What kind of choreography do you favor?

As part of a “homework” assignment from Danielle, she had me attempt to choreograph something. By talking to her, I have solidified more ideas of what choreography can be, like what you can do with it. I’m curious what people prefer when they see a dance. A dance in general, not just Middle Eastern dance.

 

Review: Ethnic Dance Academy Handbook

DaVid of Scandinavia suggested his book to me on Bhuz, when I wanted to come up with a means of cateogrizin my own moves. I like DaVid’s dancing, and he knows a lot of stuff. Besides, an ebook is only $15. Not too pricey. I did consider buying the print version, but at $40+shipping, I decided that the ebook was a better deal for me.

I started out with what’s called the EDA Handbook For Middle Eastern Dance. The EDA is the Ethnic Dance Academy, also known as DaVid’s dance school in San Diego. The book is full of goodies. It takes you through many aspects of Egyptian oriental, discussing history, technique, performance stuff (improv, how to choreograph), and professional career (teaching and/or dancing). It’s breadth is the best aspect of this book. It takes you through everything. Obviously, in 90some pages, the book isn’t an in-depth look at Egyptian Oriental, but the taste it gives is helpful. For newer dancers, I can see this book helping them understand what all is involved. The dance isn’t simply about wearing a costume and looking cute. I love how DaVid goes over the fact it’s important to practice, even the basics.

For dancers who are more well-seasoned, this book goes over nuances that can take you to the proverbial next level. DaVid writes very frankly about what it means to be a professional dancer and instructor. If you lack guidance in these areas, I’m sure the book would be helpful to read. Unless you spend a lot of time on message boards, I’m not sure where you would get this information, besides trial and error.

The only aspects of the book I would say were lacking are the technique explanations and this chart in the back. The technique explanations I found a little confusing. Perhaps it’s because I’m not familiar with DaVid’s teaching or that I don’t learn movement merely through reading. DaVid does provide some diagrams of the moves, but I’m not sure if I’d know what he was talking about if I didn’t know the move to begin with. I wouldn’t use this book to learn technique. I doubt DaVid intends for this book to be a means of learning technique.

The chart in the back was a very smart idea; it shows how everyone is interconnected. However, I found that confusing to read.

Despite those two issues, the wealth of information I got out of this book was worth it. I’m sure a print copy would be nice, but I’m squeezing pennies right now. David writes in an easy-going style. I hope he pens more books. I definitely recommend checking this one out to get an overall view of being a Middle Eastern dancer.

 

Recording what you know

There is no review today, since I’ve been working heavily on my big list of dance moves that I know list. If you were wondering why I’m creating this list, it is supposed to be helpful with improv and choreography. I figure I’m a visual learner, so perhaps seeing a list of moves that I know will help. For choreography, since some of it is sitting down to record what you’re doing, I figured I should have something to reference. I’m also, at the end of the day, someone who worked a lot in library/archival work and academics, so this approach is what I’m most comfortable with.

The project is a little more overwhelming than I initially thought. I finally have my categorization down pat (going with a list of “simple move” then moving onto “complex moves” that entail harder combos or layering, done by body part). Then I realized I should probably create a list of veil moves, then stick/saidi moves, etc.

Or maybe I should not, and just rely on my workshop handouts and things I already created. What do you think?

 

This time, it’s serious

I decided wherever I end up during fall 2009, I’m going to make a very big effort to dance more. I want to do something professional soon (in a few years or so) with dance, and I’ve been thinking about what I need to do this summer.

• I need to come up with some solid choreography. That will entail picking music, “mapping” it, and then dancing to it.
• I think I should be able to play zills. I’m getting better just doing walking steps and learning a few new rhythms, but I really want to dance with it. I think it’s important to have a strong grasp of a few typical props. I feel like my veil is pretty decent, my cane is okay, but I know zills is bit lacking with me. This is going to involve learning the rhythms as well.
• I definitely think my technique is stronger, significantly stronger, but I want to really add floorwork to it. I’m not a huge floorwork fan (I lose a lot of height if I’m kneeling), but again, I think floorwork can be dynamic and beautiful when used appropriately
• Style is something that I’m always working on. I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter dancer, ie. I don’t want to be a lesser version of someone famous. I want people to see me and feel like they’re seeing someone original, not “Hey, she moves just like ____!” I’m not saying I want to do crazy fusions or be sloppy, but I definitely think you can take several of the top dancers in any style and they will be distinct.

I was regretful my veil class was canceled this summer, but I think the extra 3 hours will be good for me to start really executing things. Does anyone have any experience or advice in how they took themselves to the proverbial next level?

 

Review: Fan Veil Workshop and How To Choreograph 201 Workshop

This past Sunday I went to Arabesque to learn about fan veil and how to choreograph more.

I admittedly know very little about fan veil or fan dancing in Middle Eastern dance. I’ve never worked with a fan before, and I certainly have never worked with a fan veil. I’ve only seen a handful of YouTube clips, like the one below.

Sonya, as usual, had a good handout. I’m a fan of handouts, since I don’t normally write as fast I’d like or I occasionally don’t write everything down because I assume I’ll remember. I really like how Sonya emphasized again how it’s important to dance with the prop and not just do cool tricks while standing there. One of the things I like about learning props from Sonya is that they don’t seem like a cheap gimmick to cover up poor dancing; they are really an extension of the movement. I also like her frankness; she admitted she knew fan, she knew veil, and she taught herself based on that knowledge. Seeing that fan veil is quite new (I think the earliest dated clip I’ve seen is from a few years ago), I imagine it’s not too common to find a fan veil instructor.

Sonya also went over the element of surprise and being a good performer; sometimes, one should not reveal the prop at the first beat of the music but dance and then slowly show it. After her talk about fan veil, we got to use ours. Unfortunately, I went with the cheaper fan veils (they’re getting reviewed this weekend), and they aren’t very good. They’re very hard to open, the wood isn’t nicely sanded, the darling little glued on stars fell off. But back to the class, the fan veils I had made the workshop a lot harder. Had I splurged and bought better ones, I’m sure it wouldn’t have been as hard.

The only good thing I can say about having these fanveils for the workshop is Sonya was able to point out that they’re handed. I never knew dance fans were made for left or right hands. Luckily, because mine were almost impossible to work with, I was able to borrow another pair. Sonya assembled a few cute combos into a choreography. They were a lot of fun, once I got them. If you’re looking to take a fan veil intro workshop, I think it’s best to have experience with fan dancing and also not buy cheap fan veils. Sonya reminded us that better props make working with them easier; I can concur that.

Choreography 201 was fun as well. We were expected to bring in music that we wished to choreograph. Only one person really prepared that. However, we all had iPods, so we could select music on the fly. Unlike the first part of this workshop, we had less planning. We initially sat around, discussing choreographic choices we can make with the music or important aspects of the music. The second half involved looking at making combos for the music. I liked the fact that it wasn’t heavy dancing and more discussion; I was able to see how everyone else’s minds worked and to sit around, talking about dance. I love talking about dance, hence all the time I spend on Bhuz and writing this blog.

I think I would’ve liked a little more structure with this workshop, but if you are working with other people’s music that you haven’t prepared for, I imagine it is difficult to do that. I think the most interesting music we used was the person who actually had planned what music she wanted and had thought about choreographing that piece beforehand. I think it helped guide Sonya into knowing how to answer the questions. This workshop has a lot of potential, although it is highly reliant on the people who show up and how much homework they do ahead of time.

 

Bellydance with Jillina, Vol 2: Lebanese Pop Choreography

In my search for getting to myself to dance, I decided to cheat a little and follow a DVD choreography. Jillina is the (or was? I’m not sure) head choreographer for the Bellydance Superstars, who are the biggest touring group in Middle Eastern dance right now. I myself am not a Jillina fan (I respect her and her talent, but it just doesn’t do it for me), but I have heard excellent things about her DVDs.

I really love the beginning message on this DVD. Jillina emphasized the emotional aspect the dance and making it your own. I thought that was a nice change from the DVDs I have seen, which don’t note anything but the technical side.

Jillina has calm demeanor throughout the video; it reminds me of a yoga instructor. She slowly goes through the moves without music and then does it in time with the music. I like that she did the demo in front of a mirror, where you could see her backside (or front, if she did a turn). She also notes where you could change the choreography.

As for the choreography, I think it’s cute. I’m not a fan of dancing a DVD choreography, just because the likelihood of someone else doing it is great. However, you can get some good combos out of it. I’d recommend this DVD to get some ideas of how to string moves together to make a dance.

 

I don’t know how to dance!

Since I finished my homework for the week at last, got some research in, I feel like I really have reclaimed my life. February (I know it isn’t over yet) as been a pretty bad month for me. I’ve been on pins and needles waiting to hear back from grad schools (nothing in either direction, and it’s been frustrating to say that when the few well-meaning people I’ve told I applied have asked). Schoolwork has been a bit overwhelming, partially because I’ve spent a lot of time in my lab. The stress has caused me not to sleep well. I’m trying to figure out what class I want to take next quarter; I already have figured out one, which is my thesis research credit. My bus pass was confiscated last Friday, because the transit authority accidentally disabled some of my school’s bus passes. In short, it has been rough.

And to top it all off, I had the dumbfounding discovery I don’t know how to dance. I mean that I do, but I spend so much time worrying about perfecting technique vs. letting loose that I find it rather hard to think up my own combos and choreography. I know that I’ve written about trying to choreograph. I think I attributed my issues to lack of inspiration in life or music, but I now think it has to do with the amount of time that I’ve spent doing drill-like stuff to get my technique down solid.

I think my concentration on technique stemmed from hearing people talk about Middle Eastern dancers wanting to dance and perform more than understanding technique, hence seeing sloppy dancers. I don’t want to be a sloppy dancer, so I’ve been working (not this month too much admittedly) on that. However, I think I’ve lost meaning or the big picture. Although clean technique is very important, having that emotional connection and not worrying about being perfect is so critical to Middle Eastern dance or performance in general. It is really what sets one dancer apart from another.

I also think the focusing on technique is about my time. It’s a lot easier to drill 30 hip drops on the right and 30 on the left than it is to think of a little combo incorporating that. There’s no originality in the former, whereas the latter requires more thought, like how to link move A to move B.

I am going to continue my technique drilling and such, but I’m going to work on feeling the music and combining moves. I also hope I have some happy news and less stress soon.

 

How to Choregraph

As my first small workshop this year, I went to Sonya of Arabesque to learn how to choreograph. I went, because I don’t really know how to choreograph and because Sonya is excellent at it.

I thought the workshop was great, even if it involved no dancing. Sonya had us all introduce ourselves. I thought that was a nice change of pace, since I have seen most of the participants but didn’t know much about them. The people ranged from amateur to professional.

This workshop really benefited me in a lot of ways. Sonya went over a combination of understanding music, performance aspects, and how to string moves together for a choreography. I thought it was an excellent blend of everything. Even though I have been playing around with choreography for a bit, I learned a lot about how to map music to understand its structure. I really liked the music discussion in general; Middle Eastern music is different from “American” music. Not only in how it sounds and the instruments it uses, but also the music has special names for the rhythms, count differently, etc. I have a formal education in music (I played violin for 6 years as a kid), but I never had training in music from a dance perspective.

I liked learning about all the possibilities (starting on or off stage, etc.) and the pros and cons. The workshop was fun, because Sonya encouraged and received a bit of interaction with the participants. They swapped many war stories about performing choreography. I thought this aspect was especially good, since they were working professionals and mentioned problems I had never considered, like some soundsystems play st a slightly different speed or are not calibrated to do stereo sound well.

The only bad thing I can say is I wish this were more frequent and in depth with instruction on music and performance. Sonya is  great to listen to and is so knowledgeable, and the other workshop participants made it enjoyable.

 

What makes good fusion?

I’m not an expert, but I have been watching/playing with a lot of fusion stuff. When someone brings up what is good fusion, the most successful fusion pieces I’ve seen

• Blend the moves well together. I’ve occasionally seen people perform fusion dances that do 1 minute of Dance Form A, then 1 min of Dance Form B. I like seeing a more seamless blend. I find layering looks best (an example of this is the Flamenco posture ATS takes), but it could be simply flowing one move into another.
• Know what you’re fusing/Do thoughtful fusion. A lot of bad fusion that looks sloppy I believe comes from a lack of knowing the original 2+ dances. Although I don’t believe you must be an expert, I think some knowledge beyond a video or YouTube is needed. I also think it’s important to be culturally sensitive or intelligent; you wouldn’t want to dance merrily to a song about death. For my own studies, I feel like studying tribal with a teacher has been helpful. There were some aspects of moves that I thought I understood because I had seen them so many times. However, either the people I’ve seen were sloppy or my eyes were not focused enough on catching some subtle but important differences.
• Make it look good! Don’t allow sloppiness to be your fusion.

Beyond that, I don’t have any strong “rules” about fusion. With Middle Eastern dance fusion, I think there should be a big chunk of Middle Eastern flavor in it. Else, you should just call it fusion dance and find appropriate venues. On the infamous Bhuz, people have discussing what constitutes Middle Eastern dance. I think that one of the issues is that people are calling anything “belly dancing”, which although I don’t use the term, I think everyone has an idea that it’s associated with Middle Eastern dance. You should be allowed to experiment, but I do believe you should call what you do appropriately. It would be like going to an ice cream shop and finding there is everything but what you were looking for.

 

2009 Goals

Happy 2009! I hope everyone had an awesome New Year’s Eve. I mself had a very quiet one in, which was nice.

Since I’m a goal-oriented person, here are my goals in physics and dance this year. I hope that they will guide me along.

• Do well in school. Enough said.
• Practice more and incorporate other things into practice. I basically want to start really incorporating more yoga into my practice. Since my schedule is weird because of school, I’m also looking to start using DVDs as a supplement to my practice. I will write about the change of mentality with that later.
• Complete my thesis defense by August.
• Save money to go onto a trip. I haven’t done a long vacation in a while, so this is really an award/treat for me.
• Practice Odissi on my own. I miss Odissi a lot, and I have the book that my teacher wrote, outlining many steps or arsas. I feel like I understand enough of the posture to at least be able to drill and keep the strength in my legs.
• Gain proficiency with tribal dance and learn Turkish Oriental. I love Egyptian Oriental, but I am interested in spreading my wings and trying other styles. Tribal I’ve been doing, but I’d love to be better. Turkish is very new to me, but I love the energy in it. Since my overlying goal in dance is to eventually become some flavor of professional, I’d like to increase my knowledge.
• Expand and refine folkloric and lesser known Middle Eastern dance. I loved what I did with Aradia while I was in Vegas. I want to learn whatever I can this year. Raqs al assaya (cane), melaya leff, anything.
• Attend as many workshops as possible. Disappointingly, there has not been much word about workshops in Chicago and making it to other workshops outside of Chicago is difficult. However, I hope everyone just got so busy with the holidays that they haven’t posted events yet.
• Practice zills and veil. I really would like to be better at both. Zills done well are just amazing and veil is so beautiful.