Dancing Wisely

A piece of advice to younger/newer dancers who might tend to view the less-technical style of previous generations with a bit of snark, disdain, or condescension: consider reevaluating your judgment. This isn't an admonishment, just a note to let you know what you are missing and how you may appear to others. It's okay to like whatever you like and to be proud of what you do, but I would encourage you to consider what your own dancing would look like had you begun your education in a different era, and what the top stars will be doing in 15 years. Yesterday's visionaries weren't any less gifted and industrious than today's trailblazers. The bar didn't raise itself. Don't be an airhead, and don't embarrass yourself. Appreciate what has come before you as the gift that it is.

I became a good dancer very quickly in part because of focus, discipline, and affinity, but I was also in a good place at a good time. But if I were 25 years old today and taking my first belly dance class, I could probably get done in 2 or 3 years what, 15 years ago, it took me 10 years to figure out. (This would be especially true in some sort of confusing time warp where I got to study from my own DVDs and YouTube videos and start learning now from the foundation of what my own students and students' students have done in their careers.)

This isn't just belly dance, by the way. Compare any Olympic time/score/routine from the 50s to the expectations for today's athletes. Or just compare your cell phone to the one you had 5 years ago. Our dance builds on the achievements of those who came before us, and continues to evolve thanks to the examples and challenges we set for one another. The resources that are now available not only make it possible for gifted dancers to get very good very fast, they continually push the standard higher, constantly shifting our perception of what is possible.

I'm not telling you to be deferential and respectful to your teachers and to dancers of previous generations. Do as you see fit—a gracious outlook is good for your mental health and good manners are a good policy, but teachers don't deserve all the credit for their students' work and respect should be saved for those that deserve it. But don't kid yourself about the foundations your work has built on. To think that your dancing (or mine, or that of fill-in-the-blank OMG Big Name) sprang like Athena fully-formed from the head of Zeus is pathetic ignorance and foolish self-importance. Stop advertising that ignorance, or, better yet, divest yourself of it entirely. You, lucky you, are the beneficiary of an amazing legacy. If you'd like to be a better dancer or just a more sensible grown-up, wrap your head around the idea that whether or not you like the legacy that's been handed to you is different from having the wisdom to appreciate it. Why appreciate it? The more you do, the more you'll be able to do something amazing with it. (And the dignity you gain won't hurt either.)

"Flowers" Music Video

"Cocktails" Music Video

I believe I have been typecast as a hot tomato! :-)

Body Type, in Gymnastics and in Belly Dance

Shawn Johnson, 2009.  Photo by Jason Christopher.

Retiring athlete Shawn Johnson talks about the ironic stigma of having an "athletic" body type in her sport of gymnastics:

At her heaviest, when she stopped full-time training and allowed herself to eat typical teenage fare like ice cream and pizza, she received brutal criticism from fans, especially on the sport's message boards, and from the tabloids. "That whole process kind of broke me down and taught me something," Johnson said. "People put too much emphasis on looks."

Most of the time, nowadays, that emphasis isn't so openly expressed. Instead, it's coded, by labeling certain gymnasts—the lithe ones, the ones who aren't built like Johnson—as artistic. In theory, artistry should describe a quality of movement, a connection between the performer's limbs, the music, and the audience. But somehow, the short, stocky gymnasts like Johnson rarely get credit for that je ne sais quoi.

"In America, we'll score the stocky, athletic builds normally," 1996 Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes said, in response to Johnson's comments. "Internationally, there still remains a stigma to that type of body type."

Go read the rest of this article:   http://deadspin.com/5915913/athletic-shawn-johnson-retires-how-gymnastics-talks-about-bodies-in-code, then come back. 

I have been told that “of course belly dance is easy for you, because you have the right body type,” the simplistic assumption that curvilinear body lines naturally create curvilinear movements. I usually try to explain that belly dance is (now) (sort of) “easy” for me not because I have the right body type but because I have the right body ability, created through years of training: drawing arcs has less to do with dumbly propelling one’s curves through space and more to do with fine-tuned articulation, made possible by building specialized strength, range of motion, control, and coordination.

But, I can’t entirely discount that body curves amplify curvilinear movements, just as the padding of body fat amplifies shimmies. Likewise, a lean frame and wide shoulders give a distinctive sinuosity to a lot of the currently popular tribal fusion vocabulary. (The weight distribution of this build also lends itself to unmodified yoga poses, a synergistic boon for those dancing tribal fusion). I don’t at all suggest that there’s an “incorrect” body type for any particular style of belly dance, but I do think it’s helpful for dancers to consider the way the way their shapes affect the way their dancing will be perceived. Knowing one’s “type” helps a dancer to take advantage of vocabulary and styling that is “easy” for him or her, and more clearly strategize to overcome the challenges of working against that type. Just as a melody has a distinctive sound when played on different musical instruments, choreography takes on a different cast on different bodies.

But, while the violin may the most straightforward instrument for plaintive melodies, I’d rather hear a plaintive melody played by a kazoo virtuoso than by a lousy violinist; likewise I’d rather see a highly skilled dancer dancing against type than see a novice fumbling through the vocabulary that is “easy” for her shape. In fact, I’d probably rather see a highly skilled dancer dancing against type rather than with it – the belly dance equivalent of JFK's “we go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”  But that’s just me. If you’re NOT dancing for someone who has already seen a zillion belly dance performances, understanding and maximizing the conventional perception of your type may be a welcome shortcut to creating successful and likeable dance performances.

Authentic Egyptian Dancing

I like the dancing in this video, but what I really like is the way it contradicts everything we "know" about Egyptian Oriental dance. (In fairness, that's because it's not really an Oriental piece. It would be most appropriate to call this an early theatrical, fusion, or nontraditional dance. But I doubt anyone would question the credibility, authenticity, legitimacy, or “Egyptianness” of the dancer, Egyptian great Naima Akef.) If you are impatient, dancing begins at 1:32.




 
So many "mistakes!"...

1:32 “Real” belly dance costumes would never have just shalwar. They are underwear! See-through “Harem pants” costumes are just a silly idea that came from I Dream of Jeannie. 

1:35 Egyptian dancers don't really do anything with their arms except frame their hips, flow through simple pathways (lift up to overhead, push down, repeat..), or maybe some shoulder rolls. They don't use arm movements to mark melodic passages.

1:42 Egyptian dancers don't play finger cymbals. [Okay, a lot of us know that in the old days they did. But this seems to be often forgotten...]

1:46 Egyptian dancers don't run around and use a lot of travel steps. They just stay in one spot and dance with torso isolations.

1:51 Fast turns aren't part of Egyptian vocabulary. Those are only for dancers doing Turkish or Turkic styles.

1:58 There is no use of turnout in Egyptian dance.

2:17 Egyptians consider floorwork to be vulgar. There is no floorwork in Egyptian dance.

2:26 Why do you Americans insist on doing gymnastics in belly dance? Egyptians dancers never use athletic, over-the-top, show-off moves. Egyptian dance is all about subtlety.

3:03 Tight choreography wasn't used by classic dancers.

3:34 There's no use of chainé turns in Egyptian dance. Well, okay, maybe there are some, but only because of Reda influence. But there certainly weren't any pre-Reda.

3:49 Here are more of those travel steps Egyptian dancers never use. They're really more representative of American Vintage vocabulary, adapted from Turkish style.

4:05 Hitting every nuance of the music is “trying too hard.” That's what American dancers do. Not Egyptians.

5:03 Egyptian dancers never mark accents with footwork.

5:35 Travel? Chainé turns? Hops!? Haven't you been paying attention? Absolutely not!

5:52 It's only correct to mark rhythm with hip or shoulder movements.

6:08 No one wants to see you do a lot of footwork. Kicks are okay for Turkish dancers, but if you do them in Egyptian dance every one will think you are too American or just plain unladylike.

6:35 Egyptian dance should always be very relaxed. Very grounded.

6:48 Don't put a barrel turn in your Egyptian dance! Especially don't use a series of fast barrel turns. They're not Egyptian at all and everyone will think you don't know what you're doing!

7:04 A Middle-Eastern audience is totally not going to get your wacky “fusion” dance that you just made up without paying attention to the correct way things are supposed to be done. Maybe random Americans will think that's okay, but you need to be more conservative if you want to be taken seriously by discriminating educated audiences.

I encourage new dancers to learn about the conventions that define traditional styles of belly dance, and obviously it's totally possible to create beautiful, complete, artistic dances within accepted conventions, so there's no reason to flout rules just for the sake of flouting them. But I also think authenticity and adherence to stylistic conventions aren't measures of artistic merit. (Honestly, it's MUCH harder to create a successful dance when you aren't constrained by the conventions of a traditional style.) So my point is: if you like dances created by “rules,” and want to dance within them, do it! You're likely to create a good performance piece. If you don't want to follow “rules,” don't! It will be harder to create a beautiful dance, but, as this video shows, it can be done. And, hopefully, this unimpeachable Egyptian dancer's having done it makes you feel that you have permission to do it too.


Thank you to Baltimore dancer Shems who uploaded this video to YouTube.

Gymnastics Fusion

It seems to be fashionable to complain about how there is "too much gymnastics" in contemporary nightclub style belly dance, particularly in regard to influence from the former Soviet Union. I have mixed feelings -- I appreciate athleticism, but generally don't like aggressive styling in the context of traditional belly dance. But anyway, here's an fSU example of belly dance in gymnastics that I think is wonderfully successful fusion. The dancer/athlete is Russian rhythmic gymnast Yulia Sinitsina. Look at the beautiful lyrical lines of her arms and feet.



Here's another clip of the same piece.  The video quality is not as good, but this one has no sports commentator talking over the music, and without the cuts between cameras it's a little easier to both see the composition and appreciate the enormous floor space she covers. 

What You Learned (or Missed) This Winter

This is a cameraphone clip of "Halcyon," (the choreography I taught as "Dryad Dance") earlier this year.  The music is "Keridwen and Gwion" from the German ensemble Faun.

Mastering the Shimmy: an Unusual Source of Inspiration

Teaching the bent-knee shimmy in last Thursday's class, I was trying to explain the relaxed loose flop of the movement's reverberation.  Searching for parallels, I suggested, "you know, like those funny internet pictures of running basset hounds," but was met with blank stares.  While not exactly the type of inspirational images I had hoped to be sharing on this blog, I promised to post pictures, so, here they are:

 A palette cleanser:

Photograph by Mirka Adamsky Rackova, via NationalGeographic.com

Olé!