Alexandra King Drum Solo

Alexandra King is just super fun to watch!

She just looks so relaxed and comfortable, and clearly she’s having a great time!

Shabnam does a tray dance.

I first saw Shabnam dance at Rakkasah West 2007, and though Egyptian Cabaret is not my personal favorite, I just loved the emotion she expressed. This is a short video of Shabnam doing a tray dance. Check it out! She’s fantastic!

Shabnam also has a blog!

Where I’m At ~ September 3rd 2009

I hope to do a post like this at the beginning of each month, to assess my progress and to look back later and see where I’ve improved.

This past week was really not a good one for bellydance practice. I got one practice in the day after my troupe meeting, and then the next day my throat started to get sore. I came down with a cold that seemed like a lightweight at first, but ended up knocking me down for most of the week. (It probably didn’t help that on day two of said cold, I had to go on an all-day shopping trip. I don’t regret it, because I got stuff to organize my studio with, but it sure made the cold come back full-force.) I didn’t get to practice again the entire week, and missed my troupe meeting last night.

I spent my practice today reviewing basic moves, to see what I needed to work on. So here’s a little list of what I noticed:

• I finally have snake arms down.
• I seem to have upper-body undulations down. It’s a move I took to naturally and so I’m suspicious that I’m doing it wrong, lol.
• I need to work on upward rib circles.
• I need to continue to work on lower body stability for upper-body isolations.
• I need to work on hip lifts and drops, especially on the left side.
• I need to continue building muscle strength. My left leg shook like crazy today supporting my hip drops on that side.

The truth is, I really only have a small handful of moves that I’ve “mastered”, so I need to keep working on everything. I’m considering how to best schedule my practices, and whether to stop learning new moves for the time being and just rotate the basics until I have them completely mastered.

I didn’t work on zills today but I’m finally able to walk around playing a Gallop rhythm, and if I hold still I can play a Beledi rhythm. For footwork, I think I figured out the cha-cha-cha movement the girls were trying to teach me at our meeting last week, and I have the traveling step I learned down (I can’t remember the name; we use it during zill drills) but I need to check the direction of the arm movements to make sure my hands are pointing the right way.

I have a long, long, long way to go, and I can definitely see how a week without practice set me back, but I’m having fun!

Capsule review of Autumn Ward’s DVD.

Bellydance: Beautiful Technique From Step One

I just got Autumn Ward’s Bellydance: Beautiful Technique From Step One DVD in the mail a couple of days ago. I’ll write up a more thorough review after I’ve tried it out, but for now I’ll just give my initial impressions.

This is the most unusual bellydance DVD I’ve seen so far. Autumn has a different approach to every other DVD instructor I’ve watched. This DVD is for beginners, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it for a total novice (which I still am, technically *ahem*); she teaches basic moves, but breaks each one down into minute detail, so this would mostly be useful to someone trying to improve their technique for moves already learned.

Autumn starts out with a brief introductory message about the philosophy behind the video, then there is a long section teaching technique, spending a lot of time on foundation, like posture, how to hold your hands and move your feet, how to stay balanced and so on. Most of the moves taught are lower-body isolations, and her instruction on arms is more general—in otherwords, no “these are snake arms, these are L arms,” but rather a basic theory for moving and positioning your arms while you dance. The whole technique section seems to focus on theory rather than individual movements, though individual movements are taught, and build upon each other as you go. Autumn tends to describe movements kinesthetically, which is fantastic for this right-brained, kinesthetic learner; she tells you how your body should feel as you execute the movement, rather than sticking to mere verbal cues. Such precision and artistry feels more like classical dance instruction, as opposed to the more casual mood of most bellydance videos. Whether this is a good or bad thing I leave up to the reader to decide.

There are some practice flows for committing the movements to muscle memory in an intuitive way, and Autumn dances in front of a green screen so that a different lovely, artistic background floats behind her in each one. This is followed by a practice choreography, and two beautiful stage performances to watch, showcasing Autumn’s unique performance style.

I’m looking forward to working with this video when I’m done with Amira 101, and even though it’s slightly intimidating, I have high hopes that the more kinesthetic and intuitive aspects of the video will be a great help to me in learning on my own.

Why Do I Bellydance?

Yesterday, in her post Why do you bellydance? . . . Really?, Naima posted three questions she’d asked in her stage presence class, and posted her students’ answers. She pointed out how interesting and surprising it was that most of the responses were variations of the same answers.

The three questions were:

1. Why do you Bellydance?
2. What is your Bellydance goal(s)?
3. What is your biggest stage fear?

I don’t know how different my answers will be from the others, but they will be a bit wordier.

1. Why do you Bellydance?
For me it’s about connecting emotionally with the music in a skilled way. Music just makes me want to dance, and I love the passion and femininity that can be expressed in bellydance. I get carried away by the music, but I’m tired of resorting to air guitar. ;) When I watch other bellydancers, I want to get up and dance, and I want to dance as beautifully as they do. So I guess it’s about expressing myself musically, in a way, but becoming part of the music instead of playing an instrument.

2. What is your Bellydance goal(s)?
To learn the moves and make them natural, to put them correctly into my muscle memory so that I can perform with feeling and focus on expression instead of just not messing up.

3. What is your biggest stage fear?
Right now, I don’t think I have any stage fears because I don’t expect to see a stage for awhile. But my biggest dance-related fear is that I don’t have the necessary coordination to turn the moves into dancing, that I’ve got some faulty programming or something that makes me rhythmless and unable to do footwork. That sort of thing.

It’s hard being a beginner. On Wednesday at my troupe meeting, I needed special attention to get a certain step right that involved simple hip slides and moving of the feet. I can do one or the other, but both is really tough for me. The girls were patient with me, but I know I never really got it. I’ve been practicing at home since then, and I think I’ve figured it out and can practice it correctly now, but it’s embarassing being the least skilled in your troupe. Of course, I’ve only met with them twice so I suppose I shouldn’t be so hard on myself.

I asked my friend (and sort-of teacher) “I will get more coordinated, right?”

She said, “Oh, definitely, yes!” We talked about how many years she and the other girls had been dancing, and I felt reassured.

I dunno. I’m one of those people who likes getting things right from the start. I realize that’s unrealistic, though.

Left-Brained Steps, Right-Brained Movement.

One of the difficult things for me when attending dance classes is the fact that I’m right-brained. Extremely right-brained. I can barely do enough math to get by, and please don’t expect me to do anything in a logical, linear fashion.

Now, I’ve heard many times that dancing is a right-brained activity, so presumably it should be easy for me to learn. The problem is that most class instruction, at least in my experience, is based on left-brained teaching techniques. The teacher explains what she is doing verbally, and then students copy the movement. Processing verbal explanation is a left-brained function. What happens to me when I listen to the teacher’s verbal instruction is that the left side of my brain shuts down the right, and a sort of mental paralysis overcomes me. When I read about this phenomenon at the Zills on Fire page about left brained vs right brained learning, my experiences in class made so much sense.

If I listen to the teacher counting, or using “code words” to describe a movement (“step-ball-pivot” type description), or even if I get distracted by wondering if she’s doing something specific with her feet (as opposed to just moving them in an intuitive way) I freeze up. I noticed when using one of my DVDs that if there’s too much talking when I’m trying to drill a movement, I get confused or start over-thinking.

Also, I noticed when some of my videos didn’t show the instructor from head-to-toe, the verbal description never made up for the lack of visual. In otherwords, whatever words the instructor used to describe the movement never accurately described what she was doing. She might say to step a certain way, but inevitably, even with isolations, other things happen along with the step. Steve Rose describes it this way in his article Teaching Dance on the Right Side of the Brain:

As a real world example of this, think about teaching the basic Swing step. A teacher may begin by describing the man’s step as a step to the left, one to the right, and two quick steps going backward and forward. As a graphic example, and to add clarity, the teacher may demonstrate steps that actually move the whole body left, right, backward and forward, and the steps may be large in distance traveled. I’ve done this myself, then tried to get the student to quit doing my description. (This is a perfect example of saying the wrong thing, Teaching guideline #2 from my list.)

The “reality” of the dance is probably that, although the body appears to move left and right, the feet are most likely shoulder width apart, and stepping more or less in place. The backward and forward steps might be only three or fours inches, not even the length of the foot, and the body movement might be only big enough to create a slight tug with the partner. A classic sign of a beginner Swing dancer is that their movements are too big.

My current strategy is to watch a video through at least once without dancing or really worrying about “getting it”. I relax with a cup of hot chocolate or tea and just watch the DVD through once. Then when it’s time to learn a movement I’ve never tried before, I watch the video and listen carefully, trying to see what the teacher is doing as well as listening to what she says, especially any warnings and any tips she offers. Then I run the DVD back and focus on learning the move by watching, mostly tuning the teacher’s voice out, and learning the feel of the move or step. I might back it up to watch and listen again, try the move again, as many times as necessary to learn it correctly. This keeps the left and right hemispheres of my brain from screwing each other up.

Where I’m At ~ August 25th

Every so often I plan to post my progress. Ideally, I’d like to check in about once a month, but for now I’m just going to do a progress post whenever I feel like it’s time, and see if I can find a rhythm.

First, a little background:

I’ve been toying with the idea of bellydancing for at least five years now, but it was one of those things I kept putting off. One of the girls at my troupe meeting last week asked me what made me decide to start taking bellydance seriously, and I didn’t know how to answer. I said that I finally had the space in my apartment, now that I had a wallbed, and so I could practice regularly. But I don’t think that’s precisely the reason why.

I think bellydance has always been something I’ve taken seriously; I knew that if I was going to bellydance, I was going to be serious, become really excellent at it, or I wasn’t going to do it at all. In otherwords, it’s never been enough for me to just learn to shake it in the bedroom. I want to be good at it. Up to now, I’ve never had the space, never had the privacy, and I never had the freedom to really work at something every single day. I didn’t want to start until I had those things in place. Also, I think that now, I am finally able to commit. Since I learned to commit to other important projects in my life, as Yoda says, to do instead of try, I’ve developed something of a “work ethic” for learning new things. I give it my all, completely, until I just can’t get any farther. Then I take stock, try to figure out where I went wrong, where I could pick back up and start again, and whether it’s worth the cost to keep going. I’m finally in a place where I’m ready to do that with bellydance, to give it my all until I can’t get any farther, and then find a way to keep going.

I’m discovering that bellydance is worth the cost of practicing every day (or every other day, sometimes, depending on how much my muscles are aching). It will give me daily exercise, stronger back muscles and arm muscles (my lower back and arms are pathetically weak), more graceful posture, a fun skill that I can show off, the ability to move to music the way I’ve always wanted to, and hopefully, an easier childbirth experience, when it’s time for that. Plus, I’ll be able to shake it in the bedroom.

Okay, so where I’m at. I started out with Neena & Veena (the Belly Twins!) I got their Discover Bellydance boxed set which includes their Basic Dance, Beyond Basic Dance and Mystic Dance DVDs. It’s all pretty basic. I’m glad I started with this DVD because I am extremely uncoordinated, and the moves in the Basic Dance DVD are simple and great confidence-boosters. It still look me a long time to get the few travelling steps down (and I still feel silly doing them) but that’s to be expected (uncoordinated, remember?) However, when I pulled out this DVD again after a few dance classes, they felt a bit too simple, and I felt the moves weren’t really explained in enough detail. I decided to find something a little more ambitious and explanatory.

I looked around online and found Amira’s Bellydance 101. Everywhere I looked this DVD was highly recommended, and I liked the trailer. The moves are still basic, but Amira goes more in depth with technique, teaches proper posture, and shows what not to do as well as how to do the moves correctly.

I think I’ll be working through this DVD for a few months at least. The tough thing about being a beginner bellydancer is that without the proper muscle tone, the moves look sloppy no matter how carefully you execute them. For now, I’m focusing on drilling rather than dancing—getting the moves down as correctly as I can on my own and just building muscle so the movements look defined. I’m paying special attention to isolation, making sure I don’t wiggle when I’m doing upper-body isolations, or bounce or sway when I’m doing upper-body isolations. I’d like to get a sword for balance to help with the latter, but for right now I’m just watching myself in the mirror on the back of my wallbed. I’m hoping to get feedback at my troupe meetings each week as well to prevent incorrect muscle memory.

The Indigo perform at Le Serpent Rouge show.

This is kinda fun. :)

Who I am, what this blog is about.

I’m Kalaneet, and I’m learning bellydance in the mountains of rural Northern California. Because there are few teachers here, I’m learning to dance mostly using videos, with the help and encouragement of a small local bellydance troupe. This isn’t easy, but I love to dance and I don’t plan to ever leave the region (if I can help it), so I’m going for it anyway.

Learning to dance from videos only is not recommended. It’s true; learning this way is far from ideal. If you have access to a teacher, definitely take the opportunity to attend classes. That will keep you from hurting yourself and learning the moves incorrectly. I may have an opportunity to take a six-week course in a town 90 miles away soon, and if I can swing it, I’ll definitely sign up. When I get up to the level where it will be helpful, I’ll attend workshops at Rakkasah West next year. Meantime, I’m just doing the best I can with the videos and my troupe.

I have been to a handful of classes, but left for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here, all related to the quality of the teaching—in otherwords, not interpersonal drama (at least none involving me). I have no desire to criticize, so I’m just moving on.

Kalaneet is my “stage name” (even though it’ll be a long while before I’m on the stage). “Kalanit” or “kalaneet” is the Hebrew name for a flower called Anemone coronaria or Poppy Anemone.

Anemone Coronaria (Kalanit)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markop/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I don’t have a preferred style yet, but I’m leaning toward Classic Tribal Style (Bal Anat, Hahbi Ru) or Turkish cabaret. My favorite dancers/troupes are Ansuya, Autumn Ward, Suhaila Salimpour, and Hahbi-Ru, but I’m still discovering new dancers all the time.

Whether you’re a fellow bellydancer, or you just like watching people fall on their faces, you’re welcome to follow my adventures in learning bellydance the slow and frustrating way!