Autumn Term - week 12

Last lesson of the term! I do hope I'll be seeing you again in the new year. Please remember, if you can possibly sign up before the end of December, I'd be very grateful. The viability decisions will be made early in the New Year, and I would really like this class to keep going!

The last lesson of term is always Technique Requests, and Y requested Camels. This is a move that requires good abdominal control, so I usually leave it until the second term. But what the heck!

But like last week, I wanted to focus strongly on the routine to Akteb Aleik, and get it finished, so there was a bit of recapping Verse 3 (which has 3 reps within it), and moving on to Verse 4 which is nice and short, and the finale, also short.

I'm sorry I couldn't do the video last week of Verse 3, but did manage to film it all the way through after class, with only a small bit of forgetting what I'm supposed to be doing, and as soon as I've got it edited and uploaded, I'll add it here.

And finally, in Music Corner, we spoke about the cool down music I used, which is from Jane Birkin's Arabesque album, which was recorded live in concert, with a small orchestra of Arab musicians. The piece I used in class was Elisa:

But I also sometimes use Comment Te Dire Adieu:

Wishing you all the very best for the Holiday season, and looking forward to seeing you on the other side...

Autumn Term - week 11

I decidedI wanted to complete the choreo, even if it's not fully "learned" by the end of this term. This is partly because Y will be leaving us, and partly just in case we don't get enough people to be viable for next term (I hope we will, but I'm planning these last two sessions on a worst case basis).

So we started with a quick catch up on the Vertical Figure 8s from last week, comparing the difference the foot position makes. Try practising the V8s Up and In with your feet a bit wider apart than usual and with your feet closer in.

But mostly we were working on Verse 3 of the Choreography. This one is a bit harder to remember, because there are 3 sections that are the same tune, so you need to keep tabs on where you are in the routine. 

As usual, I'll video the next bit and put it up here, and add it to the Youtube playlist.

Next week is our last session of this term, and we'll finish the routine - Verse 4 and the ending are shorter than Verse 3!

Autumn term - Week 10

We were working on Forward Back turns and Vertical Figure 8s as our Technique.

The Vertical figure 8 can be done mechanically or in a more muscular way. To learn the move in the first place, stick to working on the Mechanics - pushing the hip up, out and then dropping it down. 

The more experienced students who understand this mechanism, and can identify clearly the difference between up & out, and up & in Eights, and reproduce them without confusion, should be thinking about using the muscles of the abdomen (especially the Obliques), thighs and buttocks to control the move rather than relying on the feet and knees to activate the action. Think about lifting from the abs, rather than pushing from the legs. It may make the movement a bit smaller, but it makes it more luscious and intense, and it brings the attention up to the hips more effectively!

We also worked on some Forward Back Step turns, mainly because we're going to need it for the choreo. I had hoped we'd have time for some general turning and pivoting work, but instead I concentrated on using the Forward Back step with a 180º turn, and then the specific 360º turn that we're going to be using in the routine:

And talking of Choreography, I was more concerned with consolidating the work we've done so far, and getting it to feel more natural and flowing. Hopefully that's helping! But we're not going to move it forwards until next week.

I said I'd post the colour coded choreography notes. They are on my Google Drive, and you should be able to access them using this link. You can then save the document on your device. If you can't access the document, let me know and I can email it to you.

Autumn term - week 9

Tonight was partly catching up with last week, and partly keeping to my original plans for this week!

We started with Single Sided Hip Circles (horizontal), that C & I worked on last week:

Then we moved onto the Weighted Shimmy:

And then we worked on the Choreography, consolidating the routine up to Verse 1, and introducing Verse 2. It only took me three goes to film (well, two really - on the first go I forgot to press the record button)!

Autumn term - week 8

Tonight it was just me and C. We recapped the Step Push moves from last week, and we worked on Single Sided Hip Circles:

We did a bit of a recap of the first verse of the choreography, then moved onto the second verse. I'll leave videoing it until a few more people have learned it.

Autumn term - week 7

I hope you all had a good half term. My holiday in France was very stormy, windy, rainy... But it was still good to have some time away with my sisters!

Tonight was really about consolidation, making sure that what we did before the half term break is still there in our memory! We recapped the hip drop with release/kick. Remember, the key with this is to be really strong on the standing leg, and not put any body weight into the dropping/releasing/kicking leg. As soon as you even up your standing weight, your body won't want to do the little release/kick, because it takes you off balance. Also remember to keep the supporting knee soft, and don't pop the supporting hip out.

We also brought in the hip push (a very close relative of the hip drop) and used it to create travelling moves (we're going to need them in the choreography soon).

This covers the basic hip push and the on-the-spot twisting version. The Travelling versions are in the video below:

We also did some abdominal work - the usual pull in & release, but varying the speeds. Quick pull in, slow release, or slow pull in, quick release. 

• Use a slowish count of 4.
• Count 1, pull in the abs quickly
• Count 234, relax the abs slowly and smoothly
• Or vice versa
• Count 123, pull in the abs slowly and smoothly
• Count 4, relax the abs quickly to let them pop back out.

We also recapped the Akteb Aleik choreography Introduction, and added Verse 1 to our routine. I remembered to take both phones (one to film, one to play the music) so here's the dance to date, so you can practise it:

And in Music Corner... El3ab Yalla, by Oka & Ortega

I found the lyrics, to make sure I'd explained it right to you, and thankfully I did!

If you want to check out the words, they are here.

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!

Autumn term - week 5

Tonight was all about the Three Step!

We started with a recap of the Forward Back Changeovers and the long (7-step) grapevines from last week, but bringing the focus to the short (3-step) grapevine. This is covered in the Grapevine videos I posted last week.

We also worked on Walking using the Three Step pattern. We did some basic Walking practice, to practise posture and centredness, and moved on to the three step walking pattern, where we can add accents, and then we used that pattern to move onto the Arabesque Walk

We also started the choreography to our chosen song, Akteb Aleik. I will do short video clips as we go along, and try to post them each week.

For now, here's the music for practising to:

This week was all about the Intro. It's a long intro, so we'll do the end of it next week.

I can only apologise for the complete lack of any attempt at editing. I had to film it on my work iphone, and I don't know iphones, I'm an Android girl.
I did lose balance a smidge on one of the turns, next time I hope I'll be better at it!

For home practice, listen to the music, trying to identify the changes. Dance along with my practice video. I hate to sound really boring, but you won't learn it unless you actually practice it!

Good luck!

I mentioned listening to an interesting radio programme on Breathing as a way of reducing stress/anxiety, all about how they teach breathing techniques in schools. They talked about some really interesting techniques. If you fancy a listen, it's only 14 minutes:

An Almanac for Anxiety: In Search of a Calmer Mind
Episode 4 - Air

Autumn term - week 4

Tonight was very strongly focussed on Forward Back steps and Grapevines. They're close cousins in the movement family. 

We recapped the basic Forward Back stepping pattern and worked on ways to manage changing the lead foot. I was working on two different kinds of changeover - the new students were using my "take a step out" versions, and the more experienced students were using my "add a step in" versions. I'll video the Changeover techniques and add the vid to the Playlist and add it in here.

Beginner level Changeover:

Higher level Changeover:

Then we moved on to the Grapevines, which are the same basic stepping pattern, but moving sideways. For travelling a distance, I use the 7 step version, and I use the 3 step version for very short distances, or changing my direction. But I forgot to cover the 3-step version! I'll do that next week.

I've got a couple of Grapevine vids. The first one was filmed in poor lighting during lockdown!:

This one's a lot clearer, but maybe not so expansive:

We did a short bit of Abdominal practice, to remind our abs that they are going to be needed over the next few weeks, and had a bit of fun with belly rolls.

We used Kidda by Natacha Atlas in the Abs practice, and there was a request for the music, it's on Spotify. I can't get the right link, but you should be able to find it just by searching "kidda". Here is the YouTube video: 

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,

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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: 

 

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

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A post shared by Saharsamara_offeciall (@saharsamaraofficial)

Summer Term week 8

It's still warm, so we're taking it carefully, drinking plenty of water...

For our Veil work, we worked on how we can discard the veil beautifully (not just scrunching it up and throwing it away). We now have enough of a repertoire to think about putting a routine together (not a choreography, more a sort of road map!) so that's what we'll be working on in the rest of the classes this term.

We *were* going to practise the same exercise as in previous weeks, using a basic move & finding ways to vary it

• changing your arms
• changing which direction you are facing
• changing the speed of the move you're using
• changing your level

And also throwing in a step combination that we've got in our toolbag.

... But ...

It was hot and we were tired so we did some seated ribcage work, basically taking our warm up ribcage exercises and making them a bit smaller and snappier. Then we did a Musical Statues game, which brought out some interesting thoughts on balance and hand positions. 

You can practise the improv exercise, at home. Try using this music, pick a basic move and see how you can adapt it, using the changes above, or by using a variation of your basic move that we've done in class.

Summer Term week 7

Another warm night, so we were taking it easy.

We worked on some "double veil" techniques, but with just a single veil. We practised getting into the Double Veil position, a couple of techniques we can use while we're there, and how to get back out of it again.

We used the same exercise as last week, for finding ways to make a single move look different, and for including one of our combinations, to bring in something different.  

PS, if you're interested in some Double Veil Inspiration, take a look at these clips:

   

Summer Term week 5

Don't forget, it's half term next week.

Tonight was the last of the "Combinations" technique sections. After the half term, we'll be working on how we can use these combinations to help us improvise when dancing at a party, say, or when you can't remember a choreography! 

I was basically repeating the lesson from last week, because only one person was there. 

We started with the Veils, recapping the Neck Drape and Angel Wings, and I brought in a couple more options, for posing and for working the veil.

I was repeating the Forward Back Combinations from last week, for the technique part of the lesson:

• The FB only combinations were:
• A Reverse Pivoting Variation. This is a Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 6, then for the Back step cross the R foot behind you, to pivot backwards (turning 90° to your R). In four goes, you'll have turned all the way around.
  (You can do a fancier version by turning 270°, which looks very impressive and difficult, but I don't expect you to try this one!)
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) slow count (1234), tip toes (for speed), fast count (1234,1234). Sorry it doesn't make much sense written down, but watch the video!
  
  
• The FB plus other moves combinations I had planned were:
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 4, Hip hits R x 4
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 6, side step RLR (on 7&8)  to R, repeat with L foot leading and travelling to L.
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 4, cross step (R to L) & lunge to L and up again.

You might have seen these from last week's video.

Summer Term week 4

My plans got a bit of a change, when there was only one person there! I'm editing this post to be more true to reality.

We started the Veil work today with a recap of the Neck Drape/Angel Wings from last week. I added a couple more Angel Wings options, but we didn't have as much time, so we didn't cover everything I had planned. Not to worry, we'll do it next week!

I was sticking with my Combinations for the technique part of the lesson, working with the Forward Back Step as our starting point:

• The FB only combinations were:
• A Reverse Pivoting Variation. This is a Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 6, then for the Back step cross the R foot behind you, to pivot backwards (turning 90° to your R). In four goes, you'll have turned all the way around.
  (You can do a fancier version by turning 270°, which looks very impressive and difficult, but I don't expect you to try this one!)
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) slow count (1234), tip toes (for speed), fast count (1234,1234). Sorry it doesn't make much sense written down, but watch the video!
  
  
• The FB plus other moves combinations I had planned were:
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 4, Hip hits R x 4
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 6, side step RLR (on 7&8)  to R, repeat with L foot leading and travelling to L.
• Forward Back step (R foot leading) for count of 4, cross step (R to L) & lunge to L and up again.

However, again, we didn't have so much time available, so we didn't do all of these. We'll go through them all again next week. So this vid is a bit of a spoiler for those who weren't here!

Summer term week 3

Sorry everyone, this week has been a bit extra. I wasn't quite as prepared as I would like. So with apologies for the delay, here is the Week 3 post. 

We used the Warm Up dance as a chance to practise the Hip Hit combinations from Week 1 and the Circle combinations from Week 2.

The Veil work started with a bit of a recap of the Walking and Wafting from week 1, and the Twirls from week 2, as it's always good to practise what you know, and reinforce your knowledge and skills. We then moved on to a technique I'm calling the Neck Drape and Angel Wings. It's a way to drape the veil in front of your neck and down behind your shoulders, so that you can get on with some non-veil-related dancing, safe in the knowledge that you can get the veil back into action very easily. Alternatively, while your veil is in the neck drape, you can pick up the edges and swish them around like wings. 

The step combinations today were brought to you by the Hip Drop.

• Using all hip drops
• Hip drop R x 4, then Drop Kick (R) x 2. These can be done swapping sides every time, or every second go, or randomly, it's your choice!
• Double Hip Drops (sometimes called Swings) RR, LL, RR, Drop Kick L. Then LL RR LL, Drop Kick R.
• Drop with a Dip. This is done over a count of 4 rather than 8. Drop RRR, then on 4th beat do a hip drop R with a dip. 
• Using hip drops combined with other moves
• Hip Drop with Single Sided Hip Circle. Hip drop R x 4, then on count 5678, single sided hip circle (horizontal) on R. If the music count is quite slow, you can try doing 2 circles in the 5-8 counts. 

Summer Term - Week 2

We recapped the combinations from last week in the Warm Up dance, so you could see how they can slot into the music, which is really the whole point of me teaching them!

Tonight with Veils, we were working mainly on Twirls, which we started last week. We practised twirling the veil in both directions, and brought in some variations on the basic twirl: 

• Half twirls, changing front to back & vice versa, or changing Right to Left & vice versa
• Incomplete twirls, with wafting opportunities
• Possibly Twirling and walking (typing this in advance, I don't know if we'll have the time for this, it's not as easy as it sounds!)

As last week, I took a basic move - the hip circle - and put together some movement combinations using different circle variations. 

• Using all circles
• Beg, Medium, Small circles
• Varying the speed of the circle, front half quick in 2 counts, back half slow in 6 counts OR the other way around
• Hip circles with stops - front half smooth, back half (stops on 5,6,7,8)
• Using circles combined with other moves
• Hip circle x 1½, hip push x 2
• Hip circle x 1½, forward back step

You can do these combinations with any music with a basic 4 or 8 count. You just need to find something that's the right speed for you.

Here's the video:

Try practising the combinations this week. Start with just one or two, and really try to get them into your muscle memory, so that you can do them without having to think about them.

If you're feeling brave, see if you can create your own combination, maybe starting with one of the combos I've set out here, and changing part of it. 

Summer Term - Week 1

Welcome back! It's good to be dancing with you again!

This term is going to focus less on Technique, and more on personal interpretation. We'll be looking at the skills you can use to keep dancing even when you haven't got a choreography to follow (that's right - Improvisation!) There's a lot of simple tricks we can use, and we'll look at how you can keep your dancing looking fresh and sparky.

We'll also be working on Veilwork. I gave you a little taster last term, and this term we'll build up some basic technique, some tricks and fancy Veilwork, and how we could put together a short routine (not choreographed, but structured).

Tonight we started with the Veils (before we all got very tired arms and shoulders), revisiting our Walking and Wafting from last term, and working on Veil Twirls.

• Remember the Golden Safety Rule of Veils - don't tread on your Veil. (Also, don't tread on anyone else's Veil).

Other guidelines include:

• Try to keep your shoulders down, to stop your arms and shoulders getting tired.
• Keep the top edge of the Veil taut, so you can keep control of it better.
• Keep your arms straight to create beautiful lines
  
• Try not to bunch your hand up into a fist, again, we're trying to create beautiful lines

After that we did some starter work on Improvisation skills. We used Side to Side/Hip Hit movement combinations, to start thinking about how we can put moves together, using simple 4-counts and 8-counts. 

• Using all Hip hits
• RLRL RRR, LRLR LLL
• RR LL RR Step back with the L & hit the hip backwards, LL RR LL step back with R & hit backwards
• Hitting to diagonals - Front RR LL RR, then Back with L.
  This one is single sided, it will always start R first. So if you want to change sides, you'll need to add a little step before starting the next combination
• Using Hip hits combined with other moves
• RLRL Forward Back step
  Again this one is single sided so if you want to change sides, you'll need to use one of the Forward Back changeover options 
• RLRL Hip drops R x 3. Again, you'll need to add a little step R to change sides between the third drop and the hip hit on the L
• RRLL ½ circle to change sides (like we did in the choreo)
• RRLL Fig 8 x 1½ to change sides.

Here's the video (sorry for it being late):

Our motto for the term is going to be: JUST KEEP GOING! 

Spring Term - week 11

Tonight was the last session of the term, I hope I'll be seeing you all again when we come back on 27th April.

This session was a combination of my original plan for this week (Veilwork) and a recap of last week, when the bad traffic made it difficult for everyone to attend (123-EE move).

I use silk veils mostly, because they have a beautiful movement and you can really show off with them (and there's nothing I like better than showing off!). I will add a post later about how you can buy silk veils for bellydance, but PLEASE don't buy anything until we know for sure the course next term will be going ahead. Don't worry - I have plenty of Loaner veils, for you to borrow in class.

Tonight we covered the Golden Rule of Veil Safety, which is:

• Don't tread on your veil (or on anyone else's).
  They are super-slippery, and you could end up falling head over heels.

The next rule is more about your personal comfort, and that's:

• Lift with your Back, not your neck.
  Your back muscles are much stronger, so this will allow you to keep your arms aloft for longer, and it will look much better.

Finally, this is more about Aesthetics, try not to bunch up your hands into fists:

• Keep your hands long
  Hold your veil with a finger weave, or delicately with your thumb and finger.

We did a lot of Walking and Wafting, adding in accents with wrist flicks and hip level wafts. We did some Overhead Flips and some Half-Twirls. 

To be honest, you can probably get away with a 4 minute routine using nothing but these techniques! But next term we'll look at more techniques and tricks, and about how you can put together a more varied routine.

Finally, I recapped the 123-EE technique that I started last week.