Thread: It's dark and scary up there...so how do you...

cope with the difference between happy humus eating patrons who just love to see you dance, and the high temp pressure cooker of the "big stage". Dancing for people sitting 2 feet away from you has it's own problems and I have become not only used to it..but to me, it's the very soul of MEd. When you take it from "family entertainment" to the high art that people have paid a sheckle or two to see - what do you different - and how do you approach it?

It's hard. For me the hardest part is making that connection with people when I can't really see them.

Last time I imagined that I could see the people I wanted to make contact with, my significant other, friends in the audience, etc. people stated that they felt that I was looking directly at them.

Interesting...do you organize your thoughts differently and move about a stage with any more forethought than a small, intimate space?

Originally Posted by anala

Interesting...do you organize your thoughts differently and move about a stage with any more forethought than a small, intimate space?

yes, but more because in a more intimate setting, I'm usually dodging waiters, incoming folk and stray children

What my first teacher taught (and what helps me) is to imagine shapes on the floor and go for it, where is the audience and make sure you give equal time to everyone.

Examples would be figure 8's on the floor (traveling to cover the shape) circles, squares, triangles, this way you have focus on what you're covering and aren't wandering aimlessly.

And lot's of people face their dominant side more, for example, if right hipped, they face the right side and move more towards that side of the stage, when there is a whole bunch of audience being left out on the left!

Resist the temptation to look down towards the front row, you cut out everyone else in the audience as well, try to focus on the back row, as best you can and imagine that your loved ones, or admirers are in that row, that helps to project over a larger area as well.

if I think of more, I'll post, hope this is helpful!

Yes..it is. I think the jump from dancing in front of the desert cart to an actual stage can be very intimidating for lots of people. I do have 3 DVDs devoted to the subject...Amaya, Katia and Michele Joyce . All very helpful in very different ways. But sometimes you can pick someones brain and have an actual dialog that can trigger something that was not covered before or just plain didnt sink in. For instance the part on Michele's vid about simplicity...very interesting that concept is...I just noticed - I type like Yoda talks

oh, it's way more scary! And I think even more so because you're dancing for dancers, more often than not when it's on a stage.

The biggest non-dancer show that I did was with a troupe, for over 1,000 people, and it wasn't even 20% as scary as dancing for 20 dancers.

It's so much more intimidating to dance for people who actually know what good technique is, as well as nit pick your costumes apart :-)

Costumes..pick away..I got me some impecable taste, I buy from Bhuzers!! Technique yes. After 6 years I cant get away with that..but wow..she's just a baby dancer - and isnt she cute at her age (old) stuff anymore. The heat is on!

A lot of people feel like you do about the stage - I think it really helps to regard it as your friend. I started out on the stage, then later danced in a restaurant (the wrong way around I know!) - so have always felt at home there. I do love restaurant dancing, however, the stage is great because ...

Firstly, people are sitting there to watch, no-one is going to have their back to you or talking to a friend a few rows behind, or more interested in opening the wine. Just before you go on, no waiter is going to say "can you hang on a minute, I'm just taking a big order out to table 7". Second, the floor should be clean, no unidentified squishy stuff in between the toes. There are no tables in the way, so you can work your way around the stage totally filling up the space. I admit the stage lights take some getting used to, however they are nice and warm, and you won't be chilly out there. There's also a dressing room (no changing in the public loo, or broom cupboard), and maybe even someone to help you into your costume.

Plus - there's your adoring public when you come off stage, asking you to sign autographs, your bodyguard, your limo to whisk you away to the champagne after part (OK - I've gone into fantasy land now, but a girl can dream !!!)

I refer to the dark chasm between the audience and myself on the big stage as the crocodile filled moat. It *is* quite intimidating, because it seems like they could be on planet Neptune, they're so far away. I just try to pretend, like Kina, that I can see friends and family in the audience (and hot male celebrities, thanks to a tip from Kimhari).

And I'm ITA that dancing for dancers is waaaaaaay more nerve wracking than for the GP.

Originally Posted by anala

Interesting...do you organize your thoughts differently and move about a stage with any more forethought than a small, intimate space?

YESSS!!!!! (well, sometimes I just get up there & wing it, but then I usually kinda suck)

When you have a big space to fill, you have to FILL IT and USE IT. When your audience is further away, you have to project to them. In a falafel hut, there's never any negative space around you, but onstage there always is, and that negative (empty) space becomes a part of your dance.

There's a totally different energy to your entrance, for instance, if you travel across the front of the stage sending your energy all the way to the back of the room (look at the 'exit' signs) and greeting your audience vs. staying near the back of the stage and keeping your energy drawn in. Which type of entrance you use will profoundly affect the energy of the moment when you take center stage and 'claim' it by doing hip drops or whatever there.

There's also a different energy to moving around the stage in a circle, facing in the direction you're traveling, than there is in 'charging' the audience by moving toward them from the back of the stage to the front.

If you don't plan your movements, you won't be in the right spot to create the effects you want. When do you want to be center stage? At what points in the music do you want to be creating intimacy by playing to different 'clusters' of the audience from different spots along the front of the stage? When during the music do you want to create excitement with lots of spinning or traveling? When do you want to be at the center front, center back, or center center of the stage? All are used for different effects.

Also, on stage you have to work much harder to extend, to fill the space with your body and your movements. And of course, tiny isolations are much less effective and bigger movements are called for.

Great stuff Lauren, any thoughts on how some..take Aziza...manages to make those tiny moves look so clear in a big space....

Hmm.. what Aziza emphasizes in workshops is drilling a lot on range of movement and timing the isolations to be exactly 'on' the music accents.

Keeping isolations clean and juicy, not doing too much at the same time and choosing a pose that shows off the movements also help to keep them from disappearing on stage.

I've only done stage and hafla. Danced as a present and surprise at a restaurant and did love the intimacy.
Fourtunately the theatres are mostly small and some with a stepped raised seating so there still is a feel of closeness. BUT I always have a peek out there to size 'em up. There's still (hopefully warm) human beings out there you need to touch.
One bit of advice from a student of mine who saw me in our troupe and said she and her family were not just being "biased" but they liked us because we had BIG moves they could see and identify. You HAVE to give it some extra wellie ( as we say) and you have to fill that stage.

How funny - I'd take a stage show over a restaurant atmosphere any day.

Isnt that odd...many of the pro's that I have spoken to over the last 6 years prefer the stage. And I can see why...it gives you a much greater opportunity to create something fabulous in space, and they like the "moat" around them emotionally. Perhaps as a dancer becomes well known, the neediness of the GP becomes too demanding and you just need that reserved space for you own emotional well being. I like the instant gratification of upclose and personal at this stage of my life, but want to get as well rounded as I can be in the time I have left...talk about your biological clock!!!

Originally Posted by anala

cope with the difference between happy humus eating patrons who just love to see you dance, and the high temp pressure cooker of the "big stage". Dancing for people sitting 2 feet away from you has it's own problems and I have become not only used to it..but to me, it's the very soul of MEd. When you take it from "family entertainment" to the high art that people have paid a sheckle or two to see - what do you different - and how do you approach it?

I take from the postings that you're referring to the 'stage' as being the literal sense rather than meaning dancing in a restaurant versus dancing in a theatre? So, you mean that it can still be a haflah, but your dancing up on a stage rather than down on the floor?

hmmm..Hafla in my cave infested part of the world is generally a rather disorganized dance party that is free to dancers, students and their friends and family. A pot luck social with dancing, if you will. As opposed to a stage production with bright lights and a paying audience that just sits there.

I, too, prefer stage. but that is probably because I trained as a ballerina and in theatre.

I tend to try to aim my energy at the second row of the balcony, so to speak. but it lso means that movements need to be a little bit slower and more well defined then in restaurants. becauese in restaurants, there are other things going on. And you may have to change directions very, very quickly.

{{{HUGS}}}}

It's how you control your energy. Up close and personal, you don't have to fling it as far and wide. You can connect instantaneously. On a stage, you really have to rely on form and staging to whip up that energy to fill the entire space...or spotlight it in to a tiny circle.

I feel I can connect better with people onstage. It might be I'm compensating for my size, but on the same level as audience, as in a restaurant, I'm miniscule. On stage, I'd have to say I'm pretty huge. And I actually can still see people to connect with them, even if it's a large space.
You can use repetition, speed, and clever staging to make your small, intricate moves appear larger than life.

Experience on a large stage is also helpful in just feeling more comfortable. The more you do, the less scary it is.

That's not to say I still feel like throwing up before going on stage at times, but eventually I relax. ;0)

Originally Posted by anala

hmmm..Hafla in my cave infested part of the world is generally a rather disorganized dance party that is free to dancers, students and their friends and family. A pot luck social with dancing, if you will. As opposed to a stage production with bright lights and a paying audience that just sits there.

Well, there's been plenty of haflahs with a stage to dance on. OK, you mean theatre. Just clarifying things.

I'm a stage person lol
Even if its in a restaurant, or a club (and ofcourse theatre) I dont mind people eating and drinking, but I believe that its respect in the art that we are in to have a minimum stage for people to see us.
I understand very much and i'm ok with all the other cases its just not me.
The first thing when we dance in a stage (solo i mean) is to be organized.
Not necessery have a choreography but to have a plan.
I call it "geometry of the stage" plan your steps around, and pay attention to every place of the stage.
After give various different "poses" (lack of other word) to the audience to see various parts of the dancer.
Use total different teqnicks and energies (according to the music ofcourse) makes it more interesting.
Also for me, the length of the song is important, i believe that a song up to 5-6 min is enought for a stage (unless for a very talented dancer that can keep the audience breathless) so for me up to this time.

Maria Aya ..g.:

Hi Anala,
Great question and lots of good advice here - you really have to give some thought to stagecraft. Another thing, is, don't underestimate the need for simple physical strength - to really articulate your moves to the back row, to accomplish the travelling required to fill the stage, etc. As Fifi would say - dance strong! You might get a performace video of a dancer you like and dance along with her for practice.
Christine

Originally Posted by CFerhat

You might get a performace video of a dancer you like and dance along with her for practice.
Christine

This is a great advice, and for me its mostly the way I work (with Fifi ofcourse lol)

..g.:

When I go to the local "Falafel Hut" ;-) I drag along a whole car load of stuff...lights, a rug...my sound system....as much of the "stage" - or as Amaya likes to call it...the sacred dance space ... as I can. I have danced for people of Middle Eastern origin and they have actually stopped talkingr and watched...with smiles on their faces, even....and they always comment on the apparent joy in my attitude..and that they like that and have asked me after a slow soulful Oum piece if I know the lyrics? (I do) so there is something going right - when I feel comfy. Have any of you ever rented an empty stage? Just to get over it and work on filling it up and maping your thoughts? Somehow my teaching studio with all the mirrors and the bright lights just cant give me the same vibe...

One more thing...the next stage song will be Gnossienne by Claude Chaloube. Is there a way of filling up the stage while you stand pretty much on the spot? This is a 4 minute viola taxim. It goes over big at the Falafel Hut but they are right - by god - there. If I stand there and over emote...I am gonna end up looking like a bad silent movie!!!

I just love them both but for very different reasons. I love the intimacy of a restaurant experience, and I love the energy and projection of theater experience. Two very different things. So your head space has to be different in each setting.

Anala - You can either move during a taxim (I have a great Youtube which i have posted way too many times here) or you can have the lighting tech - if there is one - hang a spot just for you! And that is where you dance!

{{{HUGS}}}

Originally Posted by anala

One more thing...the next stage song will be Gnossienne by Claude Chaloube. Is there a way of filling up the stage while you stand pretty much on the spot? This is a 4 minute viola taxim. It goes over big at the Falafel Hut but they are right - by god - there. If I stand there and over emote...I am gonna end up looking like a bad silent movie!!!

4 min. is probably the max for something like that, I'm guessing. I don't know the piece, but is it four minutes of unaccompanied solo viola? You need a plan for dramatic entrance, dramatic moves for the "high point" of the piece, maybe look for places that you can move or do turns or something. And a dramatic ending.

You gotta be dramatic, is what I'm sayin.' Yes, you fill up the stage with your soul, your essence, your emotion, your energy. You project it. You hold a mental image, think of what you want to say with your dancing, or create an intention for the piece.

Personally, I don't know if I am dramatic enough to do a piece like that, but I can see the possibilities in it.

Is there a lighting rehearsal? Maybe you can work with the lighting, too. Do you want to be in a spotlight the whole time, or can they follow you with the spot? Anyway, check out the options there.

Great ideas...thats the thing about being a newbie stage hog..I never gave the lighting a thought. Drama..we got lots. I comin' back as a gay guy next life - just so I can be a real drag queen. Please Tahira..post it again...just for me...right here...no one will know except me and you....

You're so funny!

[ame=http://youtube.com/watch?v=QlDG8nUmZMY]YouTube - Raqs Britannia 2007 tahira of Los Angeles[/ame]

{{{HUGS}}}