I think the best dancers are actresses, you have to do more than move correctly you have to portray the right character. I was watching So You Think You Can Dance (Season 8) and one of the judges says how the dancer showed her character perfectly by just the way she was standing, before she even danced a step. That's a performer.
I LOVE this performance below, awesome technique but it's her acting and attitude that makes her brilliant. :)
It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer. -Shanna LaFleur
The dance is the mother of the arts. Music and poetry exist in time; painting and architecture in space. But the dance lives at once in time and space. -Curt Sachs
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
From Emma's Soapbox
Brillant article from Emma
In this post I will consider the following question: what SHOULD a professional belly dancer be? I am addressing anyone who considers themselves to have reached a point in their dance career where they can represent belly dance in public outside of a hafla setting[1], whether through performance or teaching. Student dancers, relax, I’m not talking about you . These are the standards I hold myself to. I am not claiming to be perfect and I have not always managed to fulfil all of these in the past, but when I fail to meet these standards I do my best to make sure I learn from that and do better next time.
So what makes a professional bellydancer?
Getting paid to dance
Well, yes, this is the most basic definition of a professional but actually it’s a bit more complicated than that. To quote my friend Kitty Kohl : “Somebody can behave professionally and still be a student, and they can be earning money as a teacher and a dancer and be totally not professional in any way.” Sometimes a professional will choose to waive their fee, for example, in support of a charity, but even without money changing hands they still give a professional standard performance. Discussions about money and professionalism are often derailed by arguments over what proportion of your income comes from dance, which is simply not relevant. In situations where you would reasonably expect an entertainer to be paid (birthday party, restaurant, wedding…) you should be paid, even if you only do one gig in a year.
There’s more to it than that. You should be getting paid a fair price, and if you’re not sure what that is you should ask. Hint: don’t ask a restaurant owner . You shouldn’t be undercutting the other dancers in your area and if you don’t understand why then you are not ready to be a professional dancer. If you think the standard of your dancing means you should be paid less than the average (“50% less than any other dancer!”) you are certainly not ready to be a professional dancer.
Technical standard
I wish it went without saying, but you must be able to bellydance well. I could write a whole other essay on what it means to “bellydance well” but for now I will stick to “execute isolated movements clearly and gracefully with good posture and demonstrable knowledge of stagecraft”. I’ve been involved in bellydance for over 12 years and have seen the overall standard of dance in the UK rise but still I come across videos that make me shake my head in sadness when I see that the dancer claims to be a professional or worse, teaches other people. And don’t come to me and say “But I only teach beginners!” because you will unleash a rant which makes this polemic sound like The Little Book of Calm!
A professional dancer should also have the necessary background knowledge for whatever she is performing. Know the style of music, the style of dance that goes with it, what the words mean etc. You can’t assume that your audience is totally ignorant. Maybe I am there in the back row, judging you If you are a fusion dancer, know what you’re fusing. Do you really feel “boxed in by styles” or are you just not prepared to put in the effort of learning about them? Believe me, it will show in your performance.
Professional development
There is no standing still in dance. As soon as you stop trying to push your dancing forward you start going backwards. The opportunities for professional development have simply exploded in the time I have been involved in the bellydance world. You don’t need to travel abroad to train with world-renowned dancers, but if you do want to there are plenty of people to help make that happen for you. Artists from Egypt, the US and Europe regularly visit the UK for festivals and intensive training weekends and of course we have some superb home grown teachers. There is a mind-boggling array of DVDs available on every subject related to bellydance, no matter how tangentially. And of course there is YouTube which is an amazing resource for different styles, dancers and settings if you can navigate your way through the dross. I will note here that “free classes on YouTube” are worth exactly what you pay for them. There is absolutely no excuse for stopping your dance education, and why would you want to? Learning is awesome!
If you are also a teacher then professional development also covers teacher training and health and safety. There are quite a few bellydance teacher training courses available although it looks like JWAAD is going to dominate the field for some time (disclaimer, I am JWAAD trained). There are also more general courses for teaching exercise to music such as that offered by the YMCA. You should seriously consider having a first aid qualification and some venues will require you to have one. Before you all email with me with the names of perfectly good teachers with no qualifications don’t bother. I KNOW THAT [EGYPTIAN TEACHER] HAS NO CERTIFICATE. I think that anyone starting out on their teaching careers NOW should undergo training.
Appearance
Oh boy, this one is a mine field. I think bellydance is more inclusive then most other dance forms when it comes to appearance. A wider range of body shapes and ages are acceptable to most audiences. For example, I would never have made it as a ballet dancer and even if I had I would have retired by now! However, we still have to dance in a society with certain expectations of what a bellydancer should look like and whilst I think many of them are ridiculous that is not what I want to write about today. How much each individual performer chooses to fulfil these expectations is their own business.
I am more interested in the cosmetic aspect of appearance. You should be well groomed, by which I mean clean (!), with suitable hair and makeup and a good costume. Good costume – now there’s a potentially loaded term. A good costume is well made, fits you and flatters your shape. It doesn’t reveal anything you don’t want revealing (I think we can all agree that bellydance should be family friendly). It’s appropriate for the style of dance you’re performing, the venue and the time of day.
Your costume doesn’t need to be a $1300 designer creation. It does need to be a costume i.e. “a bra from Target” with a few sequins stuck on it will not do. I cannot say this often enough, but a costume bra is very different to a lingerie bra. You can use your bra from Primark (I guess that’s equivalent to Target) as a base for your costume but it needs more work than ten minutes with a hot glue gun. Hint: if the original straps are visible it will always look like you are dancing around in your underwear. I wish I could forget the dancer I saw performing (in a professional setting) in white leggings, a coin belt that shed as she danced, and an undecorated bra from New Look. How do I know it was from New Look? Because I saw the exact same one there the day afterwards. Her costume was a perfect reflection of her dance ability. I had to be led away quietly for a strong drink.
Student dancers, please don’t be worried. If you are performing at haflas a simple long skirt and coin belt with a nice top is just fine as long as it satisfies the principles in that second paragraph. Just be aware that if you want to step outside the hafla setting you are going to need to invest money and/or time on your costuming.
Business skills
If you are earning money from dancing at some point you need to be registered for tax purposes, and that means keeping records and accounts. You also need to think about public liability insurance (you’d be extremely foolish to start teaching dance without it), music licensing, advertising, creating and maintaining a website…in short, pretty much everything a small business start up has to consider. You have to be able to deal with clients and customers in a professional manner. Can you accept a compliment? Can you handle a complaint? Can you deal with competition from other dancers, ideally without creating a rift that splits your community in two? This brings me onto…
Supporting the dance community
You can support the dance community in two ways: by playing nice and by not being an idiot. In other words, by taking positive actions and by avoiding engaging in negative behaviour (but I prefer the glib version!). So: playing nice. This includes everything discussed so far in order to be a good role model for the up and coming dancers in your community. It is also attending classes, workshops, haflas and festivals and encouraging other dancers or your students (if you teach) to do the same. You could go further and organise an event for your dance community. It is also important to show your support as an audience member, if you swan off as soon as your performance is over, or spend all your time hiding out in the dressing room, or sit scowling through every performance other than your friend’s (and I’ve seen all of these!) it will reflect badly on you.
Alas, without infinite time and money it is impossible to show positive support to everyone. You can still support the community in other ways. Not undercutting is a big one. Not allowing your personal feelings towards other professionals to interfere with your participation – we’ve got a small sandbox to play in which is why we have to play nice. Not scheduling your events to clash with someone else’s. Not representing bellydance in an inappropriate or sleazy way. I could go on but I think you get the idea.
I believe all of the above points are the absolute minimum necessary to make a professional bellydancer. The relevance of each is down to the individual – maybe your website is not as important to you as your training, for example – but no one point is sufficient. No, not even the one about being paid. The obvious next question to ask is “What makes a GOOD professional bellydancer?” and there’s a lot more scope for argument there!
[1] I make this distinction for the following reason. The definition of a hafla varies between regions but it is always an event put on by the bellydance community for the bellydance community, rather then the general public. A hafla is in no way inferior to any other performance setting.
So what makes a professional bellydancer?
Getting paid to dance
Well, yes, this is the most basic definition of a professional but actually it’s a bit more complicated than that. To quote my friend Kitty Kohl : “Somebody can behave professionally and still be a student, and they can be earning money as a teacher and a dancer and be totally not professional in any way.” Sometimes a professional will choose to waive their fee, for example, in support of a charity, but even without money changing hands they still give a professional standard performance. Discussions about money and professionalism are often derailed by arguments over what proportion of your income comes from dance, which is simply not relevant. In situations where you would reasonably expect an entertainer to be paid (birthday party, restaurant, wedding…) you should be paid, even if you only do one gig in a year.
There’s more to it than that. You should be getting paid a fair price, and if you’re not sure what that is you should ask. Hint: don’t ask a restaurant owner . You shouldn’t be undercutting the other dancers in your area and if you don’t understand why then you are not ready to be a professional dancer. If you think the standard of your dancing means you should be paid less than the average (“50% less than any other dancer!”) you are certainly not ready to be a professional dancer.
Technical standard
I wish it went without saying, but you must be able to bellydance well. I could write a whole other essay on what it means to “bellydance well” but for now I will stick to “execute isolated movements clearly and gracefully with good posture and demonstrable knowledge of stagecraft”. I’ve been involved in bellydance for over 12 years and have seen the overall standard of dance in the UK rise but still I come across videos that make me shake my head in sadness when I see that the dancer claims to be a professional or worse, teaches other people. And don’t come to me and say “But I only teach beginners!” because you will unleash a rant which makes this polemic sound like The Little Book of Calm!
A professional dancer should also have the necessary background knowledge for whatever she is performing. Know the style of music, the style of dance that goes with it, what the words mean etc. You can’t assume that your audience is totally ignorant. Maybe I am there in the back row, judging you If you are a fusion dancer, know what you’re fusing. Do you really feel “boxed in by styles” or are you just not prepared to put in the effort of learning about them? Believe me, it will show in your performance.
Professional development
There is no standing still in dance. As soon as you stop trying to push your dancing forward you start going backwards. The opportunities for professional development have simply exploded in the time I have been involved in the bellydance world. You don’t need to travel abroad to train with world-renowned dancers, but if you do want to there are plenty of people to help make that happen for you. Artists from Egypt, the US and Europe regularly visit the UK for festivals and intensive training weekends and of course we have some superb home grown teachers. There is a mind-boggling array of DVDs available on every subject related to bellydance, no matter how tangentially. And of course there is YouTube which is an amazing resource for different styles, dancers and settings if you can navigate your way through the dross. I will note here that “free classes on YouTube” are worth exactly what you pay for them. There is absolutely no excuse for stopping your dance education, and why would you want to? Learning is awesome!
If you are also a teacher then professional development also covers teacher training and health and safety. There are quite a few bellydance teacher training courses available although it looks like JWAAD is going to dominate the field for some time (disclaimer, I am JWAAD trained). There are also more general courses for teaching exercise to music such as that offered by the YMCA. You should seriously consider having a first aid qualification and some venues will require you to have one. Before you all email with me with the names of perfectly good teachers with no qualifications don’t bother. I KNOW THAT [EGYPTIAN TEACHER] HAS NO CERTIFICATE. I think that anyone starting out on their teaching careers NOW should undergo training.
Appearance
Oh boy, this one is a mine field. I think bellydance is more inclusive then most other dance forms when it comes to appearance. A wider range of body shapes and ages are acceptable to most audiences. For example, I would never have made it as a ballet dancer and even if I had I would have retired by now! However, we still have to dance in a society with certain expectations of what a bellydancer should look like and whilst I think many of them are ridiculous that is not what I want to write about today. How much each individual performer chooses to fulfil these expectations is their own business.
I am more interested in the cosmetic aspect of appearance. You should be well groomed, by which I mean clean (!), with suitable hair and makeup and a good costume. Good costume – now there’s a potentially loaded term. A good costume is well made, fits you and flatters your shape. It doesn’t reveal anything you don’t want revealing (I think we can all agree that bellydance should be family friendly). It’s appropriate for the style of dance you’re performing, the venue and the time of day.
Your costume doesn’t need to be a $1300 designer creation. It does need to be a costume i.e. “a bra from Target” with a few sequins stuck on it will not do. I cannot say this often enough, but a costume bra is very different to a lingerie bra. You can use your bra from Primark (I guess that’s equivalent to Target) as a base for your costume but it needs more work than ten minutes with a hot glue gun. Hint: if the original straps are visible it will always look like you are dancing around in your underwear. I wish I could forget the dancer I saw performing (in a professional setting) in white leggings, a coin belt that shed as she danced, and an undecorated bra from New Look. How do I know it was from New Look? Because I saw the exact same one there the day afterwards. Her costume was a perfect reflection of her dance ability. I had to be led away quietly for a strong drink.
Student dancers, please don’t be worried. If you are performing at haflas a simple long skirt and coin belt with a nice top is just fine as long as it satisfies the principles in that second paragraph. Just be aware that if you want to step outside the hafla setting you are going to need to invest money and/or time on your costuming.
Business skills
If you are earning money from dancing at some point you need to be registered for tax purposes, and that means keeping records and accounts. You also need to think about public liability insurance (you’d be extremely foolish to start teaching dance without it), music licensing, advertising, creating and maintaining a website…in short, pretty much everything a small business start up has to consider. You have to be able to deal with clients and customers in a professional manner. Can you accept a compliment? Can you handle a complaint? Can you deal with competition from other dancers, ideally without creating a rift that splits your community in two? This brings me onto…
Supporting the dance community
You can support the dance community in two ways: by playing nice and by not being an idiot. In other words, by taking positive actions and by avoiding engaging in negative behaviour (but I prefer the glib version!). So: playing nice. This includes everything discussed so far in order to be a good role model for the up and coming dancers in your community. It is also attending classes, workshops, haflas and festivals and encouraging other dancers or your students (if you teach) to do the same. You could go further and organise an event for your dance community. It is also important to show your support as an audience member, if you swan off as soon as your performance is over, or spend all your time hiding out in the dressing room, or sit scowling through every performance other than your friend’s (and I’ve seen all of these!) it will reflect badly on you.
Alas, without infinite time and money it is impossible to show positive support to everyone. You can still support the community in other ways. Not undercutting is a big one. Not allowing your personal feelings towards other professionals to interfere with your participation – we’ve got a small sandbox to play in which is why we have to play nice. Not scheduling your events to clash with someone else’s. Not representing bellydance in an inappropriate or sleazy way. I could go on but I think you get the idea.
I believe all of the above points are the absolute minimum necessary to make a professional bellydancer. The relevance of each is down to the individual – maybe your website is not as important to you as your training, for example – but no one point is sufficient. No, not even the one about being paid. The obvious next question to ask is “What makes a GOOD professional bellydancer?” and there’s a lot more scope for argument there!
[1] I make this distinction for the following reason. The definition of a hafla varies between regions but it is always an event put on by the bellydance community for the bellydance community, rather then the general public. A hafla is in no way inferior to any other performance setting.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Hula Dancers!
Oriental Fire has just launched it's Hula show package for corporate functions and parties! We have a choreographed traditional Hawaiian dance with it's lovely feature of story telling, a Tahitian drum solo and fire dance as well as getting everyone up for a Limbo challenge! Our favourite things about the Hula parties (besides those amazing fruit platters and drinks in coconuts) are that you get to dress like this...
and perform in places like this, where we were yesterday...
and perform in places like this, where we were yesterday...
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| Zebula Lodge |
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Changing Room Fun
I'm still waiting for the professional photos which were taken at our show for a lovely couple's music night, one of the 3 traditional evenings in an Indian wedding. We were in the gorgeous Vodaworld Dome and had our own big dressing room which we thought we'd keep so organised but once the show started and all the mad rush costume changes we had to throw caution to the wind (as you can see, Ahem!). I wore 8 different costumes including 2 Belly Dance costumes, a flamenco costume, 3 modern Bollywood costumes, 2 traditional Bollywood costumes and a 'boy' costume. I wanted to take a photo in each one but unfortunately, we would literally get changed and run backstage to make sure the show ran smoothly so only got these pics. :) I have to say being a performer makes you get dressing, hair and make up in a hurry down to a fine art, which always benefits your better half for those last minute dinner plans. ;) Good stuff.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Be Bigger Than That
I think a lot of dancers want to find their niche' in the market and that's a very wise thing to do for business. In saying that however, you have to realize that although you may have worked hard to come up with a new concept or fusion, quite possibly, some others may have come to the same concept as you and (shock and horror!) they didn't even copy you to get to it.
My advice is just be bloody good at what you do. That way if someone else does something similar (or that you think is similar) it won't threaten you or make you feel insecure. You can actually share in the joy of having a common passion or that maybe great minds think alike.
Secondly, don't go out of you way to tell them they're unprofessional for stealing your style when said person has never seen you perform. THAT would be a rather challenging thing to do. Obviously, there are things that are stealing such as creating a 'SQNY' sound system instead of a 'SONY' one, or copying someone's tagline or deliberately trying to elbow in on their clients. Those things are wrong, but someone having a similar style of dance; very hard to copyright. Two Spanish Dance schools could accuse each other of copying them, or someone who adds a new prop to a well-loved dance form such as silk fan veils to belly dance would have to stop everyone else from doing the same thing.
All that to say, good people, be original, try new things, discover but then rather than trying to stop anyone else from being like you (whether real or imagined) just be good enough that you're confident in what YOU have to offer, keep learning and growing and network with those who are like-minded rather than making them your competition. You never know what opportunities you may miss out on by pushing people away with your pettiness.
My advice is just be bloody good at what you do. That way if someone else does something similar (or that you think is similar) it won't threaten you or make you feel insecure. You can actually share in the joy of having a common passion or that maybe great minds think alike.
Secondly, don't go out of you way to tell them they're unprofessional for stealing your style when said person has never seen you perform. THAT would be a rather challenging thing to do. Obviously, there are things that are stealing such as creating a 'SQNY' sound system instead of a 'SONY' one, or copying someone's tagline or deliberately trying to elbow in on their clients. Those things are wrong, but someone having a similar style of dance; very hard to copyright. Two Spanish Dance schools could accuse each other of copying them, or someone who adds a new prop to a well-loved dance form such as silk fan veils to belly dance would have to stop everyone else from doing the same thing.
All that to say, good people, be original, try new things, discover but then rather than trying to stop anyone else from being like you (whether real or imagined) just be good enough that you're confident in what YOU have to offer, keep learning and growing and network with those who are like-minded rather than making them your competition. You never know what opportunities you may miss out on by pushing people away with your pettiness.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Look and Feel Good Expo
After an amazing wedding show for the dashing couple, Shaaista and Osman (which I'll blog about once I get the photos) we got home at 2 in the morning only to get up and get our costumes resorted for our show at the Coca Cola Dome showcasing the fun of Belly Dance and Bollywood which we have tomorrow as well.
I had another show afterwards so didn't get to look around but hoping to tomorrow. From the glimpses I saw there were massages, make overs, health food kitchens and cooking demonstrations, yoga classes, energy drinks, hair styling products, exercise wear and performances of all sorts including Bollywood/Belly/Hip Hop fusion Dancers Made2Dance featuring belly dance rock star Thelma! If you're in Gauteng, you really should come stop by!
I had another show afterwards so didn't get to look around but hoping to tomorrow. From the glimpses I saw there were massages, make overs, health food kitchens and cooking demonstrations, yoga classes, energy drinks, hair styling products, exercise wear and performances of all sorts including Bollywood/Belly/Hip Hop fusion Dancers Made2Dance featuring belly dance rock star Thelma! If you're in Gauteng, you really should come stop by!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
'Tis the Season
We've been enjoying the 'corporate season' as it's called here where all the major companies start holding or organizing their year end functions, this used to be from August to early December but with the credit crunch and all it's wound down to October and November.Belly Dancing has always been very popular at these events and I love when the company goes all out and has Bedouin tents, gorgeous centre pieces (think cinnamon sticks, spices and Hubbly Bubblies), camels at the entrance and everyone in costume. For some reason you always get a few guests in full Indian wear at these events, I think some haven't quite gotten the difference between these very different countries but they do look beautiful all the same. :)
Then you have the belly dancers (yay!) who come and entertain with their mesmerizing shows and get everyone up to try out some fabulous moves, it's especially fun when the CEO joins in much to everyone's delight. This year, Bollywood has been the next biggest theme and this time they can rightly wear those beautiful Indian saris and punjabis and fashionable men's wear. Lots of bling and colours, foot tapping music and our Bollywood show (my favourite part, of course), then you bring in the henna artist, bindis for the ladies and that amazing food! Definitely a evening to remember!
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