Thread: Feedback on performance?

We are a group of students who have been dancing together for a year now, and we are working hard to take our dance to a higher level. We're quite nervous about posting this clip, but we know we can benefit greatly from all of your feedback.

So, what tips can you give us?

Thanks.

[ame=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=873559276649306534&hl=en]Hada Mish Firqa - Spring Student Showcase 2008 (Sunday)[/ame]

Wow! I liked it alot! You guys really worked hard and were in sync. Very beautiful. Great song, great costumes. Very graceful!

I'm too new to give feedback, but I wanted to say kudos to you and your peers for all your hard work and for wanting feedback.

Congrats on taking this step. It's not easy to open yourself up for critique, but there are times it is essential to move the dance to another level.

You've got silk veils, so they've got great float and you don't need to be as aggressive as you would be with chiffon or heavier veils.

If you keep a soft power in your arms (think about that difficult combination of fluidity and strength you need for snake arms and such) your veil will follow. When people do veil well it becomes an extension of themselves, not a prop.

Focus on keeping a sense of strong purpose in your arms. Take your mental focus away from what the veil should be doing, or what you want to veil to do, and bring it back to your bodies. Make the movements flow down your whole arm, through the wrists and into the veil.

Good luck!

Really nice, I loved it! One thing I noticed, and I see this with my students all the time - try not to get ahead of the music. A few times, one or two of you would be slightly ahead of the group, and - more importantly - ahead of the music. Sometimes, when you are doing a choreograpy, you feel like you just want to do it because you know it, so you forget to listen to the music - remember, just because it's not improv (where you need to interpret the music on the spot) doesn't mean there still isn't a musical interpretation taking place. I'm always reminding my students to slow down and listen to the music - it's not a race!

Otherwise, great job!

Really pretty! You guys did a wonderful job with the choreography and being well in sync.

The others had some great suggestions - the only thing I have to add is that I personally find it less than ideal to begin your dance on stage. It always looks odd while you stand there and wait, and it's inevitable the music man will make a mistake someday. If he does - it's nice not to be on stage when it happens!

You guys should be really proud of this piece! You're a talented group of ladies.

That was lovely ..g.:

I only have one piece of feedback. I'm not quite sure if this was just due to the angle of filming, but there were times when the spacing seemed off. Sometimes only three of the four dancers were visible because one seemed to be directly behind the person in front of her, rather than off to the side a bit. For example, around the 3 minute mark, the pair on the left is spaced well to see both dancers, but the pair on the right is not. The back one is hidden behind the front one for most of the section. But maybe that's just the camera angle, I don't know.

As someone who saw it in person, I'd like to say I enjoyed it very much, and my own student troupe members specifically mentioned how impressed they were with you guys.

I really agree with Daniela's comments about getting things a bit slower and more organic. But it's something that will only get better and better as you gain more experience performing together, so you're on the right track. Like she said, I go through the same thing with my own students, so it's a very common and expected growing pain.

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

One thing I noticed, and I see this with my students all the time - try not to get ahead of the music. A few times, one or two of you would be slightly ahead of the group, and - more importantly - ahead of the music. Sometimes, when you are doing a choreograpy, you feel like you just want to do it because you know it, so you forget to listen to the music - remember, just because it's not improv (where you need to interpret the music on the spot) doesn't mean there still isn't a musical interpretation taking place. I'm always reminding my students to slow down and listen to the music - it's not a race!

Thanks for all of the feedback, it's very helpful and we appreciate it. Choreography is by Kimahri, we couldn't have done it without her!

Thank you all for the helpful critique. I am in the turqouise and
just enjoy dancing with these ladies. Kimahri coreographed this peace
for us and we all love the song and the dance. She is a wonderful
teacher and its a pleasure learning from such a fabulous woman.

Ozma - thank you for the wonderful advise, I have seen so many wonderful
veil routines over the years and its good to know how to let the veil
flow as if its an extention of your arm.

Danielabellydance- Thank you also for your kind and helpful words,
I know that sometimes I get so exceited about being on stage
my nerves get the best of me. (mental note- try to keep the butterflies
in the stomach contained).

Adishaki- Great advise. That makes so much sense because
I have seen shows where the music is really messed up and the
dancer starts to play with the slience and the audiance until things
get fixed. Good to know for the future.

Kiadorin - Thank you:Abiggrin: And yes it was the camara position,
it was taken on an angle from the audience not the middle of the
theater.

Laura 2 - Thank you also for the great comments, we all love to
watch you perform as well and I do remember your students doing
a wonderful job as well.
I guess practice IS the most important part of performing and getting
the proper technique down.
Its great to have the dancers of Bhuz educate us and others for
improvement.
I can feel the love

wow! all of this feedback is SOOOO helpful! Thank you all so much for the great advice and the kind words of encouragement! ,r:;
btw, i'm the one in the purple ..g.:

I did all this before reading the rest of the thread - like to get my own unbiased critique before seeing what other people will say.

The veil work is beautiful. It's hard to get 4 veils in sync. Your movements are very smooth and graceful. The veils are less in sync when you are all facing back - I would wager the people in back count on watching the people in front - is that right?

2:14 with the veil flourishes on either side. I also struggle with this too - the urge is to just do the move in the time you have, but you need to start it a little earlier and let it linger in order to get the nice float of the silk veil. Right now, I notice the action of your arm making the flourish happen rather than the action of your veil.

The veils overhead in sequence - REALLY COOL. great idea.
Overall, a beautifully choreographed piece for 4 people. Kudos to Kimahri.

I would enter from off-stage - it would just make a nicer, more professional entrance. I hate it when people are looking right at me while the music is being fumbled with, etc. I like to come in with the music.

It might depend on the angle, but it looks like one girl in the far left (from audience perspective) is being blocked by the people in front.

Dancing as a group is hard work, way more difficult than being solo. I really liked that you have worked hard to be in sync with each other.

To get things to the next lever my suggestions would be:

Try to get more energy in the veil work. Be sure not to make it agressive, but try to make things a bit bigger. Kind of what Ozma said. And try to get more space between you and the veil, sometimes it looked a bit like you got entangled in it.

I´m not sure about the music choice for a group piece. It´s quite slow and very much filled with emotion, a diffucult song to dance, cause it needs a lot of expression in my opinion. So work on emoting the music a bit more, both in body and face. This is so hard to get right when dancing in a group, cause everybody needs to get the same level of emoting, otherwise it may look as some of the groupmembers are trying to outshine the rest.

Costuming, you all looked nice, but to take it up a nodge work on the costuming. I fully understand not having money, and maybe not wanting to invest a lot at first. But it doesn´t have t be expensive if you get creative. So tha same costume but in different colours or the same coclour and a variation of costumes and veils would make you guys look more uniform.

It´s a bit hard to see your face expressions in this clip, but do not forget to enteract with each other. There are places in the choreo that has formations where you could connect with each other. I love groups that show that they enjoy dancing together.

There were only two things that I thought could have been different: starting offstage and rotating positions (it's nice to see different people in front). Otherwise I think you did a good job. I can tell that you practiced a lot so you would be together.

Thank you so much, everyone. This is all very helpful!,r:;
(I'm in the green)