Eagerly Awaited — Sera Solstice
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Two amazing looking DVDs coming soon from Sera Solstice and the Solstice Ensemble.
::more than somewhat::
Belly dance, fitness, and a bit of whatever.
Irina Akulenko: Bellydance Tribal Fusion Workout
Irina Akulenko is one of the softest and most graceful tribal fusion dancers I’ve seen on video. Soft, because her moves are feminine and pretty rather than the hard and sometimes robotic moves that are used in tribal fusion. Graceful because she’s beautiful to begin with and her ballet training gives her fantastic form. She has a very wide range of movement. She uses a lot of arm work – again, the pretty kind rather than the serpentine — and she’s expressive. Irina’s dancing is also simpler rather than being gimmicky – and that’s a total breath of fresh air. When I saw the preview for the Bellydance Tribal Fusion Workout DVD, I couldn’t wait for it be available. Somehow the moves she was using looked more accessible to a tribal fusion beginner. And while I may have done a bit of tribal fusion drilling, I haven’t done so well with combinations or gone through an entire TF choreography. Well, except Arabian Spices. Irina’s performance on her new DVD particularly won me over.Mossy, young composer of the song used for Irina’s choreography, was quite blown away when he saw her performance. Not only was he amazed at her dancing, he thought she really danced his song, Retrying, as he felt it. That’s a great compliment to a dancer, wouldn’t you say? Well, finally I do have my copy of Tribal Fusion Workout. I’ve only worked with it a little yet, so this is a “first look”.
A different format Although many of the essentials such as tutorial of basics, warm up, cooldown, practice with and without music and cues, performance etc are in the familiar format seen on other World Dance videos, the main workout on this video follows a different arrangement.
Everything fits into three big chunks – upper body, lower body, total body. These three sections each comprise one meaty combination of four smaller mini combinations. Irina begins by teaching one mini combination. For example, that could be a maya layered on some footwork and paired with a level change and takseem figure eight. This is explained and drilled a few times. She then moves on and adds another mini combination and drills that. And then she is joined by two other dancers and all three of them take it from the top. After this, we switch back to Irina on her own for the next two mini combinations, and again the three of them take it from the top. After four mini combos, the full or mega combination is over. So that’s the instruction pattern followed for each of the three segments: Learn mini 1, add mini 2, dance both. Add mini 3, add mini 4, dance whole combo. This is different from most other formats where you learn the moves in detail with no music and then practice a couple of times with music. I have to admit I found myself getting a little confused at first. For anyone buying this video, I’d suggesting watching first to get familiar with the format.
Combinations
I really like the combinations Irina uses. As I said before, there are no gimmicks. And yet, these are challenging combinations because there’s some layering right from the start. I’ve always been thoroughly challenged with multi tasking in belly dance and so I didn’t find I could just barge in and “do” the workout.
To give you an example of one bit of simple layering: you set up sharp side to side hips in a right left right right, left right left left pattern. And then you layer a set of arm movements over this pattern. Wrists in, wrists out, sweep up, sweep down, palms down…etc. Total beginners, have fun, because I know for sure I couldn’t have done this a few years ago. However, if you’re dancerly or have been dancing anyway and are just starting out with tribal fusion in particular, it should be just fine. The combinations use a rich variety of movements, from mayas and undulations to piston hips to shimmies. There’s plenty of footwork, level change (which you can modify) and arm work.
Beautiful arm work
In this program, you don’t get to keep your arms still in table top or relaxed at your sides. Arm moves are very much a part of the combinations throughout. While I wouldn’t call these overly busy arms, I would say there’s constant arm movement – and that’s a good thing, even if it is challenging. The style is not Rachelesque. You don’t resort to snake arms all through. Instead, you’ll find you have to move the arms in large sweeps and presses and include a lot of wrist work. This is what makes the plainest most basic move very expressive. I would liken it to Sera’s East Coast DVDs, perhaps, which also involves something beyond extreme snake arms.
Drills, workout or dance?
Now, here’s where my opinion may differ from ohers. I don’t find this a sweaty workout. Perhaps if you don’t budge at all, but I’m comparing with actual fitness workouts, and I would not say that someone should buy this video to lose weight or sweat off the inches. Certainly, you get some toning, but that’s true of all dance programs. It’s only a workout if you use the term loosely. Is it a set of drills? Not in the very repetitive sense. If you think of drills as something you’d find on Asharah, Ariellah, Sadie, or Michelle’s videos, then this is not the same format. You have some repetitions, but not as much as you might want for drills. That said, from what I know of World Dance’s approach to drills, they like to redefine them to have more variety and changes so that they’re more fun to do. Speaking for myself, I like long repetitive drills, for some reason. When they are a few repetitions only, I think of them as combinations being practiced. Oh well, a matter of semantic preferences, perhaps. Is it a dance? Definitely. And it cannot be otherwise. These are combos that can be considered standard to tribal fusion and you can very easily use them in your own improvisation and combinations.
Who is it for?
While it’s easy enough to say it’s for everyone, I’d say total beginners should not make this one of their first few purchases unless they’re particularly keen on tribal fusion. For workouts, drills and basics, there are other options, including from WDNY. But if there’s a particular attraction towards tribal fusion – as was the case with me – don’t miss out on this. For advanced beginners who haven’t done any tribal fusion dancing but would like a touch of it, this is a good option as it doesn’t get into hardcore tribal. For advanced beginners who want to expand their tribal fusion repertoire, this is a good one. For more advanced dancers, I wouldn’t presume to speak, but I’d say they could use it for a refresher and teaching ideas. Or just to plain enjoy nice combinations with a graceful dancer. Overall, this is a pretty and enjoyable package. Not spectacular, but very nice and more to play with for tribal fusion enthusiasts.
Kytheria
Kytheria, another name for Aphrodite, is a fitting name for Drumspyder’s elegant new album of slinky, sensual music. 
San Fransisco-based Drumspyder, whom I interviewed earlier, composes unique percussive music that blends so many genres and regional influences. In that sense, it’s “world music”. But you could also classify it as dub or downtempo. Or maybe it would be best not to classify it at all. You can hear jazz, rock, folk and other genres right through.
On the Kytheria album, there are.fourteen wonderfully rich tracks of listening. Interestingly, each track is quite distinct in its style — and yet very Drumspyder. As with the previous albums, this is great stuff for tribal fusion dancers, but it’s just plain great listening as well. My favorite is the first track, The Nocturnal Stealth of Cats, which has what seems to my ear, distinctly Indian influences. Though it could be Middle East as well. Another lovely track is Return of the Dark, sensual and yet fast paced and somewhat trance like. Turning is also a trance-like track and one which would be quite nice for whirling, in my opinion. Ah, all the tracks are really nice. I normally can’t handle how artists just insert Western instruments into music from the Orient, but Drumspyder has managed to mix them seamlessly and naturally so that they just fit and can’t be any other way.
For those interest, Kytheria is published by Dakini Records.
Eagerly awaited
This looks really good and I’ve been looking for something to remind me what turns used to be like. I had a tough time with them in jazz class so I’m hoping this will reset turns for me. Only problem is the release date is so far away… I certainly hope there are slow and easy drills!
Eagerly awaited — Tribal Fusion Workout with Irina
I completely love the look of this one! To me, it seems to fit somewhere near when East Coast Tribal I came out. Straightforward but lovely combinations. I love Irina’s style too.
Funny bird dancing to that Egyptian shaabi stuff
Thanks to Rania Bosonis for discovering and sharing this mad birdie.
Oh my god, that bird is not a one off. Thank you, Dina
And this is the ultimate. Having a wonderful time, shakin it to Britney Spears, singing along… oh my god
Irresistibly funny
And this dog is doing the best he can!
Dark Fusion Bellydance – new DVD alert
Thank you, Dina, for this alert. This looks quite fun!
The “L” and “S” Pose
By the time I finish experimenting with new workouts for the day, you can well understand that there’s no energy left for belly dancing. Well, today I decided to give the dancing first priority before I go and forget all the nice juicy moves altogether. I was seriously worried that with all the taut stretched out ballet moves and precision pilates, I’d get belly dance rigor mortis!
So I went back to Asharah’s warm up and did a few segments of that. And then a round of Bellydance Rhythms which has become a sort of fall back for me. And then… I decided I’d work with Sarah’s lovely Opulent Motion.
Now what I did absolutely not want to do is make a linear project of it. I really don’t want to start from the beginning and then inevitably keep losing track of it and scolding myself for neglecting it and adding another half-done project to my list. I also wanted whatever I learn from this video to be immediately “actionable”. I think I’m getting too corporatized. That should be danceable.
So I clicked anywhere to choose something and it turned out to be her breakdown of the L and S pose combination.
As it happens, I think this is a nice way to start working with the video for those of us who’ve been dancing for a while. There’s no move there that you don’t know how to do, it’s not layered with any jaw droppers that you’ll have to go back to the isolations for, and it’s got no rhythm counts to worry about. It’s just a set of beautiful poses, flowing into one another, usable for rhythmless taqsim.
I learnt the sequence in about one watch. And then I pulled out some taqsim music and for the next half an hour, went through this little sequence again and again. I stopped now and again to check some details on the video.
This was a lovely experience because trying it out immediately made me aware of all the details I had to get right. Was the inside arm or the outward one (facing the audience) that was to reach out? Was it the same arm that was high up in the L pose that later went into the “Liberty” pose? (Nope). Where was she looking, at each point? How do you get in and then out of this sequence?
I played around with this one sequence for a nice long while, finding the music that I thought went well with it, and slowly I managed to add a few moves to the beginning and end to make it fit the whole little taqsim piece I had found. It needs some polishing, but I do plan to write it out and put it away as a tiny choreographed chunk, just for practice. I also tried the same sequence with chiftetelli and loved the result.
Over the years, I’ve used this peculiar method of getting obsessed with one combo for the day as a way to really learn moves and file them right into my dance memory. When I look back, I find that the moves I know best are the ones I allowed myself to spend some hours on, doing them at random while going about other things, visualizing them, adding to them etc. I can think of many in that category including Sadie’s first long chifti combo on Slow and Sultry. I can’t forget it if I tried. I really recommend the choreography-challenged learners I know give this method a try. So many of you tell me you just never manage to get a whole choreography done or even a set of combos finished up. Hours and hours of muscle drills = but no free flowing dancing with the combinations you’ve got on videos. Well, try this out and see if it works for you too!
Fluid Tribal Bellydance with Fayzah
Well, this intresting looking DVD is due for release soon. From the preview, it looks pretty much like it takes World Dance’s tribal fusion line several notches further into advanced territory. Moving on from isolation drills, which we’ve seen in all the previous DVDs so far, this one gets into styling and interesting techniques like contrasing fluid with percussive moves. And there’s a whole choreograhy here too! Yes, it’s definitely time for full-fledged choreographies.
Tips for the exercise semi-motivated
One of the toughest things with exercising enough for it to make a difference is “routine-izing” it. So here’s a what one could try out. Assuming, of course, that you are a) clued in on what exercise to do and b) have the equipment you need and c) have the place to exercise in. I’m also assuming that will be at home.
I strongly recommend using one of many excellent exercise videos available spanning cardio, aerobics, dance, pilates, yoga, weights, fitness ball, kickboxing – and just about everything else, really.
First, just spend some time figuring out when and where you’ll exercise. And for how long. Now, each day when that time arrives, get your exercise stuff together and be in the place you plan to exercise in. Don’t plan on actually doing any exercise yet. This is so you don’t start out on an over-ambitious burst of exercise which is guaranteed to fail – and then feel horribly guilty about it all. Just get your stuff together and look at getting any obstacles to eventually exercising out of the way.
I have a dance room so the place part is quite decided for me. Time, often remains a troublesome parameter. Even though I have a place totally set aisde for ecercise, a few things do get in the way. One of them is the number of things I have to take there. Water, knee and ankle supports, phones, laptop, external hard disk, exercise clothes. It isn’t surprising to think about forgetting the whole thing and watching TV instead! So, I’ve started leaving some things in the dance room. Or, putting them there a good while before the exercise time. Basically, I try to separate the nuisance of carrying everything there from the exercise session itself.
The next step would be to get to the place on time and just watch the exercise DVD. Do nothing else. It helps tremendously to watch really carefully before you start the moves because when do finally do begin, you don’t have to keep stopping to check. If you’re not using a video, look at how the exercises are done on the internet or use a book.
Then, move up to doing a few moves. Don’t tire yourself out on any account. Just play with a few moves, practice the precision. Get them picture-perfect. If you have a mirror, check them out real carefully for form. Just a handful of exercises. Done slowly. Even if it’s cardio, focus on how the move travels doing it really slowly so that the form is perfect.Focus a lot on the foundation safety moves and breathing. For example, in Pilates that would be imprinting, holding the powerhouse in and the breathing format. For yoga, you might want to also practice breathing in the yoga method because every asana is empowered with the correct breathing sequence.
Now go on to learning the moves full time. Take your time doing this. Proceed segment by segment. Take one bunch of moves, and make sure you learn them well and actually do them for a round or two. So, if you have a 40 minute workout divided into 4 (as is usual), do just 10 minutes.
Add the next 10 minutes and the next, until you’re doing the whole workout. By this time, it won’t hurt and it won’t be a nuisance because you do the exercises in auto pilot.