Thread: Dance Formats (lost my notes)

and I tried finding it on the old bhuz site but can't locate the topic.

What consists a 7 9 & 11 part show format?

I know we do the short four/five part for restaurants


enterance
veil
taxsim
drum solo
exit (usually with enterance song)

Grrrrrrrrr need better filing system...cr.:

I was wondering this myself actually.

I think the 7 part goes

Entrance
Veil
Fast song
Taxim OR sword
Pop song/audience
Drum solo
Exit


I'm not familiar with 9 or 11 part shows.

The "typical" 7-part show I'm used to in an American classic style of belly dance is:

• Energetic entrance
• American-style veil work to rhumba/bolero music
• Medium or fast speed of music to raise the energy level
• Taqsim music which is done using either floor work or standing undulations, depending on the dancer and venue. Could optionally include some prop-balancing if the dancer is so inclined.
• Medium or fast tempo of music to raise the energy level. If there are plans to go out to collect tips from the audience (such as in a restaurant), this is a good time to do it.
• Drum solo
• Vigorous finale music. If the show is to include a 9/8, this is a good time to do it, or it could be a reprise of the entrance song.

If the show is shorter than 7 parts, you'd cut whichever of the above you don't care to do. Obviously, it's also possible to rearrange the order a bit.

live music 7-part routine

• entrance. medium uptempo
• veil. rhumba, bolero
• floorwork chiftitelli
• upbeat
• taxim
• drum solo
• upbeat arabic or karsilama

this is how I used to do shows when working with live music. I began perfroming in 1991 if that helps with context. by upbeat, I am not referring to hakim, but rather to something like 'ah ya zein'. a show like this, performed in a nightclub, would time out at 25 -40 minutes, and tip collecting would about 5 minutes of that time. (party shows used to be 7-12 minutes) before or after the drum solo is when I would collect tips, depending on the venue. although sometimes people would come up to me on the stage or dancefloor at other times to 'volunteer' tips.

it seems like in recent years the audience participation sections have grown to comprise an enormous part of most dancer's shows, esp the 'me and my shadow' stuff. Sometimes I think it's gotten out of hand, but the prob is a long show only works if you have live music. When you're dancing to a recording, the whole show dynamic changes..

Now a nightclub show is like the length of a bellygram - approx ten minutes, but the dancer is still out there on for half an hour, using the rest of the time to pull people up to dance and get money. Weirdly, the amount of money collected in tips was the same back then as it is now. (this is just in my experience.) Isn't that funny?

most of the dancers I would see in my early days used audience participation time to do a mini-mini-show for various tables, and there used to be less of this faux-lesson stuff. but i'm sure that is totally region-specific, because different crowds require different approaches.

ETA: just curious, has anyone else noticed the trends over time which I referred to? I know each of us travels a unique path, and would love to hear other dancers' take on this.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I'm attempting to put on a fundraiser/benefit to aid the homeless and give back to an organization that helped me in my time of need. So the show is for a large stage production with three dancers doing full sets? so I want the larger format and not the restaurant gig. So my thoughts are for a minimum seven part format.... about 45 min per dancer...