Bellydancing choreography

[galadhir]

So my 'absolute beginners' bellydance class have been working on a choreography since about week three (back in September.) Next week is the last week and we will have to do the whole thing.

Last Monday the instructor suggested that we should take a video of the whole thing while she danced it. I can only assume because we're supposed to be practicing it at home. I have not done this, but perhaps I'll manage a few goes through over the weekend.

Watch on YouTube

I've signed up for the beginner's course again in the New Year. You have to do it at least twice before you can go on to the Improvers, which I think is honestly a good call because I still feel my brain shorting out half the time, and I can't yet do a shoulder shimmy without my hips joining in.

I'm vaguely hoping to get good enough to do a bit of Saidi, since I miss dancing with a stick, but I'm already a lifetime too late to get this good:

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[watervole]

Looks like fun. I did some belly dancing way back when.

Do you have any use for a hip wrap that looks very like your instructor's, but red with black beads on the fringe?

Free in exchange for postage, but the beads may make it weigh a bit...

[galadhir]

Ooh, I would love a red and black hip wrap, yes please! I have a blue and silver coin scarf which jingles a lot and always gives away when the wrong part of me is moving, so a slightly more silent one would be a real bonus! Thank you! Do you have a paypal I could send the postage to? I'll DM you :)

[watervole]

Call it £3 postage.

I'm not a big fan of Paypal. They skimmed a surprising amount off my last donation to Wikipedia.

Are you okay to pay by bank transfer if I send you my details privately?

Or you can donate it to Client Earth, who are a charity I support regularly.

[galadhir]

Oh cool, that would be perfect :) Thank you! I'll try to tackle private messaging now. This is very exciting :)

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I've signed up for the beginner's course again in the New Year. You have to do it at least twice before you can go on to the Improvers, which I think is honestly a good call because I still feel my brain shorting out half the time, and I can't yet do a shoulder shimmy without my hips joining in.<<

Beginner -- can do one thing at a time, except for isolations which are not yet fully isolated!

Intermediate -- can do two things together (e.g. hips and feet or shoulders and arms) and isolations are fully isolated.

Advanced -- all the things at once, and some of the really hard moves.

Re: Yes ...

[galadhir]

Hm, we have been doing kicks with hip drops, and stepping with hip circles or taps, but I admit they're only simple combinations. We haven't tried shimmying anything while doing anything else!

I think most of us have got hip isolation, and the chest isolation is coming along - I imagine we'll all have it by the second go around, but I find that much harder than the hips. I imagine she tries to crowd a bit in because the Intermediates get a taste of things like Saidi - so they get taught a bit of stick work - and other styles. Then the Advanced dancers actually go out and perform, so I imagine they're concentrating on choreography. It'll be a while before I get there!

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That sounds like a pretty good progression of skills.