Thread: Male student advice?

This isn't my first time teaching a male student, but the time that I DID have a serious one, it was in a group class. He had danced before and had experience adapting certain moves to better work with his body.

My current student (my boyfriend who showed great interest in learning! yay!) is having trouble with a lot of things. I can usually apply physical things to figure out how to help him execute moves properly, but he gets so frustrated. He spins poi and works with other creative movement adventures, but this is very different for him.

Do you have any advice? He still enjoys it and I will catch him shimmying or doing twists or other simple drills when he thinks I'm not looking, but--for example, hip lifts and drops are his enemy

So...any tips you can offer (students or instructors or just dancers with knowledge!) would be greatly appreciated.

There is no difference between a male or female student - some catch it faster, some take longer... All it needs is patience.
As our great Indian dance master once said: "Just you practice, automatically will come!"

The fact that he is your boyfriend may have to do with his frustration - he doesn't want to look bad in front of you. Is he in your class or do you teach him at home? In a class environment he might see that other people have similar problems to learn the movements and there would be less pressure on him because it would take the focus off him.

MEISSOUN

Horacio Cifuentes has some fabulous instructional DVD's (actually, I have the old VHS tapes, I'm assuming they're available now on DVD's) ..... watching him may help your student. Horacio's core strength is unbelievable. I love his dancing. Elegant AND masculine.

You mentioned both students being male, but I didn't see anything in here that was male-specific...

I don't know if you're familiar at all with tribal, but we have this move called the pivot bump or single hip bump (and other things, I'm sure). The emphasis is on the lift, but it has the same basic posture: foot propped and body rotated to be at a slight diagonal to the audience ('showgirl stance'). In pivot bump, your glutes aren't doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but rather, you're driving the movement somewhat through pushing into the floor and allowing your hip to move up and in, but no level change. So it's similar to a hip drop, but maybe the alternate up mentality will be easier to grasp, and then you basically reverse it to accent on the down, and then work your way into an actual hip drop.

If that works out, keep doing the isolation-heavy moves for while and then maybe throw in the tribal move reach and sit. It can be a total PITA to get if you're used to isolating, since it is seemingly freer, and the aesthetic doesn't let you 'overthink' isolating, but there's still a ton of isolating.

Possible issue: you're really circling around the issue if you do it this way, and he might end up having trouble like on 3/4 down or piston hips... Oddly enough, I always had a ton of trouble in the beginning learning up work (don't we all), so down seemed to be pretty easy - gravity is doing half the work, right? - but theory didn't translate well into practice so it was like learning the move all over again.

Also, let me just say it's about time more guys get into belly dance. It's so lonely...

Unless you're doing tribal there is really not much point in teaching special tribal-specific moves that may actually prevent him learning how to do the movement the way it needs to be done. Pivot bump isn't a classic hip lift or drop, from the way Briceashta describes it it encourages a twist and using the foot to drive it, all of which is fine but no good with beginners who don't know how to lift and drop their hips independently of all those layers.

Men and women are the same, physically, when it comes to dance. Boys don't need supportive bras but they do need supportive jocks. Culturally I think a lot of men in western cultures - like women, but possibly MORE so - don't know how to move their hips and don't feel comfortable doing it.

Hip lifts and drops are actually kind of complex if you really break them down. Where is he having the problem? Is it maintaining a neutral pelvis with no twist? Is it using his legs correctly to enable the movement? Can he do a hip rock, and if so, have you tried getting him to put one foot on ball and do it, then transfer his weight to the flat foot - because that's a lift or drop straight up the side right there.

I honestly don't think there is much difference between teaching males vs. females, at least not at the beginner level. The basics are the same. The stylization will be different, but it'll be a while before he gets to that point anyway.

What Meissoun and Zumarrad said.

Here's an article I wrote some time ago that may help:

Male Student, Now What?

It doesn't totally apply to your situation, but maybe it'll help. As always, suggestions for improvements to this (or any of my) article(s) are very welcome!

Guys tend to be much tighter than gals - especially the athletic guys. It takes longer to loosen up...

I think it has a lot to do with his mental blocks, especially since this is in a private setting. Maybe I can schedule a few practice sessions with other students and friends, or just find a way to get him into a more relaxed setting, then he wouldn't get so frustrated.

His twists, shimmies, and slides are pretty good. In fact, his shimmies have definitely gotten better from what I can remember. But like I said, his lifts, drops, and even bumps are struggling.

Specifically Zum, his lifts look way too forced...he has very narrow hips, so I'm thinking it could be in part that he's just trying to make them look bigger. Sometimes it looks like he's trying to do an oblique crunch while standing, when doing the lifts. I know the lifts and drops will take time...but he even has trouble with the bumps. Simple side bumps have a strange cocking motion about them, and I think (if I can recall correctly), it's because he's losing the control of his pelvis and lifting his heel.

@Zorba, that article is so great!! Thank you! It's funny, I mention the things he's GOOD at and your article happens to mention those very things!

Another thing I think that might be frustrating him, is that he is very used to using his whole body to dance. He can do isolations with his hands and arms, but I think it's confusing his brain and muscle memory to try and do the same thing with his hips, which is a part of his body he is not used to moving around.

As for the tribal thing...I don't do tribal so I wouldn't feel comfortable teaching it. He is more interested in learning traditional and orientale styles, as well as folkloric.

he has very narrow hips, so I'm thinking it could be in part that he's just trying to make them look bigger.

Very likely! Do you have any footage of Tito he could watch? He has lovely hip work but fairly small hips. Or Horacio of course, whose hips are really narrow.

The remark about the oblique crunch is interesting - is this a hip lift to the front? It sounds like he is trying too hard and needs to learn to relax into the movement, which can be difficult. Are you breaking the movement down in terms of muscle work? Maybe he'll get the feel better if you just get him to copy and not think about his muscles for a while, then maybe once he gets it sort of right, get him to notice what he feels and work on it from there.

So difficult to break it down without seeing him but I've had some success with not talking about muscles (I'm not a PT so I don't go there too much) and talking about bones and imaginary things you can do with them. Like, I am lifting my hip bone straight up so that if I had no spine in the way it would meet the edge of my ribcage and then stopping it.

That says a lot about Tito, as I've never even noticed!

I try to break things down anatomically. I'll try to get him to just relax and copy next time...

What do you think about mirrors with this info? Should he avoid them? Or utilize them? He's used to operating without them, but it was just an idea I had.

I think mirrors help but then I am a mirror addict.

Me too. My roommates tell people that living with me is like living with a tropical bird: loud, colorful, and fascinated by mirrors. My room is covered in them xD. I like dancing without mirrors (I get too distracted sometimes), but I prefer to drill in front of them.

Originally Posted by eden_eyes

Me too. My roommates tell people that living with me is like living with a tropical bird: loud, colorful, and fascinated by mirrors. My room is covered in them xD. I like dancing without mirrors (I get too distracted sometimes), but I prefer to drill in front of them.

The Mighty Siwa says that "all Belly Dancers are magpies...".

I'd recommend mirrors too. I'd agree about the hips - I'm guilty of trying to make my movements bigger (too much so) for similar reasons. After many years, I've been able to increase my range of motion to where its quite good now. Having narrow hips SUCKS in this dance form - have him use "hip enhancers" (veils and other "stuff" tucked in at the hips) - they really do help!