10 Things I Learned at the LVBDI

 

I taught, I performed, I geeked out.

The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive was an amazing experience. I was honored to teach and perform at such a prestigious and beautifully-run event. But the very best part was geeking out with so many amazing dancers!
 
 

So I thought I’d share a few of my favorite take-aways from the LVBDI, and introduce you to the lovely ladies I learned them from.
 
 

1) Show Your Neck (h/t Aziza)

My teacher, Amira Jamal, always said that posture is the key to stage presence.
I took that to heart early on, but every few years, I pick up another detail that makes a big difference. (Separating your teeth was a big one.)

I had one of those moments in Aziza’s workshops.

(It was so important, she brought it up in both sessions.)

Aziza had us practice “showing our neck”.

That meant both:

• Lengthening your neck (for strong, proud carriage)
• Angling your head a bit, showing the side of your neck (being willing to be vulnerable shows confidence)

The difference is makes is huge.

You look much more confident, elegant, and just lovelier.

And it explains a LOT of times when I’ve watched myself on video and something felt “off”, but I couldn’t say what.

I’m going to work with this one a lot!
 

2) 3-1-1 Zil Pattern (h/t Helena Vlahos)

This pattern is so simple, but I’ve never heard it before!
It has a nice rolling quality to it as well.

You can count it out as:

And-a-one and two,
And-a-three and four

Or if you like lyrics (like I do), you can speak it as:

“Wanna dance, oh yes!”

(I also wanted to share the “Pac Man” strike I learned from Helena, but it’s hard to explain.
You’ll just have to study with her directly… 🙂 )
 

3) You’ve gotta bring the joy (via the festival stage)

I was proud of everyone who performed on the festival stage, but I enjoyed the amateur troupes the most.

When you try to make a career out of dance, it’s really easy to get so caught up in being “good enough”, that you forget how crucial joy is to this dance.

As performers, our job is to make the audience glad they came.

And the best way to do that is to let go and actually enjoy dancing, and share that with the audience.

The amateurs were clearly thrilled to be on that stage, and their joy was infectious.
(Plus, some of them had some d@mn cute moves!)
 

4) The sleeve wrap (h/t Rosa Noreen)

Technically, I learned this one after the LVBDI, but it was filmed there!

This is a pretty “re-wrap” that you can do after dancing with a free veil. It’s distinctive, and it creates some really pretty framing effects.

This clip was filmed for Mahin’s Daily Belly Dance Quickies. If you’re not already on that list, you should sign up right away!
 

5) Create moments (h/t Aziza)

To create texture in your dance, Aziza recommends sprinkling your dance with “moments”. They don’t have to be anything complicated (the example she taught was a simple look at the audience with a framing gesture), but they should be distinctive.

Since then, I’ve been asking myself: how can I create a moment here? How can I make this moment special without cramming it with “stuff”?
 

6) Ironing can change your skirt length (via my own performance)

I don’t iron.

I refuse to buy anything that needs ironing. The only exception, an organza party dress, gets ironed at the dry cleaners. (And I don’t even do that myself – my husband takes it there for me!)

Instead of ironing, I usually hang my costume skirts in a steamy bathroom, and the wrinkles usually fall right out. (I use a steamer for stubborn ones.)

But for this show, I wanted to be really conscientious.

So I busted out the iron in my hotel room.

Now, I knew that circle skirts stretch on the bias over time, which can make the hem uneven. (Seamstresses usually hang them for a week or more before hemming, to compensate.)

But I didn’t realize that ironing up & down (waist-to-hem) could stretch it out even further.

By ironing the skirt, I added at least an inch, and stepped on it three times during my performance!
(But I don’t think I let on, at least…)
 

7) A practical reason for dancers to learn maqamat (h/t Jamie Lynn)

I’ve always disagreed that dancers need to learn maqamat.

I’m a geek, so I think that all knowledge is worth having.
(Wink at the Jacqueline Carey fans reading this.)

But while musicians clearly need to know maqamat in order to create the music, I’ve never heard a solid practical reason why dancers should learn them, beyond geeky curiosity.

After all, the role of the song’s maqam is to give it its emotional tone

And the dancer should be able to get the emotional tone just by listening.
(If she is familiar with ME music.)

So why would you need “the middle man” of looking up the song’s maqam and it’s meanings?

Jamie Lynn made two strong arguments:

a) There are cultural differences in hearing.
Emotions are universal, but an Egyptian may hear slightly different shades of feeling in a song than an American would. So the emotions traditionally associated with the maqam can give you some insight into what an Arab audience might hear that you don’t.

b) The maqam gives you information about the composer’s intentions.
Like the explanation plaque next to a piece of art, knowing their intentions can help you pick out nuances of the piece that you might not notice if you weren’t looking for them.

I still don’t think that dancers *need* to know maqamat.

I’d argue that it’s an advanced, “extra credit” kind of topic.
(vs., say common rhythms, which every dancer needs to know, at least by ear.)

But I’m psyched to finally hear a practical reason why it would be worthwhile.

Jamie Lynn also demystified several other things about maqamat and Arabic music, so I *highly* recommend her workshops:
http://www.jamielynnbellydance.com/workshop-topics.html
 

8) A bad intro can undermine your show (via the festival and gala shows)

Between three gala shows and three days of the festival stage, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many performances in one go!

As I watched performance after performance, I realized that the dancer’s introduction had a big impact on how I felt about their show. I noticed three things:

a) Short and sweet is best

A long bio is fine in print, but if your introduction takes more than 30 sections to read, the audience gets antsy. This is especially true in a hafla or festival situation, with dozens of dancers and dozens of intros.

b) Avoid hype like the plague

If your bio makes you sound like god’s gift to the stage, and you aren’t amazing, the audience is going to be disappointed.
You don’t have to downplay your achievements; just make sure that your bio doesn’t promise what your skill level can’t deliver.

c) Spoiler alert!

Your intro is a great opportunity to give us some background on the vision behind your performance.
But if you have some interesting or impressive elements in your show, giving away too many details in your intro is like spoiling the end of the movie.
We’ll appreciate those moments a lot more if you only allude to them.

 

9) The one-handed zil wobble with accents (h/t Ustadza Azra)

Why didn’t I think of that?

I’ve used the zil wobble many times, but it never occurred to me to do it on one hand, and use the other hand to layer on accents.

(I am so stealing that!)

(Starts at 0:28)
 

10) People don’t learn how to play zils with their veil anymore (this came up repeatedly!)

My teacher made us learn how to hold the veil so we could play zils at the same time.
This has come in handy in both Vintage Orientale (aka AmCab) and Turkish styles.

But it seems like that’s a dying art. People don’t learn that in class anymore. But clearly they want to! It came up three times that weekend, and twice on Facebook since then.

So I made a micro-tutorial:

(It also shows off the fancy nails I had done in Vegas!)
 

Your Turn

Which of these 10 tips will you be able to use?

Did you go to the LVBDI?

If so, what did you learn?

If not, what is your favorite tidbit that you learned (somewhere else) recently?

Share your thoughts in the comments.