and your physical practice.
“And what is the number one activity that we do all day and all night? BREATHE! We always breathe… When you fix your breathing, you fix so many other things, because you’re always going to be doing it. It’s not like you can take time off and just not breathe.”
So there you have it.
Keep breathing. The breath massages and regulates the sympathetic nervous system. Bring your dance practice breath into your everyday life. Sit so you can breathe, and breathe into your computer work, car driving, etc.
And you know, I thought of another cool thing about our dance. So many movements from it roll and massage this same thoracic area of the spine. Undulations, anyone? Chest circles and infinities? Shoulder shimmies? We really do have a magic dance here, folks. Much more magic than most people imagine.
Let’s dance! And while we do it, let’s remember and visualize these movements and breath awakening and soothing the sympathetic nervous system, all the organs to which it connects, and the rest of bodies and our lives. Here’s some music for that…
Moves are like boxes.
What’s important is what’s inside them. The more engaged a dancer is—the more they have something to say, some gift they put inside the box—the more engaging they are to watch…
A while back, someone asked me to “focus on the state of mind of the dancer when she improvs and techniques.” I think this asks about the difference in mind space between improv and technical practice. I can only speak for myself, but this is what I find.
Many years ago, I danced at a Dowser’s meeting. It was a brightly lit room and everyone stared at me very hard. They weren’t mean, they were just paying attention. But it rattled me; I felt self-conscious and never relaxed into the moment. Later, one of the women told me briskly, “Your spirit guide is an Egyptian woman. I could see her behind you. And you think too much when you dance.” She sure was right about the thinking.
At that time in my dance, embodiment was hit or miss. I sometimes got into the zone, but I could’t do it reliably. Like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter, it turned up here and there, but go looking for it, and you come up empty-handed. It wasn’t until I got introduced to rhythmic breath that I started to reach that zone on a regular basis.
What is the technique headspace?
When I am teaching a regular class, for example, I am watching the students, thinking what’s next, organizing and planning. I am not so much in a state of flow. The same when I am leading a move across the floor (or following one). There’s a lot of mental errand running. If I am practicing technique, making or learning a move or a combo or whatever, I am in an intellectual headspace, observing, assessing, adjusting.
There’s nothing wrong with this.
As dancers, we want to improve. Talent has been defined as a reduction of errors. So we look to see where we miss the mark and fix it. Arms, hands, posture, openness, everything is measured, tested, tweaked. That’s fine and normal. But then we get to where we can let that level of attention go. My goal in practicing new things is to integrate them, so they become embodied, habitual, and I don’t have to think about them any more.
The problem is when analysis interferes with embodiment.
Dancing (as opposed to practicing technique) on stage or at home in assessment mode is a drag. Self-judging, self-doubt, etc are real buzz-kills. And the most random things threw me off! Silence, for example. I had a piece I started with my back to the guests for the first few bars, and then spun around. One time the silence that greeted that spin was deafening. I have since learned that silence is good (it means folk are paying attention), but this was so intense, I faltered and totally lost my groove—and never got it back for the whole show.
Dancers can be a terrible audience. They sit in the front row and squint at you. Seeing a frowning front row of dancers has tossed me out of my zone, as I wonder what I’m dong wrong and why they hate me. They don’t. They’re just trying to figure out what color is my underskirt, if my dress would fit them, where I got my earrings, if they know that step. But it used to really throw me for a loop.
Dancemeditation™ changed that for me.
Because now I had rhythmic breath. So when I got rattled, I could go back to my breath and re-immerse myself in the zone. I could reliably get there, and reliably stay there. Plus I matured as a dancer, and realized that silence was a compliment, and dancers were just interested (and maybe nearsighted). So I could more easily let go of my ever-ready self-doubt and enjoy my time on stage.
Keith Richards once said, “You don’t think on stage; you go into a zone.”
That’s exactly right. When I am in the zone, I notice everything—the coming waiter, the drunk at the third table, the audience. The other dancers in the wings, the band—but none of them have any emotional weight. They are logistical; they get dealt with intuitively rather than through mental effort. I notice them and let them go. I feel spacious and intense at the same time, fully pointed and completely loose. My body is in sync with the music and so is my breath.
The music is everything.
When I am in this state, there is a lot of room in the music. I feel relaxed. I take my time. It gives me everything I need. If all else fails, I map my body and face into a state of joy and dance that.
If I’m dancing on recorded music, I may have something I want to express. I may even have a score worked out—a loose choreography / structured improvisation of content and blocking. I rarely do sequences of moves—most of my choreographed dances are theatrical or conceptual arrangements. So I don’t have to limit myself to how I felt when I composed the dance (even when I make regular choreographies, I am always throwing things out in performance, because they are always too busy and I need more space). And I often dance to songs I’ve never heard just for that live music thrill.
I approach theatrical dance as structured improvisation.
I create a framework that contains any narrative, symbolism, even staging and movement highlights. So I always know what I want to say, but I don’t have to memorize a lot of details. Because it is just a framework! I can change bits, leave them out, or add them in on the fly. This allows me to be in The Zone, to be present and engaged, even with a fairly complex framework. I’ll be teaching this model soon in Wonderland: Theatrical Expression for Oriental Dance (an expansion of a segment from How to Create Dance Art).
With a live band, all I do is plan the set list with the musicians. And that may be an emotional arc rather than specific songs. Then I literally just go out and wing it. That is my favorite. At my best, I luxuriate in the music, phasing in and out of time, slow, at speed, slow. I don’t dance on every beat. I let a lot of music go by, and work in slow-motion. Anytime I get rattled, I go back to my breath and slow movement.
But what about a group dance?
Of course, as soloists, we have autonomy. But with group dances throwing things out just confuses the hell out of everyone else—unless you plan for it. You can compose group dances without set steps, using conceptual frameworks, so everyone knows the story arc and what’s going to happen when. Then you get to have a lot of fun onstage with your friends and the story takes on a lot of intensity and playfulness.
When I do group dances for students, they come up with all the steps. I am the art director, so I wrangle the order, repeats, etc. But they contribute to that, too. So we have fun dances they thunk up themselves—which means they learn faster, remember better, and generally have a much deeper investment—and spend less time thinking onstage.
An improv performance (or practice) is all about making space to be in the moment. So that is what we practice—getting reliably into the zone with breath, slow movement, and related strategies. In the zone, there is a sense of timelessness and being fully present. The sense of “I” disappears; the dancer feels connected viscerally to the music in a state of exalted oneness.
The Zone: That’s what we’re going for. That’s what we’re practicing.
All my love, Alia
PS Here’s an Improv prompt.
One thing dancers fear is getting stuck in one move and not being able to think of anything else. Yet we hear of all these great dancers of the past who did maybe 4 moves their whole show and everyone loved them. So how do we get confident and comfortable with a limited palette?
Dance with only one move for a whole song. I know, right? Boring! But it’s not. The beauty of our dance is micro movement. That means each iteration of each move is different from any other—like snowflakes. So each figure 8 is different. You can vary the move by speed, size, force, height, or width, also by segmenting (starting and stopping), by alternating slow and fast, big and small, etc. And yes, you can change sides. But just one movement. No combinations. So just a figure 8, hip drop, circle, undulation, etc. Your choice.
Once you choose, woohoo! Just let anything come out, any part of your body, any kind of decoration. You can even do the exact same thing for the whole song–and feel just fine about it.
Music! Radio Bastet, all vintage belly dance vinyl. You can stream the podcasts at http://radiobastet.libsyn.com/. Just click on the little grey pod button to the top left of each episode.
A year+ of covid. I have to say, it’s wearing on me. You, too? So let’s escape for a bit…
Here’s a soothing, engaging body adventure….
The Blue Rope
Put on some slow, slinky, music. Lie down on your back (on a mat or some blankets) with your knees up, feet on the floor. Close your eyes. Feel your spine sink into the floor. Let it relax and soften. Visualize all the tiny little muscles that attach the spine together—little bitty bands that hold the discs and let everything move. Let them relax and soften.
Visualize your spine as a glowing blue rope. It’s thick, shining, infinitely flexible. Move the tiny muscles that hold the spine together—no movement really, because the muscles are so small. Just activate them with your energy.
Let the rope begin to move. Tiny little arcs and spirals, circles here and there. S-curves running up and down. Let it move with the music, subtle, so tiny it is barely discernible. Breathe with the music. Keep it small and gentle. When your body feels ready, you can let it lift you, but stay low: on your knees for a while. Continue to visualize the spine as a soft, glowing, blue rope, infinitely flexible.
Notice how the movement feels. Keep your eyes closed, the better to focus on the inside.
You may finally graduate to standing, if and when you feel like it. Continue to move from the spine—avoid activating anything else. Let all the shapes of your movement stay grounded in the glowing blue rope. Cultivate a quality of effortlessness as the spine roils around, enjoying its freedom to ooze and twist.
Play! How much of your movement can be initiated from your flexible, glowing spine? (hint: A LOT!)
We did this last week in Belly Dance BEDROCK. We had such a good time in this series, re-patterning to find organic ease in our deep movement vocabulary, that we are doing another 5 weeks. This time, we broaden our view into Transitions and Combinations, finding sleek, elegant pathways from one move to another, with some traveling steps to pull it all together. Back when I was first learning, Bobby taught transitions as movements in their own right, and they are.
What folks say about BEDROCK
This way feels so much better.
I get less tired lifting the hip from under
This makes it so much richer
It feels so effortless
It’s amazing how you feel the psoas by thinking of the movement
I love your approach, Alia!
Come explore with us! All classes are recorded (instructor view). Recordings available for a week each. BEDROCK II Transitions & Combinations runs from Tuesday, March 23 through Tuesday, April 27 (no class March 30), from 4-5PM EDT Registration is open now.
Prep is kinda routine—and if you plan to video often, you will want to stramline your workflow as much as possible. My room is set up to make it easy, with lights left in position, all the connections ready. I plop my laptop down, connect a bunch of cables, position the webcam, and good to go (I used a Logitech C920 for years, now I use a Brio).
The actual dancing, once you get the hang of it, is fun—flirty, playful fun. Or over the top drama queen. Or whatever character suits the song you have in mind. That’s the easy part–after you figure out how to look the camera in the eye, to project your energy through the lens, so the people know you are looking at them, connected to them, and sending love to them (this is what How to Dance (or Speak!) for the Camera is all about).
Watching the video? For many of us, that is hell. So let’s see what we can do to reframe this.
Say Hello to VideoPal
Once the video is made, that person on the video is no longer you. Just as when you write an article or paint a painting—YOU did the creative work, but now it is outside of you; like a new baby, the umbilical cord has been cut. The new baby has its own personality, and so does Video Dancer-aka VideoPal.
This is a gender-neutral name, so we can use it for any dancer (we have the entire gender spectrum in our dance world). My pronouns are she/her; I began thinking of “her” as Video Girl. You can call your Video Pal whatever you like, as long as it is compassionate and kind. Why? Because you are now VideoPal’s proud parent/mentor. It is now your job to love and care for them.
So far so good?
NOT you.
VideoPal.
Whom you love dearly and have their best interests at heart, always.
The Cultural Dance is Our Friend
Within the culture, it is understood that the guests have a stake in the success of the evening’s entertainment. They call out and exclaim over particularly juicy bits—Allah! (Allah simply means god in arabic. My fam is christian, and we also say Allah. In English we might say, Oh my god!).
So it is for a dancer. As guests, we are responsible for extending warm and encouraging energy for the dancer, to make a good experience all around. (This is also what we do as the guests in D4C–we cheer and encourage our classmates.)
How does this relate to VideoPal?
When you watch VideoPal’s video, you want to be an Arabic audience, loving and encouraging her. This is not about how she looks—it’s about enjoying–and contributing to–the feeling in the moment.
Look for the Good
This is the very first thing. What is VideoPal doing right? What do you like? What works? Is there a cute little twinkle? A smooth transition? Great! Well done, VideoPal! Keep track and find all the good, the cute, the fun. Blandly ignore everything else. As with Rhythmic Breath we attend only to the exhale, in video review we attend only to the good.
This is vital.
We constantly look for the bad and then feel bad about it. This is literally poison to the system. The antidote is to put our focus on the good.
Applaud VideoPal and give them lots of love and support. You are their personal cheerleader. They got up there and danced! That is worth celebrating. Be happy with and for VideoPal!
This is the main element for Survive. Later on, we will look at Thrive!
How to Dance (or Speak) for the Camera focuses upon all these things.
In D4C, we are each other’s Video Pal. That’s a nice feeling. And we practice, hands on. How to connect through the lens. How to be a good audience member. How to survive seeing your own work and find the good. Our bi-weekly sessions bring participants through a carefully-curated series of steps designed to bring ease and friendliness to camera work and video viewing. We do this in small groups to create camaraderie and ease. In addition to our group sessions, you get two private sessions built in to the course.
You might be wondering about those private sessions…
Private lessons, coaching, etc. are incredibly helpful, as they address your specific goals, not the other dozen or fifty people in a dance class, all trying to learn some choreography. These are your sessions, to use for whatever you want. Tech, troubleshooting, skills development; resolving fear, freeze, or anger; all and sundry are options. Making eye contact, being present and engaged without making eye contact, whatever your personal goals in online engagement, we address them in the personal sessions. Working together, we find your best way to reach your goals.
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is one of the tools we can bring to your sessions–and it is probably is the most mysterious. What does it do? How does it work? Do I have to tell my story?
SE helps “stuck” nervous systems come back into regulation. This seems small, but it’s pretty big. Bad things happen, sometimes just once, sometimes for years. When we are unable to defend ourselves for whatever reason, our self-defensive impulses remain unexpressed–they get stuck in the body. Then we get into these recurring loops of emotion and activation because these hair-trigger alarm bells go off at the slightest provocation–even thinking about something can be activating. SE turns their switch back to As Needed, so the nervous system can go back to its normal operation–on for threat, off when the threat is resolved. If fear, anger, or freeze have been issues for you, SE can help.
SE is NOT talk therapy. It is body awareness and understanding. A brief overview of whatever you want to address is enough.
SE sessions include discovering and celebrating whatever is working in your life, what is going well. We humans tend to gloss over the good and focus on the problems; in SE we like to give the body time to to acknowledge and enjoy the good. When we address problems, we stay on the edge of them–just the tiniest mini-drop of energy is plenty. Together, client and practitioner track the physical sensations, images, and thoughts that arise in connection to the challenging situations. We allow them to complete, and allow time for that completion to integrate. If the camera, being seen (aka judged), performing, or whatever fills you with you with rage or dread, Somatic Experiencing® (SE) can help resolve that (gently). It’s just one option out of many.
What you’ll learn with D4C!
Connect through the lens
Bring your joy to your guests
Be a supportive audience member
Survive seeing your own work
Find and celebrate the good
Practice your live delivery with trusted friends
Create a promo video you can use right away!
Our groups are fun, with good people, and a good vibe. We focus on positive feedback for joy, connection, and the fastest results.
One of the best things I got from this class was how to love the camera. Prior to this class, I was so afraid of the camera, the video, the equipment, etc… I found it all so totally intimidating, however, with Alia’s guidance, I was able to see through the “equipment” and find my loving fans/audience was just beyond that lens.
The class was extremely supportive and we helped each other navigate being in front of the camera in role-playing situations. By the end of the course, I was able to dance for my adoring fans (the camera…lol) with much more ease, eye contact, and confidence. This class is really for anyone who wants to dance or even talk in front of a camera. Alia shares all kinds of secrets in this class that I truly benefited from. You will be amazed at what you will learn!
This may seem pretty obvious, but somehow it isn’t.
I’m sitting on my couch with my bare feet up on the coffee table, laptop balanced on my lap, lol. I do a LOT of writing like this. My hair is awry. The eyeliner I put on this morning for a meeting is now largely under my eyes instead of around them. I’m in my own personal space where no one has to look at me. While it is true that I sometimes leave the house like this, I do avoid it—because, yes, the messier we are when we leave the house, the more likely we will run into someone we wish hadn’t seen us quite so unkempt ; ).
Inside is private (relatively, anyway). Outside is public.
Inside my own home, I can lounge around déshabillé. Outside, I don’t.
So it is with dance. If I am to dance in public—from socially at a party to professionally for a show—I like to be presentable at the very least. The higher profile the event, the better I dress, the more careful I am with my makeup. And I dance very differently.
Dancing with friends at a bar is casual. At a wedding is more upscale. A performance at a wedding is way more upscale. Each of these has a certain level of care invested.
At home, pffft! I can dance in my underwear—or naked, by candlelight. I can roll around on the floor, make weird noises, and drool if I want to (I don’t think I have ever drooled, but I could).
Just think of how horrid life would be if we were always on display—always had to be well-dressed and well-behaved, even in our sleep. Yuck, amirite? We’d go mad in short order. We need to have down time, slop time, relaxed anything-goes time.
(me typing)
Well, the same thing holds true for dance.
The body needs to unload all its accumulated stress and strain.
It needs to be able to move in potentially un-pretty, ungraceful, possibly even raw, ugly ways.
Dirt is dirt. If we don’t wash it off every so often, it builds up—which makes it a lot harder to remove, plus it feels icky, even squalid. Sustained stress is like dirt on the soul. Free dance can help scrub it off.
The problem is that we often expect ourselves to dance all perfect all the time, which is super stressful and unrewarding.
Instead, let’s bring a sense of curiosity and experimentation into our dance. Let’s bring our weird faces and awkward movement. Undancerly prancing and over the top drama queen, little-kid pretending, broken crawling, and sensual writhing. In short, let it all hang out.
Wahoo, right? Um….
Wait, what if we actually do this in public<gasp!>
The reality is that it depends upon the situation. In the same way that we have a decent idea about how to behave in an assortment of public settings. we have a pretty good idea of how to dance in them, too.
And while becoming an expert free-dance improviser will probably loosen up our public persona, give us a little more personality, playfulness, and vibrancy, we probably won’t roll on the floor and drool in front of the wedding party (unless it is that kind of wedding, lol).
I have been dancing this way for a very long time. I did once kinda go off script, but I had given myself permission. So that doesn’t count ; ).
But what about the dance police?!
Those folks who live to hand out tickets for dance faux pas, who are not happy with anything we do?
Leila Farid told me the more Egyptians liked her dance, the happier they became with her, the more mean, hurtful comments American dancers posted on her youtube videos. Isn’t that interesting? Lots of native dancers tell me they have also been shunned because their dance doesn’t match what some Western perfectionist thinks our dance should be.
Sure, we need to have technique if we are going to be professional dancers. But! We also need to understand, value, and embody the cultural aesthetics of the dance we are doing.
In Oriental dance, improvisation, relaxation, agency, playfulness, and verve are vital.
We get a lot of technique, but we don’t get a lot of improvisation, relaxation, agency, playfulness, and verve.
So here we are.
Let it out.
In the studio, in a safe class, find somewhere you can let down your hair and not worry or care.
Your public dance will thank you for it.
Belly Dance BEDROCK is one place you can let go and move as your body wishes. We start with centering, dissect and re-pattern some bedrock movement vocabulary, and then we PLAY. Here’s what folks said in the first class:
This way feels so much better. The whole “use the obliques to lift the top of the hip” method never felt great for me.
I get less tired lifting the hip from under
This makes it so much richer
It feels so effortless
It’s amazing how you feel the psoas by thinking of the movement
I love your approach, Alia!
We’ve completed the first live class, but you can still catch the replay, and join us for the next 4 classes.
It’s a good thing I’ve been celebrating tiny wins recently! A lot of other things have kind of fallen off the table, like this newsletter (Happy Thanksgiving ; ). But here we are! I’ve missed you, and I’m glad to be back.
It’s a pretty special time, and not just for the holidays. The Age of Aquarius is finally here–when “peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars.” And not a moment too soon! Well, it will be on Dec 21, when Jupiter and Saturn kiss each other as they pass by in the sky. They are visible now, if you look near the horizon in the SouthWest, about an hour after sunset. They will be getting closer together every night until their Grand Conjunction on the 21st–an event which has not happened for 400 years.
I know, people laugh at astrology, but if the moon can turn the tides here on earth, who am I to judge? The Aquarian Age will last 2000 years, so let’s hope it is a good time for us and our planet ; )
And yes, we have all the seasonal holidays too! One of my favorite things at this time of year is deciding what I will give you as a gift. And I know now what it will be. Of course, it is a secret! BUT!
IF you are available on Sunday Dec 20 from 4-5 PM EST (see this in your time zone (add to calendar button in link), AND you can meet via Zoom, AND you’d like to help me create this gift (and discover the secret of Ramus sooner rather than later–YES this is all about our dance!), then click this link: Ramusize me. You’ll get an email to confirm.
Otherwise, you’ll just have to be patient until the gift arrives (Dec 25, so it’s not a long wait ; ).
THANK YOU for being part of my life this crazy year! Here’s to 2021–with harmony and understanding.
