Thread: Time management: I need a homework assignment!

Would you all be willing to help me structure a dance regimen?

background info:

-I suck at managing my free time (I'm very disciplined and hard-working when I work for someone else, very much a day-dreamer and scatter-brained on my own at home.)

-I've recently acquired a lot more free time that I'd like to spend on dancing!

-I've got a really mixed bag when it comes to my dance background. I have a decent length of time in the dance, decent list of workshops with the big names, decent performance history.... but don't feel like I ever got a good enough foundation in the basic and intermediate level stuff. Now 5 years of not performing much have slipped by, and I'm feeling more rusty and confused than ever. I think I can do a decent show for the GP if I dance to something really familiar. I have enough of a natural reaction to the music to get by and come across as professional. But my dancing lacks crispness, confidence, or uniqueness. Also, I don't feel confident working with new music or performing in front of other dancers. The holes in my knowledge become glaringly obvious at that point, at least to me. :)

-I can devote anywhere from 1 to 6 hours, 5 days a week

-keep in mind I'm overweight and out of shape, so 6 full hours at a time might not be reasonable at this point.

-also keep in mind, I've never really learned how to practice, so if someone says "work on veil" - I really need help breaking that down into do-able chunks.

thank you so much!

oh yeah, also: with the recent acquisition of more time, comes a drop in funds. :) so, whatever I do, it needs to be at home, with my current resources. These include a lot of instructional and workout dvds, a small bedroom with mirrors, and a video camera. and you all. :)

Haven't seen you posting in a looong time, Joanne -- so glad you're back!

Like you, I'm disciplined at work and dreamy/floaty at home. I just tell myself that I'm "artistic." ..g.:

It's one thing to know what to do and often quite another thing to do what needs to be done, so alot of the discipline at home is making yourself form a new habit. Takes about 30 days of consistency to form a new habit. Maybe the best time to do "disciplined" things is right after breakfast, before you "find" other things to do. That's my newest strategy -- beginning this coming Monday.

Crispness of movement was something you mentioned you want to improve, so I would really recommend "Aziza's Practice Companion." What I like about this DVD is that A actually drills the movements/exercises rather than just bopping through them a couple of times. Already have it? Great! Use it!

For the first week, start each practice session with a section or two from Aziza's DVD. Then you could do "crispy" drills for a week, ending with a light cool down. While you're working on your crispies, you might be inspired for the next week of practice, and so you go. Write down your movement inspirations. For subsequent weeks, keep using the "Companion" DVD, switching out various sections and changing your "inspired" drills. Check out the performance DVDs you own for more inspiration.

As your stamina improves, add some traditional (or not-so-traditional) exercises to the mix, so that you end up with the following format:

DVD (start with Aziza's, then use others that include warm up and solid drilling) + your "inspired" drills + exercise + cool down.

I think an hour or so of practice 4-5 times a week is good to get you started. You can always add to it!

Remember, 30 days to a new habit! That's my mantra!

Good luck and have fun!

Deborah

Oh, and don't forget to take out some time to just dance once in awhile!

Nice thread! The meeting for the National Procrastinators of America has been postponed until further notice. This is my mantra. I don't seem to be able to "create" my own at home stuff. I work with DVD's and practice my improv (goofing around dancing). If there is a step from class that I just can't get, I will work on that. I do my stuff at night. I don't let myself go to bed until I have finished my "homework" so it makes me get it done before midnight. I am also NOT a morning person.

Good Luck!

Hi joanneraks :-)

First, have you got a clear dance space? Is your available time without interruptions? It's not much use planning a 2 hr practice session if only 30 mins of that is really free, lock the door, take the phone off the hook, whatever you need to do to have that time for just you.

Next, start your practices with something consistent like a warm up, getting all your big muscles working before moving onto any fine articulations. Trawling bhuz and online should find you some effective warm up exercises and don’t fuss about keeping it ME themed at first, just work on establishing a routine that sets you up for your practice session. I know suggesting a warm up sounds obvious but the ritual of a thorough warm up helps instill discipline when working at home.

Next, conditioning. This is really what you should focus on to start with. Think of it as a second warm up and take yourself through a series of strengthening exercises starting from the feet up, don’t rush and don’t skimp. The ultimate would be to be able to work one on one with a pilates instructor but you may have a pilates video? My one rule for pilates is that if it feels easy, I’m doing it wrong ;-) You should be able to find exercises again by trawling bhuz and searching online, investing in a quality book on the subject wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Next, practice session focus. One option is that you could work through a dvd and really get ME specific. Why don’t you spend some time going through your collection and making a note of a couple of sections on each dvd you want to work on. Spend your practice time solely on that small section, really getting the technique down pat, drilling and perfecting. You said you had a camera? perhaps you could video tape yourself running through what your working on in this portion of your session and compare it to the dvd you’re working from to see if you are getting it. Don’t try to do too much and don’t just put on a vid and work through from start to finish in one session... find a focus. Doing it like this may bring conditioning issues to your attention and you can then adjust your strengthening exercises to suit.

Finally, cool down, stretching and mobilization exercises. Take your time with this one too, develop it into a ritual to end your session. Strength and flexibility are so important for a dancer. Again there are some great resources around so do your research, be informed and stay safe :-)

Here's what I do:
warmup/yoga/conditioning
drills du jour- whatever I want to drill that day (I usually alternate upper & lower body moves, and my conditioning exercises usually match it)
run through choreography or improv a song 3-5x, video it, see where needs improvement & take notes
drill some combinations (like 3 or 4), string together, video it, take notes
work on super difficult move or combination
cool-down

Toy around with different ways of practicing and see what works for you. For example, I *have* to do choreo in the middle because it's so much fun, and if I wait til the end I burn out early.

I prefer not to use DVDs, but if I'm feeling bleh that day, I might use a Suhaila Salimpour dvds for the conditioning section, perks me right up. But if you like them, then use them.

Most importantly- keep a practice journal!! I use a 3 ring binder covered with pics of dancers I love and have it divided into sections- drills, combinations, choreographies, ideas to be developed, etc. Oh, and notes from your practice- what you did, video notes, things to work on, etc.

Also- 15-20 minutes of practice every day is a million times better than a 4 hour session once a week. I have a big problem that if I don't have 3-4 hours to devote to practice, I won't practice at all. Don't do that. It's bad.

Oh yes, bellahdonsah that is so right on...15 minutes every day is way better than never getting to it because you don't have time for a "full" workout.
If you can afford the time, schedule the time for your dance workout--write it in your calendar, do it daily. Early in the day is better--researchy-type folks found that people who commited to exercise and then started morning workouts were much more likely to still be working out regularly a year later, compared to people who tried to start working out in the evenings. Besides, it gives you a metabolism boost that lasts several hours, burning calories and making you feel more energetic.

A journal is always a good idea.
You might try writing down 10 things you would like to improve. Each week, for the next 10 weeks, take on one of those things. So say you want to smooth out your hip circles. You work them--slow, fast, small, big, angled, layered, with arms, facial expression, etc. Then you move to your freeze shimmies, etc.

And, even though money is tight, you might approach a trusted teacher...someone may be willing to barter lessons or private sessions with you, if you have something to trade (Over the years I've had students trade lessons for massage, website design, even yardwork!)
good luck~

this is great stuff so far!! It really, really helps! Please don't stop! :) I did sit down right after I made this post and start brainstorming ideas for what I can do to utilize my current resources better. I found that I have a whole lot of study and research and information-organizing to do as well. For example, my cd collection! I can start organizing songs into "types", "diff versions of same song", "songs that help me recognize rhythms", etc. This kind of stuff is all sort of loosely scattered in my brain, but I'd be taking it up a notch to be more intentional about how I keep track of the information. It's funny that my brain keeps gravitating toward the mental/intellectual stuff, and is still very fuzzy on movement ideas.

That's cool, but don't let it become another way to avoid a physical practice session. Like "I can't possibly practice baladi today because I have not yet divided all my taqsim baladi pieces into their dominate instruments"

*cough*nottalkingfrompersonalexperience*cough*

Originally Posted by NandaDncer

That's cool, but don't let it become another way to avoid a physical practice session. Like "I can't possibly practice baladi today because I have not yet divided all my taqsim baladi pieces into their dominate instruments"

*cough*nottalkingfrompersonalexperience*cough*

..g.:

I have 'students' in remote areas that I work with via video, but on an ongoing basis, it would get expensive.

One thing you can do is focus on going through your dance videos, studying all the variations on one type move, like umy, then work on practicing an entire CD (or as mucha as you can handle at one time) with umy at various speeds and with various levels of layering. Then do same with shimmy, maya, etc.

I agree with Deborah's post. I'd add to that maybe a 20 minute warm up so you don't derail yourself with an injury. Need a GREAT warmup? Suhaila's Stretch and Tone. It will kill you, but you will grow. Very much like her live classes.

The main thing is to DO SOMETHING. Make a list of all the moves, and pick a couple to work on that day. Then if you have time, move on to more, but at least you have a place to start. Don't let yourself off the hook even if you just sit in your practice area and watch video or internalize music. Another thing I like to do on 'dance resistant' days is turn the lights down, turn the music on, and just move with my eyes closed. I come up with cool moves that way that have become part of my dance.

You can also use youtube and the bellydance forums and sites to search: veil dance video, or other items. Not every clip is going to be any good, but it's another means of getting to what you want.

Just a few ideas to get you started. Once my leg is healed, I'll be doing a step series video, but that may not be soon enough for what you're wanting to do. I keep thinking I'll be using my leg like normal immediately, but another week goes by and I'm still limping, so it's taking longer than I thought! :)

Amira

Originally Posted by NandaDncer

That's cool, but don't let it become another way to avoid a physical practice session. Like "I can't possibly practice baladi today because I have not yet divided all my taqsim baladi pieces into their dominate instruments"

*cough*nottalkingfrompersonalexperience*cough*

..l;,..l;,that is so me..l;,..l;,

these are great helps for getting back on track after summer break. thanks.

Why is it SO much easier to study maqamat than actually get up and practice the Bedouin dance number? Hmm ... at least I'm not alone...

Joanne -- open up MS Word and open the Homework Schedule file. This is what I made all my students do, and they griped about it, but a few of them found it useful :)

You'll see the schedule divided into "periods" -- change "periods" into whatever specific subjects you want to work on: rehearsing choreographies you already know, creating new choreos, improv time, cymbals, drilling basic movements, drilling harder layered movements, double veil, whatever -- You might find it useful to make a list of things you need to practice. I'm a list-maker so that works well for me. Keep one period free for "Intellectual stuff." LOL. And you might want to keep one period free for Fitness, if you're trying to get back in shape.

Now figure out, for each day, how much time you have for practice that day. BE REALISTIC and start out with a conservative estimate. If you schedule one hour a day, you're way more likely to maintain that, and add time, than if you schedule 4 hours every day.

Next you figure out how many times a week you want to practice each subject. There is no point in saying you're going to practice cymbals every day if you really won't. Try for every other day. Aim low at first -- think maybe 10-30 minutes for each specific subject.

Now you know you have 90 minutes (or whatever) every day, so do some math and arrange that schedule so you are covering all the subjects in the week. Maybe on Mon and Wed you spend 30 minutes practicing one set of drills. On Mon and Tues you work on Cymbals. On M, W, F, you do 30 min of Improv. On Tues and Thurs you rehearse. On Sat and Sunday you do 60 min each day on new choreographies. Whatever -- play around with that homework schedule -- do it in pencil!

Spend no more than ONE day doing this, then try out that schedule for a week. If you need to add or subtract some time, do it. Then try THAT schedule for a week. By 4 weeks, you should have a workable schedule that you can actually follow. You can keep this schedule for 3 months, 6 months, whatever. Don't revise it every month, though. Try to maintain one schedule for 30-45 days.

I liketo schedule in two "video classes" of 30 min each twice a week. I LOVE my videos, and I usually pick one a month to work with. So for September, it might be Hadia vol. 3, and I will end up working through the whole video at least 3-4 times a month by keeping this schedule. Some videos take longer (like Shareen el Safy's -- I don't think I'll EVER be done with those! LOL) and some I feel like I've "mastered" after a month or so.

It's an easy way to balance fitness goals, dance goals, and class/performance goals, especially for those of us who procrastinate. I don't get to my studio and think "Well now what?" I've already got a schedule taped to the wall.

hope this helps...

There's a lot of good advice here and I'm eager to hear more, for reasons explained below, but here's my tip, something that I've sort of come to realize in recent days:

Every little bit helps. Random, unstructured exploration of movement at any given opportunity does bring you closer to your goal of mastering technique. If you find you're uninspired or unable to stick to 1 hour every day, don't feel like you've failed. Just do it when you can.

Waiting for the coffee percolator/microwave/bus? Start shimmying, girl. Try a bit of layering chest lifts or figure 8s on it.

Sitting at your desk and feeling a bit tense? Move your arms up and above your head in a graceful path. Throw a hand flourish on the end of your stretch. Lift and drop your chest a few times.

Driving in your car and hear one of your favorite tunes? Put the coyest, sassiest expression on your face and go for a few headslides or shoulder shimmies.

Find places to work dance into your day. It will become a mindless habit, and after time, you'll find the movements feel and look more natural on you.

At least, these things have worked for me. Now; about the structured stuff:

Originally Posted by aziyade

Joanne -- open up MS Word and open the Homework Schedule file. This is what I made all my students do, and they griped about it, but a few of them found it useful :)

You'll see the schedule divided into "periods" -- change "periods" into whatever specific subjects you want to work on: rehearsing choreographies you already know, creating new choreos, improv time, cymbals, drilling basic movements, drilling harder layered movements, double veil, whatever...

This tool and everything that followed in the rest of the post is really helpful for someone like me who has recently decided to buckle down and take myself to the next level, but who, unlike the OP, has limited time.

Thanks for this! I knew I had to come up with a schedule but it was kind of an abstract idea until I saw the MS Word template. I've been good at the random, undisciplined stuff but now I want to be more disciplined and this tool will help me do it.

Originally Posted by aziyade

Joanne -- open up MS Word and open the Homework Schedule file. This is what I made all my students do, and they griped about it, but a few of them found it useful :)

I've been lurking in this thread looking for tips....this was an extremely helpful post. Despite the fact that I'm a former school teacher and did stuff like this with my students, somehow the process didn't transfer in my mind to dance. Thank you, aziyade!

A couple of other ideas - make a music list or cd that you can use every day towarm up and dance. It should be music that speaks to you even if not traditional belly dance music (I love my bagpipe music ..g.: )

Also get a dance buddy - some to cheer the time you put in and tell you about their dance time (and remind you in case the day dreaming kicks in). It's like an exercise buddy.

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, good, good stuff guys. like a backrub for a tired ol' brain. So much good info and nice specifics. I'm so excited now.

Where is the MS Word Scheduler? I went under Open & New and there was nothing like that...

In my Word, it's under Project Gallery -- Students/Teachers -- Planners -- Homework planners.

If you don't actually have it, I'll email it to you. Just pm me with your email addy.

A few years ago, I was in a similar position. I had retired from the stage, stopped doing parties for a while and then decided to go into teaching. While I still had my dance skills and could teach I realized I'd lost the edge I had when I performed every night. Also I had gotten in a rut with old familar music. So my practice sessions would focus more on perfecting technique and transitions, building stamina and stepping outside my comfort zone.

I'm a morning exerciser so I practiced in the morning. I'd usually start with a warmup. Slow music like a taqsim, chifti or beledi progression, and do undulations, arms, etc. to warm up.

Then I'd put on a piece of music that I had previously choreographed or knew really really well. Something familar to get my juices going. I might practice that a few times and try to come up with different steps for the same piece of music.

Then I'd practice something different. Either an unknown piece of music or I might pop in a video of dancer who's style is completely different from mine and try to follow along. I usually try the video technique when I'm feeling uninspired.

I always end with a mini pilates/yoga session to stretch out and work on flexibility.

A little bit every day is better than a lot in one day. I usually need an hour to an hour and a half to do the above but I have done it in half an hour, 45 minutes when pressed for time. I just cut back on the number of times I repeat the music, but I still follow the same routine.

I do drills of basic steps when I teach so I don't add them to my daily practice but you could easily throw in some drills after the warm up.

Originally Posted by ohio_laura

A couple of other ideas - make a music list or cd that you can use every day towarm up and dance. It should be music that speaks to you even if not traditional belly dance music (I love my bagpipe music ..g.: )

Also get a dance buddy - some to cheer the time you put in and tell you about their dance time (and remind you in case the day dreaming kicks in). It's like an exercise buddy.

I do this...

I've made a "warm up/drills" cd, that I actually used when I was subbing for my teacher this summer:

a slower, but strong rhythm for a warm up with sagat (traveling dance steps while playing, to get the blood flowing)

then i have a VERY slow masmoudi (from Hossam Ramzy's Immortal Egypt cd...I think. "Through The Ankh") for stretching.

Then I have a series of good paced songs with a strong beat for drills. I start with my head, and do head slides, then move to shoulder rolls, chest lifts, undulations, stomach pops, hip work, then shimmy for one full song (I love to use "Irrouh" from Turbo Tabla), then I do Suhaila squats, sit ups, etc, and THEN I'm ready to DANCE! lol


Good luck. :)

Its hard to get a lot of practice time in, but some is better than none to start with! ;)

so instead of utilizing all of this extra time to practice, I spent all of my spare time hunting and landing another job. :(

now my time for dance is back to minimal again, but I'm still so excited about all of these ideas! I've got things brewing in my head about how to combine several of the concepts into a program that I can do in about an hour. I also want to do an hour workout, too. I'm wondering if it's better to work out first thing in the morning before work, and dance in the evening, or vice versa. I think I might rotate, and see how that goes. Do you think that I still need to devote quite a bit of my dance time to conditioning if I'm doing a good one hour workout?

First, congrats on the new job!

Second, I would consider a workout part of your conditioning program, and wether you do additional work depend on how you structure your workout. Is it just cardio? Do you do any stretches afterwards? Have you got an idea on what you were going to work on in your conditioning program? How does that match up with your workout vs dance practice?

Originally Posted by NandaDncer

First, congrats on the new job!

Second, I would consider a workout part of your conditioning program, and wether you do additional work depend on how you structure your workout. Is it just cardio? Do you do any stretches afterwards? Have you got an idea on what you were going to work on in your conditioning program? How does that match up with your workout vs dance practice?

thanks!

the workouts alternate cardio (good core workout too, with lots of punching and kicking) & strength training (light overall) and I usually do a 7 min stretch afterwards. Def need more stretching, and want more focus on leg/glute/back strengthening than the workouts offer. My solution to dance questions always seems to be "buying another video", but..... Cassandra's new conditioning dvds are really tempting me right now....

One thing I have done, that I have found to be very helpful at keeping me on task, which isn't easy is:

I copy each section/chapter of my "need to work on" instructional DVDs that I buy using a free software application called HandBrake. Handbrake allows you to copy into ipod format in one click.

Then I add each clip I want to work on to video playlists I created - one playlist for each day of the week, like Day 1, Day 2 and so on.

For instance, I have Michelle Joyce's Drills DVD broken out by section(chapters) and I have sections that I want to work either once or twice a week, so I have clips on one or more playlist thoughout the week.

I also add different songs to each playlist, so I know that I'm at least practicing certain styles or props that I coorelate to that song's style.

This has really helped me to make sure that I'm practicing and working on all of the things that I want to...and with it being in a playlist...starting my practicing sessions is as easy as hiting the play button. No deciding what to do today, it's ready to go. As I get new DVDs, I just add, remove, or modify my playlists.

I've been trying to become more disciplined in my at home practice and this thread is extremely useful. Thanks!

i'm loving this discussion!

Originally Posted by aziyade

open up MS Word and open the Homework Schedule file. This is what I made all my students do, and they griped about it, but a few of them found it useful :)

You'll see the schedule divided into "periods" -- change "periods" into whatever specific subjects you want to work on: rehearsing choreographies you already know, creating new choreos, improv time, cymbals, drilling basic movements, drilling harder layered movements, double veil, whatever -- You might find it useful to make a list of things you need to practice. I'm a list-maker so that works well for me. Keep one period free for "Intellectual stuff." LOL. And you might want to keep one period free for Fitness, if you're trying to get back in shape.

my dad just gave me his old Mac desktop...is there anything like that for Mac's where do i look for it in the microsoft side of things...i can't find that type of program...thanks!