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. 

If you want to buy a veil...

I always recommend these three shops, because I know the owners personally, I know they provide excellent customer service, and I know they stock their shops from ethical sources.

FaridaDance.com - looks like she's only got one in stock. But she's been in Cairo, so presumably she'll soon be stocked up again.

BellydanceBoutique.co.uk - has a very good selection of silk veils right now. Cost approx £34

ZarasZouk.com - has a good selection of silk veils. Cost approx £27

I did look on Ebay, to see if you can get veils dirt cheap, but it turns out, not really! They were still coming in at around £25-£35.

I even looked at trying to buy the silk habotai fabric, but that's pretty pricey too, especially if you go for wide fabric. Honestly, you might as well check out Bellydance Boutique and Zara's Zouk, to see what they've got.

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. 

Spring Term - Week 10

Remember we only have one more session left, before the Easter break. If there's anything you want to go over, let me know and I'll plan it in for next week.

I started with some shimmy practice, including an exercise in varying your shimmy to suit your music. I used the start of this piece of music, by Hossam Ramzy:

The point of the exercise was to listen to the rise and fall of the music, and adapt our shimmy intensity accordingly. If the music was high-pitched or quick, the shimmy was smaller and tighter. If it was slower, deeper, then the shimmy was slower and looser. Try it! Nothing fancy, just listening to the music and trying to respond to what you're hearing. This exercise works with the first 3m 25 seconds of the piece, before the other instruments and the beat come in.

By the way, this musical instrument is called an Oud and it's basically a lute. Fun fact - the word "lute" comes from the arabic, el oud. 

This week we did a bit of technique work on Hip Twists - not too much because twists can lead very easily to getting a stitch! We did some twists on the spot, briefly, mainly for practice, and then used them as an accent, with a shimmy or with a walk. Then we used the twist as a travelling movement.

We also worked on a movement combination that I call a 1-2-3-Ee-Ee(!) This isn't a move I use very often in itself, but I really should, because it's nice and swingy. We did this on the spot and travelling.

Edited, at long last, to add the video clips...

I said the videos would be coming, but I was rather late with them, so my apologies about that. Here they are now. First the Hip Twists:

And now the 123-Ee-Ee

Summer Term enrolments

If you are intending to return to the course next term, the enrolment details are here. You can enrol online from that page, or you can call the Customer Service Team to enrol (0300 200 1044 - quote course no QHET415NZA - Bellydance Beginners).

As I mentioned in class, there will be some Technique work, but my aim is to help develop more Interpretation skills, and specifically to bring in dancing with Silk Veils. I have plenty of Loaner veils for use in class, and I'm planning on introducing them to you in the last session of this term (30th March)

Actually, that's not a silk veil, but this one is

 

Spring Term - Week 9

The lesson observation last week went very well and my manager was very impressed with how you are all progressing and how much you have gained from your studies. Well done, and thank you for shining right when I needed you to shine! 

Tonight we did a bit of recap work on the Camels and Shimmy Layering from last week, as part of the warm up. 

The new technique we covered were Hip Lifts and Shoulder shimmies (not together!)

Hip Lifts are part of the Sharp Family of Moves, but it can be hard, sometimes, to get that sharpness, because they aren't quite as punchy as other Sharp moves. They are closely connected with the Hip Drop (remember when you have to do your prep for the drop by lifting the hip), and also the Hip Push (because it's another way of making the "empty" hip move upwards for the accent). The Hip Lift is more muscular and intense. It's not a move we use very often on its own, but it works really well as a travelling move.

Shoulder shimmies are lovely addition to your upper body repertoire. Remember the movement is rotational, so your shoulders are moving forward and back. Try to keep your shoulders open, by focusing on the backward part of the move. Otherwise you can get quite hunched up. Don't worry about the speed so much - this is a much harder move to speed up than our hip shimmies. Shoulder shimmies are usually used as an embellishment, or an accent in most bellydance, but it is used quite a lot in Saudi (Khaligi) and Iraqi dance.

Bellydance Holidays

I'm very excited because I've just put down my deposit for my next trip to Cairo!

I'll be going in October 2024, so I've got plenty of time to prepare. I'm going with Kay Taylor of Farida Adventures, and it's this holiday here. I can highly recommend Kay's holidays, you get to see fantastic dancers, experience the culture and history of Egypt, and for those that fancy it, you can shop till you drop!

Kay is in Cairo right now, ready to host a Farida Adventure holiday. In fact, one of my online friends from New Zealand will be going out there for that, so I'm hoping to hear from her with all the gossip.

There are other bellydance holiday providers out there, but in the last 15 years or so, all my holidays there have been with Farida/Kay, and they've always been fantastic.

Here are a few memories of my last holiday in Cairo, just before the Lockdown.

Zara

Alla

Dina

Sahar

Soraya

Spring Term - Week 8

This week, we worked on Shimmy Layering, and we were building on the Abdominal work we did last week, to move towards the Camel (or Undulation).

Layering is essentially where you have two (or even more) things going on at once. So a Shimmy layer is where your basic movement is the shimmy, and you add something to it, in this case, a sideways extension or a body twist. To start with, as with any other shimmy, we can do it nice and slow and easy, so that we can see how the shimmy and the layer work together. Then we can build up speed.

The camel is one of the loveliest bellydance moves (well, *I* think so), and it really is "belly" dancing! The abdominal work with weight shift that we did last week is the base for the camel move, and the key to it is the pelvic roll generated by the combination of the weight shift back and the abdominal pull in & release.

Home practice - try either the Shimmy layers or the Camel.

My Warm Up Music

 I had a request for sharing my warm up music, so here's the info...

I have a standard set of three pieces of music, that I use all the time. It helps me to judge my timing, it creates a sense of familiarity and comfort, it helps everyone get into their dance zone. It's the music that I use for the basic Mobilisation part of the warm up.

The first piece is Caravane, by Radar and Christophe Goze
Spotify link 

The second piece is Marco Polo by Loreena McKennitt
Spotify link

The third warm up song is Desert Dancer by Nickodemus (feat. Andrea Monteiro)
This one is quite hard to find - this is a remixed version that comes up in searches, but I'm afraid I haven't been able to find an online version of the mix that I use in my warm ups.
Spotify link

After the Mobilisation part of the warm up, I go on to the dance warm up, which is about pulse-raising and practising basic technique and hopefully revisiting moves that were covered in the previous week(s). That music changes every week, depending on my mood and maybe on the musical styling I want to focus on in that lesson. 

If I'm using music that you like, and want to know what it is, just ask! C is always asking me about music, and I can usually find it in Spotify on her phone at the end of the class, and if I can't find it immediately (usually because it's a song in Arabic, and I need to use a bit more searching, copying and pasting than I can easily do on someone else's phone!), I can email the details later.