Thread: Expressing the subtle emotions

This year I've been really trying to work on emoting and communicating when I dance. I have now managed to teach myself to took up about 90% of the time (which, trust me, is a massive, no, gargantuan improvement). I've also had a lot of help from my teacher and some workshops on communicating through expression. I wouldn't go as far as to say I've got this down pat but I am (according to others) getting a lot better with the facial expressions and not looking like I've been slapped in the face with a wet fish all the time!

Thing is I'm getting the idea with the very strong emotions (Sultry, Joyful, Heartbroken) but I'm not doing so well with those more subtle emotions that some of the music conveys (poignant, bittersweet, wistful). Does that make sense?

At the moment when I play around with the more subtle stuff I just end up looking po-faced or like I've got major indigestion. I find the trick with the other emotions is usually for me to visualize something quite extreme (like that I'm some kind of super vixen for sultry /Just been dumped for heartbroken) but I don't quite know where to go in my head for the more subtle stuff. I mean, I know how those emotions feel, but when I do try to focus on them, it doesn't come across.

Any ideas? How do you get the subtlety as well as the 'POW!' emotions?

I would say look further than facial expression, and think about body language as well. You've been to a Sara Farouk workshop? Go to more! If you get a chance to do Tracey Gibbs' arms workshop, do it! Both of these teachers will help you find ways to access and express subtlety of emotion via the whole body, not just the face.

This may seem silly (go ahead, tell me so, I can take it) but I tend to also do a fair amount of visualization with food. No, not food in general, but specific foods that elicit specific, sensual and physical reactions.

Probably the most notable of the ones that I use is "dark, winter-weight (or blend, not sure the correct terminology for it, but the finer chocolates created in and for winter have less wax in them) Belgian chocolate". The exercise is that you have to imagine taking a piece of the chocolate, holding it on your tongue without chewing, and letting the chocolate simply melt and permeate your mouth. It is this feeling and reaction to the chocolate that I am trying to get my students to feel in their bodies for certain types of movements (those I refer to as ooey-gooey) in reaction to music that is also ooey-gooey. ..g.:

I don't think that there's a class (or seminar) I've taught that I didn't use that visualization. At one notable seminar I taught (had a *lot* of ooey-gooey to the music and the movements) I got so wrapped up in the imagery that at one point I called out to the class "now take it to the chocolate!" ..l;, BTW - That particular group has never let me forget that one. ..l;,

Originally Posted by TediThomas

This may seem silly (go ahead, tell me so, I can take it) but I tend to also do a fair amount of visualization with food. No, not food in general, but specific foods that elicit specific, sensual and physical reactions.

Probably the most notable of the ones that I use is "dark, winter-weight (or blend, not sure the correct terminology for it, but the finer chocolates created in and for winter have less wax in them) Belgian chocolate". The exercise is that you have to imagine taking a piece of the chocolate, holding it on your tongue without chewing, and letting the chocolate simply melt and permeate your mouth. It is this feeling and reaction to the chocolate that I am trying to get my students to feel in their bodies for certain types of movements (those I refer to as ooey-gooey) in reaction to music that is also ooey-gooey. ..g.:

I don't think that there's a class (or seminar) I've taught that I didn't use that visualization. At one notable seminar I taught (had a *lot* of ooey-gooey to the music and the movements) I got so wrapped up in the imagery that at one point I called out to the class "now take it to the chocolate!" ..l;, BTW - That particular group has never let me forget that one. ..l;,

Tedi, I LOVE this.

.w.:

do you have any chocolate now? ;) lol




The only advice I can give is keep practicing...practice with your music on, in front of a mirror...maybe just practice the expressions by themselves. See if its any easier when you're not moving. That way, if it is...you can work on getting the look you want when you are moving.

Its a hard art to master! (I'm not there yet either.) :)

*hugs*

Glad you like it Yasmin.
The short answer is - at home, yes at work, no ,f::

BTW I've also just developed a new food visualization to add to my ahh.. collection. ..l;, Usually when teaching arm/hand work to my students I use the "playing in the swimming pool/lake" visualization to have them *get* the concept of the air providing resistance to the movements. Over the past couple of weeks my students were still a little too limpid with their arms and hands, so suddenly (in order to put the correct amount of energy into them) I began adding that the larger movement energy of the arms was like pulling taffy. Bingo! Energy began running through almost everybody's arms the way I wanted them to do. Better dancing through food. ..l;,

This may seem silly (go ahead, tell me so, I can take it) but I tend to also do a fair amount of visualization with food. No, not food in general, but specific foods that elicit specific, sensual and physical reactions.

Food for thought! ,r:; <groan> I must remember to never think about bananas then because they are the one food that the mere though/smell of make me gag (in fact I feel off just typing the word)! ..l;,

One big "gotcha" when it comes to expression is honesty. Focusing on the emotion itself ("sultry", "heartbroken") can come out looking fake or even cartoonish. The whole point of expression is to connect with the audience, and if they don't believe that what's on your face is really in your heart, they won't trust you enough to make that connection.

I used to act, and one very useful exercise I was given (wow, that was 10 years ago!) was to think in terms of a specific task we were trying to accomplish, rather than an emotion. First we were told to "be sleepy". Then we were told to try to stay awake. We got much more honest, believable results by focusing on staying awake.

In life, we are motivated by our emotions, but *the specific things we choose to do* come directly out of a specific task that we're trying to accomplish. We don't look side-long at someone because we want to "look sultry", we do it to let them know that we're interested in them. Looking sultry is the result, not the intent. Does that make any sense?


Doing this in dance is harder than in theater, since we're not using everyday movement. So we can't rub our eyes, etc. to try to stay awake.


What works best for me is to "speak" to the audience in my head. When I do that, my face and body follow suit.

Some of my regulars are:
- "Aren't I the cutest thing you've ever seen?" ("be sweet")
- "thanks for coming, I'm glad you're here!" ("be welcoming")
- "I LOVE THIS SONG!!!" ("be happy")
- "Only I know the secret of this song, and I might not tell you" ("be mysterious")

So for each emotion you want to convey, you might want to try thinking up a (shortish) phrase you can "think" at your audience as you dance.

Again, try not to phrase it in terms of a specific emotion: think about what action that emotion would prompt you to take, and then translate that into something you might say to someone to try to help you accomplish that action. (If you're having trouble coming up with an action, try picturing a specific situation to give it context.)

If you were trying to "do" heartbroken, your situation could be that you were suddenly dumped, and your action might be to try to make sense of the situation. In that case, you could "ask" the audience: "Why did (s)he leave me?".

That will come across much more honestly than "oh, I'm so heartbroken" because:

a- you'll believe it more deeply yourself when you have some "backstory", and that belief will come across in your face and body. If you believe it, the audience will, even though they don't have any details at all on the backstory.

b- the sense of bewilderment that comes from wondering why will flavor the primary emotion (heartbreak). Nothing we feel in real life is simple, so that extra dimension will make the main emotion feel much more real to the audience.


Wow, that was about twice as long as I meant it to be. Does that help, or is it even more confusing?

ah yes, weird face syndrome. boy do i have it!

like nadira says, practicing feeling the emotion is helpful. here's what my instructor advises:

sit in front of a mirror with eyes closed
immerse yourself in an emotion by recalling a time in your life when you felt it
think about the occasion, the smells, the people, everything
when are strongly feeling that emotion, open your eyes and look at your face

repeat as neccessary. the idea is though is to get so good a 'picking up' the emotion you want to use that you don't need this exercise anymore. this is also helpful to see any weird things you do with your face. for me, i tend to hold back emotionally, which equals weird jaw and lips. so, by practicing i learned to throw it all out there, and my emotion looks much more authentic.

have fun practicing those emotions!

That, Nadira, is a most excellent post.

The thing about emotions and their expression within the dance, is that too many people get it all wrong and end up looking as though they're trying to pass a very large stool...(or even the odd 3 piece suite).

Pulling faces just isn't the right way to emote, not when you're a dancer. Practicing faces in the mirror is not going to work, because the fact that you have to practice at all tells you and eventually, the audience, that the whole experience is contrived. You need to just be yourself....an honesty which many dancers could do with putting into play. You need to be expressive with the body. Often, body language is more powerful than facial expression, and a soft whimsical movement of the hand and wrist, or the lyrical extension of a leg or arm, can speak more words than a raised, cynical eyebrow or a pained, agonised wrinkling of the brow.

The only facial exercise a good dancer should master is the smile. Anything else is in serious danger of looking like an embarrassment.

You can still be a good performer without the need for 'emoting' facially.

If you want to watch a master at work, watch Mona Said dancing baladi. It's the DVD where she wears black fishnet with long gold fringing.

She uses her body to great emotional effect, and her face maintains a sweet, expressive smile throughout. There's no face pulling, no over-egging the emotions, just pure unadulterated dance.

Has anyone looked into Delsarte technique? I've found that very intriguing for expressing the subtler emotions. I think Morocco promotes this -- if I'm not mistaken.

Originally Posted by aziyade

Has anyone looked into Delsarte technique? I've found that very intriguing for expressing the subtler emotions. I think Morocco promotes this -- if I'm not mistaken.

Yes--a teacher that Nadira and I share has brought Joe Williams up from New York a few times for workshops. I found the workshops very valuable because they focused on conveying emotion/intent through body language. I'd definitely recommend checking it out!

Also, excellent post, Nadira! ..g.:

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

Yes--a teacher that Nadira and I share has brought Joe Williams up from New York a few times for workshops. I found the workshops very valuable because they focused on conveying emotion/intent through body language. I'd definitely recommend checking it out!

Also, excellent post, Nadira! ..g.:

I *highly highly highly* recommend studying Delsarte with Joe Paul Williams. The man is amazing, what he has to teach is simple on the surface but really powerful, and you come out of the workshops just floating on air.

He's based in New York, but I hear he'll be teaching in Stoneham (outside Boston) in September:
http://bellydancenewengland.com/cale...ember2008.html

(and thanks, Badriya!)

I just did a workshop with Tempest where we were doing a lot of storytelling. One thing that really came out of that, is that if you have a story to tell in your dance, and a character to become, the expression comes with. Like Nadira says it is a lot easier, and looks a lot better, to imagine you are someone recalling happy times with a dearly departed cat (or something) than to thing "right, now for my wistful face".

That said, some big dancers seem to get away very well with indigestion faces ..g.:

It's my belief that if you can emote with your body, then your face will just automatically follow. Nadira's post is excellent - thinking of ways to tell the audience without focusing on the emotion itself.

I like using a simple excersizes like yoga to explore my body's emotion. When I'm in an asana that opens the ribcage I think of emotions linked with the opening of the heart or the giving of the heart. Asana's such as downdog or forward fold links me with the earth and therefore ground the emotion. And asanas that contract the abs or stretches the back makes me think of gaurding the heart. Does this make sense?

Originally Posted by aziyade

Has anyone looked into Delsarte technique? I've found that very intriguing for expressing the subtler emotions. I think Morocco promotes this -- if I'm not mistaken.

I have to say that I did Delsarte, and with the instructor mentioned above, and I thought it was a bunch of hooey.....think the emotional equivalent of "goddess dance". I also felt that there were a lot of fundamental holes in the argument/logic of it all, particularly related to the concepts of where emotions are located in the body--far too cut and dry, absolutes. I also got a weird, overly sexualized vibe from it

I think the key to being able to convey any emotion you want is confidence. When you feel completely comfortable on stage and with your audience its easier to let go and just let yourself feel what you want to feel and what the music is making you to feel.

To me its so easy to see when someone is faking emotion and it always looks bad. No matter what you do make sure its genuine.

Another good thing to practice with is having a few Arabic songs translated and then try to convey the gist of the song with your body and face. This way you can connect with the music which is also very important with conveying emotion.

Originally Posted by kharis_UK

The thing about emotions and their expression within the dance, is that too many people get it all wrong and end up looking as though they're trying to pass a very large stool...(or even the odd 3 piece suite).

Pulling faces just isn't the right way to emote, not when you're a dancer. Practicing faces in the mirror is not going to work, because the fact that you have to practice at all tells you and eventually, the audience, that the whole experience is contrived. You need to just be yourself....an honesty which many dancers could do with putting into play. You need to be expressive with the body. Often, body language is more powerful than facial expression, and a soft whimsical movement of the hand and wrist, or the lyrical extension of a leg or arm, can speak more words than a raised, cynical eyebrow or a pained, agonised wrinkling of the brow.

The only facial exercise a good dancer should master is the smile. Anything else is in serious danger of looking like an embarrassment.

You can still be a good performer without the need for 'emoting' facially.

If you want to watch a master at work, watch Mona Said dancing baladi. It's the DVD where she wears black fishnet with long gold fringing.

She uses her body to great emotional effect, and her face maintains a sweet, expressive smile throughout. There's no face pulling, no over-egging the emotions, just pure unadulterated dance.

I am guilty of the "stool" look. Which by the way made me just crack up...l;,I am an intense personality so anything I undertake I totally concentrate on which makes me look either too pensive, or even mad. Or, determined to pass that large stool. I notice that when I know the steps after much practice, then can concentrate less on that and more on the music/dance. If anyone has success practicing faces in the mirror, let me know the secret.

Btw- Ansuya makes some expressions that look almost painful, but it sort of works for her