Merry Christmas!

Thanks for joining me on Zoom for our video night.

Here's the Playlist of the videos we watched on Youtube.

Currently dancing in Cairo

• Dina
• Sahar
• Aziza
• Randa
• Soraia

Currently dancing in Istanbul (I believe, I'm no expert on Turkish dance) 

• Didem
• Asena

Going back in history 

• Tahia Carioca - 40s & 50s
• Samia Gamal - 40s & 50s
• Naima Akef - 40s & 50s
• Nagua Fouad - 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s
• Suhair Zaki - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s
• Mona Said - 70s & 80s
• Nadia Hamdi - 70s & 80s
• Fifi Abdo - 70s, 80s, 90s
• Lucy - 80s, 90s
• Dandesh - 80s, 90s

And by request, some Sha'abi , aka Mahraganat (street music & dance) 

• Mesh Harou, by Sa'ad el Saghi
• Harat Agibtan, by Shehat Karika
• Ala Rimsh Ayounha, by Hamada el Leithy

Thank you for letting me share my favourite dancers with you! And if you're ever on holiday in Cairo, just ask, I can tell you where to go to see good dancing...

I hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. See you all in January. 

Beginners - Week 12

Apologies for posting a little late. To be honest I'm astonished that I've managed to be as good as I have up until now!

Anyway, since it is the end of term, I invited requests from all of you but it seemed like you were happy to go along with my plans. I decided to work on the choreography as the first thing after the warm up, because I wanted to give it plenty of time. We ran through the routine, focusing on how the arms work with the steps and hip moves, and trying to crash through the troublespots.

The technique we worked on was a development of the single sided hip circles from last week. This time, instead of focusing on the "empty" hip to create the circle shape, we used the standing or "weighted" hip to make the circle happen. Here is the quick video I filmed after class.

Finally, we did a group dance together, where everybody got a chance to lead the others with their own choice of movement. It gave me a little break, and everyone spotlighted their own personal style. Since everyone seemed to enjoy a bit of freestyling, we'll be doing some more of it next term!

Don't forget, that was the last lesson of the term, but we'll be having our Video Night on Zoom next Thursday, and I'll send you the link for that by the end of this week.

Beginners - Week 11

Tonight we worked on Single Sided Circles, where the hip circle is shifted from its central position to one side. While I've got a video for these, it covers a lot of different versions, and it's not really the most helpful thing for you at this stage, so I did a quick and dirty video on my phone after class, which is here:

We also did some Abdominal work, focussing on weight shifting while you pull in. This is a good preparation for working on the Camel move next term. This video ended up being a bit longer...

We practised the choreography, focussing on what we do with our Arms. I'm terrible at remembering to teach the arms while we're doing all the footwork and hip work, I'm sorry!

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It's the last lesson of the term next week, so I hope I'll be seeing you all. If there is anything you would particularly like to do in the last week, do please let me know. I always plan something for me to teach if I have no specific requests, but I want you all to have the choice.

And finally, I'm proposing a Zoom video night for the Thursday after the end of term (15th December). It's not a dancing session, just me sharing videos of some of my favourite dancers with you, and showing you different dance styles from different cultures. If you fancy it, let me know and I'll send out a Zoom invitation.

Beginners - Week 10

Tonight we took our undulating figure 8s from last week, and got them fully vertical! We started with the Up & Out figure 8, and then moved onto the Up & In figure 8.

We also looked (briefly) at Turns, mainly to bring together all the different kinds of turns we've done this term - the 3-Step Turn (360°), Mini-Grapevine Turn (180°) and Flamenco Turn (180°/360°). 

It was also a chance to think about what we can do to minimise dizziness, such as:

• Spotting (where you fix your focus on a still point)
• Anti-Spotting (where you fix your focus on a point that's moving with you, creating an illusion of stillness) 
• Disrupting the Inner Ear with a quick Up-Down
• A LOT of practice
• Ginger

Beginners - Week 9

Today we added some vertical undulation to our horizontal figure 8, with an added heel lift on the "outside" of the move. The video for that is right here as well as in the Youtube Practice Videos playlist:

We also did some more work on getting our Abs to do clever stuff. This time it was about controlling the pull-ins and the releases, not only as to their speed, but also being able to stop the pull-in or release half-way.

And today we officially completed the choreography to Hayatak Fi Soura!!!

(I know we did it unofficially last week, but that was just messing about, I didn't actually teach it). So from here on in, it's about troubleshooting and getting it to look good! 

Here's the practice video, that takes you all the way through. I messed up a little bit in the second half, but hey, nobody's perfect.

Happy practising!

Beginners - Week 8

This week we worked on using the hip push while travelling - the Step Push, with a plain and cross-step option, going forwards and retreating. The practice video is here - it's a big vid covering various Hip Push options, but the Step Push section starts at 9mins5secs:

We also did more work on Arms.

The Arms music was Al Gani Bad Youmein, by Samira Said. It's very passionate and emotional. There's a lyrics video with English translation here, if you want to follow the words.

For the Choreography, we've got started on the repetition of the sections we did at the start. One of my Principles of Choreography is that when we have repetitions in the music, we use repetitions of the moves we used earlier. So with Verse 2, we're repeating exactly what we do at the start of the routine (the cross step, hip drops, grapevine combination). But in Verse 3, it's "same but different", still hip drops, but in a different pattern, using profiles rather than facing front.

A bit of background - I created this choreo as part of a workshop series with Kay Taylor, who runs FaridaDance.com. It was all about creating choreography, I wanted to gain insights from how other people approach it. All of us on the course created our own routines to the same music. To see how other dancers interpreted the music, you can see our compilation video here.

Homework suggestion, either the Step Push or the Choreography (the more you practise it, the more it will stick in your memory).

Beginners - Week 7

Welcome back! In this second half of the term we'll be working on more new techniques and more variations on those techniques we know. We'll also be able to finish learning the choreography and hopefully we'll be able to troubleshoot any problems you're having, and see how far you can remember sections for yourself.

This week we were focussing the Technique on Walking Like A Dancer, thinking about how to make the stepping look light and add accents to make a plain walk more interesting. Possible accents include - pause, chin lift, shoulder roll, shoulder hit, chest lift, abdominal pull-in, hip push, hip twist, hip drop (needs a lift on count 3, to prep for the drop on 4), knee lift, heel drop... so many options!!!). We also looked at using floor patterns for our walking, thinking about straight lines and curves.

We also worked on the Hip Push - a close cousin of the hip drop. This video covers the basic hip drop with the twisting forwards or backwards variations.

For the choreography, we didn't proceed any further than the Instrumental section, where we're walking in a figure 8 (or two circles, if that's how you see it). This week was more about refreshing your memories after a week off, and consolidating what we know already.

I'm planning on recording the full choreography practice video after class, either this week or next week, so you'll have the full version available soon.

Home practice suggestion: Shimmy!

If you've got no time, just do 30 second bursts of shimmy, plain or weighted, no music, just the knee action. If you do two bursts per day, that gives you 7 minutes of practice in a week, without really thinking about it.

If you've got 5 minutes, use the follow-along from the Weighted shimmy video from Week 6

If you've got more time than that, use my Shimmy Music Playlist, and try combining shimmies with different arm positions. 

EDITED TO ADD the music from the Walking Like a Dancer section. Its Manbaa Innar by Hossam Ramzy & Samy el Bably

 

If you use Spotify it's here. 

My half term

I had a lovely time.

Low tide

High tide

My little Airbnb

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!

Beginners - Week 3. Now with Bonus Sha'abi music/dance

 This week we used our existing technique:

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

And we covered new technique:

• Hip Drops with the forward or backward body twist.
• Forward Back Step, including the pivoting version, and the seamless changeover of the lead foot.

We used our basic techniques from the previous weeks to do a warm up dance, and the new material in our group dance at the end of the session.

I have updated the Youtube Practice Playlist with the Forward Back Step video - it's another oldie!

HOME PRACTICE

Practise the Hip Drop, trying to make sure it's a drop, the accent is on the Down.

Remember there is a Hip Drop practice video in the Practice Youtube Playlist.

This is also a really good hip drop technique video by an American Bellydance teacher, Sahira (Beginners can ignore her reference to the glutes, but if you're experienced with hip drops, give it a try):

EDITED TO ADD

We used some Sha'abi music for our Group dance at the end of the lesson, and also for the cool down. Sha'abi is Egyptian street music, and it's equivalent to hip hop or grime, in that it's created by young working class people, it's quite subversive (and can sometimes be very lewd /sweary or political, so you need to be careful about songs where you don't know what the lyrics are about) and it started off very much as an underground style but has gained mainstream popularity over the years. 

The music we used for the group dance was El Ab Yalla, by Oka & Ortega:

The music we used in the Cool Down was Dawla by Enba (a bit more chilled):

I've tried to find a couple of clips to show how sha'abi is danced by ordinary people (rather than pro dancers). It's not that easy! Here are some boys dancing. Dancing sha'abi with knives and machetes is a thing. Don't ask me why. It just is.

And to balance things out, here are some girls:

Beginners - Week 2

 This week we worked on more technique:

• Circles, including half circles. Remember the glute squeezes to make those half circles more juicy.
• Figure 8s, including the Reverse figure 8. Same as the plain one, just travelling in the opposite direction.
• Hip Drops. Remember to keep the standing hip firm, and not let it "pop" when the dropping hip drops.
• Abdominal Pull in

We used our basic techniques from the first week to do a warm up dance, and the new material in our group dance at the end of the session.

HOME PRACTICE

Practise the Hip Shimmy, see how long you can keep it going. Aim for a couple of minutes, but you might surprise yourself!

Remember, keep the movement small so that you can build up speed more easily, and keep breathing! 

There is a shimmy practice video in the Practice Youtube Playlist.

You can use this music playlist to shimmy along to:

UPDATED TO ADD:

There was some talk in class of trying to arrange a meal out to a Lebanese or Turkish restaurant that has bellydancers. I'm trying to check out what the options are locally. There are two that I've been to before and I think they provide delicious food at a reasonable price - Beit Beirut in Woking and Cappadocia in Walton. I would need to check that they still have bellydancing. If they do, maybe we can arrange an end of term meal out.

Beginners - Week 1

This week we have started on some Beginner level technique.

• Circles
• Figure 8s
• Hip Hits/Side to Sides
• Hip Shimmy

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

We worked on basic Posture - feet hip width apart, knees soft, pelvis in neutral, ribcage lifted from the back, shoulders rolled back and down.

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.

HOME PRACTICE

Bronze level - watch the videos to remind yourself of the technique we covered.

Silver level - practice along with one or more of the videos. You can go for quantity (practising more than one move) or quality (focus on one move, but really work at it).

Gold level - practice without the videos to give you cues. You might want to have a few practices with the videos to start off with, to build up to this! 

Platinum level - Write some notes about the lesson, and about your dance practice. I'll be talking about keeping a Dance Journal over the next couple of weeks. Check out this post to be ahead of the game!

Information for new students - Autumn 22

Bellydance Beginners classes - Thursdays, 7.00-8.15, starting 15th September

Classes will run weekly from 15th September to 8th December, with a half term week off on 27th October.

We will be focussing mostly on Technique initially, then in October we will be working on a Beginner level choreography, to Hayatek fi Soura, to use that technique. This is the music: