Review: Secrets of the Stage: Vol 3

Although it would’ve made more sense to start with Secrets of the Stage: Vol 1, I found  Secrets of the Stage Volume 3: A Performance Course for Belly Dancers by Michelle Joyce on the Bhuz Swap. The deal was good and it helped a lady out.

The Secrets of the Stage series is produced by Michelle Joyce, a dancer in the Bay-area. She has a very good company, dedicated to making quality DVDs for primarily Middle Eastern Dance. They’re a steal at about $20/DVD. She produced last week’s video, Fabulous 4 Yard Veils.

Secrets of the Stage is different from other DVDs or even classes, because the DVD is dedicated to performance, not dance technique. If you are a student of Middle Eastern dance and want to go professional, classes may not offer all the behind the scenes information it takes to be a professional dancer. Michelle uses real working dancers to help present topics that working dancers should know about. Most of the DVD is like watching a movie with the commentary turn on; there’s video in the background but a voiceover, discussing a topic. The topics for Vol 3 are “Dancing to Live Music,” “Inspiration and Creativity”, “Your Professional Image”, and an extra section on some Arabic that’s useful to know. Rather than discuss the DVD in bulk, I thought I’d go section by section.

• Dancing to Live Music. Like many dancers, I haven’t had the opportunity to work with live musicians. The dancers and the musician in this section gave hints and overall, encouragement, in dancing to live music. They all made very good points about how handle the situation so that everyone (musician, dancer, and audience) is happy. The only thing that would’ve made this section better is if the comments were more about what was going on on screen, rather than simply general comments about working with live music.
• Inspiration and Creativity. I liked this section a lot, since this is one of the many places I get stuck. I thought the tips were excellent, some new, some not new. Again, I would’ve really liked more comments on the actual performances of the dancers, rather than just general tips. I was hoping this would be more “Behind the Dance” type thing, where each dancer would explain her specific motivations and inspirations. I think my favorite part was when someone (I forget who) said that it’s important to create, even if it isn’t perfect. Being the kind of person who wants something perfect, I appreciate reminders that I should create, rather than wait and worry to make something perfect.
• Your Professional Image. This section contained info on makeup and photo shoots. The dancers narrated how she applies her stage makeup. The makeup section I thought I would be more helpful if they were more broad tips, like the difference between stage makeup and more up close work, like restaurants or how lights can affect how your makeup looks. The photo shoot advice was helpful for someone like me, who has never had a photo shoot. Michael Baxter (a photographer) provided information how to get the most out of your photo shoot, from setting the background to creating good poses. My only other comment on this section is I wish there had been more about creating a professional image. I thought the start was strong, but I would have liked to have seen some information on other professional aspects, like websites, business cards, ads, etc. Perhaps another DVD?
• Survival Arabic. Leyla Lanty is too cute! The survival Arabic is just a small taste of Arabic, to help dancers know a few words. I like languages and I like knowing what the lyrics are, so I wish that this section had been longer. Evidently, Leyla Lany teaches a longer survival Arabic workshop for dancers, so if you’re like me, strapped for cash and time, that may be a good supplement to this section. I found the section a little helpful; I know a few Arabic words, from teachers giving me a little crash course in words that frequently appear in lyrics. I didn’t know, however, the word structures or about the lyrics in general. Leyla Lanty seems to know a lot about it.

This DVD offers quite a bit. If you have no one around to help you with your budding professional career as a dancer, there is a great deal of information that is important and helpful. If you are more like me and have spent ample time on the Internet and learning these things via class and workshops, I don’t think it is as necessary but still has information to offer. I found the DVD very enjoyable to watch and liked hearing different dancers’ takes on their topics.

 

Happy 4th of July!

It’s Independence Day in the US. I unfortunately have decided to skip the barbeque I was invited to (weather in Chicago is quite dismal right now, and it looks like inevitable rain) to visit the people at the hospice and work on my thesis. I took yesterday off to lounge around a bit (applied for some jobs, watched a DVD that I’ll review tomorrow). It’s difficult to “keep my eye on the prize”, because I feel a little burnt out right now. I haven’t had much of a vacation in years. By vacation, I mean break of sorts. Just a week or so to sit around, walk places, etc. It would be nice to travel, but I think I need more relaxation than hop around a bunch of different places, feeling obligated to see everyone and everything.

Part of me considers quitting my volunteer work to allow for more “me” time, but it really takes about 3 hours out of my week, including travel. Not that much, in the grand scheme of things and supposedly visiting Alzheimer’s patients helps them with their loneliness. I could slow down the thesis, but I’m hoping I have job come Sept/late August, so I don’t want to have the adjustment of a new job with a thesis.

I really just need to keep myself going. Anyway, I hope everyone else has a relaxing holiday.

 

Update on the thesis

I’ve been chugging along on it, which is why I haven’t been posting. I have successfully (in principle) completed my experiment. It feels good to shut off the noisy equipment.

I’ve begun the analysis, which is a bit time consuming. The time is up to the strength of the computer/amount of data there is to process. There is indeed a lot of data to process. We’re using Mathematica, which is interesting and a big learning process. I have novice skills with Mathematica, but I’ve never loaded data with it and tried to process stuff. My advisor has created some programs in Mathematica to ease the process, but going through someone’s code is difficult. Everyone has their own lingo and inherit understanding. My advisor, unlike me, tends to not declare variables outside the functions (just straight up puts the numbers in and remembers to change them accordingly) and comment. I find it challenging to figure it out and then modify it for my ease.

I’m really working on hustling this out. Since my advisor goes on vacation soon, I want to ship him out with a first draft of my thesis. With him gone for 2 weeks, I figure I can take a break. Also, he may (I don’t know how much work he plans on doing during his vacation) be able to send corrections to me via email. Besides completing data analysis (should be finished with a lot of it on Sunday), I’m a bit held up with the theory section. I like using original papers, because sometimes books write in a way that I’m not sure if the idea is from the book’s author or the famous paper the book’s author is writing about. Unfortunately, the original papers are often in foreign languages and the translated ones are hard to get (not available via Google Scholar).

I’ll hopefully be able to write some more, but right now, my life is mainly my thesis, teaching, job hunting. I’ve been able to fit in the occasional break

 

Review: Fabulous Four Yard Veil by Shoshanna

Needing to fill my need of veil work, I picked up Fabulous Four Yard Veils with Shoshanna – Belly Dance. Shoshanna is of Arcata, CA; she is involved heavily with L.Rose Designs, since her mother is in charge of that. When I saw her last year for the Aida Nour show, she was very captivating. She and her veil are really partners; it isn’t just some prop to look cool. One of the issues with props of any kind is if the dance becomes a bunch of prop tricks vs. dancing. Shoshanna is one of the best examples of someone who dances with veil, not shows off a bunch of tricks while standing there.

Onto the DVD. You don’t need a 4 yard veil for this DVD, although some of the moves would look better with one and the claim is that if you can do something with a 4 yard veil, 3 yards should be a snap. The DVD is moderately long, which is nice, and the price is very reasonable at $20. I’m not sure how easy this DVD is without veil training; I have a quite a bit at this point. I found the DVD easy to follow. Shoshanna has good technique and works through a move fairly quickly, but I don’t think it’s impossible to get the gist. Veil moves are often best practiced in combos, since they have to transition really well. Shoshanna does go over some combos at the end.

There are a good number of moves. The best thing about this DVD is Shoshanna really does give you more bang for your buck. She goes over numerous moves, both skinny edge and long edge. Even though I have a fair amount of veil experience, I learned some new moves on this one, too.

Shoshanna has two people behind her, doing the same move that she does. The only difference is that they use different types of veil (for instance, one may use a half-circle) which is interesting to see; different veils move differently.

I’ve heard some criticisms that she speaks very quickly at times on this DVD. I myself am considered a fast speaker by some (I think it’s the difference between growing up on the East coast and now residing in the MidWest), so I didn’t have a problem. I liked that her speech speed was a little uneven. Shoshanna came off very natural.

During the DVD, Shoshanna goes over one of the more useful ideas: covering up mistakes and going beyond them. From what I understand about veil, veils have mood swings during performances. Since many people do end performing at some level (amateur to pro), I think it’s valuable to discuss what to do when something bad happens.

One of the things I’d change about it were the veil discussion (which veil works well with what) was a little brief, and I thought it was odd to follow the warm up with that. If you’re warmed up, you should continue on with exercise, not break. There are a few parts in the beginning where she is bent over and speaks too closely into the microphone; the sound difference was jarring to me.

This is a good choice to learn some veil moves or to hone in on your practice. I have some new ideas of moves to practice that I hadn’t done in class. I would definitely purchase another DVD by Shoshanna.

 

Back in the swing of things

I went back to dance class. It felt good, even though it was pretty empty. I realized how weak I’ve gotten from just sitting and working at the lab for the past month. I will need to train a little get back in the shape I was before quitting. Even though I physically can’t see it (still thin), I don’t think I’m as strong as I was; it makes sense to me, since one of my friends was pianist and her fingers would be weaker if she didn’t practice for a week. I guess you lose it if you don’t use it.

The reasons I’m fan of classes are I like the social aspect and having a real instructor. Unlike a DVD, a good instructor can immediately correct you, preventing injury or point out where you’re going wrong (hands doing something odd, line not looking nice, etc.). Going to class forces me out of my comfort zone a little. Since I don’t control the class, sometimes we end up working on things I wouldn’t normally work on but should. We have occasionally learned things I don’t know much about. I also like going to a dance class, because I feel compelled to improve. I feel like I’m being disappointing if I don’t show signs of improvement.

Despite how hectic I anticipate the upcoming weeks to be, I think I am going to make more time for myself and my dancing.

 

“Professional life” vs. Dance

I’ve been running around like crazy, trying to do be a great grad student (attending thesis defenses, scrambling to complete my own research), working, and job searching.

My dance and physical activity has been put aside, unfortunately. When I do think about going to dance class, it’s hard for me to motivate myself to take a 45 min bus ride one way and go. Besides being tired, there is just so much to do here that I can’t convince myself that 2.5 hours of my time (in principle that the busses are timely) is worth it, despite me not knowing where I’ll be in a few months. I’m planning on going to it on Saturday. To myself back into it, I’ve invested in some instructional DVD. I figure that they’ll be an excellent way to practice, which I sorely need.

On the thesis front, things are marching along. My data collection has gone really well, and I should be 100% complete my early (Tuesday) of next week. The only worrisome thing is that my advisor has been summoned to jury duty. He does not know if he’ll be needed, but the way life rolls sometimes- I’m afraid he’ll be put on a jury that’ll last for months. In any case, anything longer than a day would be a problem, since my advisor is leaving sometime late July for a 2 week vacation. Part of my hustle is to send him off (he is willing to do this) with a draft of my thesis. My goal is defend during the beginning of August.

Job searching- well it is what it is. I did write a teaching statement for the job I really want. I found writing the statement challenging but also important. It helped clarify some of my thoughts and beliefs on teaching.

As for my current job, it marches along. The students are not happy campers, but it is summer school after all. I don’t imagine learning a normally 10-week course in the span of 3.5 weeks is fun, either. They seem to be understanding things fairly well, but I think they just had their first exam, so we shall see.

And how is your summer?

 

The end of one class

My friend, K, was the last of his class to go on as a MS holder. His these was quite good. It was a short presentation (about 30 min), but it was solid.

I feel a little sad, because thesis defenses at this point are what funerals are to a lot of families: the only time we ever see each other anymore. Now that the bulk of them are finished (we have 2-3 three left, including mine), I don’t know when I’m going to see everyone next as a group. I hadn’t seen K in about 2-3 months. He isn’t my BFF, but I do like seeing him and just the old group of grad students and a former professor. There was more of a cohesive group. On a whole, we all liked each other. I could always count on having a good conversation with many of them.

While I look forward to being finished with my thesis, I didn’t look forward to everyone else being done. When I’ll see everyone again? I don’t know.

 

When the reviewer gets contacted

When I came back from my vacation, I was pleasantly surprised to see DaVid had contacted me and thanked me for my review, as well as informing me of the updates. What a great guy. Seriously, I think it’s cool to take an active stance in your business and not get upset when people don’t think you’re perfect. Another person who thanked me for the review was a person involved with the Global Girlfriend yoga pants. I like seeing people comment, if only because I like knowing someone is reading and not just clicking and closing out of this blog. It’s smart business for the business people; if I like someone and respect their work, I’m more likely to buy something they made.

I thought that I’d throw it out there tonight that I don’t mind and enjoy hearing from the creators of the things I review. Also, if you’ve created something relevant to this blog and would like me to review it, send an email to me (particularly if it involves free things ).

 

It is nice to relax

Despite feeling behind on my thesis (my advisor goes away for 2 weeks in July), I decided to take a small break and enjoy life. It sounds weird, because I just came back from vacation, but the truth is that it was a busy, stressful time. My SO is looking for an apartment in Boston-area, and it’s difficult. I’m just leaving it at that.

Not doing anything but some light shopping felt amazing. I skipped going to dance class (I didn’t want to deal with the bus today) and just lounged. The funny thing is that this evening I became motivated again to work on my thesis. Nothing major, just figuring out how to do bibliography notation in LaTeX and outling my theory section. I’m going to work on some dance projects after I finish writing this entry.

While continuing on with my education without any interuptions would’ve bene nice (if only for financial security), I think I desperately need a break. I feel physically tired quite often and stressed. I don’t think people acknowledge enough how important it is to take the occasional break. I’m not the most spiritual person, but perhaps life decided that I need to regroup, refocus, and most importantly, relax.

 

I have a teaching philosophy?

One of the requirements for a job I’m interested in requires a teaching statement. I did a thorough search and learned what one is: I have to write a 1 page (I received the page length from them) essay, detailing what values and such I hold in teaching, as well as how I execute them.

A tall order for me. I haven’t been teaching that long, and I’m still refining my technique and beliefs every day. The page length thing is another issue, but really, my mental block has been why I do what I do and writing about it in an eloquent manner. I think the exercise has been worthwhile, if only because the statement is forcing me to really think it over.