Thread: Youtube B.Dancers With Good Arms?

One of my Better Bellydancing Goals is to get more practice using my arms. I'm past the snake arms tutorials and static arm placements. I'd really like to look at some youtube clips of bellydancers using their arms very, very well. Unfortunately, using arms as a search term only results in basic tutorials...

I have a couple of Arms dvds, but they don't really have significant flows to practice along with. Someone really needs to put out something like this, I think!

You'all have any favorites?

I don't know about youtube, but Delilah has a great arm tutorial on one of her DVD's, I can't remember which one right at the moment. She shows how to go from arm or hand movement to another, what mood they express, talks about where they originate, etc. I also like Ansuya's DVD's for her arm movements.

I would suggest looking on youtube for clips of performances by Tahia Carioca.

One of the things that creates a Western "accent" in a dancer's performance is the way she uses her arms. In the European, American, and other Western dance aesthetics, "dance" often is construed to be "what your arms and legs do". In the Middle Eastern dance aesthetic, dance is what your core muscles do, and the moving limbs are there to frame and support the core.

A lot of American dancers that I've seen teach their students to hold arms in fixed positions such as the crucifix position (which is rarely seen in Middle Eastern dance), or to wave them about, such as snake arms. If you study how legendary Egyptian dancers such as Tahia Carioca move, you'll gain new insights into using the arms to bring attention to the body.

The reason I'm not using Samia Gamal as an example despite the fact that she was known for her expressive arms is that many of her movie performances were intentionally Western in their aesthetic. So while those performances are enjoyable to watch for entertainment purposes, they're not role models that I would steer someone to who wants to work on dance technique. SOME of Samia's performances actually are good role models, but if you're not familiar with her movies you may need someone to coach you in which clips are good for technique study versus which might be better suited as just entertainment.

Again; not YouTube.

And not classical Middle Eastern, as Shira has offered (great advice, BTW, Shira! I hadn't really paid much attention to Tahia's arms but I will from now on).

But...

Aziza's Practice Companion does some thorough, deliberate arm and hand work. If you don't have that DVD, I highly recommend it.

I guess it depends on what style you want to practice. Do you want tribal arms, American cabaret, Egyptian, so on? Alot of dancers prefer the "ballet" look by using, 1st-5th arm positons. I'm not particullary crazy about that with the eastern dance but some really dig it. I like Fifi arms, Tahia, and Naima. I really like the old egyptian look compared to the modern egyptian which incorporates ballet arms.

I think what you want can't be "taught" as in this is what you do arms here, move here, roll wrist, move to here .... watching good arms in performance may help (one disastrous workshop I did my back just a couple of days in – it gave me the opportunity to lie and watch Aida Nour’s arms for hours on end. I kept telling myself I was absorbing it. Another one with great relaxed arms is Denise Enan. If beledi isn’t your thing find someone whose arms you do like and what lots of their performances – YouTube has the disadvantage of being too short and has too limited a choice.)

I have always liked Tamalyn she has such graceful arms. In the BDSS performance dvd (I think the first one) she is just incredible.

She gets going in this clip around 2:15.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-vweqCocT8&feature=related]YouTube - Tamalyn Dallal (Princess Salme 1ªparte)[/ame]


And the first minute or so of this one is good

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x2f8ANZEtM&feature=related]YouTube - Tamalyn Dallal en Chile[/ame]

Oh, sorry. Either American Cab or Egyptian arms. I'm not picky. Shira called it, I've basically kept my arms in the cross position so long I feel they're frozen there. I have the Practice Companion and other dvds, but I want to see how beautiful arms can add to a performance. I want to see beautiful let out of the tutorial box.

I'm not a natural dancer and I know I can't be taught to become one. Ain't gonna happen. I was just looking for performances that I could watch along and maybe mimic a part or to put it into my brain and arm memory. Just a little more grace.

The only dancer I'm familiar with is Tamalyn as I've just discovered her. Yes, she has pretty arms and I'll definitely look her up. I'll also check the others out on youtube too. Thanks Shira for mentioning that Egyptian style focuses on the core. Didn't know that.

Hi Dancerose! Here's an exercise to try in your drilling:

1. Pick a fluid move that you like, such as hip circles, horizontal figure 8's, or vertical figure 8's.

2. Put some music on your sound system that you think would be good to drill the move you picked to.

3. Begin drilling the move you chose.

4. Place your hands attractively at either hip. (In other words, don't let them just dangle. Keep your elbows softly rounded away from your body, pretend you have a baseball in each armpit.)

5. While continuing to do your move, slowly sweep both arms out away from your body in a huge arc, leading with your wrist, so that your arms trace a path from hip to above your head. Always keep the elbows soft as you do this.

6. Cross your wrists high above your head, elbows still soft, like this photo of Tahia Carioca shows:



7. Keeping wrists crossed, bring your hands slowly down to hip level.

Repeat steps 3 through 7 a whole bunch of times. The key here is to drill this so much that when you do a figure 8 (or a hip circle, or whatever other move you chose) it feels natural to accompany that move with this arm movement.

After you have worked with the drill exercise I described in my above message for a week or two, now build on it like this:

1. Take 4 counts (I usually teach it in class with figure 8's, and each hip is 1 count) to bring the arms up from the hips to above the head. Cross your wrists on count 5. Bring your hands back to hip level on counts 6 through 8.

Try #1 a bunch of times until you feel like it comes naturally to do it with this count. Don't proceed to the next step in this message until you've reached that stage. In class, I keep an eye on my students and drill #1 a whole bunch of times until I'm sure they've got it. What this means is that I usually introduce it one week, give them a week to practice, and then review it the next week, and once we've reviewed it fully then I move on.

2. Now focus on make the arms feel soft and fluid while you're doing the hip thing. Keep the movement continuous. Don't pause at hip level and don't pause at the top when you cross your wrists. Just keep it flowing continuously. Drill a whole bunch of times with this as your focus, but don't lose the counting I gave you in #1 above.

Now, drill a bunch with the focus of #2, until you've reached a point where you think it's coming along pretty well. Don't be afraid to take a few days of practice if that's what you think you need. When you're ready, move on to my next step below.

3. Breathe with your arms. As you raise them think about slowly taking a luscious deep breath. As you bring them down, think about exhaling slowly. At first, you might not be able to continue the inhale/exhale the full four counts, unless you're accustomed to something like yoga, singing, or playing trumpet where you're used to doing breath control.

Once again, drill step 3 as much as necessary before moving on to my next step. Drill it until it comes so naturally that you don't have to think about it. Linger at this stage long enough for it to feel comfortable, before you move on to my step 4.

4. As you raise your arms, visualize that you are bringing fiery, joyful energy up from the core of the earth with you. As your arms reach the point above your head, imagine releasing that joy to the universe and sharing it with all who may be watching you, even if it's just your cats. As you cross your wrists, imagine capturing some of that joy for yourself. As you bring your hands back down to your hips, visualize bringing that joyful energy into your heart. You can experiment with different types of moods here: joy, love, peace, introspection, etc. Pick one, drill it a while, then try another. You might need different songs to help you feel the different moods.

I hope you're not sick of me yet...

If you just move your arms from one position to the next, as I described in the message that contains the photo of Tahia Carioca, then you're just waving your arms around. When learning how to use your arms with your dancing, it can be useful to learn about different ways to move them as a means of framing your moves, but the act of moving them around is not what, in and of itself, makes them beautiful.

What makes your arms beautiful is 1) Drilling whatever movement style you choose until you do it cleanly and it feels so natural that it creeps automatically into your dance, and 2) Learning how to use your arms to "express" rather than just to flop around, which is what my breathing exercise and my energy/mood exercise are designed to help you do.

I (heart) Shira.
These are great ideas for exercises!

As my a heard someone in their early twenties recently - for Shira
"you are da bomb".
What da bomb is, I am not sure, but I feel from the emphasis it's a very good thing.

Oh, No! I'm not sick of you. Great Response. I'm going to print that out and read & do over the weekend. I'm sure others will find your exercises very helpful as well.

I would like to see more arm clips to the cilps of Tamalyn Dallal is an example of what I don't want my arms to look like. I swear in the frist clip I thought see took some arm movements from Indain classic dance and just slowed it down. I don't want Deliberate use of arms. I'll try to find a clip of what I like, I think what I want can;t be taught

ok I found it in this clip Dina has the arms I want, not one snake arms or fancy hand comb, but yet so soft and gracful. it almost make you feel like she is doing something with her arms but she is not.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDqcXrRww7o&feature=PlayList&p=FD73C2221E9 E2F4D&index=5]YouTube - Egyptian - Belly Dance - Dina[/ame]

Originally Posted by dancerose

Oh, No! I'm not sick of you. Great Response. I'm going to print that out and read & do over the weekend. I'm sure others will find your exercises very helpful as well.

My printer's grinding away right now. Thanks Shira!!

I really like Roshana Nofret's use of arms. very natural
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGGoAFhhGs]YouTube - Roshana Nofret @ Bolero's[/ame]

Originally Posted by toria_dances

ok I found it in this clip Dina has the arms I want, not one snake arms or fancy hand comb, but yet so soft and gracful. it almost make you feel like she is doing something with her arms but she is not.

YouTube - Egyptian - Belly Dance - Dina

Wow, she's covered! I actually like that costume alot!

Another great arm drill is to pick a song with a very strong melody, and dance only using your arms and body, no hips. An extension of that drill is to pick a song with both strong melodic and rhythmic components and go back and forth between dancing only with the arms and body and then only with the hips. Helps you to learn to express both rhythm and melody with arms and hips.

Though not everyone likes Tamalyn Dallal, her old DVD Serious Belly Dance has some really good hand and arm drills, as does Aziza's Practice Companion.

As for as other dancers who I think have nice arms, more in the American cab sense, I like Sandra:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxXbCfWxX5M&feature=channel_page]YouTube - Belly Dance performance Commentary part 1[/ame]

Rachel George:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaInCAT0_0M]YouTube - Rachel George Rakkasah 2007[/ame]

Salome:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzBb-OHfN_w]YouTube - Belly dancer Salome[/ame]

One thing that I have discovered is that arm positions aren't "one size fits all". Meaning- our bodies are all shaped differently so what looks "the best" on one dancer might not look optimal on another.

I've actually been working on this. Going through my favorite moves and trying different arms positions (as well as body angles) to see what looks best on my body (creating the best body lines) and drilling the arm postitions until they are instinctual.

It's pretty amazing how much polish those small changes can make in your overall presentation.