As students
of bellydancing, I’m sure you’ve heard your teachers telling you to practice!
practice! practice! The question is,
where to begin? I thought I’d share a
few tips I’ve learned over the years that can help bellydance students, from
beginners to advanced, get the most out of practicing
this wonderful dance form.
Tip #1:
Listen to Arabic (Egyptian) music!
The importance of music cannot be stressed enough! In bellydance your body moves to the music
and if you want to improve, hearing Egyptian (bellydance) rhythms and melodies
for one hour a week while in class is not going to cut it. So much of how we move is dictated by the
music we are listening to, so the trick to really taking your dancing to the
next level is simple: just listen to the music of bellydance. BellyUp Oakville has a great selection of CDs
you can buy and you’d be surprised to see how much bellydance music is on
iTunes. So, get yourself some music,
stick it on your listening device and play it while you drive to the grocery
store, blast it while you’re cleaning the kitchen, and I dare you to listen to
bellydance music on the Go Train and see if you can keep yourself from
inadvertently twitching as your body tells you it wants to get up and dance! If you’re like me, you may not have heard
much, if any, Egyptian/Arabic music before starting bellydance classes, and
that’s okay. Believe me, it won’t take
long before you have a favourite genre or even artist that you really love
listening to and if you love the music, your body is way more likely to love
the dance.
Tip #2:
Even just a little bit of practice can make a huge difference. Don’t worry, I know it’s difficult to
schedule in a full hour of practice at home several times a week; we’ve all got
commitments that make finding the time to practice at home difficult. The good news is, even just a small amount of
practice, like a few minutes here and there, will make a big difference in how
fast you learn new technique and moves, how easily your body builds the muscles
you need, and how comfortable you get with the moves you already know. One of my favourite ways to practice is just
to do the moves as I’m wandering around the house; I shimmy while brushing my
teeth, I use the Hagallah step to walk down hallways and I practice chest moves
while sitting at my desk or in the car.
This technique is especially good if there’s a specific move that is
giving you trouble – the more your body does it, the faster you’ll learn
it. If you can find the time, it is also
a great idea to put on some of the Arabic music you’ve been listening to (see
tip #1), and for just a few minutes, stand in front of a mirror at home, by
yourself, and go through the moves you love, the ones you’ve just learned, and
the ones you’re having trouble with. No
pressure, just relax and let the music and your body communicate with each
other for five minutes or so.
Personally, I like to do this sort of thing in the evening, in my
pajamas, with the lights dimmed. It’s my
time to watch my own body to see how it moves.
Tip #3: If you’ve got a performance coming up, you
need to practice even more! Maybe
you’ve decided to dance in a BellyUp recital for the first time, or maybe
you’ve joined a troupe and are going to dance with them at a gig, either way,
if you’re planning on performing, you need to practice more than you’ve
practiced before! Performing is fun,
amazing and really rewarding, but it is also a lot of work, so if you’re going
to perform, remember to put in some extra hours of practice. My rule of thumb for performing a
choreography is that I need to know it well enough to dance it as a solo, even
if it’s really a group routine. To
accomplish this, listen to the music over and over and over again until you can
sing the whole song in your head. Also,
try not to miss any class/rehearsal time with your group. It’s also a good idea, as soon as you learn
the choreography, to start running through it in your head while you’re in the
shower and/or drifting off to sleep so that your brain learns the steps as well
as your body. Most important of all,
make sure you actually get up and dance the routine whenever you can. And I mean actually watching yourself in the
mirror and self-correcting, not just glazing over the steps once or twice for
five minutes. It takes hours and hours
of practicing on your own and in groups to perfect a routine that only lasts a
minute or two (or more), but it is so worth it!
Tip #4: There is no short cut to practicing. When it comes right down to it, either you’ve
practiced or you haven’t. It’s entirely
up to you. If you’re lucky enough to
have been bitten by the bellydance bug, than you’ll find yourself dancing around
all the time anyway and picking up new technique may come more easily for
you. For others, you may have to put in
a little more effort to make yourself focus on dance when you’re not in class
and when the instructor isn’t standing in front of you. You can do it! Just remember, this dance is meant to be fun
and it should feel good doing it, whether you’re a beginner or advanced. Enjoy the movement and the music and how your
body feels while you’re dancing at home and in the studio.
These tips will get you started but it’s up to you to put in
the work! If you have questions, don’t
be afraid to ask your instructors for their own practicing tips. I’m sure they will be more than happy to
share. Yallah! Let’s go!
Veronica is a lead dancer with BellyUp's professional dance ensemble "Ala Nar". She is Troupe Captain and also a BellyUp Dance Instructor.
No comments:
Post a Comment