So its been a bit over a week since I started my personal challenge of at least 20 minutes of dance or dance related projects each day. I had intended to write every day, but time is at a premium so I guess I'll be doing summary posts every so often.
Sunday 2/10 I cleaned my at home dance space, well mostly. Its clean enough to dance in but my DVD collection is tumbling off the shelves they are stacked 3 deep on and onto the floor, so getting that area organized is on the list for this weekend.
Monday 2/11 I worked on my home work for MY-FBDV.
Tuesday 2/12 Did some more homework for MY-FBDV and taught my beginner and intermediate classes. Part of this homework was creating a survey - if you have a few minutes and could take it I would appreciate it. Its short, just 10 questions http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GWDS9CN
Wednesday 2/13 Did yet more homework for MY-FBDV and recorded a video journal for the class.
Thursday 2/14 I watched Sedona Soulfire's fan veil DVD, did even more homework for MY-FBDV and taught my advanced and troupe classes. We started choreographing a new fan veil number and we were finding the first 30 seconds very challenging, we all had different ideas of how that section needed to be done. I think we've finally got something that will work even if its not necessarily the personal style for everyone. I do feel that the rest of the song will be smoother.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
90 days of dance - getting started
I am doing Alia's 90 day Dance Party. I tried it last fall and didn't get very far, so I'm starting with a different goal. My goal is to increase the amount of time I spend on my dance in all its aspects. Whether that is the DVD I'm working on making by taking the My First Belly Dance Video with Nadira Jamal, the online class I'm taking with Rosa Noreen, Delicious Pauses, or the classes I teach. It might mean doing website updates, it might mean working on costuming. I just want to spend 20 minutes a day on dance or dance related projects. Hopefully, as I progress through the 90 days, I'll modify that and get more actual dancing in, but I figured I should start with what I'm know I can do.
So day one which was Feb 7 - I taught tonight. My troupe was choreographing a new number together (group choreography is always fun) so lots of improving while playing with the music to figure out what we liked. The good news is the routine is choreographed AND I think most of it have it memorized! Usually we finish the choreography portion and then I have to "teach" the number to the troupe even though they helped create it.
And in response to a question about how we group choreograph:I choreograph through improvisation. Dance to the music, find things I like that fit the music or that I find myself repeating in the same spot and that becomes the choreography. I tell my students that if they listen to a song I have choreographed they can almost hear the song saying the steps. When learning the choreography we will sometimes sing the steps while doing them which reinforces the ability to hear the music saying the steps. I've never had a student who couldn't hear the step once the instrument that is "saying" the step was pointed out.
So to do a group choreography, I put on the music and we all dance a section. Then we stop and talk about things we did that we liked. We dance it again trying out some of the things others came up with. Discuss again, keep what the majority liked (which might just be a 2 count step) and then repeat until we have a musical phrase choreographed. Then we move on to the next phrase. We always start the song at the beginning so we are dancing the part that is choreographed together and then all improvising together to the unchoreographed section. I hope that made sense.
Day 2 - Feb 8: I set up to shoot, shot my video journal for the MY-FBDV class and posted it to the forums. I also read through the forums to see what others were doing.
Day 3 - Feb 9: I worked on designing some costuming I have had the components for for a while and not done anything with it.
So day one which was Feb 7 - I taught tonight. My troupe was choreographing a new number together (group choreography is always fun) so lots of improving while playing with the music to figure out what we liked. The good news is the routine is choreographed AND I think most of it have it memorized! Usually we finish the choreography portion and then I have to "teach" the number to the troupe even though they helped create it.
And in response to a question about how we group choreograph:I choreograph through improvisation. Dance to the music, find things I like that fit the music or that I find myself repeating in the same spot and that becomes the choreography. I tell my students that if they listen to a song I have choreographed they can almost hear the song saying the steps. When learning the choreography we will sometimes sing the steps while doing them which reinforces the ability to hear the music saying the steps. I've never had a student who couldn't hear the step once the instrument that is "saying" the step was pointed out.
So to do a group choreography, I put on the music and we all dance a section. Then we stop and talk about things we did that we liked. We dance it again trying out some of the things others came up with. Discuss again, keep what the majority liked (which might just be a 2 count step) and then repeat until we have a musical phrase choreographed. Then we move on to the next phrase. We always start the song at the beginning so we are dancing the part that is choreographed together and then all improvising together to the unchoreographed section. I hope that made sense.
Day 2 - Feb 8: I set up to shoot, shot my video journal for the MY-FBDV class and posted it to the forums. I also read through the forums to see what others were doing.
Day 3 - Feb 9: I worked on designing some costuming I have had the components for for a while and not done anything with it.
Hopefully tomorrow I will get my at home dance space cleared out so that I can actually do some dancing during the coming week :)
Friday, January 27, 2012
Mayas with a roll up
For today’s challenge we are going to reverse last week’s layers and combine down to up undulations with up to down figure 8s (also called Mayas). First make sure you are familiar with both movements, if you are its time to mix things up.
Start by doing a Maya on the right hip, after you center, roll up to a chest lift, then do the left half of the Maya and roll up again. Keep repeating the move, alternating between the right hip and the left hip for your Maya.
Try adding a shoulder shimmy the whole thing, then a hip lift shimmy to the whole thing. If both shimmies work for you, you can switch it up by doing the shoulder shimmy on the down to up undulation and the hip lift shimmy on the Maya halves.
Start by doing a Maya on the right hip, after you center, roll up to a chest lift, then do the left half of the Maya and roll up again. Keep repeating the move, alternating between the right hip and the left hip for your Maya.
Try adding a shoulder shimmy the whole thing, then a hip lift shimmy to the whole thing. If both shimmies work for you, you can switch it up by doing the shoulder shimmy on the down to up undulation and the hip lift shimmy on the Maya halves.
Drilling the ¾ shimmy
No matter which version of the ¾ shimmy you are working on learning, this is a drill that should help. If you take classes from me we do a version of this drill every week of intermediate.
Since the hardest part of doing a ¾ shimmy is speeding it up to tempo, the easiest way to work on that is to use a song that slowly gets faster. I have two that I use in class, the first is Fellahin / Karachi / Ayoub
by David Macejka. At about 33 seconds in to the song it gets very slow and speeds up for the rest of the song. Step on every beat and make sure you get all three articulations of your shimmy in during 3/4s of the beat with a pause on the last quarter beat. The other song I like to use is Zar Dance (Ayyub 2/4)
by Solace. This song starts slow, speeds up then slows back down to speed up again twice. This allows you to regain your ¾ timing if you have lost it while speeding up the movement. At the end of Zar Dance the music is faster than it is at the end of the first song mentioned. Ideally you would work with both of them.
If you prefer a simple beat to follow you can download a click track series like Simple Click Tracks Vol. 1, 50-150 Bpm Subdivided (mp3 Metronome)
instead. A click track series has 10 minutes of essentially a metronome sound at various beats per minute. Start with the slowest one and when you are starting to feel comfortable with it, advance to the next track (preferably with a remote so you don’t stop your motion). If you like the click track idea but don’t want to mess with having to manually advance the speed, you can use a program like audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to splice the various click tracks together making sure you use full measures for each speed so you do the same number of steps on each foot.
Since the hardest part of doing a ¾ shimmy is speeding it up to tempo, the easiest way to work on that is to use a song that slowly gets faster. I have two that I use in class, the first is Fellahin / Karachi / Ayoub
by David Macejka. At about 33 seconds in to the song it gets very slow and speeds up for the rest of the song. Step on every beat and make sure you get all three articulations of your shimmy in during 3/4s of the beat with a pause on the last quarter beat. The other song I like to use is Zar Dance (Ayyub 2/4) by Solace. This song starts slow, speeds up then slows back down to speed up again twice. This allows you to regain your ¾ timing if you have lost it while speeding up the movement. At the end of Zar Dance the music is faster than it is at the end of the first song mentioned. Ideally you would work with both of them.If you prefer a simple beat to follow you can download a click track series like Simple Click Tracks Vol. 1, 50-150 Bpm Subdivided (mp3 Metronome)
instead. A click track series has 10 minutes of essentially a metronome sound at various beats per minute. Start with the slowest one and when you are starting to feel comfortable with it, advance to the next track (preferably with a remote so you don’t stop your motion). If you like the click track idea but don’t want to mess with having to manually advance the speed, you can use a program like audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to splice the various click tracks together making sure you use full measures for each speed so you do the same number of steps on each foot.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Hurdle stretch
This is one of my absolute favorite stretches. I could hang out in it for a really long time. If you are in my workout class, intermediate class or advanced class you have probably done this one with me. This stretch concentrates on the hamstring, but will also stretch your low back (which is the part I like).
Sit with your legs out making a V. Bring one foot in to your groin so you have one leg strait and one leg bent. First rotate your upper body and stretch over the extended leg with the same side arm. You can grab your knee, calf, ankle or foot, bring the opposite hand to the knee and hold. When you feel like you are ready to move on, sit back up and then lean forward with a straight back, hinging at the hips between the strait leg and the bent leg. Place each hand on the same side leg. Come up and rotate over the bent knee and stretch forward keeping your sit bones one the floor. Repeat the whole series on the other side.
Adding Zils to Monday's Combo
I wrote this and then forgot to post it yesterday.... ooops :)
For today’s zil pattern we will add zils to yesterday’s combo. The combo was:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first
The zils will be 3s ending in a single on the grapevine and 7s on the bicycle hip circles, so you will get:
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR R
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR R
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR
Altogether you will have:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop (3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1)
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first (7,7,7,7)
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop (3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1)
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first (7,7,7,7)
For today’s zil pattern we will add zils to yesterday’s combo. The combo was:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first
The zils will be 3s ending in a single on the grapevine and 7s on the bicycle hip circles, so you will get:
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR R
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR RLR R
e&a1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a5e&a6e&a7e&a8e&a
RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR RLRLRLR
Altogether you will have:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop (3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1)
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first (7,7,7,7)
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop (3,3,3,3,3,3,3,1)
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first (7,7,7,7)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Combination with Grapevine and Bicycle hips
Today’s combo will use grapevines and unweighted bicycle hips.
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first
Of course you can reverse the bicycle hips and the combo becomes:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going forward first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going forward first
You can do both directions to Haboussou
by Hakim or if you prefer a different song for each direction of bicycle hip, you can try the second direction to Inta Omri (DJ Mix)
by Elie Attieh.
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going back first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going back first
Of course you can reverse the bicycle hips and the combo becomes:
8 counts grapevine to right ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on right hip starting down and going forward first
8 counts grapevine to left ending in hip drop
8 counts (4 circles) unweighted bicycle hip on left hip starting down and going forward first
You can do both directions to Haboussou
by Hakim or if you prefer a different song for each direction of bicycle hip, you can try the second direction to Inta Omri (DJ Mix) by Elie Attieh.
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