Autumn Term Week 3

Tonight we worked on some new material, the Forward Back stepping pattern (aka box step, aka Pas de Bourrée). This can be a bit tricky to "get", but you just have to remember it's not a walking forwards step, it's a staying on the spot step, it's a case of balancing the forwards & the back.

For the more experienced students, we used the Forward Back step with a range of accents, to give it a bit of variety.

We also recapped the Hip Hits, and shimmies. 

We also added a heel lift to our Figure 8,

==================

I was also trying to gauge opinions on my choice of music for the class choreography. I'm hoping you all like Ma Tigi Henna, by Nancy Ajram (Lebanese, but she sings Egyptian style!)

But then you voted for my second choice of music, Akteb Aleik by Fadel Shaker:

For the Shimmy practice I used a drum solo called El Tablaa from a very old cd, called Delta Festival Vol II. I've done a bit of a Youtube search, and I can't find it. I'll keep looking...

I found a couple of tracks from the cd, but not El Tablaa. This one, Adomma we Tekka, is good:

The account I found that track on, TheBellydanceVideos is a goldmine of old school bellydance music and videos. It's definitely worth having a look at her videos.

The tabla drummer on is Khamis Henkish, one of a family of excellent drummers. There's a playlist of one of his cassettes here. Sorry, I don't read enough Arabic to tell you anything more than what's on the track titles.

==================

Home Practice -
For the new students, work on EITHER the Forward Back step, OR the Figure 8 with heel lift.
If you're one of the more experienced students, work on Vertical Figure 8s (especially on trying to work out the difference between the Up & In 8s and the Up & Out 8s)

Autumn term - week 2

I'm going to be using this term to build up your technique repertoire, so there's a lot to work on. I'm going to be teaching the basic moves to the new, less experienced students, and more challenging variations for the more experienced students. My advice to those new to bellydance would be: stick to the basic versions for now. There will be plenty of time to work on more sophisticated variations, when you have the basics firmly in your control.

Tonight we were going over the circles and figure 8s from last week, adding the half circles and the reverse figure 8. I'm afraid I don't have a video for the reverse version. I'll try and film one next week.

We also recapped the Shimmy, and worked on building up that "muscle memory" (it's more nerve memory, but hey!). We're trying to build a smooth, even movement. That means small moves, and keep breathing.

One new move that we used was Abdominal Pull-Ins. This is a really good move to create muscular control, that will help with posture and strong core balance.

The other new move we worked on was the Hip Drop. 

========

I would suggest for your home practice you pick one video and use it for practice several times over, to get the move into your body. When you feel you can do the move without using the video, then you can go on to another move.

Welcome to a new year of Bellydance!

I'm delighted to be teaching you bellydance for another year!

For those who are new, thank you for giving this a try. I hope I can make you fall in love with bellydance! 

For those who are coming back, it's lovely to see you again! I hope I can move your skills forward and make you love bellydance even more. 

==============

Tonight's class is starting with basics. I know the more experienced students can't be there tonight, so I can focus fully on the new starters.

We worked on some foundation moves: Hip Circles, Side to Sides (sometimes I call them Hip Hits), Figure 8s and Shimmy. 

I have set up a YouTube Playlist with practice videos for the techniques we cover in class. For Home Practice you can pick one and watch it through and work with it, several times over. They're only short videos. But work on one thing at a time, to give your body the chance to get used to the move.

===============================

If you want some music to practise to, you could try this song, for more flowing technique (circles, figure 8s):

 

Or this one for more percussive sharp moves: 

 

And the music I used for the Shimmy practice was this one: 

 

========================================

For the more experienced ones, who were not here tonight, here's some inspiration for you - the wonderful Sahar Samara...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Saharsamara_offeciall (@saharsamaraofficial)