An interview with Alexis Southall
“My advice would be to work hard, take class with as many different dancers as you can and spend time mastering the fundamentals of this dance form, because that’s where you grow as an artist.”
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Even MORE fun ways to pack more belly dance into your day!
This post is from a recent Undulate Update- sign up here!
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This week we’ve got some fun tips to fire up your day with even more belly dance, woohoo!
This is the second set of fun tips to pack even more dance into your day, some are more challenging than before and there’s some tips for including stretching and strengthening too.
Click here to see the first edition.
On to the tips!
- Every time you have to pick something up from the floor, maya on the way down and taxim on the way up ( keep your back straight!)
- Practice your flutters All. The. Time. At work, on the commute, in the shower, out shopping, stirring the soup, waiting in line at the coffee shop..
- Can’t sleep at night? Lay on your back with your arms stretched out above your head, practise undulations up to down and down to up.
- Do some hip opening stretches when on the phone to a friend.
- Practise the corkscrew when heating something up in the microwave.
- Engage your abs when walking, everywhere.
- Choo choo shimmy around the house.
- Instead of your normal shimmy try throwing in a twist shimmy, oumi shimmy or pelvic shimmy throughout the day.
- Practise a hair flip when turning to look at a friend.
- Try some rib squares and circles at your desk at work.
How do you fit more dance into your day?
Mercedes Nieto Oriental Inspiration of the week:
Mercedes Nieto dancing to an oriental song
256 ratings49,653 views
256 ratings49,653 views
We hope these tips have inspired you in your belly dance practice, have fun!
Until next time,
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Make it faster!
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In these winter months remember to focus more on stretching and warming up to keep your joints supple. And you’ll want to keep them that way as this week’s update is all about fulfilling your need for speed!
We love our slow and sinuous movements like mayas and undulations in belly dance. However when the beat picks up, we want to be able to keep up with it! Being able to execute fast movements like choo choo shimmies and sharp hip and rib locks allows for greater choreographic freedom, adds excitement to your dancing and is a real test of strength and endurance.
Challenge yourself with a need for speed! Once you’re comfortable with a movement, whether that be undulations, oumis, figure-eights or any belly dance movement- try speeding it up.
Without going into a detailed explanation of counting out beats and timing in music, lets keep it simple:
· Either practise to faster songs or
· If you practise the movement for example rib slides from right to left counting from one to four, sliding to the right on the one, two, three and four, try speeding it up so the ribs slide right on the one and the ‘and’ in between, so the ribs slide to the right on one and two and three and four.
Make it happen (faster!):
Train your brain: Muscles move when the brain commands them to. So when building up speed, it’s not just the muscles that have to adjust to contracting and releasing faster but your brain also has to be trained to send signals faster too. With repetition the brain to muscle connection is strengthened.
Four counts slow, four counts fast: Drill a movement you want to speed up, for example hip singles for four counts at the speed you’re comfortable with, then for four counts at the next speed up. Then repeat and repeat. This is a great way of training both your brain and body to acclimatise to the faster speeds.
Make it smaller: a faster movement has to be a smaller movement as there simply isn’t enough time to cover the space you would when doing it slower and it’ll take more energy to try and do that. For example when you have eight counts to do an oumi you can make the circle much larger than you could in say two counts. Keeping it small helps the faster movements look neat and tight!
Keep your timing: when building speed it’s easy to fall into the trap of losing control and getting sloppy. When this happens go back to drilling four counts slow then four counts fast to build speed sustainably. It’s all about maintaining control! Also keep an eye on your posture.
Relax! Breathe! Try to relax your muscles as opposed to tensing them which will stifle movement. Remember the ‘release’ or pause in the movement even when its fast that will keep it looking sharp rather than sloppy
Once you become accustomed to faster speeds it can actually feel slow! You shouldn’t feel like you’re trying to keep up with the beat or that you’re ahead of it. Rather it’s that perfect feeling of being ‘one’ with the beat.
Be patient when it comes to building speed as it takes a combination of brain and muscle memory, strength, stamina and technique to nail it. Soon your shimmies will be supersonic!
Cello Improv Fusion Inspiration of the week:
Mira Betz & Djordje Stijepovic
63 ratings6,687 views
63 ratings6,687 views
We hope these tips have inspired you in your belly dance practice!
Until next time,
If you liked this then you’ll love:
Ladies!
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So please visit www.undulateshop.com and vote for Undulate here:
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A vote for me is a vote for more shimmies!!! ;)
Beat the burn!
This post is from a recent Undulate Update, if you want more sign up here for weekly belly dance inspiration! And for posts not on Tumblr- visit www.undulateshop.com
Many dancers supplement their practice with strength building and conditioning exercises. You know the drill- situps, crunches, Pilates exercises. This week we have some rapid fire tips to help you push through the burn and have a better (and dare I say more enjoyable) workout!
Important! If exercise feels bad or painful stop immediately. The burn referred to here is the burning sensation felt in muscles when exercising.
Tips for beating the burn:
Breathe! Just breathe a lot!
Make breaths longer than reps. If you can inhale on one rep and exhale on the next it will feel much easier. Doing this during abdominal exercises will help you maintain breath control when belly dancing so you won’t be coordinating your inhales and exhales with your undulations and belly rolls.
I love this song! Play music you love when exercising and it will take your mind off the burn. I find this very helpful for getting though Suhaila squats!
Smile! Trick your body by smiling during the exercise or think to yourself ‘This is easy!’ It will become so!
Remember! As Tara Stiles says the burn fades quickly after you finish the exercise so keep going because it won’t last forever!
Also
Also
If you’re doing ab exercises just think how much your belly dance ab movements will benefit. The same goes for working out the whole body!
Inspiration from the gorgeous Alla Kushnir
63 ratings9,560 views
We hope these tips have inspired you in your practice!
Until next time,
Sign up to get the latest belly dance inspiration first!
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Even MORE fun ways to pack more belly dance into your day!
