Remember back to your first few month of bellydance class – or maybe you are still in those first few months! Every week you are presented with a few new places to try to coax your hips to go. Some are easier than others. One side works better than the other. That’s the way it is for pretty much everyone. The first 6 to 9 months of bellydance is really building your foundation. Good posture, […]
Sometimes you just need an idea. Whether it’s something fresh to motivate you for a personal practice session, planning a class or something to spark a solution for a section of choreography. Those are good times to think out of the box. Having a few prompts on hand can help you get started. Let’s look at one and some ways you can use it. Prompt: Choose a shape and see how many ways you can express it. We […]
Does your brain get it? Anyone who’s been in a class or workshop with me has probably heard me say this when checking in with students. Once I’ve presented and broken down a combo or section of choreography, I ask if their brain gets it before we move on. So what exactly do I mean by that? In short, your body takes orders from your brain when dancing so if your brain doesn’t fully understand the instructions […]
Let’s begin at the end this time. Have you ever set to working on a bellydance choreography and found that you competely lost track of time? Ideas are coming, you’re jumping forward and backward in the music as you find the movement that is the perfect fit of musicality and style. Ahhh… flow is a wondrous thing. The “flow” state, as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his TED talk, is that lost-in-the-work feeling you get […]
Bellydance is great exercise, but if you are a serious dancer cross-training is essential to your progress and longevity in dance. Even if you put in several hours of practice and performing each week, you may not hit up all the muscle groups you depend on for a solid performance with enough intensity to keep them at their peak. Also, cross-training – designed properly – will work a wider variety of muscles than your dance so […]
