What is ATS? A video from CN

Really listen to how Carolena describes ATS. Hell Yes.

"When you rehearse together with the common goal of cooperation, the steps and movements become so second-nature that you can really 'see' the other person..."

Teacher Loyalty - a dying virtue?

I have written in the past of teacher loyalty, both in the "Teacher Loyalty Redux" as well as expressed my own homage to my dance Mommas in the lengthily named post "Sharon has two mommies...no, wait...four...no" The former is an expression of the business/consumer aspect of teaching--students pay for classes, we teach them, and that is all that can really be expected of anyone; that is, a good faith fulfillment of your "product" to the customer.  The latter being a loving, grateful homage to the teachers who have molded me into the dancer I am today.

This is a complex issue--entire dissertations have been written about the student/teacher relationship, what it is, how it develops, what are the boundaries, etc.  But aside from a scholarly discussion, there is an undeniable emotional aspect which is important to look within ourselves to work out... As you can see from my caveat in the first blog post, and the subsequent bloggy homage to my Mommies, I have personally always felt that my teachers are my mentors, my inspirations, my family tree.  I feel deeply rooted to their influences and energies (the recent name change being an outward reflection of that conviction).  And now being a teacher on the other end of the equation, I can attest that there are unique and powerful emotions we teachers experience which we have to deal with on our own, particularly at times when we feel more invested in a student than they may feel in us...

Why Yes, I am a Bellydancer.

I know quite a few dancers who are not on Facebook, where this was making the rounds a couple months back. Thought I would post it here for those who haven't seen it. And dammit, it's funny every time. And sadly familiar. But funny!

Maybe it will inspire a few Halloween costumes this weekend...

Nightmare before Christmas as metaphor

Once upon a time there was a character named Jack Skellington.

Jack was very very good at Halloween. Everyone looked to him for leadership because he was so good at it.

As time went on, Jack became bored of Halloween. He kinda felt like everything that could be done had been done, and he really wanted to try something new to spice things up.

He stumbled upon a town which celebrated something called Christmas. "What's this?!" he exclaimed joyfully. It was something really different, and it looked fun and interesting. On the spot he decided to give that a try.

He took Christmas back to his friends, none of whom knew anything about Christmas. Jack himself really didn't know much except what he thought it should maybe look like a bit (from his brief visit to the town), and some general ideas about the traditions. Armed with this spare information, they set to work on their version of Christmas.

Organic Process: The Art of Seeing

All the way back in May, I was pondering the collision of modern media and the organic process of artistic creation. In that post I wrote:

"A sculpture or a painting--even a piece of music or a video--is not expected to change, and is appreciated for its unchanging beauty. It is it's solidity that is part of its appeal, in a way. We see the same piece over time, and instead of expecting it to change or adapt to us, our perspective adapts and changes. We see it (hear it, experience it) from different angles, in different lights, in a different environment, our attitudes change, our perceptions change; and we find that our appreciation deepens and becomes richer and more multi-faceted as we take the time to consider the piece from all these perspectives. The work to appreciate that art day-to-day is in our hands as the viewer."

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.