Monday, March 12, 2007
Testing
This is a test!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Dance Prodigy
Jamila al Wahid was here this weekend. Somra el Nubia sponsored her in a weekend workshop aptly titled "Belly Dance Bootcamp". It certainly was! Monday was a complete day of rest to recoup from it.
I got a chance to pull her aside and ask her some questions about how she does what she does as far as teaching workshops. Her answers really gave me a window to her personality. Jamila is very close to my age, but she admits that she is old school! The masters that she learned from are either dead, retiring, or thinking of retiring. So she started her training really young to say the least! And she has been teaching since she was 16! Whoa! She told me that she often gets put in the Aziza and Shoshanna peer group, but as she told me, she was teaching them, so dancewise, she is NOT in their peer group. Her dance peers are people like Horacio and Beata, Suhaila, etc.
She also told me the business of workshops has changed. Since she is old school, it used to be you were asked to teach workshops by sponsors. I thought that was still how things were. However, she said that these days, most teachers asked sponsors to host them. Teachers call sponsors and ask them if they would like for them to come to their city. She even gave an example of someone offering to teach for free so she could say that she taught at this event and has travelled internationally as a workshop teacher just to pad her resume.
Needless to say, that was a real suprise to everyone that was listening. You could tell that she was a bit upset about folks who haven't paid their dues, but are out there asking sponsors to host them, even if the sponsor has no idea how they teach. She said "These days, it's about something other than the dance". She didn't say what the "something" was, but one could probably easily guess. Is the mantra "Fame first, dance second?"
I'm glad to have had a chance to take class for her, see her perform in person finally, and hear some of her words of wisdom. For me, it's a teacher's wisdom that takes them from great to fantastic, and Jamila is certainly the latter.
I got a chance to pull her aside and ask her some questions about how she does what she does as far as teaching workshops. Her answers really gave me a window to her personality. Jamila is very close to my age, but she admits that she is old school! The masters that she learned from are either dead, retiring, or thinking of retiring. So she started her training really young to say the least! And she has been teaching since she was 16! Whoa! She told me that she often gets put in the Aziza and Shoshanna peer group, but as she told me, she was teaching them, so dancewise, she is NOT in their peer group. Her dance peers are people like Horacio and Beata, Suhaila, etc.
She also told me the business of workshops has changed. Since she is old school, it used to be you were asked to teach workshops by sponsors. I thought that was still how things were. However, she said that these days, most teachers asked sponsors to host them. Teachers call sponsors and ask them if they would like for them to come to their city. She even gave an example of someone offering to teach for free so she could say that she taught at this event and has travelled internationally as a workshop teacher just to pad her resume.
Needless to say, that was a real suprise to everyone that was listening. You could tell that she was a bit upset about folks who haven't paid their dues, but are out there asking sponsors to host them, even if the sponsor has no idea how they teach. She said "These days, it's about something other than the dance". She didn't say what the "something" was, but one could probably easily guess. Is the mantra "Fame first, dance second?"
I'm glad to have had a chance to take class for her, see her perform in person finally, and hear some of her words of wisdom. For me, it's a teacher's wisdom that takes them from great to fantastic, and Jamila is certainly the latter.
Friday, November 11, 2005
The technique debate-Part one
I have recently been taking classes based on Suhaila technique. There is a local teacher here in St. Louis that has a Level 2 certification. Her class is very challenging, not to mention the only advanced class offered in the city. I so far am enjoying learning about Suhaila's technique and it has helped me define my own technique and how I execute my movements.
There are some nice advantages to doing things the Suhaila way:
1. The glutes are the most under used muscles on the body in my opinion. All we really do is sit on them. That's it. With the Suhaila technique, the glutes get put to good use! The reason I started certain types of dancing is so that I could learn to move body parts that were not moved in Western styles of dance. There are Senegalese glute dances (I forgot the name of them , but I will remember soon) that have been done for thousands of years, so Suhaila is not the only woman that knows how to use hers, but I do believe she has brought a better, um, "butt awareness" to bellydance.
2. It is much easier to stay in alignment when you use your glutes. Many students try to do advanced moves and mess up the first thing they learn, alignment. You must stay in alignment to keep your body safe and to execute more advanced movements more easily. Using glutes lessens the likelihood of getting unaligned and the likelihood of injury. Besides, I've never heard of anyone straining their butt muscles. If you have, let me know.
3. According to Suhaila, it is very dangerous to use the knees to shimmy or do any hip movement for that matter. One of my teachers once said that the three body parts that women need to protect the most are the back of the neck, the lower back and the knees. So knees saved with Suhaila's technique. I have never used my knees to shimmy. More on this later.
I do however see some disadvantages with the Suhaila technique as well:
1. I cannot layer certain moves. For example, I love to put a shimmy on my figure eights. I can't execute this when my glutes are contracting. I haven't seen Suhaila do this either in the performances I have seen on video. If anyone has any video with Suhaila doing figure eights with a shimmy, please refer me to your video. Raqia Hassan, who is said to have invented the straight legged shimmy, says that it is much easier to do layering with. I tend to agree at this point. I am willing to take a Suhaila layering class as well to do more comparisons.
2. I like for my torso and chest moves (shimmy excluded) to be nice and smooth, particularly when I'm moving the bottom half and top half independently. With Suhaila's emphasis on glute and oblique use, I find that my torso and chest moves are short and compact, making those moves look choppy. Some of my students and dance colleauges have said that sometimes it lookes like Suhaila is having convulsions, and do not like her style because of that. I have seen some performances where they would get that impression, and if there is a video with a smoother execution of top half moves, please advise.
I've come to the conclusion that learning new and different techniques is never a bad thing. It can only improve your dancing, and knowledge of how the body moves. That's why I study the types of dancing that I do. I can't however sign off on one particular technique or school of dance. For me, it's better to know about different techniques, be able to execute them, and know when, where and how to use them to improve my dance.
There are some nice advantages to doing things the Suhaila way:
1. The glutes are the most under used muscles on the body in my opinion. All we really do is sit on them. That's it. With the Suhaila technique, the glutes get put to good use! The reason I started certain types of dancing is so that I could learn to move body parts that were not moved in Western styles of dance. There are Senegalese glute dances (I forgot the name of them , but I will remember soon) that have been done for thousands of years, so Suhaila is not the only woman that knows how to use hers, but I do believe she has brought a better, um, "butt awareness" to bellydance.
2. It is much easier to stay in alignment when you use your glutes. Many students try to do advanced moves and mess up the first thing they learn, alignment. You must stay in alignment to keep your body safe and to execute more advanced movements more easily. Using glutes lessens the likelihood of getting unaligned and the likelihood of injury. Besides, I've never heard of anyone straining their butt muscles. If you have, let me know.
3. According to Suhaila, it is very dangerous to use the knees to shimmy or do any hip movement for that matter. One of my teachers once said that the three body parts that women need to protect the most are the back of the neck, the lower back and the knees. So knees saved with Suhaila's technique. I have never used my knees to shimmy. More on this later.
I do however see some disadvantages with the Suhaila technique as well:
1. I cannot layer certain moves. For example, I love to put a shimmy on my figure eights. I can't execute this when my glutes are contracting. I haven't seen Suhaila do this either in the performances I have seen on video. If anyone has any video with Suhaila doing figure eights with a shimmy, please refer me to your video. Raqia Hassan, who is said to have invented the straight legged shimmy, says that it is much easier to do layering with. I tend to agree at this point. I am willing to take a Suhaila layering class as well to do more comparisons.
2. I like for my torso and chest moves (shimmy excluded) to be nice and smooth, particularly when I'm moving the bottom half and top half independently. With Suhaila's emphasis on glute and oblique use, I find that my torso and chest moves are short and compact, making those moves look choppy. Some of my students and dance colleauges have said that sometimes it lookes like Suhaila is having convulsions, and do not like her style because of that. I have seen some performances where they would get that impression, and if there is a video with a smoother execution of top half moves, please advise.
I've come to the conclusion that learning new and different techniques is never a bad thing. It can only improve your dancing, and knowledge of how the body moves. That's why I study the types of dancing that I do. I can't however sign off on one particular technique or school of dance. For me, it's better to know about different techniques, be able to execute them, and know when, where and how to use them to improve my dance.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Where does art come from?
I had a really interesting convo with a brotha, poet, performs, produces his own cd's, etc, and since we are both artists, naturally, the convo turn to art.
So he says at one point in our convo that art comes out of poverty, and destitution. Globally. I had serious issues with this statement, because all people who collectively do art are not in poverty. For instance, there is an artistic community in Kyoto Japan where daily life revolves around art, and they are in no way poor!
I mentioned this and then he says that as a people, meaning black people, that this is of course true. Indeed there are some groups of black folks that this statement will probably apply. He used grafitti as his example. Folks got tired of their neighborhood looking so bad, so they decided to make it look better by putting art on buildings. But, I think the people of Mali or the ancient Khemetians would have knocked him upside the head for making such a broad generalization.
So, because we are so destitute as a people globally and art springs out of our destitution, we naturally turn to art to fill a void. At this point, I think he is talking about himself, because that is his way of filling his voids. He does say that yes, he uses art to fill spaces in his life that are empty. I said to him that he is very lucky, because not alot of people turn to art for such therapy. Most of the time, it's a gang, or drugs or multiple sex partners.
Lastly, he said it doesn't cost anything to do art. I almost flip out about that one, cause yes, it does cost! But he says that it doesn't cost anything to began the process of making art. But isn't that what we usually call creativity? At what point does the intial creative process actually become art?
I am not sold on art coming only from poverty and destitution, if that wasn't obvious. But it does come from somewhere. I would like to think it comes from a need to birth something into existence. I don't have children, but I'm constanly producing something into this 3 dimensional world-a choreography, a costume, a new dance move, something, anything!
Where else would it come from?
I had a really interesting convo with a brotha, poet, performs, produces his own cd's, etc, and since we are both artists, naturally, the convo turn to art.
So he says at one point in our convo that art comes out of poverty, and destitution. Globally. I had serious issues with this statement, because all people who collectively do art are not in poverty. For instance, there is an artistic community in Kyoto Japan where daily life revolves around art, and they are in no way poor!
I mentioned this and then he says that as a people, meaning black people, that this is of course true. Indeed there are some groups of black folks that this statement will probably apply. He used grafitti as his example. Folks got tired of their neighborhood looking so bad, so they decided to make it look better by putting art on buildings. But, I think the people of Mali or the ancient Khemetians would have knocked him upside the head for making such a broad generalization.
So, because we are so destitute as a people globally and art springs out of our destitution, we naturally turn to art to fill a void. At this point, I think he is talking about himself, because that is his way of filling his voids. He does say that yes, he uses art to fill spaces in his life that are empty. I said to him that he is very lucky, because not alot of people turn to art for such therapy. Most of the time, it's a gang, or drugs or multiple sex partners.
Lastly, he said it doesn't cost anything to do art. I almost flip out about that one, cause yes, it does cost! But he says that it doesn't cost anything to began the process of making art. But isn't that what we usually call creativity? At what point does the intial creative process actually become art?
I am not sold on art coming only from poverty and destitution, if that wasn't obvious. But it does come from somewhere. I would like to think it comes from a need to birth something into existence. I don't have children, but I'm constanly producing something into this 3 dimensional world-a choreography, a costume, a new dance move, something, anything!
Where else would it come from?
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Break Time!
Usually, after we do a huge production, we take a much needed rest from all of the practices that we have during the week. I must say, I'm enjoying this! On Wednesdays, we practice well into the late night hours. So after teaching class tonight, I went straight to the bookstore. I love bookstores! I might go in one for something in particular, but 4 hours later I'm probably still there, with three or four books, reading a chapter from each one before I decide to buy any one them. Today, I picked up a book called Geisha, A life. I knew I was going to get it, but I just had to sit down with it and check it out. Just reading the first few sentences brought back so many memories of my dancing days in Japan. Although I learned so much in the three years I was dancing there, I know that it's really only a few pebbles in a stream. Nonetheless, I still value the experiences, especially learning from my sensei, Aoki-san. I believe I was the first foreigner that she ever taught, and I used to think she was brave teaching me, because she knew no English. My Japanese was seriously on the grade school level, but I wanted to dance, so I became better at speaking simply because I wanted to understand her, and not have a translator with me all the time. Learning from her was by far my best experience, and when I think of Japan or pick up any book, news article, or magazine about Japan, I always think fondly of her.
Having worked so much on dance company stuff has left little time for other things, like reading, writing, learning from other teachers, my solo dance career and my personal life. So I decided to take a little break from dance company business so that I can focus on other things. Recharge my batteries. Intuition says it's time, and I agree with it. I'll start up the company again in the fall, after we have auditions. We're not fading away by any means, just taking a breather. A very well deserved one.
Up next: Reflections from Egyptian Fantasy.
Usually, after we do a huge production, we take a much needed rest from all of the practices that we have during the week. I must say, I'm enjoying this! On Wednesdays, we practice well into the late night hours. So after teaching class tonight, I went straight to the bookstore. I love bookstores! I might go in one for something in particular, but 4 hours later I'm probably still there, with three or four books, reading a chapter from each one before I decide to buy any one them. Today, I picked up a book called Geisha, A life. I knew I was going to get it, but I just had to sit down with it and check it out. Just reading the first few sentences brought back so many memories of my dancing days in Japan. Although I learned so much in the three years I was dancing there, I know that it's really only a few pebbles in a stream. Nonetheless, I still value the experiences, especially learning from my sensei, Aoki-san. I believe I was the first foreigner that she ever taught, and I used to think she was brave teaching me, because she knew no English. My Japanese was seriously on the grade school level, but I wanted to dance, so I became better at speaking simply because I wanted to understand her, and not have a translator with me all the time. Learning from her was by far my best experience, and when I think of Japan or pick up any book, news article, or magazine about Japan, I always think fondly of her.
Having worked so much on dance company stuff has left little time for other things, like reading, writing, learning from other teachers, my solo dance career and my personal life. So I decided to take a little break from dance company business so that I can focus on other things. Recharge my batteries. Intuition says it's time, and I agree with it. I'll start up the company again in the fall, after we have auditions. We're not fading away by any means, just taking a breather. A very well deserved one.
Up next: Reflections from Egyptian Fantasy.
Friday, April 08, 2005
Dance Elitism
This woman has hit the nail on the head with her post. There really is nothing more to add. I really appreciate her honesty. I really connected to Mahea Uchiyama when I heard about her. It seemed that our paths were very similar. I hope to get a chance to meet her in person someday.
This woman has hit the nail on the head with her post. There really is nothing more to add. I really appreciate her honesty. I really connected to Mahea Uchiyama when I heard about her. It seemed that our paths were very similar. I hope to get a chance to meet her in person someday.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Dance of the bodhisattvas?
I had a conversation with one of my students who happens to be Buddhist. She happened to mention that there is a prayer that she has to memorize, but she has a very hard time remembering all of the names in the prayer. So, very she keen she is, she thought she would apply a dance move to each of the names that she had to remember and perhaps it would be easier for her to remember the prayer.
This struck me on many levels. First of all, without realizing it at first, we touched on what dance has been used for for hundreds of thousands of years-worship. To whatever deity you honor. During our conversation, we tied dance back to what our ancestors had used it for. Of course that is not to say that dance was not used for recreation either, but even that word when broken down goes back to some form of worship as well.
This practice is usually something for self or for a group of people that share your religious beliefs, for there are elements that would not be understood if you do not study, but I believe the general public would greatly benefit from seeing something like this on stage. We joked about an improv version to test her to see if she remembered her names! I am not Buddhist, and I do not currently practice or even study Buddhism, and I have a commitment a different spiritual path (that I have plans to make my own dancing prayer), but I would like to see if this way of honoring the Bodhisattvas on stage can become a reality. Perhaps, I will need to begin studying Buddhism afterall.
I had a conversation with one of my students who happens to be Buddhist. She happened to mention that there is a prayer that she has to memorize, but she has a very hard time remembering all of the names in the prayer. So, very she keen she is, she thought she would apply a dance move to each of the names that she had to remember and perhaps it would be easier for her to remember the prayer.
This struck me on many levels. First of all, without realizing it at first, we touched on what dance has been used for for hundreds of thousands of years-worship. To whatever deity you honor. During our conversation, we tied dance back to what our ancestors had used it for. Of course that is not to say that dance was not used for recreation either, but even that word when broken down goes back to some form of worship as well.
This practice is usually something for self or for a group of people that share your religious beliefs, for there are elements that would not be understood if you do not study, but I believe the general public would greatly benefit from seeing something like this on stage. We joked about an improv version to test her to see if she remembered her names! I am not Buddhist, and I do not currently practice or even study Buddhism, and I have a commitment a different spiritual path (that I have plans to make my own dancing prayer), but I would like to see if this way of honoring the Bodhisattvas on stage can become a reality. Perhaps, I will need to begin studying Buddhism afterall.
