Autumn term - week 6

I can't believe we're already half way through the term! 

I was reminded that October is Black History Month and the theme is Celebrating our Sisters, so all the music for tonight's class is music that was performed and made famous by two great Divas of Arabic music - Oum Koulsoum and Warda. More on that in another post, it could get very muso-nerdy!

The new technique that was introduced tonight was the Hip Drop with a Foot Release (aka a Drop Release, or a Drop Kick, though that sounds like Rugby thing!). This is a bit tricky, because it's hard to get used to not trusting our body weight to the floor, you have to be confident working with all your weight in the standing leg, and not letting your "empty" leg to take the body weight.

By request we did a bit of work on Arms. We started with basic concepts. Use the back to lift the arms, not the shoulders. Consider whether you want symmetry or asymmetry. Think about your hand position - they finish off the curve of the arm. Consider all the joints you can use to move your arms and hands about.

This isn't the Arms Drill we did, but it's the same basic concept. You can follow along, and try to remember to do something else with your body, so you don't treat arms as a separate thing, but as part of your dancing as a whole.

There's an Arms tag/label, so if you're interested, you can click on the Arms label in the list, or at the foot of this post.

For the Akteb Aleik choreography, we completed the Introduction, and I will try to film and post a video by the end of the weekend.

Try to have a few listen throughs, a few follow alongs for the choreo, so you don't forget all about it over the half term.

See you on 2nd November - have a good break!

Spring term - week 5

Sorry it's a bit late today, everyone.

It's half term next week (no classes next week - see you on 23rd Feb), so as usual I opened the Technique part of the class to Student Requests. Fortunately, the requests turned out to be Hip drops, and that's what I'd already planned to cover. We recapped the basic hip drop (very quickly), and the drop 123-kick that we did last week.

We also went over the hip drop with the twist to the front or back. The key thing to remember with that one is that the twist happens in between the drops, when the hip is lifted up and ready for the drop.

We also worked on Arms & Hands. We started with a basic drill which can work with any hip action:

We used a piece of music that I love. It's called Mawoud, and this version is by a singer called Sherine:

We just used the first part of it, because it's got no rhythm behind it, and it's quite flowing and a bit emotional, so hopefully it's nice for you to use for arms practice.

I wanted this to be a bit more than just Technique, so we did some exercises to think about the energy that we can bring to our hand actions:

They're a bit silly, perhaps, but hopefully they give you some new ways to think about how you use your arms and hands when you're dancing.

Home practice ideas over half term:

Try the Arms Drill video and the Silly Exercises video.

Or keep working on the Choreography to Hayatak Fi Soura.

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.