Thread: Rethinking How We Teach Belly Dance

This has been on my mind for a while. Belly dance teachers, for the most part, just copy the way their own teachers taught them. It affects our pedagogy on many levels. I think we, as teachers of this dance, need to take a step back from what we're doing and rethink what we're doing in the classrooms. For example:

One Move at a Time

In a brand-new beginner class, the typical teaching method is to teach a basic move, such as a hip circle, drill it a bunch while holding the arms in a static position and facing front, then teach another basic move, such as a figure 8, then drill it a bunch while holding the arms in a static position and facing front.

Is it any wonder that so many belly dance students don't know what to do with the arms? Is it any wonder that so many student performers just face front all the time, and haven't learned how to use the facing of different directions to vary their look?

I would suggest that even at the brand-new beginner level while drilling moves we should lead our students in varying the arm positions and changing the direction we are facing.

Bigger is Better????

In the beginner classroom, many teachers encourage their students to aim for greater range of motion. But then, they never subsequently teach that sometimes it's good to make a move small.

The problem with this is that it results in students trying to make every move as big as possible. This bigness then becomes a habit, so that the student no longer realizes she's even doing it. Result: when the student performs, she looks like she's beating the music to death. And, she risks injuring herself.

Students need to be taught that sometimes smaller is best. For example, I regularly tell my students that when the music is fast, it's best to do the move smaller because there's not enough time to do the move largely, and you fall behind. Or, if you manage to keep up with the fast speed, you look like you're beating it to death.

I know a dancer who actually incurred a debilitating back injury that has given her years of pain because her teacher demanded that she make her range of motion even bigger. Now, she was already an experienced dancer at the time her teacher demanded this of her, but the teacher demanded more, and against her better judgment she tried to give the teacher more.

Blank Looks While Drilling or Doing Run-Throughs

Teachers often have blank facial expressions while leading students in drills or leading them in a run-through of a choreography. So, guess what? The students too then have blank looks.

As ye drill, so shall ye perform. So by drilling with blank facial expressions, we're creating performers who will have blank facial expressions.

We need to lead by example. As we teachers drill moves or choreography, we need to personally use facial expressions that are stage-worthy. If we're in a classroom without a mirror, we need to do some of this while facing our students so they can see these expressions.

My big light-bulb moment on this came in a Raqia Hassan workshop at Ahlan wa Sahlan one year. For each and every run-through of the choreography she was teaching, Raqia's face was alive with the joy of dancing. Her facial expression varied, and perfectly fit the varying energy levels of the dance. The facial expression varied a little from one run-through to the next - it was not carefully choreographed, she simply was letting her face respond to what the music and choreo were making her feel in the moment. It was very inspirational.

That's not really how I teach but I know what you mean. I've seen quite a few instructional videos that don't seem to incorporate ANY arm positions with basic movements. I don't know why some teachers forget about the total body when teaching moves - ??

Originally Posted by *Shira*

This has been on my mind for a while. Belly dance teachers, for the most part, just copy the way their own teachers taught them. It affects our pedagogy on many levels. I think we, as teachers of this dance, need to take a step back from what we're doing and rethink what we're doing in the classrooms. For example:

One Move at a Time

In a brand-new beginner class, the typical teaching method is to teach a basic move, such as a hip circle, drill it a bunch while holding the arms in a static position and facing front, then teach another basic move, such as a figure 8, then drill it a bunch while holding the arms in a static position and facing front.

Is it any wonder that so many belly dance students don't know what to do with the arms? Is it any wonder that so many student performers just face front all the time, and haven't learned how to use the facing of different directions to vary their look?

I would suggest that even at the brand-new beginner level while drilling moves we should lead our students in varying the arm positions and changing the direction we are facing.

Bigger is Better????

In the beginner classroom, many teachers encourage their students to aim for greater range of motion. But then, they never subsequently teach that sometimes it's good to make a move small.

The problem with this is that it results in students trying to make every move as big as possible. This bigness then becomes a habit, so that the student no longer realizes she's even doing it. Result: when the student performs, she looks like she's beating the music to death. And, she risks injuring herself.

Students need to be taught that sometimes smaller is best. For example, I regularly tell my students that when the music is fast, it's best to do the move smaller because there's not enough time to do the move largely, and you fall behind. Or, if you manage to keep up with the fast speed, you look like you're beating it to death.

I know a dancer who actually incurred a debilitating back injury that has given her years of pain because her teacher demanded that she make her range of motion even bigger. Now, she was already an experienced dancer at the time her teacher demanded this of her, but the teacher demanded more, and against her better judgment she tried to give the teacher more.

Yikes, it is surprising to think that teachers are encouraging bigger movements on beginner students! I am constantly telling my students that it is okay to make movements smaller, because the muscles are strong enough yet for large movements! One technique I use often is to purposely shorten my movement range during basic drills. In every exercise or dance class I have ever taught I have found that students will usually try to do what I do rather than what I say. So instead of the large rib slides I am capable of, I start out smaller during the drills, and gradually increase as the class progresses and muscles warm up.

I am constantly on the look out for things I wish others had told me in the beginning, and incorporating them into my class-arm positioning was a rarity from my teachers and I still have problems with them!

Nikki

What Our Choreographies Contain

Quoting something yameyameyame posted on the "complexity" thread:

Originally Posted by yameyameyame

True simplicity is going up on the stage, facing the audience in one direction, placing your arms out to your sides and doing n hip drops followed by n hip circles followed by n undulations followed by n chest lifts and so on and so forth. Way too many dancers do this, and it's so boring to watch.

I think a lot of belly dance teachers fall into the trap of teaching choreographies that do exactly this. Why? Because it's something that all their students can learn, even the beginners, and then perform at all the usual venues that are friendly to student dancers - haflas, city festivals, nursing homes, etc.

Now, it's great to teach choreographies like this to beginning dancers, because they're easy to learn. But some teachers never go beyond this, never teach more complex choreographies. It's probably partly because some teachers are incapable of creating more complex choreographies, nor do they seek out more complex choreographies from more experienced choreographers (with accompany permission of course) to bring more richness to their classes. It's probably also because these teachers are so focused on creating yet another troupe routine that they abandon efforts to raise the overall skill level of their students in the artistic side of the dance.

Yes...no arm variation at all in my first teachers classes, also no rhythm identification, no floor patterns or footwork and no lessons on listening for musical phrasing. Needless to say... I am fixing that.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

What Our Choreographies Contain

Quoting something yameyameyame posted on the "complexity" thread:



I think a lot of belly dance teachers fall into the trap of teaching choreographies that do exactly this. Why? Because it's something that all their students can learn, even the beginners, and then perform at all the usual venues that are friendly to student dancers - haflas, city festivals, nursing homes, etc.

I teach a routine like this to my very baby beginners. First 8 week session ever. And while it is semantics. I make sure and always refer to it as a routine. It is not a choreography. It is a routine like brushing your teeth before bed is a routine. You do the moves in order to practice and feel good doing it because it goes with music and looks nice. There is a big leap in my book between routine and choreography. And I try to make them understand the difference.
As they go through beginners classes the routines get more complex (less repetition, harder moves) but remain routines until they reach choreography class. It is a progression.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

This has been on my mind for a while. Belly dance teachers, for the most part, just copy the way their own teachers taught them. It affects our pedagogy on many levels. I think we, as teachers of this dance, need to take a step back from what we're doing and rethink what we're doing in the classrooms. For example:

One Move at a Time

In a brand-new beginner class, the typical teaching method is to teach a basic move, such as a hip circle, drill it a bunch while holding the arms in a static position and facing front, then teach another basic move, such as a figure 8, then drill it a bunch while holding the arms in a static position and facing front.

Is it any wonder that so many belly dance students don't know what to do with the arms? Is it any wonder that so many student performers just face front all the time, and haven't learned how to use the facing of different directions to vary their look?

I would suggest that even at the brand-new beginner level while drilling moves we should lead our students in varying the arm positions and changing the direction we are facing.

Bigger is Better????

In the beginner classroom, many teachers encourage their students to aim for greater range of motion. But then, they never subsequently teach that sometimes it's good to make a move small.

The problem with this is that it results in students trying to make every move as big as possible. This bigness then becomes a habit, so that the student no longer realizes she's even doing it. Result: when the student performs, she looks like she's beating the music to death. And, she risks injuring herself.

Students need to be taught that sometimes smaller is best. For example, I regularly tell my students that when the music is fast, it's best to do the move smaller because there's not enough time to do the move largely, and you fall behind. Or, if you manage to keep up with the fast speed, you look like you're beating it to death.

I know a dancer who actually incurred a debilitating back injury that has given her years of pain because her teacher demanded that she make her range of motion even bigger. Now, she was already an experienced dancer at the time her teacher demanded this of her, but the teacher demanded more, and against her better judgment she tried to give the teacher more.

Good ideas!

I think arms, coordinating arms and hands and varying the size and tempo of various movements should be part of Lesson One.

This topic peaked my interest because I too am in the process of rethinking how I teach.

It isn't so much that what Shira described applies to me.

--I teach arm positions and paths connected to movement in my most basic class. Although, I do sometimes exaggerate certain movements when I first demonstrate them, but I explain it is an exaggeration so they can see clearly, then I demonstrate a less exaggerated version and help my students refine their movements as they capture more of the essence of a movement during weeks of drilling. I combine movements fairly early on and drill some transitions. And my most basic class choreographies contain multiple body angles, movement around the stage, and some simple staging changes like line changes and groupings.--

All that being said, there are other ways I'm thinking of changing the way I teach. I personally would like to find ways to work into the dance classes better physical training. I'd like to help bring into my teaching practice more strengthening, flexibility and body awareness training, but have it still work into the content of the class and not take away from learning dance movement and musical understanding that I spend the brunt of my time on now. I just haven't worked out how to do it well just yet.

Musicality

On a recent tribe.net thread, I referred to this as The void in our belly dance classes. Many belly dance teachers don't teach the students to have a relationship with the music. Or, some will teach rhythms, but not other musicality skills.

Some belly dance teachers believe that students won't "understand" anything but pop music with its monotonous beat and energy level, so that's all they use. Maybe the real story is that these teachers themselves don't know much about music, so they're hiding behind this excuse???? Or, they might not even use Middle Eastern music at all, claiming that their students might be alienated by that weird stuff.

I think a lot of teachers would be willing to teach musicality, but because they weren't taught it by their own instructors, they don't know how to package their instinctive knowledge into the form of classroom exercises.

I think other teachers believe that musicality is an "advanced" skill, but even at the beginner level you can tell students basic stuff like, "This is a Turkish folk song," or "This is a simplified version of an Egyptian classical song," or, "That instrument you hear playing the melody is called an oud. It's the instrument that inspired the lute that was often used in Medieval European music. Here is a picture on a CD cover of someone playing an oud."

Intermediate students should be able to grasp the concept of call and response, and the choreographies taught at the intermediate level in classes should somehow illustrate the call and response. When the students learn those choreographies, the teachers can point out the call and response in the music and discuss how the choreography was designed to match it.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Musicality

On a recent tribe.net thread, I referred to this as The void in our belly dance classes. Many belly dance teachers don't teach the students to have a relationship with the music. Or, some will teach rhythms, but not other musicality skills.

Some belly dance teachers believe that students won't "understand" anything but pop music with its monotonous beat and energy level, so that's all they use. Maybe the real story is that these teachers themselves don't know much about music, so they're hiding behind this excuse???? Or, they might not even use Middle Eastern music at all, claiming that their students might be alienated by that weird stuff.

I think a lot of teachers would be willing to teach musicality, but because they weren't taught it by their own instructors, they don't know how to package their instinctive knowledge into the form of classroom exercises.

I think other teachers believe that musicality is an "advanced" skill, but even at the beginner level you can tell students basic stuff like, "This is a Turkish folk song," or "This is a simplified version of an Egyptian classical song," or, "That instrument you hear playing the melody is called an oud. It's the instrument that inspired the lute that was often used in Medieval European music. Here is a picture on a CD cover of someone playing an oud."

Intermediate students should be able to grasp the concept of call and response, and the choreographies taught at the intermediate level in classes should somehow illustrate the call and response. When the students learn those choreographies, the teachers can point out the call and response in the music and discuss how the choreography was designed to match it.

Yes!!!

double yes! excellent thread.

My first teacher taught rhythms right from the get go. So from my start I began developing my own style. Later teachers would differentiate stylistic differences from different regions. Wanting to give my students the best is precisely why I do not teach, despite having belly danced for 8 years. Because right now I am working on curriculum for an 8 week class that covers not only basic moves, but songs, dancers to know, herstory, rhythms and more. And of course a choreography to a popular Classical Arabic song.

Originally Posted by shems

This topic peaked my interest because I too am in the process of rethinking how I teach.

All that being said, there are other ways I'm thinking of changing the way I teach. I personally would like to find ways to work into the dance classes better physical training. I'd like to help bring into my teaching practice more strengthening, flexibility and body awareness training, but have it still work into the content of the class and not take away from learning dance movement and musical understanding that I spend the brunt of my time on now. I just haven't worked out how to do it well just yet.

Hey, I'm glad you chimed in with another example. This is a valuable thing for us to consider. Mainstream dance classes (ballet, jazz, etc.) typically involve conditioning as part of a normal class, whereas belly dance classes just use drills for this purpose. Now, drills are valuable, but they have their limitations when it comes to conditioning.

I'd love to hear more examples on this thread of other teachers rethinking their class material.

most of how i came to my style of teaching came from what i did not see, hear, or get from all of my teachers...acting, dance, voice...all of it!

I think one of the reason that 8-week wonders exist is that, in our beginner classes, we simply teach a bunch of basic moves. At the end of the 8-week period, the student believes she has learned everything there is to know.

If the teacher doesn't include level-appropriate tidbits along the way regarding musicality, culture, costuming, stagecraft, combination of basic moves with arms, names of famous dancers who used the move being taught as their signature move, etc., then how is the student to know that these other things are important dimensions of the dance?

Students think the dance is whatever we teach them the dance is. If our classroom experience provides merely collection of ways to move the body, then students will "learn" that the dance is nothing more than a collection of ways to move the body. And once they've learned to do those movements, they'll think they know it all.

Now, of course, some 8-week wonders have personality issues that would cause them to think they know it all even if they've been exposed to a class that does include all the stuff I've talked about on this thread. So I'm not saying we'd eliminate all 8-week wonders if we change our pedagogy. But I think we could improve matters at least a little.

I think arms, coordinating arms and hands and varying the size and tempo of various movements should be part of Lesson One.
__________________
it is here! and is a big part of the warm up every session..like "port a bras" in ballet.

:absorbing and pondering:
the two challenges that i see are: how to fit everything into a class. i was going to do a drills class for students who had gotten their heads around the basic moves and the other material from the first 8 week class (basic moves, some examples of how they fit with the music, improv, basic info sent out in emails every week, some basic strengthening at the end of the warm up. currently & always considering how to improve it). the drills class would talk about musical phrasing and how it motivates transitions, improvisation drills, dance drills including arms, and more strengthening and stretching. i had to break down and make the class 90 minutes and was still wondering if there was enough time to do everything. ('course it's not a problem because no one showed up.)

challenge two is: a student, no matter how motivated, can only absorb so much at a time. so we need to find that balance of asking them to do enough that it's not dumbed down and they are still being challenged to improve & are exposed to the richness of the whole dance, vs overloading them so that they just can't get it/they absorb little details (maybe they have beautiful hands) but ignore some other important parts (maybe they can't keep their pelvis in neutral)

i am by NO MEANS disagreeing, just submitting food for thought as far as how to practically apply these ideas given the limits of time and student's capabilities.

Originally Posted by raqFariha

:absorbing and pondering:

i am by NO MEANS disagreeing, just submitting food for thought as far as how to practically apply these ideas given the limits of time and student's capabilities.

This is exactly the kind of thought process I was hoping to generate with this thread! Thanks for expressing your pondering.

I'll give some other folks a chance to jump in and describe what they do, since I've been posting so much already on this thread, but I'll try to come back later to post comments on how I fit it in.

Funny, I've been thinking about something very similar (slight tangent ahead maybe).

The way I teach my advanced dancers constantly evolves. But in my level 1 and 2 classes, I'm still using some of the same lesson plans I taught 5 years ago even though my understanding of the dance has evolved since then.

For instance, the very first arm position I teach, and my default position for driling, is arms out to the sides in what Nourhan teaches as 2nd position. This position also appears in some of my beginner routines. But I've since been taught (by Sahra Saeeda) that most Egyptian dancers virtually *never* hold their arms like that! I need a new default!

It's really time for me to go back and revisit my beginner lesson plans and choreographies and tweak them a bit. It's a good time to also think about adding arm paths to my drills, angles, etc. (I try to be expressive & communicative on every runthrough, making eye contact with students in the mirror and engaging them with smiles, nods, etc).

I think a major problem is that a lot of teachers out there are not qualified to teach.
I guess because they, too, learned from teachers who focused only on movement, so once they mastered the moves they felt like they knew enough to teach.

There are also teachers who don't really want to create decent dancers. I hate to think that, but there actually are knowledgeable dancers who want the money from teaching regular classes without creating potential competition, so they hold their students back by not teaching everything they know.

Of course, neither of these types of teacher would care to rethink the way they are teaching and restructure their classes.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

I think one of the reason that 8-week wonders exist is that, in our beginner classes, we simply teach a bunch of basic moves. At the end of the 8-week period, the student believes she has learned everything there is to know.

If the teacher doesn't include level-appropriate tidbits along the way regarding musicality, culture, costuming, stagecraft, combination of basic moves with arms, names of famous dancers who used the move being taught as their signature move, etc., then how is the student to know that these other things are important dimensions of the dance?

Students think the dance is whatever we teach them the dance is. If our classroom experience provides merely collection of ways to move the body, then students will "learn" that the dance is nothing more than a collection of ways to move the body. And once they've learned to do those movements, they'll think they know it all.

Now, of course, some 8-week wonders have personality issues that would cause them to think they know it all even if they've been exposed to a class that does include all the stuff I've talked about on this thread. So I'm not saying we'd eliminate all 8-week wonders if we change our pedagogy. But I think we could improve matters at least a little.

Hah. Some of the 8 week wonders, or 3 week wonders even, though go out and TEACH...l;,

I think you've raised some very good points, Shira! I am probably most guilty of the bigger and better-issue. I do tell my students that the faster the movement is done, the smaller it should be. However, I must also defend the usefulness of big moves. Firstly - when I do it big, the visual learners will understand what I am doing. And if they try to reproduce the movement in their own body, and manage making it big, meaning visible, they will sense their progress. I find it very important that the students feel they are advancing - it adds to their motivation.

I try to avoid the blank looks-issue by always smiling AND trying to interact with my students during the drills/dancing. It can just a smile or a wink in the mirror, it can be a brief display of some emotion connected to the music/move/whatever. This will keep the class interesting and show students that it is all fun!

And lastly I'll tell you how I address the musicality issue. I try to use different music as possible - steady pop music and saidi tracks for drilling, taksims for adjusting posture, steady baladis for slow movements, drum solos for shimmies etc. I also like to plan at least one track into each class where I just dance around and make them follow me with minimal instruction. Just so they get the idea how I feel the music. Sometimes I put the same track on repeat and tell them to bop along to it all by themselves. it is scare, but they will learn to listen to the music this way.

[more general remarks to follow]

This is a very thought provoking thread. I know that I do basically teach the same way that I was taught, and some of the above does apply(Right now i only teach at a gym). I think there has been some evolution as I have learned more and gained more dimensions and changed dance style, but the way i understand the dance now is much much different then when i started teaching and my beginner's may not reap all of the rewards of that since i still tackle beginner class very similar to the way it was taught to me and the same way I have been doing it for a while... My mentor and I was actually having this discussion very recently...

I agree with raqFariha - it is difficult to include everything due to time and attention/motivation constraints. Part of planning the classes is also choosing your strategy - what do you want to achieve? Do you want people to have fun, do you want to educate them about culture, do you want to make them understand the music etc. (I think we had that discussion recently on Bhuz.) Of course, none of these options exclude the others, but you'll have to chose one main track depending on the level/wants/needs of your students. And then you can "cheat" and tie other things in as well, like telling tidbits about music, rhythms, lyrics, life, other events etc.

Originally Posted by zamora

I think arms, coordinating arms and hands and varying the size and tempo of various movements should be part of Lesson One.
__________________
it is here! and is a big part of the warm up every session..like "port a bras" in ballet.

Yes! and that helps warm up the body too, it's very like a ballet class in that sense - the basic movements become part of the warm-up which then start morphing into a dance -

The issue of stretching has changed over the years - so instead of starting with that, I get people warmed up first, then go into stretches and from there into more dance moves, building leg strength etc. so that it is seamless. And, if people get lost or stuck, we stop there and explain - I try not to slow things down too much but sometimes it's better to get things right, rather than lose a student to bewilderment and/or bad technique.

Also I stress safety - knees, back, building strength in the feet also, beautiful feet and hands.

I introduce many kinds of music as well as time signatures, so people are exposed to Turkish, North African, Egyptian, Lebanese, Armenian, Jewish, etc etc - most old and traditional but not always - some of the modern stuff is pretty good and it's often lively and fun - that way people are exposed to the M.E. genre, a broad range of it and generally do find themselves relating to a particular musical style and that helps us find their unique dance persona.

In order to give the beginner students a perspective on how much there is yet to learn I will do one follow the bouncing butt toward the end of class, and during drills, I will layer something or do a complicated variation on the theme for a few seconds, just to let them know there is lots left to learn...and lots left for me to teach.

BTW this isn't how I was first taught - my teacher did solid basics in terms of movements - zills - and passed along the "Bal Anat" routines she'd learned from Jamila plus other goodies she got from seminars with Ibrahim Farrah, other well-known teachers of the day.

However, the musicality and the whole idea of combining moves and transitioning from move to move, layering and also expression is something that's evolved really slowly for me, plus I keep learning so that all finally gets into my classes.

And it's a result of me having had to learn so much as a performer over many years, meeting different challenges and also trying to grow as an artist and struggling with the issue of group choreography and the modern forms, whether or not to even deal with them (finally decided, for me, no, it's also very hard to serve two masters so to speak so mixing metaphors, like tribal and traditional, well it's really two forms).

It troubles me that people with very little performance experience are teaching. Performance is where you really learn to dance, the flow of the dance is something that happens on stage really and that is where I learned (and re-learned, and re-learned some more..l;,)

I agree, there probably do need to be different strokes for different folks. Not everybody is seeking to become a performing artist - it's the kind of student I like to teach though. I love to work with students to find themselves, their costuming, their music - it takes a lot of extra time, but oh well...g.:

Originally Posted by anala

In order to give the beginner students a perspective on how much there is yet to learn I will do one follow the bouncing butt toward the end of class, and during drills, I will layer something or do a complicated variation on the theme for a few seconds, just to let them know there is lots left to learn...and lots left for me to teach.

I do this too plus give free dance time!

Really an hour isn't enough...

An hour is definitely not enough. I am finding this out and trying to restructure my classes. Also, my biggest problem is I constantly have new drop in students each week. I try to start a "session" every two months, but no-one ever pays any attention to that!

So I'm trying something new: 30 minutes of "fundamentals" all the basic moves, rhythms (and I will now be adding arms to that, thank you Shira) drilled over and over. Then, in the next 30 minutes, more technique, more complexity to keep the ones who have been with me a number of weeks still interested. I hate having to go back to the very very beginning of stance and ups and downs every time a new student comes to class, but I have to if I'm going to get them started off right. So I hope this alleviates some of the frustration not only I, but my less newbie beginners feel.
What do ya'll think of that set-up?