Beginners - Week 6

 Don't forget, it's half term next week (27th October). I'll be away on holiday, the centre will be shut, so there's no point turning up!

This week was for Learner Requests. This meant going over the Hip Drop.

The new technique (in the absence of further requests) was the Weighted Shimmy, where we allow the basic hip shimmy to move from one side to another. We also practised using the Arms drill from last week with the warm up dance.

We also consolidated the first half of the Choreography, introducing the short Bridge bit, that ends the first half of the routine, and the transition into the next section of the music.

Home practice suggestion: Shimmies!
Here's a shimmies video, that you can follow along with.

Or of course you can practise the Choreography.

Have an excellent break, and see you on 3rd November.

Beginners - Week 5

This week we continued to expand our technique, with new Forward Back step changeover variations, using the Take a Step Out option, and also the Add an Extra Step option.

We also worked on Arms. It's important to practise armwork with some hip or stepping action, so you get used to arms being part of your wider dance. Also remember to keep your back engaged and your shoulders down, so that your arms don't get tired.

Home practice suggestions. Either keep working on the choreography, or try some Arms practice.

Choreo: use this practice video (I've included it on the YouTube playlist). Watch it, so you can see how the music and the moves connect. Use the video to dance along with it. If you're feeling super-confident, try dancing it without looking!

Arms: use this practice video (I'll include it on the YouTube playlist). You can just watch it, to get a feel for arm shapes you can use, or better still practise along, copying what I'm doing. Even better, try finding your own arm shapes and patterns.

There's a talky bit at the start, for those that want a recap, or those that missed this session. If you want to go straight to the drill, it starts around 3m45s.

The music is "Adaptation" by House of Tarab.

Beginners - Week 4

 This week we used our existing technique:

• Circles, Figure 8s, side hits, hip drops, shimmy

And we covered new technique:

• Forward Back Step changeovers
• Grapevines, long with 7 steps, short with 3 steps

We used our basic techniques from the previous weeks to do a warm up dance, and we have started the Choreography to Hayatak Fi Soura

The music video is in the YouTube playlist.

If you're more into Spotify, the music is here.

I've updated the Youtube playlist with the Forward Back and Grapevine videos.

I'm leaving the choreography video for next week, but if you want to practice it before then, here are some notes:

Intro - start by standing with R foot posed, hands crossed at heart level

Cross step (R foot in front of L), hip drop L x 2, repeat to other side, cross step R foot hip drop L x 3 (different speed).

Grapevine x 4, travelling to R, stepping L foot in front of R first.

Repeat cross-step-drop & grapevines other way.

Verse 1

Hip drop R x 3, hip drop L x 3, hip drop R x 3 (different speed), figure 8 to RLR

Repeat Hip drops & figure 8 the other way.

The grapevines video includes a bit at the end about how they fit into the start of the choreo.

HOME PRACTICE

Bronze level - read the choreography notes above & use that to remember what we did

Silver level - read the choreography notes WHILE PLAYING the music video, so you can connect the music and the moves more firmly in your brain.

Gold level - practice the choreography with the music from the video. 

Platinum level - write about the choreography in your dance journal (or make some notes on your phone, or in your diary!). When you write about it, you think about it, which helps you to remember what you have done. You can say which bits you like, which bits are more of a challenge for you, how you like the music... 

Bellydance Taster Workshop - Saturday 1st October

In this Taster workshop, we covered some Beginner level technique:

• Circles & half circles
• Figure 8s, plain & reverse
• Hip Hits/Side to Sides
• Hip Pushes, including the Step-Push travelling variation
• Forward Back step
• Hip Shimmy

There are practice videos available for all these moves in this Youtube Playlist.

We used all these techniques in a final improvised dance.

We used a gentle warm up to mobilise our joints, and some stretches at the end of the session to get any muscles that have tightened up back to normal.

If you enjoyed this workshop and would like to continue learning to bellydance, you can join the Beginners classes that run at Guildford Adult Learning Centre, on Thursday evenings. Don't worry, if you've done this workshop, you should be able to catch up fairly easily.

The course details are here, but don't enrol online. Instead, phone the Customer Service Team on 0300 200 1044, as they should be able to reduce the course fees, pro rata, because you've missed the first three sessions.

EDITED TO ADD

I said I'd upload a couple of Beginner routines. To be honest, they'd be hard for you to learn on just one Taster like today's, but... Fill your boots!

This first one is called Music For Zeinat, and it's the most Beginner friendly of my choreographies. I would normally teach it over 5 or 6 weeks in the first term of a Beginners class. (Sorry, I only just realised the video was set to Private, I've just changed it to Unlisted, so you should be able to play it now).  

The next one is a bit more technical, maybe more of a second or third term Beginner routine. It's called Maigorakshi. Youtube won't let me show it, because of music copyright, so it's on Vimeo, and you'd need the password "bea" to see it.

Finally, this is Ziggarats of Cinnamon. This one was basically designed to show off different Forward Back Step variations. This is one of my early versions of this piece, I've simplified it a bit over the years!