The Awesome Retreat Last Call is Thursday Feb 8. After that, we’re heading out to Dowd’s Country Inn in Lyme, NH to kick back and have a wonderful time. Thanks to everyone who has chosen to join us! aliathabit.com/awesome-winter-retreat
I’m so excited about the classes I’ll be teaching at the retreat. One of them is *Timing–the Improv Secret Skill.* Here’s the description: “Improv is scary because how do you think of what to do? What if it’s boring? Focusing on moves moves keeps us thinking, unable to fully enjoy our dance. Focusing on the music instead changes the game, opening up the dance like a flower.”
Before this one is a class on the Eastern soul of the dance–what that means and how to develop your own. A class on improv strategies follows, pulling it all together.
I constantly analyze what I do so I can teach others to do it. One of the things I do is to tap into the musical structures when I dance. I don’t worry about moves at all. Moves are fairly arbitrary–anything that fits the music is usually fine. I just focus on the music and let it tell me when to change. And I trust my body to move. Trust is the key.
The Retreat is coming right up and we still have some space. It’s going to be a wonderful escape–great food, great classes, a lovely location, and a fun group. You can stay an extra night before or after–even both. We even have day rates for local folks.
It’s Thanksgiving Day in the USA (a politically fraught holiday, considering the USA’s lousy treatment of its indigenous peoples). Despite this, the practice of gratitude has a lot of merit.
Giving thanks reminds of what is good in life. Most of us spend more time noticing what is wrong. Looking for, and actively focusing on, what is right is a complete game changer.
Today’s most right thing is uploading the book files to the printers.
In early November, I realized that it was time to simply move forward. I formatted the print book with a highly-regarded software called Vellum. My son Ben, a professional graphic designer, helped me format the cover.
It’s done.
Insha’allah, we will have print books for the holidays.
At long last this is coming to fruition.
I’m grateful for the help, to have it done, and for the amazing backers who kept the faith over this long, long process. And I’m grateful to YOU, for reading, believing, and hanging in there all this time.
I love finger cymbals. They make a dancer REAL. Somehow you go from sort of invisible to flesh-and-blood, from ignorable to exciting. And they are a real boon when improvising with live music, as you can accent your own dance in case the musicians don’t quite follow all your accents. Zils take practice, but once you get it, you’ve got it. One of the toughest parts of practicing is the NOISE!
Here’s a little video that shows you how to muffle your zils so you can live long enough to get good at them (and yes, I do have this great finger cymbal improv course, ziltastic.com, which will be back soon, but that’s not the purpose of this post…
Today’s post is to give you the skinny on a spiffy contest from the Bellydance Bundle folks: Zils and Lace!
The winner gets 8 sets of all-brass, scrollwork-engraved zills of various tones and sizes from Turquoise International, valued at over $300.00 USD! Dance away with THE best zills available today. Keep them all for yourself, or share with your friends!
PLUS, the winner receives a copy of Bellydance Geek, Nadira Jamal’s newly revamped “Lace” zil course which teaches you to make your zils more musical by introducing more space.
Whether you win or not, you get a free copy of the Bundle guide, Figuring Out What to Practice–a 15-page guide to help you pinpoint your dance strengths and challenges so that you can focus your practice time on what really matters (many of you have already received this, but if you haven’t yet, it has been getting great reviews).
“We’ve all been there. It doesn’t matter your experience level. Figuring out what to practice can be mind-numbingly difficult, and practicing the things you’re not as good at is HARD.
It’s extra hard when you’re struggling to make the time to practice in the first place, let alone working on the stuff
that makes your brain hurt. Haven’t you already expended enough willpower to be there in the first place?
And so we end up in the cycle. We practice at the studio, and we practice choreographies for the recital, but the
other stuff? It tends to fall by the wayside. We get better over time, because we keep going to class and our teachers are awesome, but we know we’re capable of SO much more.
So the question becomes, “How do I figure out what to practice?”
Announcing! a free guide from The Bellydance Bundle.
Figuring out what to practice: a guide for the modern dancer
Worksheets lead you through finding your dance strengths & challenges and help point the way to a much more effective practice session. It’s time to focus your practice time on what really matters!”
It’s been a long year already with some serious challenges–and marvels. Visiting Australia with lovely Rachel Bond in Feb and the Blossom Festival in Toronto in May were huge inspirations. Life feels poised on the brink of change. My fingers are crossed for the future.
I had a wonderful experience with the RakSultana dancers of MI creating a collaborative choreography (I got to dance myself during the random improv drum solos). Here’s proof, lol (photos by Ken Dobb–click the pix for more from these albums and the rest of Ken’s gorgeous pictures).
I have SO MUCH to share–it’s all coming.
For now, I have a correction.
Last time I sent the wrong link to the BDBA Summit. I apologize for the error and give thanks to the folks who signed up. This one goes to the free offering. Each class was free for 48 hours.
Monday- Business Skills for Teachers
Tuesday- Getting the Word Out
Wednesday- Hard to Teach Topics
Thursday- Building and Maintaining Community
Friday- Ethics and Activism
These courses are designed for teachers, but they are useful to students as well. The topics concern us all.
I am delighted to present you with the first chapter of Midnight at the Crossroads! This will be a .pdf file, suitable for printing or reading on your device.
It is nearly in its final form, but may may have some typos or formatting artifacts, will not have its illustrations, and may differ slightly from the final version.
We will have beautiful professionally-formatted print and e books available by the end of January, insha’allah. But I wanted you to have this now. It’s been a long, long road, and I appreciate your patience and enthusiasm along the way.
Wow, it’s been a crazy few weeks! Tamalyn just put the icing on my sleep-deprived cake…
A standard water heater heats up a big tank of water. Once hot, the heater cycles off and on, keeping all that water piping hot—until you use some. Cold water then refills the tank and the heater kicks into high gear. It once again brings all the water up to temp. It does this all day.
An on-demand water heater, by contrast, does not have a tank. It only heats the water you use, at the moment that you use it. No cycling off and on, no ready reservoir of hot water. There is still as much hot water as you want (ideally), just no wasted energy keeping a reserve tank heated.
I have always thought of myself as an on-demand water heater. I might lie around all day long, but when there is action to be had, I am ready to roll. This has always worked for me. Until now.
New Orleans kicked my ass. Tamalyn’s technique, her discoveries about the global tapestry of Middle Eastern Dance, our group’s warmth and camaraderie (limited to 10 dancers in Tamalyn’s adorable home studio), all set amid the chaotic glory of New Orleans’ frenetic energy, rich food, and late nights did me in. Yes, I’m still tired a week later. No, I wouldn’t change a moment. Here’s how it all went down.
Tamalyn’s technique is different.
She began her belly dance journey from a Western mindset of external focus, precision, and stylization, but she didn’t stay there. Tamalyn’s approach evolved and deepened as she delved ever more deeply into an Eastern mindset and movement quality. Her movement now integrates air and earth.
This is exciting to me. I have been retraining myself over the last couple of years to initiate movement from the earth with gravity and weight shifts. I learned this approach from Yasmina Ramzy. It has changed my dance for the better, and it’s a real thrill to see someone with Tamalyn’s experience and high visibility build this into her technique.
The basic idea is that movement comes from the connection between the feet and the earth. Most of us were taught to use internal muscles to do everything and the feet were only along for the ride. With gravity-based technique, however, you push into the earth to lift the hip. Weight changes drive shimmies. Hip circles come from weight shifts along the foot, from the heel, to the ball, across to the ball of the other foot, back to its heel, and so on.
The foot action drives the movement of the hips. It’s a richer, gooier way to dance, far more physically pleasurable. And while it feels more relaxed, it actually uses more muscles in a more holistic way. Each morning became a deep exploration of technique, a welcome journey through realigning movement patterns and reawakening our relationship to gravity and earth.
Tamalyn’s next revelation was the global tapestry of Middle Eastern Dance. As a world traveler and belly dance pioneer, Tamalyn visits many far-off places and teaches belly dance everywhere she goes. She has also researched the global connections our dance has—in the unlikeliest places.
Tamalyn has a glitter globe liberally sprinkled with colored jewels tracing the myriad trade and migratory patterns that have passed through or centered in the various countries of the Middle East, from spice routes and Silk Road to the Ottoman Empire. She has now been to many of these places, including Central Asia, Western China, and Eastern Europe.
Everywhere Tamalyn goes, she asks questions and gets answers about dance traditions and connections. She has found innumerable movement and musical connections in her travels. Each day after lunch, we watched dance films, traced yet another route on our maps, and discussed these global connections. Then we danced away the afternoons, prepared for a small group show, and danced by the river to the saxophone of a local musician.
On top of this (and it was plenty), we were enmeshed in the gaudy glory of New Orleans’ French Quarter. I can’t even describe the energy. Or the ever-present music. Or the amazing food. Or the weird mix of tourist theme park, classy residential area, and rich historic detail. The French Quarter is beautiful and seductive. The museum, with its history of Mardi Gras and deeply moving Katrina exhibits, is wonderful. Even the tourist traps are kind of heartwarming.
Tamalyn took us on an exciting tour with local Cajun guide Carla Bouillon and brought in some local dance artists to help us get the feel of the energy—the standout was Marissa Joseph TheMoeJoe, who teaches Bounce as well as Creole dance (major similarities with belly dance), and several other styles. It was a helluva week.
A few cautions:
Drink lots of water. I could not stay hydrated. The temperature in Tamalyn’s studio is quite pleasant, but outside it is HOT.
Choose a place to stay within a a few blocks of the studio. There are lots of hotels and airbnbs around. You don’t want to take cabs back and forth to your place every day. It adds up, and it cuts you off from the local energy.
Bring your wallet. NOLA ate more money faster than almost any place I have ever been. On the other hand, I minded spending the money less here than most other places. I resented every dime Las Vegas sucked out of my pockets, yet I happily paid my tabs in NOLA, even when it was $50 for an appetizer, mixed drink, and dessert (with tax+tip) at Tableau—the place and people were that marvelous. But oh my, was I exhausted!
Where was my hot water when I needed it? I was demanding, but nothing came out of the spout. Well, I now realize it wasn’t my heater–it was my fuel. What was supposed to be a blessed interlude of RnR before I got to Tamalyn’s turned into a crazy rollercoaster of running around and no sleep. Sleep, my friends, is the key. It is the fuel that heats the water, and I was running on fumes long before I got to NOLA.
Stockpile sleep, people! We went out almost every evening; then we stayed up talking until 3 or 4am. I barely rolled out of bed in time to get coffee before class.
I’m still tired, but it was worth it. I lived on some of the best coffee I have ever drunk, sugared with wonderful people, great places, and amazing food. It was a blast.
Tamalyn is not to be missed. She has done so much for our dance so long, and her understanding is so nuanced and rich. It is worth it to travel for her, even all the way to New Orleans.
She’s doing this workshop again in 2017. She will also be in Vermont for a week with Leila Farid and Sahra Saeeda (raq-on.net), and teaches online through DaturaOnline.
Spring makes everything better. The soft breeze, the gathering sunshine, and most especially, the spring flowers peeking out. We cherish the tiny crocus, snowdrops, violets, and so many other delicate little beauties who appear ever so briefly to lift the heart. Braving cold rain, late snow, even mud, they bridge the gap between stark winter and the sweet riot of summer. Every sighting feels special, a secret pleasure we tuck carefully in the pocket of our heart, grateful for the blessing.
Some days life feels pretty dark. It’s cold, rainy, raw. It’s easy to feel displaced, like everything is wrong. At those times, we remember to look for the spring flowers. Sometimes all we can find is a little green sprig, just the tip, poking through the mud. We can still take a moment to treasure it.
Sometimes we can’t see anything. Some days are all winter; there is no green to be seen, no matter how hard we look. The world will not always pony up the good stuff. We have to look into the pocket of our hearts, to what we have tucked away.
Our dance time is a Spring Flower. Rhythmic Breath is a Spring Flower. Music. Art. Love. There are so many more. Tuck them away.
Keep looking. Seek out the wonders, great and small. These things are always there, peeking through the crust of dirty snow. Put them in your pocket. Treasure them. Remember them. Share them.
Love,
Alia
Frederick is a lovely children’s book by Leo Lionni. It’s about the task of the artist, to experience the beauty of the world. To remember it, to recreate it and to share this beauty in lean times. Here’s a reading of Frederick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kbOngCTFRU
Imagine there is a tiny pipe in your head out of which all ideas flow. When it is running well, you are on top of your game, in the Zone, enmeshed in the moment. Then comes that niggling doubt, that whisper of “I can’t do that!” Crash! You are thrown out of the moment. Suddenly, there you are, all alone, and feeling all eyes upon you. Sounds like dance, doesn’t it?
Surprise—it’s freewriting. Freewriting has only a few rules—and they are so much like dance improv.
1- write fast without stopping
2- don’t erase
3- write whatever comes into your head
Write fast without stopping
Pick a time period—10 minutes works well. Start writing. Keep going as fast as you can until the timer sounds. Simple, right? You’ll find it is a magic path to clarity, understanding, and—better dance.
Don’t erase
Erasing is judgement, and judging is death to improvisation. It’s saying, I made a mistake. There are no possible mistakes in freewriting. It is an ongoing experiment. The purpose of an experiment is to see what happens. The purpose of freewriting is to discover what you think—deep down. If we stop and judge this flow, it will be lost. If your train of thought changes tracks, just skip to the next line and keep right on going.
Write whatever comes into your head
Some weird things may show up—things that don’t make sense, or feel uncomfortable. Dive right in! Let them out on the page. Take the risk. You can always burn it later. That pipe is narrow, and it is way too easy for it to get clogged up. Any holding back will clog that pipe right up—and it may take hours to get unstuck.
Writing is going to help us dance better!? Yes! Not that your hip circles will suddenly get circlier (though I wouldn’t rule that out). But practice being in the moment and allowing ideas to rise and responding without judging or interfering is a skill of which we need more in belly dance.
It seems crazy that writing can help us dance better, but think about this.In the same way that we improv by following impulses with conviction in the moment, freewriting does the same thing with words. We have to have the courage and flair to throw down a page of words, not caring how they come out. It is just the same with our practice, as we show up each day and dance our allotted time. When we let ourselves sink into the moment, amazing things come out.
Try it! Open up that pipe by freewriting for 10 minutes sometime. Write whatever comes into your head for a 10 minute span. Thenyou can read it and see what you said. It probably won’t be brilliant, but it will be yours. And it will help your next improv session, too.
Say, “Thank you.”
This is the proper response to any critique, positive or negative, offered by anyone for any reason.Even if the person is an ass. Even if they are trying to hurt you. Even if they are totally wrong. Even if there’s a reason you did whatever.
Don’t explain. Your teacher does not need to know why this critique does not apply to you, or how you thought you were doing that, or that you already did that.
Just say “Thank you.” And mean it.
What this achieves It requires you to receive the comment thoughtfully. Even trolls can have something useful to say, mean-spirited as it might be.
It confuses the trolls. If anyone is trying to unhorse you, this will break their pattern of attack.
It shows respect to anyone who is truly on your side. Nothing is more annoying to a teacher than to deflect their thoughtful comment. Remember, Correction = Compliment. If you weren’t worth correcting, they wouldn’t bother.
Then what? Check in with your feelings
We often feel hurt or even angry when criticized. Most people have no clue how to give constructive feedback, particularly corrections. Taking a moment to assess your feelings helps you to respond creatively and avoid reinforcing or escalating a hurtful response pattern. As you get in the habit of this, you will start to do it sooner and sooner–even before the Thank you. This will make your thanks even more genuine.
If you are in class Follow the correction. Even if you are already doing that. Do it more mindfully.
Assume that a general correction to the class also applies to you. In general, trust your teacher and just do whatever they say.
If needed, ask for confirmation/clarification. For example, as you follow the correction, you may ask, “Like this?” or, if you don’t see what they problem, “Would you please show me what I’m doing do I can see the difference?”
If you have an injury that makes following difficult, try to do the correction in a way that doesn’t hurt. If that’s not possible, ask how to modify it for your condition. “I hurt my foot–how can I adapt this?” Even better, let your teacher know at the beginning of class that you are injured.
If another student corrects you, say Thank you, then go back to your business. It is not the place of students to correct in class, unless they have been specifically delegated by the teacher. If they persist, talk to your teacher. If your teacher can’t or won’t manage the class, find a new one.
In a public space, such as a performance
Always accept praise with grace and humility. People who block praise appear rude and stuck up. Your audience has taken the time and risk to come up to you and talk to you. This is a very big deal. Take the time to be genuinely appreciative of every compliment, especially from strangers. They have no reason to prop you up. You have no idea what is going on with them, what your show may have meant to them, for what reason.
Don’t apologize. So many of us get a compliment and then explain (often at length) what we did wrong, why our show sucked, etc, etc. Just because you aren’t happy with your show is no reason to destroy it for others. Just say thank you. And mean it. It insults the taste and intelligence of the audience to tell them they are wrong.
Ask questions. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, it’s okay to ask specific questions and get clarification. Some examples:
What was your favorite part?
Where did you most notice that?
What element gave you that impression?
What feeling did you get from the end?
In any space, public or online (such as YouTube or Facebook) PLEASE DON’T FEED THE TROLLS. Feel free to ignore, delete, block, or unfriend angry, insulting spam. Trust your gut.
Buddhists say your worst enemy is your best teacher. Sure, some people just want to hate on you, for whatever reason. But they may also bring you a vital teaching. When you are able to step back from the hurt or outrage their comments may bring, you can more effectively find it.
Maybe there is something about your dance, costuming, or presentation that could be improved. Maybe it is all about learning to take negative comments in a professional manner, rather than as personal attacks. Maybe it is about cutting negative people out of your life.
Reflect and Revise
The more you step back and weigh people and interactions dispassionately, the more you make changes that bring you ever closer to your true self, the more you let go of self-serving excuses that keep you small, the easier it is to attain greatness.
Before this one is a class on the Eastern soul of the dance–what that means and how to develop your own. A class on improv strategies follows, pulling it all together.
“We’ve all been there. It doesn’t matter your experience level. Figuring out what to practice can be mind-numbingly difficult, and practicing the things you’re not as good at is HARD.
