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How long does it take to learn a belly dance move, and learn it well?

In class sometimes our bodies surprise and delight us by taking to a new movement with ease. However we are all familiar with the feeling of not getting a move right, having a lopsided maya or a belly that just won’t roll!

Too often we are told that our body shape lends itself to certain moves well and not others. Well has Ms Rachel Brice every paid attention to the myth that belly rolls don’t show up on someone with a slender figure?

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Sadie recently and among the fabulous moves she drilled and broke down for us was the reverse belly roll over a maya
 -a challenging move by anyone’s standards. However her suggestion that stayed with me was to keep trying the move for ten hours. It simply is a case of getting the movement into our bodies and brains, which takes time and repetition. 

It’s not that you can’t do it, it’s that you haven’t done it enough!

There is nothing we can do now with ease that we haven’t done again and again in the past. Remember joining up the dots to practise handwriting as a child? Or learning your multiplication tables by rote?

By drilling movements we strengthen the connection between our brains and the part of the body we’re targeting and develop the muscle memory necessary to be able to execute the movement.

So take those undulations, figure-eights, flutters or whatever movement that’s not quite there yet and give it ten hours.

Some tips:

• Spread out the ten hours over a few weeks so as to focus on the movement along with your normal practice routine. 
• Ask your teacher for help with the movement to make sure you are using correct technique.
• Do some targeted strengthening exercises to help you execute the movement. For example if you’re working on mayas do some bicycle sit-ups to warm up the oblique muscles.
• Take time to visualise the movement, watch videos on youtube and study how it looks on different dancers.

Fluidity in any move can be achieved if practised with dedication over a period of time, supported by your normal practise.  Remember- We all learn at our own pace. The key is not to give up- whether it takes you ten minutes or ten hours of drilling to get  a move down you have to keep practising safely and effectively to achieve your dance goals.

The next step is to maintain it, improve it and move on to the next ‘pesky’ move!

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Until next time,

Zoe Jakes: “The problem is that you get good at something and you stop practicing it. So you gotta keep practicing. All the time. And this is also — I like to think of this as the spine of my personal creative practice. this is not “it”, it’s not like “okay I’m done I can go live my regular life,” it’s not like that at all. This is, what I do and how I approach a dance class is I want people to feel like they really accomplished something and they’ve really gotten into their bodies. So this isn’t like my concept-based classes, they’re completely different. But in this particular situation the goal is to get you moving in your bodies and stop thinking, cause I think…that always, that’s the strongest resistance that we have. Is, is our brains getting in the ways of our bodies…

“So, again, create a simple practice and don’t question whether its too easy. Don’t question whether it’s doing anything, ‘cause it is. And don’t start to second-guess yourself with “what am I doing anyway?” That’s a big one…”

Tim Ferris is better known for experimental lifestyle design than belly dancing. However his insights as a ‘would-be Tango dancer’ who went on to reach the Semi-finals of the World Championships in Buenos Aires after just six months of training, can be applied to any style of dance.

So how did he do it? You can read his article on becoming a world class tango dancer here but keep reading below for to see his tips applied to belly dance:

Tims first tip:

1)Find one primary male teacher and one primary female teacher.

Apply to belly dance: Become familiar with Belly Dance music.

Tim advises learning with both male and female teachers for Tango so as to become familiar with the cues necessary to become a strong lead. In belly dance it’s the rhythm and melody that guides us.  Knowing our beledi from our chiftetelli helps us better anticipate and interpret the music. Getting to know famous singers and songs makes our belly dance learning more complete.
  

•  Suhaila has compiled her list of essentials.
• Shira provides a lot of useful information here.

On to the next tip!

2) Videotape anything you want to practice, and videotape yourself as early as possible.
 

Apply to belly dance:

This tip is self-explanatory. It’s especially useful if you have a performance coming up. Even if you don’t by filming yourself you pick up on areas that need correcting that you miss in the mirror, which you can then work on to improve.

Filming yourself becomes easier the more you do it. So take a deep breath, either make up a short choreography to a song you love or use one that you’ve learnt from class, prop the camera or camera-phone up and go! The sooner you see it as a tool for making progress in your dance the less nerve-wracking it is.

And finally:

3) Once you have a basic strong upper body “abrazo”, dance with as many women as possible to identify where you are weak.

Apply to belly dance: Learn from more than one teacher.

  For Tango Tim recommends dancing with as many partners as possible to find weaknesses. By broadening our belly dance experience further than our regular class we discover our strengths, weaknesses, new moves and combinations that we would not have found otherwise.

As belly dance students we only learn more by exposing ourselves to different teachers each with their own technique, teaching style and dance vocabulary.  In this way we learn more than we would have done just sticking to one class and can hone and combine new movements to add to our own individual style.

•  Try supplementing your weekly class with youtube tutorials or practise dvds.
•  Drop in on a beginner tribal fusion class if your regular class is more oriental focused and vice versa. 
•  Look out for workshops by visiting teachers in your area

Have you found these tips helpful? 

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Until next time,

www.undulateshop.com