Modern media kills the organic process?

I recently had a discussion with Read My Hips' director Stephanie Barto about the effect of the internet and on-demand media on the natural organic progression of art. I think performance art struggles in particular in the new millenium, victim of the "glazed over eyes after 60 seconds" and "that was so 5 minutes ago" attitudes, in a way that visual art does not.


Here is a snippet of what she shared (which is in part a discussion she was having with another dancer), and my thoughts in return:

Dancer A: "The internet has so much influence over the spread of tribal belly dance. I wonder if the internet just kills everything because it doesn't let it grow naturally."

SB: "It's also interesting how tribal bellydance in the days before social
networking and YouTube was a much smaller world, and did tend to evolve in a more organic ways. (My troupe) is an example ... I started with Carolena's foundation, and the ways I changed it were all about making it more "me" and/or being inspired by the skills of the people I was working with. What I arrived at felt honest, even if it wasn't anything shockingly innovative or spectacular in the big scheme of things."

My response to these observations after the jump.

Enthusiasm=youth

"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."
Henry David Thoreau

Gabi Rojas on SYTYCD

I can't wait to see what else she brings to this show this season!!



I love that she got a standing ovation from the entire group, and that Nigel who "doesn't want to say anything more at this point" goes on and on and on about her. Her storytelling was incredible, her choreography was amazing...I give it a big Mary "WAAHHAHHHHAAAAAA!"

Being a good lead/follow

"A good lead/follow is like a good conversation - you don't have to yell, you only need to talk. As you get better, all you really need to do is whisper. "

SYTYCD Rubbernecking

Rubbernecking is so common, last night's So You Think You Can Dance garnered the same reactions from reviewers. Today I got tons of forwards and mentions of the "crazy girl doing the Star Wars dance," but no mentions of the INCREDIBLE first dancer and her completely amazing and unique choreography, nor the last two dancers who made the judges cry they were so powerful.

OH MY GAWD! My friends, did you see the 2 hour premier? I can't wait to see what this season has in store!

Edit: Thanks to Makeda for reminding me her name is Gabi Rojas!!

Bellydance rubbernecking...

I wasn't even at Tribal Fest this year, but its reach is far...

My first reports came from close friends who had attended. And I noted something key in all their reports. They very offhandedly reported "Oh you know...Our Favorite Troupe So-and-So was great, Super Famous So-and-So was great, just like we expect. But you should have seen Troupe Blah Blah (detailed description of bad dancing and distracting illogical fusion). Oh man, and then The Blah Blah Dance Group tooootally (detailed description of more bad dancing and overused schtick)!"

The real stories were the poor dancers/bad fusions/sloppy prop'ers, while the really great dancers...well...they were great. What else is there to say, right?

And this is from friends who are NOT gossip-hounds who were just waiting to dish. This truly is a sign of a phenomenon that has been growing more and more in the tribal bellydance community in particular. For the purposes of this metaphor, I will call it Bellydance Rubbernecking.

Creating a Following, Nurturing Community

I found this article through the "Now, This is Yoga" blog that Ali turned me on to. It is about teaching yoga, but the concepts absolutely resonate with me as a teacher and facilitator of a dance community.
*****************************

The Art of Teaching
By Rusty Wells

Creating a Following, Nurturing Community

Where do teachers come from?

When I first began teaching yoga, I had already been working a full time job in an acute health care setting. In addition to my forty hour per week commitment, I worked on-call much of the time and spent most of the remaining hours either on my yoga mat or fast asleep in bed. I was practicing a lot of yoga, loving the experience, and I took my first teacher training program in order to delve deeper. When a studio owner asked if I would start teaching a Friday 6am class, I realized that this was one of the few spaces in my schedule when I could actually give it a try.

Hulu has some dance...

If you like dance like I like dance, you are always drawn to movies and television which features dance and movement. C'mon, you loved Bring It On, Centerstage, Save The Last Dance, Step It Up, Stomp the Yard, and even Showgirls. You call them your "guilty pleasure", but what's to be guilty about? We love to watch dance!

Well Hulu has some dance videos on demand. Not much, but some. Here are some highlights I just dug up:

A snippet of the Roxanne Tango from Moulin Rouge. Click here and find other 2 minute clips from throughout Moulin Rouge (one of my fave movies).
http://www.hulu.com/watch/14222/moulin-rouge-a-dance

Nigel Lithgow giving his own angle on the performers from Superstars of Dance. Unfortunately, I thought the show somewhat lame, but Nigel's insights into the different groups and dance styles, as well as some of the clips from the show--sans the insultingly biased country-by-country voting and insipid meanderings of The Lord of the Dance-turned-MC, Michale Flatley--are fun to watch online!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/50985/superstars-of-dance-gumboot-roots

Don't miss Team South Africa, Tam India's Rajasthani dance, and the Australian modern dance group (can you say boundless energy?!)
http://www.hulu.com/superstars-of-dance

Step It Up and Dance, which I am surprised to learn is a show I had never heard of before (maybe it wasn't all that good?), is hosted by Elizabeth Berkely and is a competition dance show. There are some fun clips among them..and there are a looooot of clips. Pages and pages.
http://www.hulu.com/step-it-up-and-dance

There is also an...interesting...series on LiveMojo on bellydance.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/23591/livemojo-guide-to-belly-dancing---dance-1
Just search for "belly dance" in the search box to see them all.

There are a lot of links to ABC's Dancing With The Stars online lessons and "dance tips", but I have never been a big fan of the show. You can see them on ABC.com if you are a fan!

Oh and here are some clips from Bring It On!
http://www.hulu.com/bring-it-on

Do you have a favorite online source for video outside of the usual YouTube and Google videos?

Random chuckle

Growth is a spiral & Feeling stuck

A favorite comment from a Bhuz discussion a couple years back. It's a great reminder that the way forward is not always straight ahead...

"Growth is Spirallic, Not Linear"

The most common pattern found in nature and all phenomena is the spiral. We see it in every day patterns. Autumn leaves headed toward the ground in a spirallic freefall; the helical form of DNA and RNA; the rings of a seashell; exhaust smoke coming out of a car; sound waves etc. Within the movement of a spiral, there is always a return near the place of origin, but in a more evolved direction.

Our personal growth parallels this movement; we get better, we get worse, we get better, we get worse. Growth is rarely linear. No one just "gets better." Often, it's getting worse that becomes our best teacher and enables us to recover. This gives us a point of measurability toward seeing a larger picture."

Speaking of growth...

MAY 2009 CLASS NEWSLETTER

Lots of news to share, so let's get to it!

~ Thursday Time Chance and New Class Added
~ inFusion Tribal Performances Coming Up
~ Next Session Registration Open Now
~ Bring a Friend, Get a Discount
~ Shay's New Dance Blog and Twitter Feed

---

THURSDAY TIME CHANGE AND NEW CLASS ADDED

Thursday Level 1 will be moving to 7:30-8:30 beginning the June session, to make some time for our next new class "Skills n' Drills!":

Thursdays 8:30-9:30pm - Phinney Neighborhood Center beginning in June

By popular request, we will be jamming on Thursday nights!
This class will be a combination of general bellydance skill drills, ATS/Tribal Group Improv concepts, zills and rhythms, combos and choreography, and more. Some nights we may watch inspirational videos, and discuss dance styles, ethics, philosophy, and creativity. Some nights will be group concepts and open jam time. Some nights we may be able to bring in guest teachers in different styles and approaches. The goal of this class is to play as we learn, to share and be inspired.

Bring your requests and ideas, and we will mold this class each week as we like!

Please note: Students must have completed at least THREE sessions of tribal bellydance classes with Sharon Moore at any level. Students will gain the most from this class with some Level 2 experience, or taking Level 2 concurrently.

GET OFF YOUR BUTT!

Just wanted to share a really great article from ZenHabits.net about how to get motivated! I know the winter can be a real time of low energy and feeling-stuck-ness. Now that spring is here, it's time to shake off the winter blues and move forward with joy and anticipation of great new things!

Sure this can apply to your dance life (insert "dance practice" for "exercise", for instance)!

On The Importance Of Dancing With Beginners

On doing some dance reading around the 'net, I came across this brief article randomly and really loved it. It is about ballroom dancing/partner dancing, but was so absolutely true for Tribal Group Improv/ATS I bookmarked it for later reference. Thought I would share it with you here!

"On The Importance Of Dancing With Beginners
While there is no question that dancing with a better partner will make you *look* good, and that with such a partner you can concentrate more on styling details and so on because the lead and follow doesn't need so much attention, it is not the best way to practice lead/follow skills. If learning leaders only dance with accomplished followers and vice-versa, they won't develop great leading/following skills, because they won't *need* to. Now let's suppose that YOU are a great leader or follower. What happens if you dance only with other great dancers? Your lead and follow skills will gradually *deteriorate* -- because you're not working them very hard. After some months without exposure to beginners, you may be surprised to find that you can't dance with them very well, even though they seem to do okay with other beginners.

You learn how to dance better by dancing with more experienced partners. But you learn how to lead/follow better by dancing with less experienced partners. Your skills are put much more to the test dancing with a beginner than with an experienced dancer. It is easy to lead/follow a great dancer. All your weaknesses as a leader/follower show up with beginners. Dance with them and ask yourself why each incorrectly led/followed figure didn't work and when you figure it out, work on incorporating the fixes into all your dancing!

You cannot become a good dancer by dancing _only_ with the same person. Dancing only with each other, you will become good at dancing with each other with all the mistakes and bad habits that become "correct" for you.

There is a certain type of character (leader) that one encounters again and again if one has been dancing for any length of time: the guy who only wants to dance with the best followers because he believes they are the only partners who can match his high skill level. Often what is REALLY going on is that only the best followers can compensate for his mistakes or idiosyncrasies. They make him look good. But the guy continues to think he's the tops because he insulates himself from feedback. *Dancing with poor to average followers is a good reality check.* If none but the best can follow your leads, I respectfully suggest your leads could use some work.Also, that kind of thinking ultimately harms their dancing. I've seen guys overestimate their ability and abandon the study of technique FAR too soon. Consequently it will take them a lot longer to reach the next level of skill.

(This file is part of the lead/follow FAQ list. These are articles compiled from the newsgroup rec.arts.dance by Mark Balzer.)

(You may link to this page and make copies for private use in any form, but reproduction in any means, including book or CDROM, is not allowed without permission.

Dancing that makes me cry... (repost with new video links)

In a good way!

Mia Michaels Moves Me...Mmmm

Hide and Seek (just watched again and *tears* every time)
Sorry for the low quality. The original ones were removed for copyright issues, and only a few remain that have been left and they are poorer versions. *Cry* Don't take these away from us!!




And SYTYCD is again coming soon! I am sooooo excited! One of the few series I anticipate with such excitement!

Ego vs. Pride

I really dig this article on Wisegeek examining the sometimes subtle, but important, difference between ego and pride. In my estimation, ego can get in the way of progressing in our dance, while pride can be motivating and bolstering in our attempts. What do you think? Read on...

Since ego and pride are rather linked, and their definitions are so similar, it can be difficult to figure out exactly how they are different. However, a simple way to consider ego and pride is this: ego is rather selfish and often has no basis in fact while pride tends to be less selfish and is typically based on the facts of a person's achievements and qualities. Some people think of ego as self-respect. While it can lead to a sense of self-respect, it too often leads to arrogance instead.

When a person has a genuine ability in a particular field, this could be a source of pride. Instead, however, the person may begin to feel that he is the best in this field and that no one else is or ever will be worthy of working with him; he may feel this way regardless of whether or not there's actually any truth to his perceptions. Pride, on the other hand, would make this person feel happy about his skills and accomplishments, without having to be the best or only one capable of achievement. Pride leads to confidence instead of the arrogance.

FCBD: Who We Are

This is a 1997 video of Carolena talking about what ATS is and isn't, and specifically some of her theories about the evolution of dance, motivation of feminine display and beauty, and more. It's very brief, but enjoyable.

My favorite dance moment is right at the beginning. She is just doing a simple little hip bump, her arms posed so beautifully, and just turning slowly, to show all sides of the simple move. It is done with such grace, control, and confidence, it strikes me at my core. Inspiring. So little can have such impact, it's easy to forget you don't necessarily always need all the bells and whistles. Just your own energy and confidence, and the simplest things are powerful.

Teacher loyalty...

To All Students,
Regarding "Loyalty" to Your Teacher
By Amanda Niehaus
with a few edits by me personally
(originally posted at Shira.net which is a fantastic resource for all things bellydance. Check it out!)

Dear students of this beautiful art form,

I am a teacher. I teach because I am passionate about this dance and I want others to share my passion.

I am not teaching because I require a fan club.
I am not teaching because I require devotees or because I need hero worship.

As your teacher, my job is to teach you; to inspire you to be your best. If I am a really good teacher, then I also will not be your only teacher. I will encourage you to study with other teachers who have skills and experience I lack. Because I am not the end-all, be-all of bellydance knowledge.

You Suck at Photoshop...

A hilarious tutorial on how to retouch images in Photoshop, with a sardonic twist. If regular tutorials bore you to tears, have a laugh and learn a few tricks!

"Warp it up...ya know, like my marriage..."