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!

Dancing in the Cold Weather

One of my favourite dance teachers, Rosa Noreen has re-started her blog, with an excellent reminder on how to keep dancing when the cold weather hits. 

Keep Your Dancing Body Happy in Cold Weather

Rosa is based in Maine, USA. She does a really lovely online Lunchtime Shimmy class, at 11am Eastern Time, which is 4.00pm for us in the UK. I've done it before, and it's a fun class (all kinds of Bellydance, not just shimmies!). And she offers a free try-out class, which is really good of her.

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).

Practice Makes Perfect...

We've all heard the saying, "Practice makes perfect".

It's not true.

Well, it's sort of true.

What practice achieves is creating a "muscle memory". It's not really the muscles remembering anything, it's more that your brain and nervous system learn to remember the sequence of nerve twitches that power the right muscles to make that particular move (or combination of moves). The more you do a move, the more the nervous system learns that "neural pathway", so that in the end, the nervous system doesn't need much conscious brain input, it remembers the sequence well enough that you can go straight into it. 

Repetition means you are creating those neural pathways, so that the brain can delegate decision-making to the lower nervous system. That's why it's hard to learn a new variation on a move you already know. Your brain, for the sake of efficiency, wants to leave everything to the nervous system. The nervous system defaults to the old move, because that's what it has learned. You have to make a strong conscious effort to make the changes for the new variation, so that the brain overrides the default.

But back to Practising... 

You can see that if you aren't working a move correctly, all the repetition in the world isn't going to make you better at that move. All you are doing is learning the move wrong - when you have to relearn it, it's going to require more conscious effort to overcome the default that's been wrongly set up, and more repetition to set the correct move.

The saying really should be: Practice Makes Permanent.

So when you're practising, you do need to be sure you're reproducing the moves the right way, so that you set the correct neural pathway.

• Try to remember the suggestions I make in class, about foot positioning, about where your weight should be, where the move starts, where the energy for it comes from, how it flows... 
• Use the practice videos to help you remember what you're doing. 
• When you're trying to practise something new, work slowly. Give yourself time to think about what you're doing. Fast moves may feel satisfying, but they often lead to the nervous system using its established shortcuts, rather than learning a new set of neural pathways.
• You can always ask me in class for more feedback, or to check what you're doing.

Finally, don't worry! I'm not expecting Perfection. If I give you feedback or corrections, I hope they make the technique easier for you, or make the moves look better on you.  I want to give you the chance to dance, and enjoy moving to lovely music, in a way that will work well for you. But it's always your dance.

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!