Joyful Practice

This inspirational post gives excellent advice on overcoming discouraging inner thoughts. While written from the perspective of a musician, the author's ideas can easily be applied to dance.

Over the years there has been something within myself that has been detrimental and negative to my playing music- the persistent feeling that I am not playing as well as others, and even worse that I’m not playing as well as I think I should be playing. These thoughts never fail to make me feel unhappy and inadequate. So why do I keep allowing myself to think this way if it only makes me unhappy?

The answer is that such thoughts become a habit. Habits, even negative habits, are within our comfort zone. It is comfortable to fall into habitual thinking because new thinking means going out on a limb and being uncertain and vulnerable.

Full post here.

California School of Artistic Whistling

Another untapped fusion concept:



"A whistling act designed by Miss Woodward, combining whistling, gestures, steps and plastic posing--with the addition of changing colored lights.  Produced with great success at Grauman's Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles.
WHISTLERS PREPARED FOR CHATAUQUA AND LYCEUM TOURS, CONCERTS, AND THEATRICAL APPEARANCES"

I wonder if there's a certification program?

Click on the picture to learn more about Artistic Whistling.

Coming Up: “Undulations, Vertical 8s, and Ribcage Isolations” on April 21

Undulations, Vertical 8s, and Ribcage Isolations is the second of a five-part workshop series, Oriental Dance Deconstructed.  This week's syllabus includes:

• Pelvic Undulations
over a basic stance 
over a staggered stance 
walking forward and back 
turning and traveling sideways 
with level-change variations 
over one foot, with 2 variations (lyrical and Saidi) for following through with the free leg 
over one foot with 3 twisting variations and modern Egyptian variation 
undulation stylization for hip drops and double drops 
undulation stylization for horizontal-plane figures of 8 

• Reverse pelvic undulations with travel variations
• Horizontal-plane ribcage circles
• Vertical ribcage circles, “U”s, and “n”s
• Chest lifts and drops
• Sagittal ribcage circles and reverse sagittal ribcage circles
• Beledi step-touch and other accenting with sagittal ribcage circles
• Full-torso undulations
• Upper body figures of 8 up, down, and twisting 
• Lower body figure of 8 up and down ("maya") with American, Egyptian, and Turkish variations for flat feet and lifting heels
• Single-hip vertical circles with travel variations
• Full torso figure of 8 up and down with American, Egyptian, and Turkish variations for flat feet and lifting heels
• Egyptian "up and over" 8
• Lower body or full torso 8s as a stylization for shimmies and hip drops
• Full-torso undulation accents
up to the front
up to the back
down to the back
up to the side
down to the side 

If time permits, we'll also look at some techniques for safe backbends, and incorporating backbends into undulations and upper body circles.

If you have not yet confirmed your spot, please pre-pay or RSVP.  Please note, registration is closed for the Foundations session at 2:00, but spots remain for the Master class from 3:00 -5:00.

Veil Dance

Kinetic Sculpture from David Wurtzel

Creativity in a "Post-Authentic" World

More inspiration from unlikely places...  The Daily News and Bruce Springsteen.  While obviously a discussion of music, readers of this blog and creators of nontraditional belly dance are likely to appreciate to the articles' observations about genre, creativity, self-expression, and creative constraints.

“We live in a post-authentic world,” Bruce announced to the young musical hopefuls. “The elements of what you’re using don’t matter. Purity of human experience and expression is not confined to guitars, to tubes, to turntables, to microchips. There is no right way, no pure way of doing. There is just doing.” 

[...]

Pronouncements like Bruce’s would seem eye-rollingly obvious to all those who’ve long felt there’s equal artistic expression in (still) often maligned art forms like rap, electronic music, teen pop or whatever unnameable new style arises to assault the conventions of song form and rhythm.

But for an old-school, hard-line rocker like Bruce to challenge musical divisions and hierarchies at this point says something key about where we are now and, perhaps, about where we might be heading.

Why Authenticity Is Hard; Why It's Essential

From the blogs at Forbes Magazine online:

Authenticity is hard because other people may seize on our weaknesses as proof of our unworthiness, rather than our humanity.

Authenticity is hard because we think what makes us human is our uniqueness, but it’s really our commonalities.

Authenticity is hard because we can lose track of our essence in daily compromises, accommodations, and dealings.

 Full post.