Thread: What to teach dance majors?

At the end of this month, I'll be teaching two workshops at a University.

One is a fun taster sort of thing, 3 hours, open to the whole student body on a Saturday afternoon. That one will be fun, and I think I'll teach at least a portion of a beginner pop choreo I use with my students.

A week later, I'm invited to spend an hour and a half with the dance majors teaching a more advanced class. I'm to assume all of them attended the taster and take it from there in more depth. I can use the first 20 minutes or so, while the students warm themselves up, for a video or powerpoint presentation, but the rest of the time should be practical.

I have some thoughts of my own, but I'd love to gather as many ideas as possible. What would you show them & teach them?

How about shimmies, I bet they haven't studied that! Any other stuff using the internal, core muscles should be quite challenging for them.

Originally Posted by Lauren_

At the end of this month, I'll be teaching two workshops at a University.

One is a fun taster sort of thing, 3 hours, open to the whole student body on a Saturday afternoon. That one will be fun, and I think I'll teach at least a portion of a beginner pop choreo I use with my students.

A week later, I'm invited to spend an hour and a half with the dance majors teaching a more advanced class. I'm to assume all of them attended the taster and take it from there in more depth. I can use the first 20 minutes or so, while the students warm themselves up, for a video or powerpoint presentation, but the rest of the time should be practical.

I have some thoughts of my own, but I'd love to gather as many ideas as possible. What would you show them & teach them?

When you say "a more advanced class" just for the dance majors, does that mean along the lines of
a) A more advanced technique class than the Taster was, which makes it more physically demanding for them; or

b) "This is what makes BD different from ballet/jazz/contemporary/salsa/whatever", where you examine Technique & Interpretation & Styles, which makes it a bit more academically demanding for them.

Lauren, I've written an article comparing belly dance with ballet from my POV. If you are interested, you would be welcome to use it. email me.

Sedonia

Good question Bea!

I'll also chuck in my twopennorth as well: just because these students will be dance majors doesn't mean they will be more 'advanced' in any particular way. I suspect that they and you will find that the ways in which BD requires them to use their body is going to be very different to what they're used to. You'll probably find that they pick up a choreography quickly, and that they aren't too shy to improvise, but technically they're going to struggle only a little less than anyone would after one 3 hours workshop in anything.

D

Well, Bea, that's been left up to me. I can go either way or try to accomplish a little of both.

Dunyah, there will definitely be shimmying, even at the taster. But maybe the more advanced students would get a kick out of learning some of the subtle differences that give shimmies texture and let us interpret different music? I'm preparing something of that nature for another workshop anyway, I could slip it in.

Hmmmm...maybe my theme could be the connection between our dance form and the music? How we use our torsos (primarily) to make the music visible? That way I'd be challenging them physically with core work and showing them what makes our art form unique at the same time?

I'd been thinking of presenting a brief history or family tree of the umbrella of styles, but maybe I'll toss that into an optional handout and work from this theme instead?

ETA: Aack, two more people posted while I was typing this! Sorry, I'll try to be quiet & let people post their thoughts before I try to synthesize them.

Sorry, I should have said that the second class will be more 'in depth' for the dance majors, not 'advanced.' Presumably their level of interest runs deeper than the other group, since they're heading toward dance careers and not just looking for club moves.

i did a quick class with contemporary ballet students last week. They are staging a show called "Nefertiti" and wanted to see some Egyptian moves. I went over all of the basics with them and some more advance moves and showed them how we put them together. They were surprisingly good but they had trouble keeping the movement small and also with hand waves. Other than that, I was surprised at how quickly they picked it up. So if I were you i'd do some pretty demanding choreography. They can probalby take it.

Dance majors will find it challenging to do isolations such as rib cage circles and stomach rolls. Some may be able to do hip isolations - those who have studied jazz or Latin dance, while others will find those challenging. They will pick up choreography quickly.

They will be coming from an orientation of limb-oriented dance - meaning traveling steps, sweeping arm moves, etc. If you really want to challenge them, teach them a choreography that focuses on core-driven moves to Egyptian music with layering. It could be fun to choose a song that has a Saidi section that offers an opportunity to say, "This section is based on a certain type of traditional music, and therefore the purpose of these step-hops in the choreography is to use the appropriate folk movement to interpret this particular folk music. This is common practice in Egyptian dance." The purpose of that is to show the students that there's more to this dance form than adding a few hip drops to your movement vocabulary - there's a cultural subtext deeply tied to music and folk movement.

I like Shira's idea a lot!

me too

Me too!

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Dance majors will find it challenging to do isolations such as rib cage circles and stomach rolls. Some may be able to do hip isolations - those who have studied jazz or Latin dance, while others will find those challenging. They will pick up choreography quickly.

They will be coming from an orientation of limb-oriented dance - meaning traveling steps, sweeping arm moves, etc. If you really want to challenge them, teach them a choreography that focuses on core-driven moves to Egyptian music with layering. It could be fun to choose a song that has a Saidi section that offers an opportunity to say, "This section is based on a certain type of traditional music, and therefore the purpose of these step-hops in the choreography is to use the appropriate folk movement to interpret this particular folk music. This is common practice in Egyptian dance." The purpose of that is to show the students that there's more to this dance form than adding a few hip drops to your movement vocabulary - there's a cultural subtext deeply tied to music and folk movement.

Just a suggestion, but "Tnaal Ya Hlewa" from Nourhan Sharif's Raqs Sharqi Vol 1 (availble on iTunes) is a great piece of music....2 minute taxsim at the beginning, oriental, Saidi and then oriental again. (I danced to it!) :)

It depends what kind of dance majors you have. Ballerinas tend to have a tougher time breaking out of the ballet mode. Jazz and modern dancers may have an easier time, since they do use certain isolations and similar movements. They would probably be great with arms. I know arms werent a problem for me. I have a modern/jazz/tap background. Also everyone always loves hip movements and shimmies. They may also enjoy traveling steps. Maybe more about the history. Good luck. Should be interesting. Choreography always works well.

Some other ideas, if they're not ready for more advanced technique.

You could take some of the moves taught in the taster and show them how to change the quality of the move, to reflect different styles. So, for example, take a hip drop and make it twisty, big and bouncy with saiidi music. Then make it more muscular & isolated for some 'Cairo style' dancing. The idea would be to show them that there's more to learning bellydance than just executing a few moves. You could combine that with a bit of footage of dancers of different styles, and introduce the relevant music for the chosen styles.

Another exercise along the same lines - of taking the taster moves and working with them - would be to get them to try and improvise some taxim using different versions of a basic move, such as the hip circle. This would get them listening to the music, show how bellydance 'interprets' it, and would be good if they're not really ready for more advanced technique.

Taqsim time. ;-)

~*Gen*~

I agree these dancers will pick up a choreography very quickly (say after only once or twice being directed).

It would be beneficial if you could get info on thier backgrounds...primarily ballet, contemporary, jazz etc, as it would help you better tailor the class.

The ballet dancers may be quite a bit stiffer than some of the other dancers.

The contemporary/jazz should be able to pick up on just about everything, as thier dances come from so many different influences already.You should concentrate with them on shimmys, layering, yes taqsim etc. Just touch on isolations, they will already be working that alot. Challenge them with some difficult technique, they will love it, and lots of bd history.

Did I just re-write what Katinabd said? I think so. I agree with you entirely, we have a similar dance background.

The 'taster' intro workshop, which would have been this Saturday, has been cancelled due to lack of preregistration. ,f:: We're rescheduling it for spring and I'm going to help the students market it next time, they're really new at this ..g.: So no worries there.

So I'll still be teaching the dance majors, but they won't have had the chance to do the beginner class first & digest for a week. Instead, I have 1.5 hours with them in the time slot that's normally their modern dance class, then a second 1.5 hour block after lunch.

So, here's what I'm thinking. I want to show them about 10 minutes of clips, perhaps in different styles, while they're warming themselves up. Then I'll teach them the beginner choreo I would have taught at the workshop, along with, of course, the basic vocabulary of beginner moves that make up that choreo.

After lunch, when they've got that frame of reference, I want to show them the clips I was most interested in showing (Lucy's beautiful heartwrenching Om Kalthoum, maybe a bit of Rachel Brice for contrast? And possibly moi just because I'd want to see the teacher...) Then I guess I'll do technique, variations on hip drops, circles, shimmies. I'm working on a lot of technique & shimmy stuff for another workshop I'm planning anyway, so I can use that. I think I'll aim for a bit of improv near the end, but if we never get that comfortable or go that far, I won't be heartbroken.

How does that sound? Any suggestions on clips I might have in my collection that I could show at the very beginning as a first introduction to the style(s) of bellydance?

Originally Posted by Lauren_

And possibly moi just because I'd want to see the teacher...

Absolutely, you should dance for them! Seeing a video is not the same as seeing a live dancer up close. The energy that comes from the latter is lost in video. They need to experience that!

Sedonia

Originally Posted by ssipes

Absolutely, you should dance for them! Seeing a video is not the same as seeing a live dancer up close. The energy that comes from the latter is lost in video. They need to experience that!

Sedonia

Really? But...but...but...

Wow, I wasn't quite sure if I should even put myself in the video clip lineup, but finally decided I'd want to see the teacher dance.

Funny, this sounds so...hard. I hate performing without a costume, for one thing. And preparing to perform is such a different energy space for me than teaching. I've done the perform/teach thing for bridal showers & ladies luncheons, but it was such a different mindset there.

They might have to be happy with seeing me on video & doing improv with them at the end.

(hey, maybe I should bring a costume & a couple of props for show & tell!)

i agree a live demonstration is best. it doesn't have to be long either. like maybe show them a variation on the choreo you're teaching. show them the choreo but way more advanced. Lotus Niraja did that in a workshop I took of hers. she showed us the choreo she was teaching but like 5 different ways. it was great.

You don't need to bring a costume... just dress in teachingwear that's flattering, sleek and a little costumy, wear light makeup and big earrings, and do a little 3 or 4 minute improv for them. I agree, it's much more interesting than seeing you on video for the students, and will add dimension to what they will have seen on the videos.

One option: mesh inset unitard with a long sarong-style hipscarf (or have one on hand to throw on).

I think the students will really appreciate it!