Thread: About the foot/floor interface

I found this great article about feet (some of y'all know I have a thing for feet ;- )


Najia writes about your dancing feet for the Gilded Serpent

When I first started taking classes, some of my first teachers students were very derisive of the releve, and called themselves "Turkish" style dancers because they stayed flat footed. I will admit, it is hard to stay on the authors "dance pedestal" while dancing on grass!

This has been one of my favorite articles on GS!

I used to dance on "pigeon feet"before I started to take classes with Samasem;
she had me doing toe raises everyday and practise balance a lot.

I´m not by any means "there" yet,but it helped my dance posture immensely.

Well, the thing is, some oriental dance IS flatfooted. And some is not. I dance comfortably on ball so this is no big deal to me, and indeed quite natural (I love the bit about Bert B telling them to dance on a small base, I've always preferred it), and there is good info in the article, but if there is one absolute about this dance form, it is that there are no absolutes.

Originally Posted by zumarrad

Well, the thing is, some oriental dance IS flatfooted. And some is not. I dance comfortably on ball so this is no big deal to me, and indeed quite natural (I love the bit about Bert B telling them to dance on a small base, I've always preferred it), and there is good info in the article, but if there is one absolute about this dance form, it is that there are no absolutes.

I agree. What she describes is footwork for one style of belly dance. That is not to say the ability to balance is not important - but I'd say the percentage with heels off the ground varies a lot and many good dancers would be more than 50% heels down.

The other issue she doesn't address is Morton's short toe. It is most damaging for ballet pointe work but does also affect balance on demi. (Morton's short toe is when the big toe is shorter than the second one which gives you the choice of a very narrow base on the first and second toe or a nasty twist by trying to use the second to fifth toes for balance).