Ten Tips For Belly Dance Students
Practice at home, traveling around your house, stopping at various places to pick up pretend tips. Dance in large spaces & confined spaces in your house. Learn to adapt your dancing to both & also to TRAVELING a lot. When you lay out your costume at the restaurant to put on, make sure you put the dollar on top of your belt - otherwise you will likely forget it. DON'T forget that dollar --- you will get more tips & tips sooner, if you have it. Then you do another 16 counts, but pick different movements from what you just did.
Little by little you will gain muscle memory and feel more at ease. Be sure that all arm movements are anchored in your center. Use your muscles to move your arms, rather than flinging them up, down, or out.
Create a check list so you have everything with you, nothing worse than forgetting part of your costume or music. Make sure your costume is mended, clean, ironed if need be, have a veil, your zills, safety pins, music and a backup, etc. Why add extra stress to yourself if you don’t need to. What ever you do don’t bend over and show your backside to the audience to pick up your veil, props or whatever may be on the stage from your performance. Your dance does not have to be choreographed but you should still know your music.
If you’re absolutely new at improvising and want a little structure to follow, one of the easiest ways to start using concepts like those above is in simple sets of 8 counts. These two situations call for different kinds of improvisation--two separate and unequal kinds of improvisation; they don’t “mix” and are not interchangeable . Often, a professional performer can improvise her entire full-length show and still interpret the music so well that someone might think she’s following a choreography.
Keep in mind that make up for stage is different than for photography. Unless you are going for a specific look, it's better to have more natural make up. If you think the effect is too subtle, you can always add and adjust later. Also, a lot of retouching can take place in Photoshop, which is something you want to discuss with your photographer ahead of time. If you have the chance to have your hair and make up professionally done, I highly recommend it.
Repeat the hip lift on both sides at a faster pace. Skip the break in the middle between sides. It should look like your hips are lifting on the right and then on the left smoothly and fluidly.At full speed, your hips will shimmy from side to side at a quick pace. Bring your right hip back down to center and try the same movement on the other side.
If they are listless, they will take away from the effect of your dance. If they are fluid and strong, they will project your energy well beyond your physical sphere. To keep your shoulders down, use your back muscles; specifically the lower trapezius. This muscle makes the shape of an inverted triangle between and below your shoulder blades.
Don’t let your chest cave in, your gaze stay on the floor, or your elbows “point south”. The “average” American belly dance student isn’t ready to improvise onstage before an audience for quite a while . If you think there are no belly dancing classes in your locality, try Googling Belly Dance first. You may be surprised to find there are classes around that you didn't know about. In an ideal world, I'd be advising you not to teach yourself.
Learn popular bellydance moves like the tent, mask, veil walk and butterfly. Tara covers many variations of these moves, all using the veil to add allure and mystery to bellydancing. Tips for figure eights, dips, shimmies and walks offer a beginning or experienced bellydancer something to include in their practice or routine. So now that I'm a geezer belly dancer with a couple of decades of dancing, I've actually gotten smarter.