BE PREPARED Whether you’re improvising or performing a choreography, if you are confident in what you are presenting, you’ll be less inclined to panic beforehand. This means knowing your music inside and out. A good way to train your ear to recognize every nuance in the music is to start it in random places and try to decipher where in the song you are. If you’ve choreographed your dance, this will also help you learn to match your moves to the music rather than remembering the choreography as one long string. Decide what you want the audience to feel when they see your dance and concentrate on that while you’re backstage instead of thinking of your teacher sitting in the front row.

PRACTICE IN YOUR COSTUME This is one of my performance-prep mantras which I drill into all my students because dancing in a costume is completely different than dancing in leggings and a t-shirt! You don’t need to have the stress of worrying if your costume will stay put (or on!) while you’re waiting to dance. Your costume should give you power, not make you worry.

SMILE! Did you know some telemarketers are trained to smile while they talk on the phone? That’s because its nearly impossible to project negative feelings when you have a genuine smile on your face! Start smiling backstage. Dancing is FUN! The more you remind yourself of it, the happier you’ll feel and the happier you feel, the more relaxed you’ll be. Even if you haven’t convinced yourself backstage that you’re having a great time and are completely relaxed, you’re audience will never know the difference if you are smiling brilliantly at them.

PERFORM OFTEN…AND THEN SOME MORE I guess this advice is rather like “the hair of the dog that bit you…” Granted, there are some professional performers (dancers, actors, singers) who still freak out before their shows. However, for most people, familiarity with backstage nerves reduces their impact. Once your first performance is out of the way, sign up to dance again right away! Take every opportunity to dance—ask your teacher if your class can perform for each other. For me, the most intimidating audience is when I perform for my fellow troupe members!

ANALYZE THIS If you’re still nervous despite being prepared, well costumed, smiling brilliantly, and being on your 34th performance, its time to analyze why you’re still suffering from stage fright. The most common reason people get so nervous is fear of failure and being embarrassed by that failure. This is a valid concern. No one wants to fail in front of a group of people, be they friends or strangers. And certainly no one wants to look foolish, especially when they’re wearing a sparkly costume that reveals more than your average street clothes do! But you have to remind yourself that only by taking a risk—be it performing, starting a new job, or getting married—only then will you grow!

ADRENALINE So this leads me to the best advice I can give you. There is no physiological difference between excitement and fear. The same adrenaline courses through your veins whether you love roller coasters or hate them. So instead of viewing those butterflies in your stomach as fear, tell yourself, “Wow! Am I excited to perform!” It won’t take long for you to convince yourself and then you will welcome that adrenaline rush as proof that you are ready to go out and wow your audience!

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/

Layering Shimmies
My favorite moves are shimmies and my favorite shimmy drill goes something like this: begin with single-time, soft shimmies. Increase to double-time. Now progress to what I call jello shimmies. These are shimmies in which your knees are working frantically, but your quads, gluts, and torso are soft—they shake like jello. It takes a while to embrace the jiggle, but once you do, you’ll own the move. Now, maintaining that jello shimmy, shift your weight onto the balls of your feet. You’ll probably notice that your shimmy changes, becoming smaller, a little tighter and sharper. Now shift your weight back to center and then shift back to your heels. The shimmy becomes earthier, more bottom-centered, even bigger. Come back to center. Now push through your hips, sliding your hips (keep shimmying!) to the right, then left. From the center, push forward, now back, side to side. Push forward, side, back, side. Smooth it off into a circle. KEEP SHIMMYING! Mastered that? Now shimmy through a twisting figure 8. Still want more? Add a vertical pelvic roll, or a pelvic undulation. Don’t forget to shimmy through all this! How about layering a shimmy on top of a maia or a guishi. If you’re still shimmying, you’ve probably hit six or seven minutes and are feeling pretty good, aren’t you?

Isolating Hip Moves
One of my favorite drills for working on isolation comes from the amazing and exquisite (not to mention downright friendly) Aziza. First, begin with my technique for separating the upper body from the lower: take a deep breath, feeling your ribs lift, expanding the distance between your lower ribs and your hips. Now exhale, but leave your ribs lifted. With that elongated distance between ribs and hips, you will be able to move one without moving the other. On to Aziza’s drill: twist your right hip forward and then slide the hip out. Bring it back to center, then slide it to the right side. Back to center, the twist the right hip back before once again sliding it out and back to center. Repeat several times on the right, and then the left hip. Next twist the right hip forward and effect a sharp hip pop. Continue to side and back as with the hip slide. Try this technique with maias, guishis, virtually any hip movement. The key here is to extend the movement as far out as possible without pulling the upper body into the movement. Make sure you repeat each exercise at least a minute per hip per move. Each time you do this drill, try to make the hip movement longer, larger, and more precise, while keeping the upper body completely immobile.

Egyptian Downs
Over the last few years, I’ve been trying to make my style more distinctly Egyptian. I’ve studied the dance from many regions of the Middle East and have learned their “cabaret” as well as folkloric styles, but what I’ve always wanted to nail was that tight, crisp, yet endless shimmy of the Egyptian dancer. Here is a drill to help with those Egyptian hips: To get what I call “Egyptian downs” where the move does not require any step or over-exaggeration to accomplish a crisp, definite down, you begin in proper posture. Bend the right knee, straightening the left. This drops the right hip. However, you’ll probably notice that the move could just as easily be a left hip lift, right? Ok, to give it that sharp, obvious down, return to center. Now slide your right hip ever so slightly to the right and drop it down. Make sure to contract your gluteus, quadriceps, and lower abdominals on the right. Repeat to the left. Now do it again, but initiate the slide and the drop at the same time. Imagine that you are drawing a triangle with your hips—you belly button is the top of the triangle and each hip is going to draw one of the sides. The more limber you are through your obliques (side of your torso) and over the hips, the more definition you’ll get in your downs.

Egyptian Shimmies
At this year’s Ya Halla Y’All, Jillina introduced me to the best drill to perfect those straight-legged Egyptian shimmies. Sit on the floor with your legs extended out. Now flap your knees up and down as fast as you can—this is what the Egyptian shimmy will feel like when you’re standing. It matters not if you sit up straight or rest on your arms, but if you do rotate forward on your pelvis, you get a great lower ab workout as well!

Source: http://www.farfesha.com/

Warm up-to be on your toes, literally and figuratively, you must be warmed up! The drummer will flex and stretch his hands-you must flex and stretch your body. The most important stretch I do prior to a performance is the side-lean which stretches all of the muscles along your torso and hips. There are many variations of this stretch and I do them all: before I put on my costume, once my costume is on, in the wings waiting to enter the stage.

There are some basic drum solo techniques which I covered more extensively in my “How to Nail Your Drum Solo” article and workshop. Let’s review them briefly.

You must own several sharp moves. A sharp move is one in which there is strong emphasis on the end of the move, giving it a percussive feel. Some excellent sharp moves include

Sharp hips (ups and Egyptian downs)

. Pelvic tucks

. Chest pops

. Sharp hip twists

Shimmies are the core of my drum solo work (both recorded and live). Be fluent in them and have a variety of them. A couple of shimmies to master are

. ¾ ups and downs

. Jello

Isolations are crucial because they allow you to accent different sounds in the music. They can be sharp, but are often smooth. Practice the following:

. Hip circles, figure 8s, slides

. Chest circles, figure 8s, slides

. Keep ‘em separate. In other words, don’t let your chest move when you’re supposed to be isolating your hips. Stretch, stretch, stretch to achieve this!

Layering allows you to be all the different parts of the drum-the dums, the teks, the kas. Layering is the technique by which you perform two moves simultaneously. You might layer one part of the body on top of another, or you might add two moves to one body area. For example, a slow snake arm atop a fast jello shimmy, or a ¾ hip shimmy while executing a smooth maia. Here are a few layers to work on

. Shimmy slides

. Shimmy 8s

. Shoulder shimmy/chest undulations

. Snake arms/choo choo shimmies

Stamina is crucial because you want to look your hottest for the finale-especially with a live drum song. Practice your routine at least four times straight through. Good for cardiovascular health as well as performance prep!

Now let us turn our attention to the specifics of dancing to your live drum! First and foremost, I believe that dancing with a drummer is performing a duet. You are not on stage alone and you shouldn’t ignore your partner.

First, position yourself so you can easily see the drummer. Use eye contact and eye-hand contact to communicate (by this, I mean, be able to see what his hands are doing-your eyes, his hands).

Next, arrange the set. First, decide how you will begin.

. In place or off stage?

. Slow or Fast?

. Start with the rhythm/set a cue start/just go for it!

What are you wanting to dance? This is where you decide the theme of your piece.

. Decide with your drummer the tempo and emotion. This will help you decide on the rhythm you choose. A chiftitelli works great for a slow drum song, while in my opinion, you can’t beat a beledi for a fast number.

. Do you want to have a shimmyfest or spotlight your isolations? This will also influence what your drummer plays-for non-stop shimmies, you’ll want lots of fast rolls, for isolations, the drummer can actually play a little more freeform so you can dance to the “melody.”

. Sections in the piece: Establish if you wish to slow down in the middle, have pauses, speed up at the end.

Do you have any special highlights? The drummer needs to know so he can watch for you to implement your show-stopper. Things you might include are

. Props-yes, you can use swords, canes, veils, fans!

. Accompanying zils-make sure the drummer plays a rhythm you can play on your zils!

. Floor work/backbends/cartwheels. Determine if you’ll need a rhythm or tempo change to accommodate such moves (ok, maybe don’t do a cartwheel.).

How will you end the piece? Remember, this is what the audience will walk away remembering. You want to nail it even if you flubbed the rest of the piece! If you plan no other part of the song with the drummer, plan this. Things to establish are

. Slow and drawn out or fast and kaboom?

. Set the rhythm or pattern of the ending

. Plan cues to indicate finish (for example, a nod, a point, a verbal cue)

. Plan a final pose and hold it, even if your drummer goofs and keeps playing-he’ll quickly stop and it will look better than if you try to cover by starting to dance again.

Get in tune with your drummer. Remember, he is your partner in this dance. Ideally, you should practice with him before a performance, but sometimes this is not possible. Sometimes, you might not even know his name! Whether you’ve performed many times with the drummer or just met, there are some things to help your synchronicity.

. Watch his hands-see when he’s getting ready to hit the dums or rolls

. Anticipate patterns in his music-if you miss the first ka-pow, get ready for the 2nd (and often 3rd and 4th)

. Plan visual cues-nods, distinctive moves. These cues will indicate when to slow down, speed up, or end.

. Interact with your drummer-use humor, facial expressions, winks so that audience sees a duet.

. Watch his hands!

Plan your dance. So what if it’s improvisational? A professional always prepares for the overall presentation, even if she is allowing the music to tell her how to move.

. Avoid too much traveling-unlike with recorded music in which you are the sole star and can plan big traveling steps, live drumming is a little more unpredictable. You don’t want to completely upstage the drummer and you don’t want to dance right over the music (for example, if you begin to spin across stage to his roll and he has already moved into a sharp staccato pattern).

. Try to hear all the sounds of the drum (dums and teks) but don’t limit yourself to only hitting those. For one section, hit the precise rhythm, for another, place a smooth move that flows with the rhythm.

. Be warmed up and ready to experiment and have fun!

. Use pauses to your advantage-”stop” dancing to change your positioning

. BE THE MUSIC! This is the most important and dynamic time to make your body reflect the music it is hearing. When the drummer softens and slows the rhythm, you soften and slow. When he is crisp and loud, you be sharp and bold

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/

Your entrance is, of course, important because it will set the tone of your performance-it will tell the audience if your dance is going to be playful or serious. However, the audience is going to spend the first several moments not watching your dancing-they’re going to be studying your costume, listening to the music, and settling in to enjoy a show. So start out slowly. It really doesn’t matter if you begin on stage or enter to music, just take your time.

Next, define your performance space by traveling around it. This applies whether you’re dancing on a stage or in a small restaurant. Now choose your stage placement. Center stage is the strongest visual point on the stage, so utilize it. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use other areas of your venue, but use it for your dynamic moves.

Most importantly, know your music. Whether or not you decide to choreography your piece, the audience will be able to tell if you are one with the music. Furthermore, the music will tell you how to dance-when to travel, and when to stay in place.

For variety and to showcase different moves, use different angles so that you are not always facing straight on.

One of the hardest things to learn is how to interact with your audience, but this is what makes the difference between a good performance and a truly memorable one. Eye contact, facial expressions, and laughter all draw your audience into your dance.

It goes without saying that you have to have a strong finish. Know when your music is going to end. Plan a dynamic pose, and then prepare a graceful bow and exit. Above all else, enjoy yourself! That is what belly dance is all about.

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/

The pairing of Middle Eastern Dance moves to non-Middle Eastern music is one example. Flamenco or Spanish-style music is often used and the progression to this pairing is quite logical, given the ties of Moorish Spain to the Middle East . Many bands who play Middle Eastern music have also fused their rhythms to Spanish-style songs (listen to Gypsy Caravan’s Migration track 11 and Moon Over Cairo’s Amayaguena). The result is certainly pleasing and allows for a wealth of interpretive movements.

There is also the pairing of belly dance moves to North African music such as Algerian and Tunisian. Then there is the fusion of the styles of Middle Eastern dance within the regions of Middle Eastern music. For example, Egyptian movements performed to Turkish music. I used to dance with a Jordanian drummer who didn’t like that I used music from Mezdeke (Turkish), even though he approved of my dancing. Likewise, I spoke with a Lebanese dancer who thought her movements were vastly superior to the Egyptian style of dance even though she used Egyptian music. Along the lines of this definition (although it could be argued that this is yet a third definition of fusion), is the pairing of Raqs Sharqi moves to Raqs Balady music and vice versa.

There has long been a tradition of a Raqs Sharqi (or Oriental) dancer paying homage to the dance origins by including a move or two of the folkloric in her routine. I am enamored of Troupe Salamat from Arizona who, while American Tribal in their style liberally borrow Oriental moves to incorporate into their routines. With the spread of technology even the Ghawazee of Egypt, I recently learned, are gaining more access to dance videos and are adopting moves not traditionally in their repertoire.

Perhaps what this whole question comes down to is this: What are the boundaries of Middle Eastern Dance and Music? When I wrote the first sentence above, I could have answered you definitively, yet as I wrote of my experiences with various dancers and musicians, I realized that as this dance grows in popularity, its borders are dissolving and it is becoming a world dance. I realize many purists will cringe at this idea but I contend that we will not lose the authenticity of Egyptian/Lebanese/Turkish dance because these styles are so beautiful and have survived for so long. We will simply have that much more opportunity for expression and learning. And we will have that many more CDs and videos, and costumes to buy (oh dear!).

By Michelle Morrison
http://www.farfesha.com/

These letters stand for the following tips:

SHARP:
You must be able to move your body percussively, so you’ll need to develop the basic dance techniques to do so. Work on Locks, Pops, Drops, and Stops. For example, practice your hip shimmies in the soft, relaxed style, working only through the knees. Then tighten your glutes, your quadriceps, even your abs when you move from side to side. This will give you crisp, punctuating hip movements. You should see the difference in your hip wrap: coins or beads will vibrate when doing soft shimmies, but should flip up when doing sharps. Both the pelvis and chest allow for pops and drops that are perfect for hitting accents. Besides the usual sharp movements, however, try breaking down a normally smooth movement. For example, I like to take a chest undulation and articulate it into four crisp points (front, arch, roll down position 1, roll down position 2). I’ll also begin a chest undulation, but when I reach the pinnacle of the circle (arch), I’ll finish with a decisive chest drop. You can also articulate your snake arms, making them appear almost robotic in their movement. Start with one shoulder and lift it sharply. The shoulder will drop as you bring the elbow up and then drop it, dropping the hand straight down at the same time. Now flick the hand back up. Reverse the action on the other arm.

HIPS:
For me, hips are the foundation of a good drum solo performance. Practice big and little hip movements, fast and slow variations. Work on breaking big movements down into small, sharp ones (like we broke down the chest undulation and snake arms-try it for figure eights, hip circles). Master your lightning-fast shimmies and then slide them side to side, transferring your weight from foot to foot. Add a shimmy to virtually any other movement like a forward pelvic roll or a figure eight. This is particularly effective when done to a drum roll or when the drum is so fast, you couldn’t possibly hit each beat. Try putting your weight on your upstage leg, freeing your downstage hip to hit ups, steps down, circles, vertical figure eights. This will focus the audience’s attention on one specific point and allow you a brief respite from all those shimmies! Another technique involves beginning a smooth hip movement on your right hip (like a Maia) but then switching to a sharp movement (like sharp drops) when you move to your left hip. Very effective when the drum has a soft roll followed by one or two sharp pops.

ISOLATIONS:
Isn’t this dance all about controlling your body and isolating the different areas of your body? Really work on keeping your upper body still while your hips and legs move (and vice versa). Also, polish your slow movements. Contrary to what a drum solo initially tells you, it does not need to be all sharps and stops. A slinky undulation or rolling maias lay nicely over a soft drum roll. To better isolate the parts of your body, make sure you are well stretched-particularly the muscles along the sides of your torso. If I could only do one stretch before a performance, it would be the side lean with my arm over my head. This stretches from the ribs to the hips and really loosens your entire torso up. When these muscles are tight, it is nearly impossible to isolate your upper body from your lower. However, when these muscles are nice and long, your chest can float effortlessly over choo choo shimmies and your hips can be a rock beneath your oscillating chest. Another technique to employ is the posture lift: take a really deep breath, filling your lungs completely and feeling your chest lift naturally. Now exhale, but keep your ribcage lifted. You have now increased the distance between the ribcage and the pelvis by up to two inches. Instead of your ribs essentially sitting on your pelvis, you now have a long buffer (your waist) between the two working parts.

MOVEMENT:
While I usually stay in place for a drum solo-the nature of the song just calls for that kind of attention-you can travel a bit. Practice travelling steps that you can accomplish quickly like three-step-turns and short running steps. A good time to travel or turn is during pauses in the music or on drum rolls. Try also just moving to a different position-with your back to the audience, side to the audience, or on the diagonal.

MIND/BODY:
Your mind must be actively involved not just in knowing your dance vocabulary, but in knowing the music inside and out. I know many dancers who will perform to a piece of music they’ve only heard a few times, but with a drum solo, you simply can’t “fake it.” Also, try to hear it as more than simply drums. Try to sing the drum solo on your own (”badump-ba-dump-dump, dum da-dump-dump,” raising and lowering your voice) and hear the melody in the drums. Hear all the pauses and the level of the drums (soft or loud). Feel the mood of the piece. While most drum solos are high energy, some are playful, others fiery, others passionate, some all three.

YOWZA FACTOR:
If you choose not to choreograph your drum solo–and to be honest, while I usually choreograph my other dances, I really enjoy the spontaneity of improvising to drums-try planning out a couple of dynamic combinations for particularly noticeable parts of the drum solo. For example, if the song has a long fast roll followed by several sharp doom-doom-dooms, try a twisting shimmy and then hit the accents with a pelvic tuck, stomach tuck, chest pop (so the sharp moves travel right up your body). If you have a couple of killer combos, it can really add punch to an improvisational piece and will relieve you of having to come up with something new every time.

FUN:
If you don’t have it, your audience certainly won’t. Need I say more? Ok, I will. Even if you’re nervous, you should enjoy your music, enjoy your dance. Otherwise, what are you doing on stage? Practice your smile just like you practice your shimmies. You do not, however, always have to smile. Do an eyebrow shrug to a drum pop, look surprised at your own chest pops-the audience loves that one because they won’t feel guilty about looking at your cleavage if you make them laugh.

ENERGY:
See FUN. Work on putting your heart and soul into your moves. Does the drum solo say raw power? Let the audience see it in your face and the strength of your hip movements. A hypnotic, trance-like drum solo should be approached with a completely different attitude and energy, but attitude and energy need to be there regardless of the mood of the piece. Your facial expressions will make all the difference in the world as to how your audience responds to your dance. I cannot tell you how many times I have worked my shimmy off in a drum solo only to have an audience member has said they loved my facial expressions! I used to think I was doing something wrong until I realized that many in our audience don’t really know enough to appreciate all the hard work and technique that goes into a performance, but they do recognize and identify with a laugh, a wink, a pout. Your more experienced audience members will appreciate your hard work AND your facial expressions.

STAMINA:
You must be physically prepared to do a drum solo or your exhaustion will show and your moves will become sloppiest just when they need to be sharpest. This is true for any piece of music you wish to perform, but especially for the intensity of drum solos. You can’t rely on performance adrenaline to carry you through, either. That stage-presence rush may keep the energy in your heart and the smile on your face, but if you aren’t fit enough to finish the piece, your muscles simply won’t be serving you like they should. I usually dance a 5 minute drum solo a minimum of 4 times in a row at each practice session. I know if I can have as much detail in the last run through as I did on the first, I’ll be able to give my best in performance. I know that many instructors advise their students to take up another form of aerobic exercise to build stamina. In my experience, I’ve found that a loop tape of 20 minutes of drum solos will have me sweating sufficiently and is a whole lot more fun than a step class! One final tip on stamina-try daily deep breathing exercises. Inhale slowly and deeply, feeling your ribs stretch with the breath. Hold it for a few seconds and then slowly, slowly exhale. Repeat at least two more times and do this at least three times a day. You will be amazed at how this conditions your lungs for high-intensity work outs like drum solos.

TIME:
While this is largely subjective, I really think that a drum solo over 5-6 minutes is just too long for you to dance to and for the audience to listen too. While I love drums, the richness and complexity that all the other instruments provide is just as valuable and your drum solo will stand out even more if you haven’t drummed it to death! I hope these tips help you enjoy and perfect your next drum solo!

By Michelle Morrison
http://www.farfesha.com/

To recap that earlier article, I said that the most important element of a performance is your ability to hear—and as a result, allow the audience to see—the music. A dancer who does not hear her music I refer to as “dancing OVER the music,” which means that while her moves and technique might be flawless, they do not at all reflect the song she is dancing to. She could be dancing to any old piece of music instead of interpreting a specific song for the audience.

So how do you make sure that the audience is seeing the connection between the music and you?

When you first start to listen to your music, you’re probably just trying to decide if you like the piece or not. The tempo (speed of the music), the melody (the tune) and the overall emotion of the song will affect you. When you find that piece of music that speaks to your heart or your hips, listen to it over and over and over until you can sing it in your head—in other words, you know what is coming up next. This will be the biggest step in dancing WITH the music: simply knowing what it is going to do next.

Now sit down and play the song one more time. Analyze how the music makes you feel. Decide what you want your audience to see when you perform. Is the music fast paced? Perhaps you want to deliver a high-energy, friendly piece that shows your audience how much fun it is to dance. Perhaps the song is slow and you wish to deliver a contemplative statement that will allow the audience to see into your heart. This step of your music breakdown may come instantaneously. You may not need to spend more than a few minutes accomplishing the first two tasks (1—how the music makes you feel, and 2—what you want to say to your audience). Or, the music may be more complex and you really have to think about its impact on you and your impact on your audience.

Once you know your feelings and your message, then you get technical, breaking down the music as I indicated in the first article.

What happens most often when a dancer is dancing over the music is that since she doesn’t know her music inside and out, and has not decided what she wants to say in her dance, she will dance out of sync with it. For example, she may get stuck dancing to the drum backbeat in the song and completely miss the sweeping orchestration that is the main melody. Or she will not be prepared in her music and start a slow movement when the next phrase of the music is actually a fast section, or keep doing one successful combination right through a series of accents that breaks up two phrases in the song.

Each dancer hears different things in a piece of music. The fully orchestrated chorus of a song often tells me to travel around the stage. Drum accents to me sound like sharp down hips. Ney taqsims sound like floaty travelling steps accompanied by chest circles or snake arms. But to another dancer, she may hear the same sections and think “3/4 shimmies in place; 3-step-turns; full body undulations with leg vibration.” The point is, if you match YOUR movements to the music and change them when the music changes, then you will accurately reflect the music to your audience. What’s more, when you’re prepared to change your moves when the music changes, it will actually be easier to dance because the music will tell you what to do.

While in general I think it is important to know music’s technical terms (a topic for another article…), you do not need to know what 4/4 time refers to or what syncopation means as long as you understand the heart of the music. We don’t ask our audiences to know everything about belly dance, just to understand what we are saying to them when we move!

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/

Now the disappointing headliner may usually dance with the music and perhaps she really was having a bad night. Most professional dancers only attain that status by being superb performers and a superb performer WILL dance to the music. But I have encountered dancers who were too lazy, busy, or confident to take the time to really listen to their music when preparing their dance. (I plead occasional guilt to the first two cases.) I have heard advanced/professional dancers MANY times brag that they only picked out their music that morning and never practiced with it. (Can you imagine? Yikes!)

The most important element of a performance is your ability to hear—and as a result, allow the audience to see—the music. The painful phenomenon of a dancer who does not hear her music, I refer to as “dancing OVER the music.” What this means is that, while her moves and technique might be beautiful, she could be dancing to Om Khalthoum or Puddle of Mud, so unconnected is her performance to her music. And I have seen beginning or inexperienced dancers so completely become their music that the audience was utterly enthralled, completely unaware that she only knew four moves! It takes extra effort to leam your music and dance accordingly, but it is well worth it.

Here are the critical elements you should be able to distinguish in your music:

• The introduction (Some songs have long drawn out intros, other songs seem to get moving right away.)
• Slow versus fast sections of the song
• Single instrument taqsims versus fully orchestrated phrases
• Stops in the music (these may be percussive or soft, but if you don’t hit them, your audience will notice!)
• Layers in the music (for example, distinctive drums overlayed with soft violin strains)
• The ending (Is it distinctive and abrupt or drawn out and fading?)

Below, I use the song “Tiky Boom” from Emad Saayed to share my technique for really learning my music. First, I listen to my music with pen and paper in hand. I write what I hear. In other words, I note the major changes in the music.

Now not everyone likes to count music, but I really feel it is imperative that you’re able to. I am by no means a musician, but I can determine which phrases are 8 counts, which are 4 counts, and which are the odd 11 counts.

Etc…

Now that I know what the sections of the song are and how long each section is, I listen to it over and over and over and over. I don’t practice to it at first (well, if I am enamored with it, I will, but just for fun—the task of listening I do without dancing). Instead, I really make myself hear each section and change and stop. I listen to it until I can sing it without the CD. (I don’t sing very well, but then 1 know that I know the song and anyway, my daughter doesn’t complain too much.) Then and only then do I get down to the business of DANCING.
To Choreograph or Not to Choreograph…
Having written a previous article on choreography, you may think that I will insist you write down hard and fast moves. On the contrary, I only choreograph about half of my solo pieces. I really enjoy the improvisational side of belly dance and sometimes my mind refuses to label one piece of music with one particular move. However, I always break the music down the same way whether I’m improvising or choreographing.

When I do decide to choreograph a song, I simply take the additional step of assigning appropriate moves to the various sections. (Please forgive my shorthand below—while the moves described make perfect sense to me, they probably appear as nonsense phrases to you! But you’ll have your own shorthand…)

When I choose to improvise, then knowing what section of music is coming up allows me to be prepared so I don’t hop into a bouncy hip circle when the music is preparing to play a soft ney taqsim. Even more importantly, you won’t miss those crucial transitions and stops in the music.
Think of yourself as part of the orchestra—the visual part. The thing most important to AVOID is dancing OVER the music.

And always keep in mind your goal: Make Your Movements Match the Music.

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/

“I always do the same moves over and over when I dance!”
” I get nervous and forget everything I was going to do!”

Sound familiar? It seems all dancers reach a point where they can see a beautifully executed dance in their mind’s eye. They practice and practice; they know the music; they have a large repertoire of moves. Yet when the lights go out and the music comes on, their mind freezes. The adrenaline kicks in, blocking that huge vocabulary of moves from reaching the hips, the feet, the arms! The ¾ shimmy goes into overdrive, filling spots in the music that were supposed to be slow and floaty with lots of graceful turns. Though your friends and family tell you it was a good performance (and truly, it probably was), you’re not happy with it because you didn’t say what you had intended in all those hours of practice. Sigh.

If this is a familiar scenario for you, it’s probably time to actually choreograph you next performance. I know, I know. You’ve learned six choreographies at various workshops and they just don’t work for you because a) it’s to hard to remember those moves, b) the moves were beyond your skill, or c) the whole choreography thing is just too confining. You prefer to let the music tell you what to do and you allow the energy of the audience to affect your dancing. Let me quote a pop psychologist here: “How’s that workin’ for ya?” The same actions will generally reap the same effects. Change your actions and you can change the result.
Beyond this, there are many other reasons to choreography your dance. Choreograhy allows you to polish your moves. Once your piece is together, you don’t waste valuable practice time coming up with new combinations. You can rewind your music over and over until you get that three-step-turn with a body ripple and chest pop and know that it goes in exactly the right spot of music.

Assembling a choreography can also force you to push yourself a little harder than you would if you were relying on the moves you already know. In each new dance I compose, I plan a new move that I’ve learned. This makes me truly own the move—something I may not have been disciplined enough to do without the deadline of an upcoming show!
I have also found that when I have a choreography—and have really learned it, put it in muscle memory (i.e., I’m not spending the whole song trying to remember the next move), then my mental energy is free to pour into the emotions of my dance. I am able to smile directly at an audience member, I can wink when the music gets coy, I can ooze power or sensuality. All because I’m not frantically trying to think of what to do next. When I’ve nailed a choreography, I never walk off stage unhappy with my performance.
So you’ve agreed to choreograph your next song? Great. Now how do you remember it? Here are a few techniques I’ve discovered which help me.

First, know your music, know your music, know your music! You can pick out your spot in even the most repetitive song if you know it well enough. Other memory techniques include writing the choreography down (on paper, in the computer, or, my favorite, with dry erase marker on the mirror in the studio!). Talk the moves as you dance them. This also works when you’re not dancing them—listen to the music in the car and say the moves with it. You’ll even start to develop your own language, “Circle, circle, bump ba dump.” A word of caution: I swear by the dancing-in-your-head-while-listening-to-your-music-in-the-car technique. But you’ll find that just because your brain may have the choreography memorized, but that doesn’t mean your body will. You may get home, put on the music, and then be frustrated because your hips are way behind. You’ll still have to put in the hours dancing each move. (Oh yes, other drives may also honk at you when you’re sitting still at a red light swirling your veil in your head). Mostly, you have to train your brain to remember. I promise, the more you choreograph, the easier it gets—both to develop and remember! Plan for a slip and don’t panic if you do forget something. That’s when you go to your old standby (that ¾ shimmy, remember?) and then think of where you can pick up your choreography. Finally, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. There is really no substitute for dancing the moves six times in a row (or ten, or twelve!).

All right, you say, but what about the benefits of improvisation. Aaah, I reply, there are just as many reasons not to choreograph! When you own your repertoire of moves, and you have an equal number of songs that you like, you can dance on a moment’s notice and without worrying about your performance space. If you perform at a restaurant or frequently do bellygrams, you know that you cannot rely on being able to be in place before the music starts or have the lights fade at the right time. Often in venues like these, you simply cannot be tied to certain moves at certain times because you have the added factor of audience participation (which is a great part of belly dance).

Training your mind and body to work together, quickly, on the spot is a great way to stretch your dance creativity. Thank goodness for videos because I’ve often had people tell me they loved a combination I performed (when in fact, I had no idea what I’d done or where the inspiration for the move came from!). Mind you, this level of comfort with your dance and music doesn’t just happen. You must practice even more than if you choreograph! Just like all the muscles in your body, you have to train your brain to think quickly, to interpret the music as you go. You also MUST MUST MUST know your music! You cannot (let me say SHOULD NOT) pick out a song off your new CD on the way to perform. That is a good exercise to practice at home, but to dance well to a song, you’ve got to know what is sounds like, what it feels like, and when it changes. When I plan to improvise (is that an oxymoron?), I break my music down just like when I’m going to choreograph it. That way, I can see the musical patterns (for example: 32 counts of ney followed by 32 counts of full orchestration, etc.).

Finally, improvisation allows you to play off the energy of the evening, to express the emotions you have right then, as opposed to the tale you have prepared to tell. There is a completely different current of emotions when you are reading the audience and they are reading you, you are interacting on a more intimate level than if you are dancing your story as scripted.

So, you now ask, which method should I employ? Choreography or improvisation? My professional advice (which, with $17 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks) is to do both! Choreograph your next three dances. Then plan to improvise your next three. Choreograph a dance, but leave a chunk in the middle for improvisation (I simply cannot bring myself to choreograph a drum solo—I just love the spontaneity of them too much!). Listen to your improvised song and choreograph a dynamic entrance or a nice combo for the accordion taxsim. Work both sides of your brain as you work both sides of your body. You’ll find that the creative stretching makes you a better dancer and performer!

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/

Now, who has ever complained that when they get out there to perform, they find themselves doing the same moves, over and over? Who has ever worried that they were boring or that they were bored with their own dancing? Again, just as I suspected.

Choreography is the solution to the latter complaints and it is not truly the evil beast of the former. Even if you are a die-hard improvisational dancer, choreography can make you a better dancer. Why? Choreography forces you to really listen to your music. Whether you count your beats, or simply note the changing phrases (or both), when you are preparing to choreograph a piece, you must break down your song and know it inside and out. Listening to the CD in the car three times before you perform it is, obviously, not going to cut it. Choreography allows you to challenge yourself to master a new move instead of allowing muscle memory to rely on the moves you have already perfected. Choreography allows you to consider details (like arm placement, line of sight, angle of movement) that you might otherwise forget. But enough of why I think you should choreograph (if you’ve read this far, clearly you’re considering it). Let’s address how to approach it.

Entrance: If first impressions count, then your entrance is important. But soloists need to approach their entrance differently than a duet or group.

Soloist: The audience is going to spend the first several moments of your dance looking at your costume, getting familiar with your music, and settling in to watch your show. So don’t waste 47 moves in the first 20 seconds of your dance. Allow your music to build anticipation. It does not matter if you begin on stage or enter to your music, but rarely should you bolt into your dancing like a racehorse—the audience is simply not going to see it. Instead, enter with a graceful dance walk, add some three-step-turns, or a few spins of your veil.

Duet/Group: When you have more than one dance to get on stage, you need to enter more quickly as the audience has a lot to look at, and, obviously, you have more people to get out there before you begin the actual dance. Utilize both sides of stage and even try coming through the audience when the venue allows. When choreographing for my troupe, I like to allow 4-8 counts of the music to play so we can prepare and then enter with a great deal of energy. Groups are an entirely different energy than solo performances and their entrance should reflect that.

Stage Placement: Where you end up after entering is important too. Everyone in the audience needs to be able to clearly see the dancer/group or they will quickly lose interest.

Soloist: Center stage is the strongest visual position. Display your most dynamic moves here and try to end your dance in center stage as well. However, don’t just plant yourself there. Travel, using the downstage corners, circling the performance area, drawing the audience’s gaze from side to side.

Duet: Center stage is still the strongest point, but you don’t want to have one dancer on center. Rather, have center between you. This will help keep the stage balanced. However, you don’t have to stay in the horizontal plane—use the vertical or staggered horizontal (side by side, but one person steps forward, the other steps back). You also don’t want to get too far apart—the audience should be able to watch both of you rather than focusing on only one of the dancers at a time.

Group: The most difficult and most fun! You need to make sure everyone can be seen, but there is absolutely no need to stay in a straight line. Use Vs, inverted Vs, staggered lines, circles, U’s, diagonals. Basic rule of thumb: if a dancer can’t see the audience, the audience can’t see the dancer. Each dancer needs to respect her troupe members and pay attention to make sure she’s not blocking someone with sloppy placement.

Audience/Dancer Interaction: Here’s where the piece comes to life. Planning how you relate to your audience is just as important as planning out when to shimmy and when to travel. The mood and meaning of the piece is part of the choreography.

Soloist: Your interaction is with the audience. You have a symbiotic relationship with them—you give emotion to them, they give energy to you. Unless you are doing a deeply introspective piece, you need to acknowledge them in your dance. Use smiles, winks, point at someone. Even if you are focusing inward you need to give the audience something. They are there to see you, after all.

Duet: The audience is acknowledged, but you need to be attuned to your partner. Duets can be on a wavelength with each other that can allow for really dynamic performances. But you must know what is in your partner’s mind and hips. To help develop this report, as an exercise, establish who is a leader at specific times in the dance and then follow that leader, no matter what she is doing.

Group: Again, you are giving something to the audience, but your focus must also be on your fellow dancers. Watch your leader. Use nonverbal and verbal communication (trust me, the audience won’t hear it over the music). Laugh with each other, wink at each other. The audience will enjoy you enjoying each other. The audience will feel like they are a part of the troupe if there is a great deal of camaraderie on stage. However, keep in mind that each dancer is responsible for knowing the choreography. It will show if one dancer is trying to follow the others and her focus will be on the moves rather than the group presentation.

Finale: If first impressions count, know also that audiences will remember most what they last saw. So regardless of what happens in the rest of your performance, make sure you have a flawless finale.

Solo: This is your big moment, know you music know your music, know your music so that when it ends, you end. Plan a pose, or if you’re exiting to music, plan a dynamic exit like spinning off into the wings or shimmying with your veil billowing out behind you—you get the idea. Most of all, make it dynamic. Plan your bow—dance your bow so you don’t drop your dancer pose to bend over and then stomp off stage. Have it be part of your dance.

Duet: Watch your stage placement so that the audience can focus on the both of you. A nice ending could involve a pose where you mirror each other (one with her right arm up, the other with her left). Perhaps end facing each other, grasp hands and backbend (nice for connecting with your partner).

Group: This is a good time to turn your attention from your fellow dancers to the audience with a final pose. If the music is fast and ends abruptly, try a quick grapevine with all of you facing in a circle and on the final beat, the front half of the circle turns to the audience, crouching down so the back half of the circle can be seen. Practice practice practice so that everyone ends at the same time. My troupe recently changed a drum solo/sword dance we’ve done for over a year because we simply could not consistently spin in synch at the end. The song sounds like a spin, but a strong finish is more important than the whims of a drum solo!

Compiling the choreography: Now you know the basics of a choreography—but how do you fill in all the moves.

First, interpret, borrow, and steal anything that looks awesome or fits your music. Watch videos, go to shows, take workshops. Now, write those awesome moves down so you remember them when it’s time to choreograph! I’ve come up with the most fabulous moves while listening to music in my car, but when I get home and put on the same piece of music, I cannot remember what on earth I meant to do! I’m sure it’s happened to you, right? My solution has been to have a spiral notebook that I just fill with moves. I try to explain as thoroughly as I can what the move is and draw goofy diagrams—anything to jog the memory.

Next, use combinations—a 16 count combo, used in two different directions fills a lot of time. Try to avoid doing the same exact move over and over (and over and over), but changing the angle, elevation, or arm position of a move can make it seem to the audience like a new move while reducing the number of actual moves you have to remember!

Start out simple. (See train your brain below) It won’t be long before you’re adept at putting together a complicated choreography, but approach it gradually. When I choreographed my first troupe piece, it took me about a month to compile and the troupe about two months to learn! Now I can usually choreograph in one or two sessions and the troupe can pick up the bulk of the choreography in a night. So your first time out, don’t create a choreography worthy of Raqia Hassan and then expect yourself to remember it. Build up to it.

Challenge yourself, but don’t use moves that you haven’t mastered. Let me clarify. I will usually include a move in my choreography that I have not mastered in order to force myself to master it and this technique works superbly (I no longer feel like I’m going to lose my lunch after extended periods of spinning!). However, if you limit the number of moves you don’t yet own to one or two and fill the rest of the program with moves you have mastered, you’ll be happier with your results.

Don’t choreograph from start to finish. Use an outline of the music and fill in the blank spots as you are inspired (see sample outline below). This less-structured approach frees your mind and allows the creative process to flow rather than worrying about getting just the right entrance followed by the ideal stage placement.

Juicy extras: A stellar performance is in the details. Use your eyes to direct the audience’s attention. Choreograph when you look and where you look at given points in the dance. Plan where your arms are, plan if your hands are soft or flexed TO EACH MOVE. In other words, don’t just place them beautifully out to the side and leave them there. Plan the personality of the dance. For troupe pieces, I used to come up with a simple story to tell (village girl comes to town, flirts with boys as she fill bucket with water) just so we would have a mood to keep our faces engaged.

How to remember all those moves: First, know your music, know your music, know your music! You can pick out your spot in even the most repetitive song if you know it well enough. Other memory techniques include writing the choreography down (on paper, in the computer, or, our favorite, with dry erase marker on the mirror in the studio!). Talk the moves as you dance them. This also works when you’re not dancing them—listen to the music in the car and say the moves with it. Train your brain—I promise, the more you do this, the easier it gets! Plan for a slip. This is easier for soloists, but duets and groups can establish in advance what they will do if someone (or everyone) forgets something. Finally, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. There is really no substitute for dancing the moves six times in a row (or ten, or twelve!).

I know, it sounds even more daunting now than when you read the first paragraph, but I promise that you will be happy with your results!

By Michelle
http://www.farfesha.com/