Thread: Snake arms-Kali style for a troupe -advice / youtube refs?

You know when everyone lines up facing the audience, one behind the other in a column and does snake arms, so it looks like one person with lots of arms...like the goddess Kali Ma

Well my question is how do you get it to look neat and polished?

Or alternatively I'd be grateful for any youtube links where a troupe (preferably of 4 or more) does this if you have any.

Thanks in advance for any help!

These are from the troupe I was in - Tribal Storm directed by Kina. We staggered it so that you could see each one of us, and we also chose to do different arm movements for variety.

around 1:08
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYoapgPETrA]YouTube - Tribal Storm: Dhat Badan[/ame]

also look for lotus moon troupe (I think?) from New Hampshire. I seem to recall that they had a choreo with the kali snake arm thing as well.

My troupe has done this--it is fun and looks amazing when it's done right.
For our group, we lined up by height, with the tallest in the front, so you can't see anyone else behind.
Have each person follow the arms of the one in front with a slight delay, and enlarge the movements and slow them down. We've started with arms at our sides and then raise up slowly, so by the time the leader has her arms all the way up, the person at back has her arms at hip level and moving upward.

Practice a way to get in and out of the formation. Our group splits off from the front, with the first dancer moving forward and turning sharply left, then the second moving forward and turning sharply right, etc. Another way we use is to all split apart at once, undulating as we spread out. We've also turned sideways and gone into a turning line.
Other tips: Have everyone wear the same length of sleeve, even if their tops are different colors--it looks better if it's a consistent amount of skin showing.

our troupe had a WONDERFUL slow routine that we lovingly called "Arm Thing" that featured a couple different set-ups for this sort of staging. There were 2 keys for us on making the effects look great: firstly, having everyone very, VERY confident on where they were supposed to have their hands at the correct count - so lots and lots of drilling with someone calling out the counts

and also, I think more helpful was having every dancer take a turn or thirty standing at the front of the line (if that's how you're doing it, like in the above video) so that they could take in the full effect in the mirror.
of course this tip is applicable if you've got a practice space with mirrors :D

so even if only one dancer and one dancer alone is ever going to be the lead of the line, the end of the line, or somewhere in between, (s)he has seen what it is SUPPOSED to look like, and they'll get a much better understanding of how it should feel as they are doing it.

Thanks so much to everyone who replied, some very helpful advice here.

I really appreciate it!

I have done it with my students but the way we stood was that the tallest was in the back, shortest towards the front, the first few girls were kneeling or sitting, so this way you could see their face.
I guess the way to do it is to follow the first one, and go with a tiny delay, but the snake arms must look perfect and everyone's must look the same : curve the same, move the same, same height, etc.

I love this move, but have used it sparingly (2 out of 56 choreos), once with all the dancers kneeling and lined up evenly behind one another so that the effect from front and center was "Kali", another time involved varying levels and directional changes. Here is the link to the second style, at about 2:13 into the dance. The camera is off center but you will get the general idea.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkXA4hnF320]YouTube - Veils of Isis - "WomanSpirit Rising"[/ame]

It's a great move, but it must evolve from the music of course. For this choreo, I chose slow, hypnotic arm/body movements and trance-like facial expressions to evoke the mystical/the transcendent, etc.



Khalida

oh I agree so strongly (of course) that the move must come from the music, excellent point, Khalida.

as impressive as some group moves can be, when you can tell they're being brought out like Featured Cool Effect We Figured Out, it can be painfully obvious to the audience, especially other dancers. it's like all of a sudden you're watching America's Got Talent instead of a beautiful choreography...