My bestest friend in the world, who knows exactly what I like, got me a bottle of Dooley’s toffee liqueur. Oh my god. It is lovely! Silky and milky — the only way I’d ever accept milk. It’s very much like Baileys except that the taste of toffee rolls over your tongue. It’s got a bite, which comes from the vodka in it. I headed straight over to the Dooley website to look up cocktails that use this lovely liqueur and found many recipes. But I’m afraid I might just finish off the bottle before I can make the first cocktail!

Videos on ExpertVillage are a little slow, so you can see the titles there but watch on youtube. Or use RealPlayer or “keepvid” or anything else to download it and use it to make up a stomach routine after your daily warm up.

Blanca’s visit here is nearly over.  I miss her already. She so turns out to be what I imagined. Fun to be with, beautiful, spontaneous and wholehearted in her enjoyment of things, sensitive, sweet - and a powerful dancer even when not doing a whole performance. Even when she’s showing me a move or two, she acquires a presence that’s hard to describe. I can just say that it goes beyond the everyday person.

During her visit here, we’ve managed to squeeze in a few classes. First thing I can’t get over is her total endorsement of the work I’ve been putting in these past few years. I’ve never really sought an opinion from anyone who knows (except for one little clip of me doing a camel) and I haven’t put up any videos. I kind of don’t like them. So I haven’t really known for sure whether my basics are sound or full of bad dance habits, whether my learning of choreographies has any substance or is it just loosely following the moves, and whether I have any grace at all. Incredibly, she says she’s fairly impressed and that the hard work I’ve been doing shows. I can’t say just how good that feels!

We started by my showing her two choreographies. Jillina’s drum solo. She watched it through and then helped make some corrections. For instance, I am lowering my heel a bit when I do a big hip drop. She said to keep it up for better isolation. There are some points in that choreography that I don’t do well but that is just a sheer matter of drilling - I haven’t worked on it yet. For instance, there’s layering stomach pops on a hip shimmy. Sorry. I just haven’t worked on it.

I also danced Blanca’s own choreography for her. She liked it very much and said it sat very well on me. She thinks I should make a video clip of it.

Blanca feels that teaching is totally the best way to learn so she felt she should give me classes on how to teach. But I kept wanting to learn more chiftitelli moves instead. J I’m not sure I’ll be teaching much because you need a lot of time that a hobbyist like me may not have. Getting a studio, organizing material, keeping classes up all the time - I don’t think I’m up to it. I’d have to give up my job!

So we ended up doing some chifttelli combinations. We followed a nice format of me starting something - which means it’s a move coming to me naturally - and then she would add to it and make it a little combination. That’s what I wanted - lots of little combinations to play with. I do like to have an occasional shot at improvising to chiftitelli, so I was grateful to her for showing me how to work out combinations.

We also did a bit of the material from her drum solo workshop. We haven’t taken pictures dancing… but should.

This was so much fun. I’m also thrilled that I now own some of the hip scarves from the DVDs… because in addition to everything else, Blanca is so generous.

Hooping looks so much fun and so liberating! Christabel says 80 year old women have been able to do it. Oh well. So anyway, I got myself two hoops and tried it out. I couldn’t keep the thing up for even a second. Christabel has actually come out with a hoopdance video, which I have, so I wanted to see if I too could burn a ton of calories with her workout. The warm up itself is a great workout. But nope, no way could I keep the thing up. I wondered whether to get the hoops made by Hoopgirl but didn’t know whether to spend money on it and then find I was one of those people who would never ever get it.

A few days ago though, a friend of mine got me a Hoopgirl hoop. And hey, they were right! Those are different! The hoop is heavier and bigger and that m akes it easier rather than more difficult. it also has some friction tapes which help to keep the hoop up. That’s cool with me. I tried it out and it’s beginning to stay up longer. I whack myself on the foot or arm every so often because it falls, but it’s beginning to happen. Christabel says it took her two weeks to start hooping. So I’m hooping it’ll happen for me too…

Even as someone learning to belly dance, I was never prepared for the level of detail Ava Fleming goes into on this instructional video. Take the posture section, for instance. She spends a whole ten minutes explaining every bit of the posture you should be in. she gives you reasons, shows you errors, and tips you off on safety. This is in a section titled Theory. She also explains diaphragm breathing. I have not seen posture covered more thoroughly on any of the videos I own.

But settle down because you’re going to be doing a lot of listening. This program has a lot of valuable information you won’t find anywhere, but the focus is more on giving you that information on having a blast. So you will be standing still and listening to Ava, and trying movements with her too, but not breaking into dance too much. And I think the focus would definitely be quite lost if the program were to be lightened with dance sessions in the middle.

Now comes a Fundamentals and Basics section in which Ava takes up the isolations we all know and love. But, she breaks them down into three levels each indicating an increasing degree of control. She explains extremely thoroughly. She tells you how the breath helps shapes your advanced torso moves. She takes up how not to dump into your lower spine or hyperextend. She shows you how to keep the shoulders relaxed without bearing down with them to keep them still. Ava takes up upper body slides, lifts and drops, outs and ins, twists, several figure eights including the torso maya, squares and circles, exploring each in three different levels and showing you how to get to the advanced level of each move. She also shows you how to work a move so that it’s only on one side of the torso. She tells you how to use your spine in these moves. Moves which are precise and clear  She shows you how to connect arm movements to the isolations explored and gives you some not-so-typical arm patterns as well. Ava says she has learnt some of these from her second instructor, Sahra Saida.

There’s a drill section next. There’s horrible faint music in the background. But the drills are good. They could have been pattered better, using a better do-along  In this case, she just calls it out as she’s doing it. Still, advanced dancers will know what to do. She adds arm patterns from the start.

Combinations follow next, starting with the corkscrew. These are not separately accessible from the menu. A second combination section, aptly called More Combinations, gives longer combinations. Lots of sinuous twisty torso material here, all of it fairly “juicy”. Slow versions of these are even more mesmerizing. There are arm patters all through. Very useful for taqsim, I should think. She does mix lower and full body moves to these combinationsa, though the focus is the torso.

Phew! Tough challenging stuff, meant for the advancing dancer. Very good content. Don’t tell me I’m becoming an IAMED fan now…?

And oh, there’s a lovely performance.

The most gratifying part of this experience has been the fact that Blanca validated all the hard work I’ve put in for these past fedw years. She didn’t see my isolations and go “no, no, not like that”, she said instead that I have very good range of motion and also that many moves were beautiful. I can’t say how very good this felt because I’ve largely been in the dark about how I’ve been doing all this time. I haven’t danced for anyone who really knows about belly dancing and I haven’t put up any videos for feedback. She is also amazed that all this has come about just by videos alone. So… I really feel I need to thank all the dancers who’ve made such wonderful videos. They’ve got me—and probably many other people—to this point safely, correctly, prettily.

Blanca did have corrections to make to some of my moves and she did point out places where I needed better isolation. The out-and-down vertical side is one of them. The Arabic Hip Walk too isn’t really happening nicely enough. Lots more energy is needed in the arms and hands etc. She gave me some great tips and stuff to work with. I thank her with all my heart.

And way to go, videos!

Frankly, I’m incredulous at how Sadie has managed to come out with a third video (this year) so unique and so packed with powerful content. This time, she pairs up with Kaya, her long time associate, to teach their most popular workshop on disk.  And may I say, first of all, that the teaching is the most amazing part of this video. Here’s how…

We’ve all seen instructors teach along with other dancers on video. Many use a mini classroom format. Others just have another dancer or two doing exactly the same thing the instructor is. But never have I seen two instructors leverage each others’ presence the way Sadie and Kaya have. It’s almost a choreography in itself! Now, they’re teaching very controlled, precise, sharp moves and that, as all learner belly dancers will know, is not easy. But what Sadie and Kaya do is to switch roles constantly, seamlessly, smoothly across the entire video so that one leads the section, while the other demonstrates. But, they don’t just use a I-say-you-do format. You’ll find Sadie showing you the range of motion while Kaya shows you the sharp, locked or popped move, Kaya showing you the front view and Sadie the back view. Or, Kaya executes the move while Sadie points and explains the precise muscle work going into the move - along with the safety tips. There isn’t a moment of hesitation or confusion as they switch from one role or position to another almost every minute. Not a moment of “uh oh, you were to show this part” or ” oh, okay why don’t I show this move”. It’s all a butter-smooth choreography of instruction. More than anything, I find this deeply intelligent and impressive. I cannot say enough about how much it maximizes the instruction quality you get with what is a very difficult subject. There’s bantering, no informality, no wasting time. Every moment is focused. If you ask me, the instruction aspect is definitely award worthy.

But on to the content now. The menu is yummy. There are three pages of delicious stuff to click into. Broadly, the content is divided into upper body isolations, pelvic isolations, horizontal hip isolations, vertical hip isolations, and more vertical hip isolations. Each of these categories has instruction on the range of motion of the move, then pops, locks and shimmies with up to 3 drills.

There’s no warm up on this video, though you’re advised to do one, specially as you’ll be working with sharp moves. Let me describe one section, to give an idea of the feel of the instruction. Kaya leads the first section to show you the range of motion with the upper body isolations; shoulders, rib cage slides, lifts and drops. This is the firs time I’ve heard Kaya say anything and I must say, I do like her. She’s just fine. Even at this stage, explanations are deep and thorough. At the same time they’re not all talk but include getting you to try it along. She tells you where to feel the move in your body and how to make sure the technique is strong. Now that you have hopefully practiced the move and know the muscles and can be somewhat autopilot about it, Sadie comes in next to tell you how to add a lock to the move. She gets you to execute the locks through the upper body moves. Again, she keeps telling you what to look out for and what to feel. This is where they begin to show you different views, different aspects, and demonstrate the move in many ways. When they’re done, we get to the first drill. Sadie takes up different upper body moves in a sequence. It includes movements along all planes and you begin with a smooth range of motion and go on to add locks. Of course, you then go double time. And then you add simple footwork. The footwork is simple only in the sense of not being all over the place and not being the focus. The not so simple is the fact that you’re layering complex upper body moves on the footwork. For example, it’s right-left-up, left-right forward on top of a marching footstep. Kaya comes in with a drill that notches up the difficulty level. Starting with the range of motion, again, you add locks in a combination on top of footwork - in this case, flat-ball-ball-ball. Not easy. But then, you also add arms. Kaya continues into the next section with pops, which she first explains thoroughly. You go through the technique and on to a drill in the same format - combination with footwork. This hardwires layering. Layering is taken up further in the final part of this section. This is where Sadie does things like shoulder shimmies with snake arms. I tried it out for a bit - it can happen.

Sadie and Kaya follow this format through the whole video. Some of the specifi things you’ll see on this video is the pelvic shimmy (which I hate), shimmy with twist, (swiveling shimmy), focus on glutes, focus on obliques, (sometimes together), ¾ ups, ¾ downs and with variations. Nothing here is done plain vanilla. Every move is layered.

Sadie and Kaya finish up with a drum solo performance in their signature style - seen on Belly Dance Live. But this time they’re in leathery costumes that have upset many people. While it looks a little bit startling on the cover of the DVD, it isn’t that bad inside. The performance is full of pops, locks and shimmies, of course, cascading and rippling all over the place.

Tough question to answer: what level is this? In a sense, it’s truly all levels. But whoever takes it up, has to be the serious-about-belly dancing type. All drilling, and specially of precise sharp movements, is going to need work. It can be intimidating for a beginner and altogether too much for someone who wants to dance casually. But given that you’re willing to work at it, I would say that all levels will benefit. A beginner who’s been at the basic isolations for a while could take these drills and work at the first level of difficulty. For example, you can being down the level of difficulty by ignoring the layering on footwork. Notch up to that more slowly. This is what gives this video a long “shelf life”. You can use parts of it anytime in your dance journey.

Interestingly, the content here does not overlap with Thrillin Drillin. The focus is different in any case, but so are all the drills. On Thrillin Drillin, layering itself is the target. Here, control over precise movements is what is aimed at and layering is brought in because it’s very much part of this dance form and because it’s the style of these two dancers. Learning these skills doesn’t mean you have to take up the Sadie-Kaya dancing style - it just means you can bring in more controlled moves into your own dancing.

This video is about two and a half hours long. Both this one and Thrillin Drillin are your hard wiring. Both are hard work as well. I’m sure they were quite tough to conceptualize. I spoke with someone who has attended the Pops Locks workshop and she felt the video probably gives a lot more. It’s more focused and doesn’t have to be changed around depending on who’s attending the class or how many people there are, it’s easier to see because you can look close up, and it’s got two teachers weaving the instruction between them for maximum benefit.

For those who’ve been waiting for a new IAMED set, it’s been changed. It’s a bit lusterless, in my opinion, but it’s changed. You also get to see the music credits nice and clear.

Pops Locks is supposed to have a second volume which is due this month, I think. I don’t know what the content is supposed to be.

I miss my cat. Cleo, more popularly known as “Psssssssst” was taken away from me about 30 years ago - but I still haven’t stopped missing her. She was about the coloring of the cat in this video - a seal point Siamese. And she was every bit Siamese. Very polite soft mew if she wanted something your food, but really, really loud if she thought it was time for her own food. She wasn’t as talkative as the adorable Alaska, but she knew how to make her wishes known.

I always feel super excited when I hold the box of a brand new belly dance DVD in my hands. But perhaps never quite as excited as when I was 3 seconds away from opening the wrapping of Nadira Jamal’s video, Improvisation Toolkit. Not only am I delighted to see a member of my adopted belly dance online group make a DVD, but I’m proud to see Nadira evolve her wonderful podcast, Taktaba, into a full-fledged series of video on a thoroughly challenging subject.

An absolute first
But I’m most proud of Nadira’s because this happens to be the first complete instruction on improvisation in belly dance. Many videos have given tips or featured sections in which you’re encouraged to dance along and try out variations, but nothing on this scale has existed until now. Some dancers say you can’t really teach improvisation because it’s a contradiction in terms. Improvisation is supposed to be spontaneous and it’s supposed to come from within the dancer. About all you can do is show someone how you do it. But in her podcasts and now in this video, Nadira has made sense of the whole improvisation phenomenon in a practical way that a learner dancer can actually use.

This video, Vol 1 of the series and titled Movement Recall, begins with an orientation to improvisation and what the video series will bring. Then there’s a short warm up. I like that a warm up has been included here because you don’t have to stop, pop in another video or stop and work with another piece of music. You just work with this little warm up (enough for the activity level of the video) and carry on without breaking the flow.

Noodling
You warm up the creative side of you with a spot of “noodling” or playing with movement. This section is meant to give you an exercise to drop inhibitions and turn off the critic inside you. Nadira explains the concept in detail, gives its rationale and logic, and demos how she would do it. Then you have a whirl yourself. This isn’t just an ice breaker but also leads on to the next set of explanations and exercises.

Creativity exercises
Through a series of exploratory exercises and demos, Nadira gets you acquainted with your own movement vocabulary and helps you identify your key moves. With each exercise, you find yourself exploring and playing with your moves in many different ways. The fact they these sessions are guided and timed gets you to actually loosen up and do it instead of thinking – I always knew that! The exercises actually stop you from over-thinking and getting stuck in complex territory. What’s really nice is that relatively early beginners can use the few belly dance movements they’re beginning to get and use these exercises to start being creative. The exercises are an excellent way of getting concepts into your head because you’re doing something rather than just listening to explanations of what improvisation means, conceptually.

More exercises help you take into account timing and transitions, weight changes into your improvisation. These are in Taktaba style, for those who are familiar with the podcast.

Playing with categories
The next chunk of exercises is most innovative. It involves arranging your moves into lots of categories. I’m not getting into more detail on this as it would take the fun out of the video. Or sort of spoil the surprise, anyway. Broadly I’d say that instead of creating with individual movements you’re now using categories. Now you’ve moved from fooling around with the alphabets into guided chunks of improvisation! You may, like me, find yourself smiling at this point because the penny has dropped. This is probably the point where you’ll be yelling – hey! I’m doin it! And did I forget to say.. it’s fun!

Plug and Play Choreography
But the funnest of all exercises is the final one: choreographing the song, Layla. Something I’ve always wanted to do, by the way. What Nadira does here is to give you different levels of help choreographing this song. She starts backwards – and that’s a great tip I’m going to use often – and shows you how to end the song. But moving further back along the song, she leaves chunks out for you to fill in. You work your way right to the beginning of the song. With several repetitions – there you have it! It’s really too delightful.

Through these exercises, all of which use music from the CD Bellydance for Fortune and Fame by the Mogador Band, pretty scenes fill the screen at points where you have to do stuff on your own with voice cues. The whole video has a wonderful flow and is sort of butter smooth from one end to the other.

As it weren’t a wonderful enough video already, Nadira leaves you with some thoughts on what else to do – and even more exercises on her Taktaba website. How she’s managed to make such easy work of such a difficult subject, I totally don’t know.

Why do I talk so much! In one word – fantastic.

]]> http://malabhargava.com/dance-diary/improvisation-toolkit.html/feed http://malabhargava.com/music/desert-starlight.html http://malabhargava.com/music/desert-starlight.html#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:54:16 +0000 Mala http://malabhargava.com/?p=351 Languishing in a dark corner of payplay.fm, I found this album, Desert Startlight, with some very surprisingly beautiful pieces of music! I’ve never heard of it, or of the artist/group Ametrine, whose name frankly sounds a little pharmaceutical to me. How I discovered it was when I was encashing some of my “Karma Points” or free tracks that you get from PayPlay for basically doing nothing very much. The tracks are what artists have chosen to give away free and so they’re not always the cream of the album, but well, sometimes they work. I have a 187 of them right now and don’t know what to do with them.

But back to Desert Starlight. All the tracks have a pharonic strain to them and are quite interesting. One or two are annoying because of the over-fusionistic latin beat imposed on the melodies, and some because of the pop or disco kind of beat. But others are very beautiful, even delicate. I picked up about 7 of the 17 tracks on this album. The most beautiful is a piece called Isis Dance II (Isis Dance I is strictly annoying) and it’s lovely enough for me to want to choreograph to. I would dance soemthing like Neon’s Serpent from her Fantasy Bellydance Mystery video. It’s very soothing, delicate and pretty.  Another pretty one is Valley of the Kings II (Valley of the Kings I is strictly annoying) which is a happy lilting but still pharonic piece.  Just how it happened to be that happy if it’s insipired by the Valley of the Kings where everyone’s sorta dead now, I don’t know. And from what I know, I don’t think they ever did party much there even when its entombed inhabitants where alive.

Other pretty pieces are Ramayana (huh?), Amethyst, and Sands of Time. Storm and Waterfall aren’t too bad either. Give it a whirl — I think you can hear the samples without an account… at http://payplay.fm/ametrine . You know… I’d say they were a little Mosavo-like.