Taster Workshop - 28th January

In this Taster workshop, we covered some Beginner level technique:

• Circles & half circles
• Figure 8s, plain & reverse
• Hip Hits (aka Side to Sides)
• Forward Back step
• Hip Pushes, including the Step-Push travelling variation
• 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 at the start, 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.

Spring Term - Week 3

Today we started with a bit of Abdominal work, pulling in using different speeds, and also using the Halfway hold and continue.

Then we practised the Choreography a bit more, consolidating the first half.

The last technique work we did was on Grapevines and Cross Steps. There's a Grapevines video in the playlist already, and here's the Cross Step video.

Home practice suggestion

Work on your Abdominals, use the videos in the playlist, and try to practise in a mirror, so you can check that what you think is happening is actually happening. You can click on the Abdominals tag to the right, in the Labels word cloud. 

Edited to add:

I said I'd put the music video for Ma Tigi Hena up. This is the music we used for the warm up dance and the final Follow Me But With Some Improvising dance. 

The singer is Nancy Ajram. She's Lebanese, but sings in Egyptian Arabic. She's had loads of hits, and her music is very danceable. You could try practising to Ah Wa Noss:

Or Ya Tabtab:

Spring Term - Week 2

Today we worked mainly with Sharp Movements.

We worked on the Step Push. This video goes through the basic Step Push, the Cross Step Push (from 2m20s), and the two new versions, the Twist Step Push (from3m50s) and the Pivoting Step Push (from 6m02s). I didn't include the stepping backwards options, but you can do this yourself very easily with the basic and the cross step versions.  

We also worked on a new member of the Sharp Moves family - the Taq. This is a hip hit that moves vertically upwards, rather than sideways like our usual hip hits. The key to the Taq is that it is powered by straightening your knee, so you need to make sure you have a soft bend to the knees in the first place. Also, remember you are straightening UP, not straightening back. You don't want to wrench your knees, you're going to need them for the rest of your life! The last thing to remember is it's a flat footed move.

This video covers Taqs from 3m39s. I've added the video to the Playlist.

Home Practice - Choreography to Hayatak Fi Soura

Try different ways to learn/practise the routine...

You can try practising the choreography mentally - run through it in your head, note where you struggle to remember what comes next, so you can tell me about it, and we can practise that. It's usually the transitions that are hard to get. I find that once I've started a section, I can usually remember it to the end of that section - the problem is getting into it in the first place, or remembering what the next section is! 

You can walk the routine through, using the choreography notes, without the music, so that you can do it at your own pace.

You can listen to the music here on Spotify or here on Youtube, and make sure you know which section is which, and visualise what you're doing in the different music sections.

You can talk with someone else about the routine. Telling someone something is a really good way of cementing what you know about it. If you have a patient partner, who doesn't mind hearing all about your classes, you can tell them. Or maybe you have a pet you can talk to! 

Still thinking about Auditory learning styles, you can "sing" the routine while you dance it. 

Or you can watch the video, here, and copy along:

Spring Term - Week 1

Welcome to new students! Welcome back to returning students!

This week was a consolidation lesson, just to get us all back into the swing of things after the Christmas break. We worked on:

• Figure 8s, horizontal and vertical
• Hip drops and hip pushes

We also ran through the start of our Choreography to Hayatak fi Soura. This music is in the Youtube Playlist, as well as the video of me doing the routine with my back to the camera/class. There are Choreography Notes for the routine too, if that will help you remember:

Click on this link to bring up the pdf file, or Right-click on the link and select "Save link as ..." to download the document to your device.

Home Practice

The theme that joined all the tech work was making sure we're doing the move that we think we're doing! It's very easy for our bodies to default to a move we know better, when we're trying something new or something we're less familiar with. So the home practice suggestion for this week is to try and build up your "body consciousness" about which move you're doing.

Either practise Figure 8s, or hip drops/pushes. Just one at a time.

Fig 8s - Are they horizontal? If so, are you circling backwards, or circling forwards? Are they vertical? If so, are you circling in towards your middle, or outwards?

Hip Drops/Pushes - Drops? If so, are you pulling the hip up with your side muscles (obliques)? Are you letting the hip drop on the beat? Pushes? If so, are you pushing up on the beat? For both, are you keeping your torso upright?

Practise in a mirror, if possible, so that you can check what you see in front of you is actually what you think you're doing.

Use the videos from the YouTube playlist, to remind you of the moves, and think back to what you remember from the class.

And finally, if you don't have time... do a 30 second burst of just one of these moves, but be clear about which one it is. You can do it while you're brushing your teeth, or while you're waiting for the kettle to boil. You don't need to change into practice gear, or find music to work with. You don't even need to take your shoes off. Just do 30 seconds. If you can do 30 seconds, twice a day, that's 7 minutes over the week. It all adds up!

Edited to add:

The music we used in the Practice session was Badala Zamana by Zohra. Feel free to use it for your own home practice. It's only 3 minutes....

Happy New Year!

Bellydance Beginners classes - Thursdays, 7.00-8.15, starting 12th January

Classes will run weekly from 12th January to 30th March, with a half term week off on 16th February.

We will be developing Technique, with new variations on the moves we know, and some new moves, as well as reinforcing the basics from last term. We will be working on our choreography to Hayatek fi Soura. We will also be starting on some more personal improvisation work, with some exercises to build up your personal dance confidence.

Mini-show

I'm planning on holding a mini-show, just for friends and family, so that we can actually "perform" our  Hayatak dance, and so that you can show what you get up to on a Thursday night! I need to get confirmation from the Guildford centre that it will be ok, but assuming it is, I'm aiming for it to be on Thursday 23rd March, after our class, at 8.30. It would only be short, maybe 20 minutes or thereabouts. It will be very low-key, no pressure. Participation is entirely voluntary, but I hope you'll find it's fun.

Admin

On checking back over last term's blog posts, I found the embedded videos have got all jumbled up. I'm going to go back to try and tidy things up, probably posting some of them as links rather than as embedded videos to stop it happening again. Please bear with me while I'm doing the editing - it might take a bit of time!

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.

Sahira's 12 Days of Belly Dance Christmas

This is just a little Heads Up for some fun bellydance freebies in the run up to Christmas.

Sahira is a lovely American teacher, I've signposted you to her videos before. She's got an amazing free offer for the Twelve Days of  Christmas! Free classes, tutorials, resources, community events... And a lot of fun!

It all starts on 8th December, Thursday of next week. If you're interested, you need to sign up for it here. I have.

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!

======

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