Michelle Joyce - Secrets of the Stage volume 1 - my thoughts

[aziyade]

part one

Ooooh girls, you’re going to love this one!

So you’re an intermediate or advanced level dancer who doesn’t have a lot of performance experience. You’ve got “the moves” -- but you’re thinking, “now what?”

Michelle Joyce’s new dvd series “Secrets of the Stage” is made for you, the dancer who is having trouble putting all you’ve learned together into one nice performance package. There’s something here for everyone: if you’re a choreographed dancer, there’s a section of improvisation drills. If you’re a technically proficient dancer but aren’t sure about your choreographic skills, there is ample discussion on making your dance interesting. If your on-stage energy isn’t what it should be, you’ll find expert advice from dancers who once suffered from the same problems. Practically paralyzed by stage fright? That’s covered here too, along with many other common performance problems.

I think I can say with confidence that this dvd is the first to actually offer individual analysis of entire dances – by the dancers themselves! Watching this dvd is like being backstage or in the green room of a major dance event. You’ll hear advice, suggestions, tips, tricks, and horror stories from professional dancers, all the while seeing performance concepts illustrated right there on the screen.

This dvd, volume 1 in the set, is arranged in three major sections for analysis: Calmness and Simplicity, You and Your Music, and Focus and Energy Projection. In between and after these sections are Practice Exercises to help get you started incorporating these concepts into your own dancing.

“Calmness” begins with an unusual approach – by showing you dance performances that didn’t go quite as planned. The dancers highlighted in this section discuss salvaging their performances from wardrobe and prop malfunctions, and give advice on how to keep calm and still enjoy yourself when things don’t go the way they did in practice.

After this section is a chapter on “Fight or Flight” which includes exercises and ideas to help you relax backstage and to help manage nervousness. The breathing techniques and short exercises demonstrated here are what the pros use to prevent backstage “freakout” before competitions and shows.

“Simplicity” is the next chapter and the discussion and performance analysis here centers around avoiding “overdancing” and that common phenomenon of throwing everything you know into the first 30 seconds of the song. There is so much good advice in this chapter I had to watch it several times to absorb it all.

[aziyade]

“You and Your Music” is a chapter discussing choreography and improvisation. Many of us suffer from not fully embracing our music, and not really making it OURS. The helpful hints and advice here will allow you to look at your music in a new way, and pull more from your music than just the melody and the beat.
“Focus and Energy Projection” tackles subjects such as how to avoid the plastered-on smile, making a connection with your audience, and taking your audience on a musical journey with you. This section is followed by a series of calming exercises that involve breathing, visualization, and progressive relaxation. These exercises would be very nice to do before a performance, to center and ground yourself, or even after a stressful day at the office.

After you’ve relaxed, you can move to the next section of exercises. First is a chair dance exercise to help you learn and practice emotional expression in the upper body. We tend to get locked in to thinking this dance is all about the hips, and the upper body is often neglected, so this exercise brings your attention back up the upper body and torso.

Next is a long section of 7 different improvisation exercises. These exercises are harder than they look! You’re given a short clip of music, which is repeated 4 times, and you’re told to find 4 different ways to dance to it. After the exercise you can see what the professional dancers did to that same music. This exercise really makes you think!

The last exercise is the really brilliant “Focus” exercise, which helps you to evaluate and practice where your attention is focused when you dance. This exercise helps to make the dance more of internal process, and aids in helping you truly connect with your audience on an emotional level.

Camerawork, lighting, and sound are excellent and are comparable to Michelle’s other dvds/ Distractions are eliminated by having the screen go black for the improv and relaxation exercises. When Michelle is narrating, her voice is calming yet still full of energy, and soft piano music accompanies the relaxation exercises.

This dvd runs about 80 minutes, but you can’t just expect to watch it once and completely absorb the material in 80 minutes. There is a lot of information and inspiration packed in those minutes and it will take more than a few viewings to unlock all of what’s here.

(I have to admit, I hadn’t seen the performance by a dancer named Shoshonna, and she does this magnificent veil piece that just absolutely blew me away! I had to rewind her section twice because I kept getting distracted by her dancing and wasn’t hearing her discussion and analysis!)

[aziyade]

My impression of the dvd is that it seems like a conversation between friends, discussing various facets of belly dance, but the discussion is very intellectual and thoughtful. I love the fact that the dancers comment on their own performances. I love the fact that so many dancers are involved (I forgot to count – I think it’s at least 6 or 7). The analysis and commentary are presented very professionally and eloquently, and completely without giggly inside jokes or a lot of “uhs” and hemming and hawing.

I think one of the unrealized benefits of having this dvd in your collection will be how motivating it is, and how inspiring it is. Have you had a bad practice? Play the dvd and learn to grow from it. Not feeling in the mood to practice? Pop in the dvd. I guarantee you’ll be dancing along with it before too long. Feeling like you’re ready just to give up and quit altogether, burning your bedlah and crying into your ouzo? Why not instead give the dvd a watch. It’s the best dance pick-me-up I’ve seen in ages – for a seasoned pro OR the dancer preparing for her first hafla.

I think the dvd hits the stands on the 15th, and you know you’ll want to be the first on the block to get it. Don’t wait around for it to show up second-hand on ebay, because I seriously doubt anyone will want to part with it once they’ve seen it. Priced extremely reasonably for the content it contains, this dvd is a winner all around.

(By the way, I don’t work with Michelle; don’t know her outside the internet community; don’t own stock in Cheeky Girls Productions or any of that. She sent me an advance copy to review for Amazon, and I thought I’d go ahead and post the review here.)

☺ Amanda

[lotus]

awwww......shucks, ma'am.


I have an advance copy as well. As a dancer, I hope my part has some usefulness. all I know is that Michelle descended upon my home, wielding a camera and demanding coffee with sugar -- like a commentary ninja.

We recorded soooo much talking. I think she did an excellent job picking out the main points. ...Even though I was toying with her at first and saying 'the key to a good performance is getting very drunk backstage'

I was also really pleasantly surprised by the workings of the dancers' minds. Everyone on the DVD is an acqauintance or friend of mine, and I have had many conversations about dance with them. But I still got to hear some things that made me go "huh!" or "I never knew that's what she was thinking"

One of the dancers I kept rewinding was Sandra. I liked her commonsense descriptions of the process she has when making her pieces, and I liked when she talked about how certain approaches are better for certain mediums. Michelle made some rather interesting, candid remarks as well.

[laura 2]

I know what Santa's bringing me for Christmas! This sounds wonderful!

[danielabellydance]

I just sent this link to all my students. Thank you!!

[Lauren_]

Originally Posted by laura 2

I know what Santa's bringing me for Christmas! This sounds wonderful!

Me, too! I want the Pop, Lock & Shimmy one too.

[rakkasah_barbara]

Does anybody know if the dvd will work on a European (Dutch) dvd-pleayer as well?

B

[Asra*]

First thing after Xmas, this baby is mine! I'm very excited about it!

[michellejoyce]

Originally Posted by rakkasah_barbara

Does anybody know if the dvd will work on a European (Dutch) dvd-pleayer as well?

B

Yes, it will. It should work worldwide... I have not had anyone ever say one of my DVDs doesn't work in their country, but just in case that did happen, I would give a full refund.

[rakkasah_barbara]

Great! I'm also a cheeky girls tribe member so how much should I paypal you for the dvd coming to Amsterdam, The Netherlands?

B

Originally Posted by michellejoyce

Yes, it will. It should work worldwide... I have not had anyone ever say one of my DVDs doesn't work in their country, but just in case that did happen, I would give a full refund.

[VFlower]

I guess i'll have to start seling old DVDs to make room for some new stuff...lol....I want to get have one.

[zorba]

I purchased this DVD at Carnival of Stars - and I too think its excellent. Look for a full mini-review on my site shortly.

It dovetails well with what my own instructor is teaching us - and it does a good job of teaching the (almost) unteachable.

I'm hoping that a future vol. 2 will flesh out the subject by including mechanical stagecraft - how to use the stage, be it large or small, the "sweet spot" and all that other stuff I was clueless about the first time I danced on a large stage!

Good job Michelle!

[lizajuk]

I like what I've managed to watch so...good idea... to make that...Batwoman!