Belly dance quest

[galadhir]

So my Thursday class has ended for the summer holiday break, and due to the teacher's various commitments, it will not be starting again until November(!)

She told us that she wants to start again with a little showcase, in which each of us presents our own dance to an audience, in the hopes of attracting a few more people to join the class.

We are to choose our own music and choreograph our own dance from start to finish, and practice it enough so we can dance in front of an audience in the run up to Christmas.

This is probably not such a big deal for the rest of the class, who have been dancing for years and years. But I only started, from a basis of never having done it ever before, in September 2023, and given the huge gaps between terms I think I can only have done about 30 sessions.

Still, you've got to learn at some point, and what better way to learn than doing it, so time for me to write baby's first choreography, I guess.

I'm actually really excited at the thought, though who knows if I can keep that motivation up all the way to November.

I know that I want to do a sword dance. Which is another ridiculous choice given that I've only ever taken one single sword dance class. But hey - worst comes to the worst, I can just stick the sword on my head and do a basic belly dance while balancing it. The sword part doesn't have to be fancy.

So far, I've chosen my music, which has to be a good start!

Watch on YouTube

Now I just have to think of some combinations to fit it, and work on my balance.

Comments

[serafaery]

I love your song choice! the Baladi rhythm was my favorite to practice with zills when I used to take belly dance classes :)

[galadhir]

Thank you! I considered British folk music and Hildegard Von Blingin's bardcore version of 'Somebody that I used to know,' but eventually it just seemed like not having proper Arabic music left out something of the soul of the dance.

Now to listen to this often enough so I can identify the different parts. It takes me a while!

We haven't tried zills yet, but I can't imagine I'll be very good with them. Trying to do two things at once breaks my brain :)

[watervole]

Go for it! (Like the music, BTW)

I've always believed in following the heart when it comes to dance.

I'm something of an expert at diving in at the deep end - founded a (now, very successful) Border morris team, with zero experience of Border; then followed that up a few years later by founding a longsword dance team, after once playing concertina for a sword dance performance.

You've had lessons! You're way ahead :) (and there's You Tube now!)

[galadhir]

Thank you! At first I wanted to use Fos by Amanati, but the one bit of sword dancing I did do was done to Goddess by Amanati so it seemed a bit cowardly to use music that was almost exactly the same. I considered using Folk music instead, but Western music rhythm isn't quite right. I hit this one more or less by accident, but it's very pretty and at least it belongs to the right culture.

G I've had lessons in how to move my hips/shoulders/stomach etc, but not in how to choreograph a four minute long dance that doesn't even have a chorus, in a dance style that doesn't have figures, and it's all solo. I've written a couple of morris dances, but this is a lot more nebulous.

Sword dance does seem like it would be hard to write though, without getting into a tangle.

Thank goodness for YouTube! I've been watching so many videos!

[watervole]

My early longsword days involved an awful lot of experimentation with lead RPG figures (preferably with swords, and sometimes with bits of string to link them together). Also, an awful lot of strange-looking manoeuvres on my part, occasionally on railway trains on the way to conventions where I was giving workshops, while trying to understand written dance instruction. Written by someone who knew what they looked like, but could not always explain it clearly enough for people who had never seen it done.

eg. "Numbers 1 and 2 go under the arch made by 4 and 5", neglects to mention that they then have to get back to position by lifting their sword over 4 and 5....
Took quite a while to work that one out.

If you've written morris dances, you'll figure it out. Not because you know the style, but because you have the imagination, interest and persistence to get there!

[galadhir]

Ha, yes that sounds very familiar :) I have a lot of dots on paper and dice, and then also peering at moves in dances by other sides to see how they have achieved their figures. It is next to useless just having written instructions because I'm not sure that you can describe what the dancers need to do without having dancers there to talk to separately and lead around if they don't understand what you mean. Not well, at least!

Thanks for the vote of confidence :) I do already have more idea of what I need to do to tackle it than I had when I started, which is hopeful :)

[watervole]

Rarely, it's possible to record a dance well.

'Bouffons' can be danced from the original notation. But it was written by a dancing master who wanted to sell his book to other dancing masters - so it had to be clear!

[evilwriter37]

Oooh, wishing you the best of luck! I'm impressed by anyone who can dance, really. This sounds like it could be a fun challenge!

[galadhir]

Thank you! This is certainly a challenge, but at this stage I feel like it's a challenge I can manage. We'll have to see whether that continues as I get more into it!

I must admit that when I started belly dancing I did not see how my body could possibly work like that, and keeping my ribcage and pelvis apart boggled my mind, but it seemed to come fairly fast. I haven't even been doing this for a year, after all. I'm sure you could do it if you wanted to :)

[mistressofmuses]

November feels like forever away!

Sometimes I think diving into the deep end with a project is the way to go! Choreographing anything sounds wildly daunting to me, but all the sword dance stuff I've ever seen has been super cool!

[galadhir]

It really does! But I'm beginning to get the impression that it's going to take all the time I've got. I only hope I can sustain the enthusiasm for long enough to get it done.

I'm finding that breaking it down into small parts makes it feel manageable. But that requires listening hard to the song hundreds of times and paying attention to the time signatures. I'm only aiming for a choreography where something different happens in each bit - whether it all goes together in an artistic whole is more than I can hope for :)

[mistressofmuses]

I hope you can sustain the enthusiasm, too! And if it's going to be that much of an undertaking (which doesn't surprise me; I can't imagine how I'd even start!) then I am glad you have so long to get it done!

Manageable parts is definitely a good thing.