Thread: Short Short Songs for a Beginner Choreo?

I'm finally ready to bite the bullet and choreograph a little something for my beginners when they return for the fall session. Drills are great for their purpose, but I think my students need to feel like they're dancing.

I can only come up with one song that's under 2 minutes, and that's the drum solo on Issam's The Dancing Drum. Anyone else have any nice, easy songs that are 2 minutes or less in length?

Thanks ..g.:

I've been most successful finding pieces that are around 3 minutes. My beginner choreo is @ 3:10, and they are able to learn it in 6-8 weeks.

I agree with T-H. I"ve primarily done 3 minute songs for beginners...oftentimes 1 minute songs are too fast for them....I think it's better to do something with a slower tempo that's a little more repetitive than a fast song

last piece I choreo'd to for beginners was Joanna el Mallah's "W Beyou'Dooni"....we used candles with it

Bellydance For Fame and Fortune has a lot of shorter pieces (I am not fond of the band, though), and many Turkish folk tunes have a nice, repetitive chorus/verse structure - Shisheler or Uskudara for instance.

Go find yourself one of the Now Dance Arabia or Mezdeke CDs and use a nice pop piece. They are simple, short, upbeat without being too fast and appealing to new dancers. They can be boring to more experienced dancers but that in itself is a good thing, because it forces you to dumb down. As my teacher said, your students are not you! They can't do what you can and you need to make something for them that is simple and accessible.

How long have you been teaching? You've previously given the impression you only performed and were not involved in your local dance community at all! It's good you have Bhuz for resources.

Originally Posted by steffib

Bellydance For Fame and Fortune

I was just gonna recommend that CD when I decided I better read all the other posts first.

Belly Dance: A Gift from Cairo also has short peppy versions of El Samer and Hebbina and a 2-minute Fi Yom Wa Leyla.

Zum - Ooh! Mezdeke would be great.

I've been teaching at a studio that's practically in my backyard on and off for about a year. I had to take a hiatus for a few months to attend to a few personal matters and now I'm getting back into teaching.

You're correct that I once regarded myself as strictly a performer, and even felt downright ambivalent about teaching at one point. My priorities in dance have really changed in recent history, though. I'm feeling more comfortable in front of a classroom and really beginning to love sharing everything I know with my students. The enthusiasm is kicking in, full force. I know I'll never be a star-caliber instructor, but I think I'm pretty darned good at teaching safe technique, providing a solid foundation, and making it all fun!

Seeing that I'd hate to threadjack my own thread, I posted at length on this topic in the "How is Your Teaching?" thread.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys!

I know most people use pop for beginner choreos, but I use a very old piece - Maoukeb Elnour from "Belly Dance with Mohamed Abdel Wahab" for my students. My student troupe did their first choreo to Azziza from Issam Houchan's "Tabel Ya Issam"

I personally feel pretty strongly about teaching them the classics of belly dance along with, or even before the pop stuff.

I must say I like the idea of giving my level 2s something more classic, but thus far I've found it hard to find pieces that are simple enough (our beginners are seriously beginners, no undulations, no travelling shimmies, no vertical work) and short enough (ie 3 mins or so). My teacher did a very nice veil choreography to Qasr al Shoq, which worked really well.

The other thing, of course, is that the classics of belly dance are still under discovery in my land. It's only in very recent years that we've had access to a really big selection of music. For the first five years or so that I danced, the only place you could get music was at the annual MEDANZ festival or if you went overseas, and very occasionally through local CD shops (all the ARC "Best ofs"). And they were very costly. We really weren't exposed to a lot for the longest time, not in my town anyway. The internet has changed things a lot.

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

I'm finally ready to bite the bullet and choreograph a little something for my beginners when they return for the fall session. Drills are great for their purpose, but I think my students need to feel like they're dancing.

I can only come up with one song that's under 2 minutes, and that's the drum solo on Issam's The Dancing Drum. Anyone else have any nice, easy songs that are 2 minutes or less in length?

Thanks ..g.:

I've got a whole bunch! Are you looking for anything in particular (upbeat, lyrical, drum solo, chiftetelli, etc.)?

Also: what are your stylistic constraints: poppy, amcab, egyptian, etc?

Saad's "Bellydance" off the BDSS Vol. 5 is just 2:25 -- not too fast, fun, poppy and you can't Not smile when it's playing. :-) (And he mentions both Michael Jackson and Samia Gamal in the same breath -- so there ya go, cultural fusion, ..l;,).

Pangia has a lot of reworked classics on their CDs. many are very short as Denise used to be a working dancer and really understands the importance of having 1 - 3 min long 'transition' pieces. You can find their CD's on CDbaby

{{{HUGS}}}

Saad's song would be a good one!

My current 2 are Simarik and a 2:45 song with arabic/spanish fusion.

Simarik is a bit longer, but I haven't had an issue teaching it as I repeat the combos a few times as fitting with the music. I originally choreographed the longer version (more advanced beginners) and then hacked it up and simplified it a bit for the radio version (baby beginners).

The fusion choreo is one of those "building block" ones that leaves lots of room to add layers later if they would like and I have used this in early intermediate classes to introduce layering with music that they already "know."

Originally Posted by kat

Saad's "Bellydance" off the BDSS Vol. 5 is just 2:25 -- not too fast, fun, poppy and you can't Not smile when it's playing. :-) (And he mentions both Michael Jackson and Samia Gamal in the same breath -- so there ya go, cultural fusion, ..l;,).

See, now, my Egyptian Arabic is not great, but I could have sworn he was talking about American belly dancers "ra'asa Amrika" and that he says "Virgina gameela" in that line...

I just did a beginner's choreo using Saad's "Bellydance" too. Great song and I did a little folk fusion with it. Turned out great. Plus - there is a lot of repetition so that helps.

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

See, now, my Egyptian Arabic is not great, but I could have sworn he was talking about American belly dancers "ra'asa Amrika" and that he says "Virgina gameela" in that line...

Of course I had to run right over to my media player and listen and I'm sure you're exactly right. I'd heard the "ra'asa Amrika" earlier in the song, but didn't make the connection. One day when I was listening at work ,s:: I suddenly realized he was saying "Michael Jackson" (so he's an American belly dancer, eh? .w.:) and didn't listen closely enough to the next name. Mondegreens -- isn't that what misunderstood lyrics are called?

Thanks for clearing that up. Then, does he mention Aisha Ali? That's another name I thought I heard, but just wasn't sure. . .

My recent beginner choreography was to Dina Tata from Layali Al Sharq.

I cut it down to 3 min. It's not too fast and it's a fun music to dance to. The best thing about it that as the students got better at it I could add difficulty by adding accents.

I believe my very first beginner class piece was to George Abdo's Hadouni Hadouni...

I think for beginner choreography Neena and Veena is a great CD. Really anything that's got a few repetitious portions...

Originally Posted by maranajla

I believe my very first beginner class piece was to George Abdo's Hadouni Hadouni...

My Level 2's are working on Hadouni Hadouni this session! My Level 1's are currently learning a cute little choreography to Farha from Al Sultan's Nights (listed on iTunes as El Sultan's Nights, I believe). It's the shortest choreo I've ever taught, only 1:39.

I really like "El Sokary" by Cairo Cairo off of BDSS VI

I used to use Belly Dance for Fortune and Fame a lot, but can't find a place to download tracks (and got tired of trying to sell the CDs). I love it because it has a cultural mix of music. Pangia has a mix, too, with a lot of short drum solos, so I use their music a lot, too.

"Very Cairo Vol. 1" by Ludmilla Schuhbauer & Monika Ickert has a lot of nice short pieces. I love all the 4 CDs from the series and have been using them all the time since the've come out.

Don't know who sells them in the States, but definitely worth checking out.

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by meissoun

"Very Cairo Vol. 1" by Ludmilla Schuhbauer & Monika Ickert has a lot of nice short pieces. I love all the 4 CDs from the series and have been using them all the time since the've come out.

Don't know who sells them in the States, but definitely worth checking out.

MEISSOUN

In the US, Dahlal sells the Very Cairo series. From what I understand, they have a US exclusive. I have the 1st 3 volumes, and I really like them.

Originally Posted by MaryRaks

Simarik is a bit longer, but I haven't had an issue teaching it as I repeat the combos a few times as fitting with the music.

I always do this with my beginner choreos. Right now I'm using the full 4-minute version of Bint el Sultan, but there are only 5 different step combinations, and they repeat. So every time the malfouf kicks in, they do Combination #5. Every time the instrumental interlude kicks in right after the malfouf section, they do combination #2. And so on.

I do it this way partly to make it easier to remember (ie, "every time the music does such-and-such, then you do this step combination to it"), and partly to help them think about how their dancing connects to the music. Ie, to think in terms of choosing the combination that fits what the music is currently doing.

Layla from Bellydance for Fortune and Fame - because:

• it's a classic tune (albeit a chunk from the middle of the longer version)
• it has repeating sections
• it has accent / flowing sections
• it has a qanoun taqsim: you can if you want practice shimmies, introduce the concept of taqsim, introduce the qanoun as an instrument - I've used it to do all three at various times
• it's short (2:11 or thereabouts?)

As other's have mentioned there are other good short tracks on there, such as Shisheler

Originally Posted by deelybopper

Layla from Bellydance for Fortune and Fame - because:

• it's a classic tune (albeit a chunk from the middle of the longer version)
• it has repeating sections
• it has accent / flowing sections
• it has a qanoun taqsim: you can if you want practice shimmies, introduce the concept of taqsim, introduce the qanoun as an instrument - I've used it to do all three at various times
• it's short (2:11 or thereabouts?)

As other's have mentioned there are other good short tracks on there, such as Shisheler

Have you found the Fortune and Fame songs available for download anywhere?

I've found some useful ones on the CDs produced by Saqra and Raqs Band --
RaqsBand Recordings
Almost all of them are about or under 3 minutes.

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Have you found the Fortune and Fame songs available for download anywhere?

I don't know if this is helpful, but I recently searched all over the place to be able to download it, with no luck. I ended up purchasing the actual cd.