Thread: Najia says, "Get over it!"

Gilded Serpent, Belly Dance News & Events, Get Over It!

I am torn by this article. On one hand, there are good suggestions about improving your presence and connection to your music. On the other hand, so what? Get off my lawn! When I was your age, blah, blah, blah...

Good, soulful dancing will never go out of style, but as she points out, the world has changed. The club scene from forty years ago is gone, and it's probably not coming back. Many of us will never have the chance to dance a half-hour set to live music three nights a week for an audience that gets it because they grew up with it. We get a few minutes with a record we like at a hafla now and then, for other dancers who want to see a lot of choreographed, Western pizzazz. Our world rewards a different kind of dancing now. It's not realistic for 99% of us to move to Egypt and hope we can get a job in their shrinking nightclub scene (...that's retooling itself to cater to the "sound-byte bellydance" tastes of foreign dance students in a bid to survive). In a lot of ways, we may as well be talking about how to make high-quality buggy whips.

I'm not saying Najia is wrong. I'm questioning where we're supposed to go with what she's saying. If we can't get back to a place where audiences value live music and long-format presentations, where teachers want to invest in the creative exploration to shape themselves and their students as unique artists (instead of cookbooking their way to being carbon copies of whichever dancers are currently hot), what are we supposed to do? I can practice dancing in a chair, and it may improve my performance technique as an individual, but how does that fix the larger problem that most of us are "all dressed up with nowhere to go"?

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

Gilded Serpent, Belly Dance News & Events, Get Over It!


I'm not saying Najia is wrong. I'm questioning where we're supposed to go with what she's saying. If we can't get back to a place where audiences value live music and long-format presentations, where teachers want to invest in the creative exploration to shape themselves and their students as unique artists (instead of cookbooking their way to being carbon copies of whichever dancers are currently hot), what are we supposed to do? I can practice dancing in a chair, and it may improve my performance technique as an individual, but how does that fix the larger problem that most of us are "all dressed up with nowhere to go"?

It seems to me that we shape our own performance experiences... if as Leila said, we are mainly "dancing for other dancers" now, then we as dancers can change our expectations of what we want to see in others as they dance. If an audience expects Energizer Bunny performances, we as performers are tempted to satisfy them - rather than our own inner preferences. This philosophy trickles down to the judges of the contests who pick the winners who perpetuate the cycle.

With you Tourbeau, I know I am preaching to the choir when I say that a deeper understanding of Middle Eastern music and Arabic lyrics would go a long way to adding emotional content back into performances and slowing them down - "putting the core back into the dance" and highlighting the true star of the show as Najia wrote - the music.

When I host haflas, the participants know what my expectations are (slow, juicy, heartfelt stuff) so they try to give me that. Perhaps it is up to party/contest/workshop organizers to create more laid-back opportunities - so that when you're dressed up you do have someplace to go.

But that's just my opinion. I'm sure there are many others.

yes, it is not 40 years ago. i do not want to get into anything on this...no, we are not back where we started. but articles like this , from those WHO WERE THERE can help . i come from "there" i still teach all the underlying issues she brings up, but for today...some have no concept of the dignity of all this ..she has given those not raised in the "good ole days"an article to educate themselves about where this came from and the good of it that makes todays dancer a solid , well rounded artist.
this art/dance is what it is. it has a history, it has a past strong enough to build on even in 2011.

Originally Posted by zamora

no, we are not back where we started. but articles like this , from those WHO WERE THERE can help . i come from "there" i still teach all the underlying issues she brings up, but for today...some have no concept of the dignity of all this ..she has given those not raised in the "good ole days"an article to educate themselves about where this came from and the good of it that makes todays dancer a solid , well rounded artist.
this art/dance is what it is. it has a history, it has a past strong enough to build on even in 2011.

Exactly! And some of us from "then" are still doing the full long show. Weddings, birthdays, corporate events...there are still tons of opportunity to do a full traditional show. Those opportunities are just not in the night clubs as much anymore. That said, it is still very important IMHO that dancers have the opportunity to learn how to craft a full show and take their audience on a journey.

Throwing 30 minutes worth of random pop songs on a CD is not sufficient for a wedding gig. We must offer them a proper show. Even if most dancers will never have the opportunity to dance a full 45 minute show with costume changes to a 10 piece band, some of the up and comers will have the opportunity to do these large event shows and must understand the flow of a show, to recreate it with their canned music.

Understanding where the long show comes from in the spectrum of entertainment, and understanding why it is constructed as it is, to take the audience on a journey, will help all dancers craft long and short sets. It will also help avoid the "Mach 5 Energizer Bunny Full Out The Whole Time" thing that exhausts the audience.

I may be opening a can of worms here, but I'm gonna say it. If dancers don't learn to give their audiences different levels and degrees of energy within a show, what ever the length, they will burn out and lose the audience before the end of their show/piece/song. Learning the ebb and flow of a long show can teach skills to retain the audiences' attention even during the "sound bite" style show.

/end_rant

I'd love to learn the ins and outs of a long-format show, but no teacher I've been to in 4 years has taught anything other than 3 to 4 minute pop choreographies. Not even a tiny bit of orchestral music. Plus, there is a major overuse of props. At a recent local show, there were 2 fire dancers, 3 (!) sword acts, and a whole lotta Western music fusion.

It seems like audiences don't pay attention unless you set yourself on fire or balance something on your head, preferably at the same time. Are we circus acts or are we dancers?

I admire the sentiment of Najia's article. It would be nice to a) find a teacher who could show me the way, and b) and find an audience that wouldn't exit en masse to the restroom, hoping to get back in time for Scherazade and Her Famous Flame-Juggling Cats.

Jungle Flower where do you live? Perhaps I can suggest teachers near you. There are still many of us old-timers left - who recognize we are teaching a dying art.

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Jungle Flower where do you live? Perhaps I can suggest teachers near you. There are still many of us old-timers left - who recognize we are teaching a dying art.

I'm not Jungleflowers, but do you have any suggestions in the San Antonio area?

Originally Posted by Alexa

I'm not Jungleflowers, but do you have any suggestions in the San Antonio area?

I know of several in Dallas and Houston. Let me do some research and get back to you. I know that Artemis teaches workshops regularly in Texas. She can also give suggestions.

Originally Posted by Jungleflowers

Scherazade and Her Famous Flame-Juggling Cats.

That's the rub: do you stick to a higher standard and let the chips fall where they may or keep up with the "times" and juggle flaming cats?

I would lean on the sticking to higher standard side.

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

Exactly! And some of us from "then" are still doing the full long show. Weddings, birthdays, corporate events...there are still tons of opportunity to do a full traditional show. Those opportunities are just not in the night clubs as much anymore.

I'm not sure I would say that. I would say there may be opportunities for some dancers in certain areas to do these kinds of gigs, and in other areas, almost no opportunities that are very difficult to wrestle away from the currently working dancers who outnumber the gigs by a large percentage. Where I live, dancers from three cities (each about an hour away) are fighting over work, and some of them have a pretty substantial foothold in the market. When the economy tanked, many of their gigs dried up, meaning way less work, but the same number of dancers wanting it. I'm not out there fighting for those gigs anyway, but realistically, if I wanted them, I'd still have almost no chance of unseating the two dozen other dancers who are higher profile and higher up in the pecking order than I am, and who also want to work that one party a month that requested more than a 15-minute bellygram.

Throwing 30 minutes worth of random pop songs on a CD is not sufficient for a wedding gig.

But what happens when you live in an area where there isn't much of an ethnic population, and most of the gig requests are the 15-minute, veil+[sword/cane]+pop song troika or the learn-to-belly-dance hen party? Which of the working dancers are going to magnanimously step aside so less experienced dancers can have a shot at those rare long-form gigs?

And what happens to the students who sincerely want to learn how to do longer sets, but have reasons why they'll never be suited to the commercial sphere? We're a hobbyist market, so don't they get a chance to learn? What sandbox do they get to play in? It's not hard to find 10-20 non-tribal dancers who want to be in a show, but who wants to sit through 5-10 hours of students attempting to do full sets of belly dancing? Maybe things were better in the old days, when restaurants had to fill a couple of hours of entertainment a night, but competition for good gigs was fierce then, too. There have always been more dancers wanting work than work to be had in most places.

I agree that it is important to learn the long-form style, but logistically, how is everybody who wants to dance that way going to get a chance to actually try it in front of an audience, and repeat the process enough to get good at it?

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

I'm not sure I would say that. I would say there may be opportunities for some dancers in certain areas to do these kinds of gigs, and in other areas, almost no opportunities that are very difficult to wrestle away from the currently working dancers who outnumber the gigs by a large percentage.

Yes, but IME this has always been a pervasive issue

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

But what happens when you live in an area where there isn't much of an ethnic population, and most of the gig requests are the 15-minute, veil+[sword/cane]+pop song troika or the learn-to-belly-dance hen party? Which of the working dancers are going to magnanimously step aside so less experienced dancers can have a shot at those rare long-form gigs?

And what happens to the students who sincerely want to learn how to do longer sets, but have reasons why they'll never be suited to the commercial sphere? We're a hobbyist market, so don't they get a chance to learn? What sandbox do they get to play in? It's not hard to find 10-20 non-tribal dancers who want to be in a show, but who wants to sit through 5-10 hours of students attempting to do full sets of belly dancing? Maybe things were better in the old days, when restaurants had to fill a couple of hours of entertainment a night, but competition for good gigs was fierce then, too. There have always been more dancers wanting work than work to be had in most places.

Many hobbyists and students like to learn for the sake of learning and how the knowledge of the past can influence the future. This, in no way, is intended to insinuate everyone will do evening length shows. I just meant that learning from the past and current structures can help inform a well educated present and future, and help to retain some of the old flavor in the new.

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

I agree that it is important to learn the long-form style, but logistically, how is everybody who wants to dance that way going to get a chance to actually try it in front of an audience, and repeat the process enough to get good at it?

They won't. That's the reality of it. It's hard to make your way in a "dying art form" on any level. Everybody won't get a shot. But everybody who is interested in learning will at least have the opportunity to understand it intellectually, if they choose to learn about the long shows. At this point, it may be like studying history. Most schools require students to study history. Why? Because it informs the present and future.

This is one reason my group has made our local monthly showcase, to give everyone who wants, an opportunity to try the long form show. 2 hours, 4 dancers, do your thing.

People are free to learn about the long form shows or not. My response was to the question posed: Why is it valuable. The value will be different for every individual dancer.

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Jungle Flower where do you live? Perhaps I can suggest teachers near you. There are still many of us old-timers left - who recognize we are teaching a dying art.

Florida. I am near the Orlando area, but not quite near enough. There are a couple of larger studios there, but I'm just far enough away that regular attendance is impossible. I can occasionally pick up a workshop.

It's not that the teachers I've had are bad- they've all had good technique in one style or another- but I think that many of them stick with what the majority of dancers are comfortable with (pop), and what they themselves have the most experience in, which is usually sets that please the general public in a Middle Eastern restaurant and/or pleases the general public for bellygram performances.

Not much place for a long-program format in those venues.

My teacher taught it. But what happened IMO in the place I taught was, the atmosphere became a) competitive and b) focused solely on giving people what they wanted, rather than primarily on what they wanted but with the necessary meat and potatoes component that said "you're learning BD, well, this is BD". People felt daunted by solo work and safer doing a group wings choreography, for instance.

It doesn't help that a lot of BDers in my experience study for about two years before they start forming troupes and/or teaching, and not always in a mentored situation either. And there's so much knowledge that we don't get to access weekly here, so we never ever really pay our dues.

There aren't opportunities for most dancers to do full sets, and I know most of the ones who do, don't use full length music pieces, partially because the people hiring them want upbeat, shimmyshimmy all night stuff and also because there's an assumption that local GP audiences won't like real BD music, don't have an attention span of any kind, etc etc. All of which is somewhat true.

Something I would have liked to do is take a long classic piece and turn it into a number that could use students at every level, but that doesn't fit with the five minute hafla/recital format, and it's hard to get people to commit to something so major.

To me a traditional set is:
Mergenci - 5 - 6 min
taqsim - 2 min max
Om Kalthoum mini - 3 min
Audience participation (pop / shaabi) - 5 min
Beladi progression - 5 min
Saidi / Khaleegi / Nubi - any or all 5 min
Drum solo - 3 - 5 min
Finale - 1 min

What about this is slow and boring apart from Om Kalthoum if you don't know who she is? Audiences love this kind of show if the performer knows how to do the sections. Learning the different parts takes practice, but honestly, with today's glut of cheap DVDs, anyone anywhere can order instruction and practice in front of a mirror. Then find good workshop instructors once a month for tweeking and hard to get technique.

If a dancer is taking lessons as a hobbyist perhaps it is easier to gather together with like-minded folks and entertain each other. Is it necessary to get paid to have a good time and a satisfying performance? Just food for thought.

Several years ago Little Egypt came to LA and, as is their tradition, the Friday night show was put together with many of the participants. It was almost all pop music with Drum solos. for 3 hours. By the time it was over, I felt as though I had been beaten with an assaya. Repeatedly. I asked another dancer, where was the taqusim? Where was the nod towards folkloric? Where was the fun even slightly kitchie orchestral pieces? Where were the pieces which made the audience want to weep and and cry, experience catharsis and transcend?

The answer was, lost in the need for flash and the 5 - 7 minute "set." I immediately decided to learn more about the full 5 - 7 part set and especially taqusim.

That having been said, most of us at this point ARE dancing for other dancers and are not being trained in the business side of putting together a full length show. I think that Sabrina's approach with her monthly showcase is brilliant. I wish more teachers / mentors would be willing to do this. The problem for most people is investment. Both time and money. Most people have no desire to really invest. And many teachers have no desire to learn the back ground, let alone explain it to their students.

Now, the alternative to this is if you have a studio which puts on regular shows, you arrange it so that each class does a particular type of number and then set it up to flow as you would a show. fast opening, happy song, taqsim, drum, happy song - can be pop - closing number. And if you have enough classes, do it twice!

It's a thought.

{{{HUGS}}}

Dancing to live music or CD are two completely different sets of skills.

In the global dance world in which many of us operate, we must accept that very few people dance with live bands.

How we develop ME dance beyond that seems to be very much up to the individual teacher and dancer.

There is music available which provides the 'live music' feel as opposed to the Oojami beats.

I agree with Tourbeau's first post.

I agree with alot of the article but not sure if any alternatives or solutions are on offer..??

BTW, Sara Farouk and Kay Taylor have a course available in Luxor next May 2012 which is all focused on learning to dance with a band from Cairo (and with the help of Dandesh and a few other dancers).

At least in my experience, which is primarily dancer-only events, there aren't a lot of shows that I have access to perform in that aren't affiliated with a workshop and have the workshop teacher as headliner. That visiting dancer might do a full set, but not always. I don't gram, and it's actually quite unusual for me to perform in a show that lets an individual dancer run more than five minutes, so I might never have the chance to do a longer set. Sometimes competitions allow a longer performance slot, but I haven't been able to muster the enthusiasm to crawl into that lion's den, and even if I did, as Najia points out, what kinds of dancing do competitions tend to reward?

I guess I am wondering why it is so unusual for a community to take turns letting different dancers rotate through the longer headliner slot? I suppose the answer is because there is a lot of very understandable, human ego behind it. Dancers who have fought their way to a position where they can count on getting the long-form slots don't want to give them up. Teachers who organize non-workshop student events often look forward to their own chance to headline, and they aren't in a hurry to surrender the opportunity. And realistically, not everybody is destined to be good at the long-form set, especially when they're just starting out, and organizers can't afford to run events where audiences know Ms. I-Can-Hardly-Stand-To-Watch-Her-For-Four-Minutes is getting a turn to dance for a half hour.

With no realistic opportunities for many of us to perform, we are now looking at the long-form set purely as an academic exercise. I assume in most cases, a teacher in a small market (or an over-saturated large market with lots of cliquish gerrymandering) may not be able to find enough students who want to commit to learning the long form in a group, unless it is taught as a canned choreography, at which point, that sort of defeats the purpose. Can I honestly say I like the idea of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars in private lessons get "standalone good" at something I'll never have the chance to use, solely for the intellectual enrichment of the endeavor? No, I can't--not because I don't care, but because I'm being pragmatic. Presumably 10-20 hours of private lessons should show up favorably in my technique regardless, but there are other things I'd like to learn, and it still feels like a lot of effort to reach the same dead end I'm already at regarding the long-form set. Unless I can invent a time machine to travel back to North Beach in 1970, I'd still have the problem of having nowhere to go with this skill, in a world of workshop shows and student recitals with five-minute performance limits.

Sometimes competitions allow a longer performance slot, but I haven't been able to muster the enthusiasm to crawl into that lion's den, and even if I did, as Najia points out, what kinds of dancing do competitions tend to reward?

I did..once. Never again. I enjoyed the score sheets, very helpful, however being in that room for 4 hours a night for 2 nights watching one frenetic 10 to 15 minute set after another to ear splitting techno based music made me want to scream. That aint my dance.

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

At least in my experience, which is primarily dancer-only events, there aren't a lot of shows that I have access to perform in that aren't affiliated with a workshop and have the workshop teacher as headliner.

Again, create your own performance venue. Here in the Baltimore / DC area there are many organizers of dance haflas for and by students. These are not associated with workshops and the organizers are not necessarily teachers - just dancers looking to perform in a safe environment. The restaurants or venues where they are held are happy for a full crowd on a Sunday afternoon and everyone gets to dance what they want. We have a lot of performers doing classical stuff. Many of the participants are ladies on Bhuz. You sound like someone who is a go getter. These organizers get paid something from the door to reimburse their time and advertising. Why not you?

Tourbeau has hit on a good point. The lack of performance opportunities is real. Honestly, if I wanted to go watch a belly dance show in my area I'd be hard pressed to find a place to go. There are one or 2 venues that still offer a more traditional show if I want to attend a club with people half my age and wait until midnight for a show. A handful of the dancers working now, came in at the tail of the club era and they had the opportunity to dance full set shows with live bands. But frankly, anyone who has come along in the last 5 years or so has probably never seen a dancer perform a full set with a live band. At the most they might see a dancer do a 20 minute show with a keyboard and drummer but the skill set to perform a set like that vs a full 45 minute show is vastly different. The majority of time can be spent canvassing the audience for tips. Many dancers working now are seeking gigs at American venues. Even at ME weddings, group shows and troupe performances seem to be more in demand than the solo dancer.

So, what is the incentive to study for years and learn all the nuances of middle eastern music and dance when you rarely have the chance to perform it and if you want to make money at it, you have to be commercial and alas the era of the big clubs catering to ME clients is gone?

It's no wonder there are so many Suzie Nippletassles and 6 week wonders out there.

Interesting thread.

I think one reason for all the pop music people are using these days is that pop music easy to obtain, especially the stuff on the Bellydance Superstars CD's, and it's also easy for a mediocre dancer to grasp.

Another issue, I think, is that a lot of teachers use monotonous pop music for teaching class. Some of these teachers were 6-week wonders who started teaching before they knew the difference between a hip lift and a hip drop. Others had teachers who used monotonous pop beats in class, so it's all they know themselves. Still others are knowledgeable dancers, but they hesitate to use textured music because they fear the unfamiliar sounds will scare students away. Whatever the reason, if monotonous pop is all a student hears in class, then that's what she'll know.

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Interesting thread.
if monotonous pop is all a student hears in class, then that's what she'll know.

Excellent point! So the onus is on us, teachers who have the information and experience in the live music long form show, to take the initiative to offer the information to the students, one digestible piece at a time.

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

Excellent point! So the onus is on us, teachers who have the information and experience in the live music long form show, to take the initiative to offer the information to the students, one digestible piece at a time.

I am trying to do that with the next albums I am working on. The intro pieces will include either a 3-4 min intro or a longer version with a beladi and drum solo incorporated. It is also up to those of us who produce music for the dance market to make accessible pieces.

I am listening to your requests, it just takes a long time to publish what you are asking for, a lot of time in the studio and editing suite. Leila has also been listening. Her latest album has pieces around 5 minutes each instead of 7-10 min.

Originally Posted by Jungleflowers

It seems like audiences don't pay attention unless you set yourself on fire or balance something on your head, preferably at the same time. Are we circus acts or are we dancers?

I am thinking that the reason the audience doesn't pay attention is because it so same-same throughout. I used to go to a fair where a BD troop would perform for an hour between solo dancing, dancing to drummers, and group dances and it was never boring. They switched it up though. Fast dances with high energy, slow dances with a soft and sultry feel to them, and some that made you hold your breath as they *drum roll* balanced a sword. That's it, a sword. No juggling cats or fire or anything death defying just a properly skillful sword. I don't see that these days though as everything seems to have the same basic speed, even the sword dance, and it's a totally different feeling.

I finally had the time to read the article and I have only to agree with it in it's entirety. Please, please, please, tell me it's not to late to reverse the trend. Even if most of us never do a 7-9 piece set each piece of that set has a different feel to it and there is no reason we can't perform any one of them for an audience by themselves. Any performance can be powerful if you are able to express the music, it doesn't need to be a "sound bite", and these days doing something else is the way to be different and stand out from the crowd.

Well, I think the main reason an audience doesn't pay attention is because the dancer lacks skill. This is a harsh statement, but face it. The majority of dancers out there are just getting by. They can get gigs and jobs by being young, pretty and hopefully, somewhat competent as a dancer. But belly dancing, unlike other dance forms is so much more tolerant for the novice dancer. It is really strange when you think about it. In all other dance forms, experienced instructors teach, after their dance/performance days are over. Not so in belly dance where many teachers have never performed!!!

An audience, even an untrained audience will recognize a good dancer when they see one. Yes, they do like the tricks and ponies, but people aren't stupid. They know bad dancing when they see it.

And they recognize good dancing as well, even if they can't appreciate the music and all the nuances.

Unfortunately, (and now we are hitting my hobby horse!!) too many dancers today feel they are entitled to top wages, and they demand respect as artists but they fail to consider that in exchange, they are obligated to deliver and perform a professional quality show.

And guess what? That takes WORK!

You can't just show throw a costume into a bag, stick a CD in a machine and dance for 15 minutes, collect the money and call yourself a professional. A professional will take the time to consider her audience, her venue, etc. A professional will TURN DOWN a gig if it violates her standards. I'm really sad when I see dancers waiting by the phone on a Saturday night in hopes of a gig. WTF? If you haven't been booked hours or days before, you should be at home resting, or enjoying your life. Not waiting for some dumb ass to call you to dance at the last minute as if you had nothing better to do. Even if you don't!!!!!

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

Exactly! And some of us from "then" are still doing the full long show. Weddings, birthdays, corporate events...there are still tons of opportunity to do a full traditional show. Those opportunities are just not in the night clubs as much anymore. That said, it is still very important IMHO that dancers have the opportunity to learn how to craft a full show and take their audience on a journey.

Throwing 30 minutes worth of random pop songs on a CD is not sufficient for a wedding gig. We must offer them a proper show. Even if most dancers will never have the opportunity to dance a full 45 minute show with costume changes to a 10 piece band, some of the up and comers will have the opportunity to do these large event shows and must understand the flow of a show, to recreate it with their canned music.

Understanding where the long show comes from in the spectrum of entertainment, and understanding why it is constructed as it is, to take the audience on a journey, will help all dancers craft long and short sets. It will also help avoid the "Mach 5 Energizer Bunny Full Out The Whole Time" thing that exhausts the audience.

I may be opening a can of worms here, but I'm gonna say it. If dancers don't learn to give their audiences different levels and degrees of energy within a show, what ever the length, they will burn out and lose the audience before the end of their show/piece/song. Learning the ebb and flow of a long show can teach skills to retain the audiences' attention even during the "sound bite" style show.

/end_rant

This is why it's important to be able to improvise. For example, we have community dances here on the second Sunday of every other month. Dancers such as myself that have no other outlet are tempted to go all out during their one or two songs, which is indeed exhausting for the audience, even if it is a group of bellydancers. Being able to gauge the energy level of the dances prior to ourselves and adjusting our dancing accordingly can make the whole show more pleasant for all.

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

Excellent point! So the onus is on us, teachers who have the information and experience in the live music long form show, to take the initiative to offer the information to the students, one digestible piece at a time.

Yes. Like I said up-thread, we as teachers can have some influence in terms of how students develop their taste and understanding of music.

My first teacher used what was available at that time (which was mostly horrid Arc music) I HATED it. Many others didnt like it either and avoided it because they thought it was 'Arabic music' and that is how it always sounds.. wrong!

Introducing good quality Arabic music (as opposed to what sounds like 'plinkety plonk' Arabic music') is essential.

Back to live music..

Here is another problem.

There are many good dancers here in the UK who can give a great show to live music..but there is not too much in the way of good live music to accompany them.

I was resident in a resturant for years dancing to a musician who off his head on coke. I learned to dance alright..out of nothing.

There are some good musicians around but they are expensive and can make life difficult and make ridiculous demands.

There are some attempts to bring more live music and dancing to the forfront and I hope people really make an effort to support these incredibly risk taking and expensive events.

My friend Anne of Planet Egypt has been doing just that in London..it has not been easy, these things never are. I and many others really hope it is a success because we do need it before it disappears for good.

But generally speaking, it really is hit and miss on both sides of the fence.

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Again, create your own performance venue.

I want to respond to this, because it seems if I don't, it's like "...so I told her to organize her own, and that shut her up!", but the logistics of doing this are very intimidating, especially for someone who's never put an event together. If the object is to preserve and raise awareness/appreciation of the gold standard--long-form improvisation to live music--this is a tall order. Bringing in a band to recreate the "real deal" experience isn't the sort of thing you'd slap together and hope for the best. It's an expensive proposition, and you want it to be a good experience that makes people want to do it again, both as participants and as an audience.

For as many dancers as my area has, local studios have really downsized a lot in the last few years. Apparently it has become difficult to do a big event here that breaks even. Organizers who used to fly in top-name teachers for workshops have started diverting much of their effort to local pros and lesser knowns to cut costs. Our market is about 50-50 with tribal, so that's about half of the population that isn't terribly interested in this style anyway (another rant about whether they should be...), and of the ones who consider themselves non-tribal, there's still the problem that not a lot of dancers have experience with the classic style of performance--not doing it, not watching it, not even listening to that type of music. If I build it, will they come? Or will they stay away in droves because it is not their area of interest or not in their comfort zone? A few years ago, I was talking with one of the more experienced local organizers about the odds of bringing Mahmoud Reda to the area on his tour, and I half-jokingly asked if she thought it would ever be possible to get enough students to agree to pay [Reda's fee divided by the number of participants] for what would essentially be an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime, semi-private lesson, and the answer was an eye-rolling, resounding NO. Not on a boat, not with a goat. He's just not that important a teacher to most students, and high price = low interest. (I know, Reda is not "belly dance," but lack of interest in him is a pretty good indicator of where heads are at.)

Then there's the simple logistics of putting a long, traditional event with live music together. Often the organizer does not participate in her own shows. Somebody's got to host/manage the event. Due to the drama of our local dance community, I intentionally keep a low profile, and I don't have an army of people I can depend on to help me run a major show. I'm confident that if I publicized that I was looking for dancers who'd like to do 15- or 30-minute sets to live music, my inbox would be full of requests for a performance slot, but how many of them would be guilty of "Little Red Hen Syndrome," where no one wants to invest any effort up front...

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...but once the event is all pulled together and publicized, they'd love to help by showing up on that night, dancing, and then leaving as soon as their performance was over? Do I love this stuff so much that I'd be willing to assume a personal financial risk and bust my hump putting it together so that everybody else could take advantage of it while I ran around backstage doing damage control? I wouldn't mind directing a team effort, but where I stand now, doing all of the work and reaping little of the benefit? Sorry, but no. I see you driving 'round town with Cee Lo Green, and I'm like...

I know that sounds selfish, but honestly, how many of us aren't in it to improve our own dancing as the top priority? It's nice to raise the water level for everybody, but I'm the center of my dance world, not Suzy from across town. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall as it is, fighting to find the quality and types of instruction I want. I don't feel like I'm at a point in my "career" (or lack thereof) where I have the profile or the resources to take on charitable education projects--especially when the bulk of the population doesn't think this stuff is important enough to care about. I'd probably get more out of flying to New York and bribing some tinky drum-machine-and-synthesizer Arab wedding band to let me sit in on their rehearsals.

And I haven't even begun to address the problem of local politics. As I said, I try to keep to the margins, and even I can name at least four conflicts where A did B wrong, and now A won't go or isn't welcome where B is. I don't want to deal with navigating that minefield.

I've thought many times about sponsoring what I believe the local dance community is lacking, and I've always backed away, discouraged by the responses I've gotten from exploratory conversations. Many don't think there is a market for "people who care about those things." Others worry that another player in the game will cut into their own financially struggling endeavors. I want to believe that restarting real dancing and real music in an area is doable, because once people saw what they were missing, they would care more. I'd like to contribute to preserving something that is in danger of being lost. But I also don't want to commit to much without some assurance that I could get enough local support to not leave me half-ostracized, insane, poor, and heartbroken.

I'm not trying to be glib or look for excuses. This is the frustration I have with Najia's article. I feel like I'm going over the falls in a barrel and there's no emergency brake to pull. Realistically, what can somebody whose local reputation is of the "I've seen her at workshops but I don't know her name" variety do to turn things around, when the dancers who have more experience and prestige try and give up after they get burned? How do you turn isolated teachers jousting at windmills into concrete progress as a community?