Bellydance Learning Tips - Wisdom for Students

1. Uniqueness of the Movements - Different not Hard

Nearly all other dances focus on moving limbs in space and linear travel much like sports and daily living tasks. This dance focuses on articulating the torso with full body nuances. (For the fortunate these are like nightly living tasks.) Is it hard or just different? See #2.

2. Repetition Builds Skill

  • How we Learn
    • we don't know we're wrong -->
    • we know we're wrong -->
    • we're right with effort -->
    • effortless accuracy
  • Its like learning a language, you get better with practice. It's not like learning information where you quickly dump material in and out.
  • A second bout of dance in your week, just to review a move, will seriously accelerate your learning and motivation. See the bottom of  Spring 2006 for computer video lessons.
  • Just know that it takes at least 3 separate bouts for any move to become familiar.
  •  It's very common for students to repeat a dance course for deeper familiarity.

3. Types of Learning

  • Intellectual: knowing the correct "recipe" and common errors - the first job.
  • Visual: knowing what a correct move looks like - it helps to see it on different body types, especially since I have no hips (so sometimes I ask for demonstrators to stand near me at the front for others to see).
  • Auditory:
    • distinguishing timing -- 1/2 time, normal-time, double-time.
    • Arabic drum rhythms: getting familiar with the common patterns in the endless variation possible. Start with hearing the low 'dooms' and the higher 'teks' - pauses and 'tikas' are just filler. Other instruments are relevant too.
  • Cultural:
    • what's polite/acceptable versus rude/crude.
    • Traditions and rituals lend legitimacy to new, strange (to us) things.
  • Emotional:
    • importance of the right expressions at the right time.
    • connecting with yourself so you can connect to the music and the audience.
  • Tactile/Movement:
    • feeling your body move correctly requires flexibility, awareness and coordination. This separate investment of time accelerates the next phase - the moves themselves.
    •  I often use special bridging exercises, which I call build-ups, to get us moving closer to the actual dance move. The best teachers takes small progressive steps gradually leading you further until suddenly you realize how far you've come. See this process broken down in detail next.

4. The Learning Phases/Skill Sets

Combining Accents (sharp, linear) into Isolations (fluid, flowing):
  • Modify isolations' speed, size, 'flavour' in both directions then you can add any of:
  1. String together Isolations in Sequence then -->
    1. Layering: multiple Simultaneous Isolations
  2. Weight Transfer leading to Travelling then -->
    1. Transitions
      1. Pivots
        1. Turns/Spins
      1. Floor dancing
  3. Arms/Hands which Frame or Transition, Compliment or Contrast your Isolation
  4. Emotional Expression
  5. Layering Shimmies (relaxed yet controlled shaking to perfectly match music)
  6. Finger Cymbal coordination: singles, triples, 5s, 7s, steady 2s -->
    • combinations
      • 4 sound effects (ching, tik, quack, tremello) -->
        • combine into instrumental rhythm musicality (like drumming)
Skillsets 1-4 change significantly for:
  • Folkloric/Specialty Styles (Mohammed Ali St, Khaleegy, Milaya Lef, Zaar, Ghawazi, Haggalla, Ouled Nail, Whirling Dervish...)
  • Other props: veil, sword, shamadan/tray balancing, assaya (cane), tahtib (staff).