Q&A: How to smile in performance.

Q. So, I was watching Kami Liddle's Tribal Fest 8 performance again today...one of the (many) things I have always liked about this performance, and her performances in general, is her lovely smile! It looks so wonderful!

How do I get that (or any) smile? Yes, I do smile when I perform and practice, but it looks nothing like that. When I ask a friend after I am through with a performance, "did I smile?" Their response is typically a variation of "Yes, you had this cute little smirk smile." What? I was smiling! I felt my face moving and forming smile-type pose. And when I look at a performance on video, I see that, indeed, it is more of a "smirk". So, I then go "drill" a smile in front of the mirror. But I don't like the way I look....

Any tips for working on a better smile?

A. Smiling in performance is just one facet of "emoting"--a difficult but valuable skill. And yes, you can learn it!

For one, don't expect your smile to look like anyone else's. That will bum you out in the long run. But more importantly...

Practice!

Actors know this--to convey an emotion with the body/face for a performance takes work!  It seems like it should be so "natural", but more often than not it ain't. It feels really goofy to smile in a mirror, but it helps you learn how it looks. Then try the same thing away from a mirror and feel how that FEELS. Keep working back and forth between mirrors and feeling it. Then try performing for video with that same smile and see how it looks and feels.

Another consideration: don't just smile. Think of things that make you feel like smiling.
A fake smile looks fake. A genuine smile radiates beyond where you think you could possibly reach.
Genuine smiles come from genuine emotion, and not from "poses". So when you practice your faces, and practice dancing, bring joyful thoughts to your mind which induce genuine smiles, and the audience will not only see it, but *feel* it.

Question for today...

What was the last thing you did/accomplished which made you truly proud?

Beginner vs. Advanced

I have found that one of the largest differences between a beginner student and an advanced student isn't necessarily what you are able to achieve, but what you *believe* you are able to achieve. It comes from a combination of willingness to try, confidence in your strengths, and the ability to roll with your struggles, push through with grace, and try again.

Other than raw ability, what do you find are some differences between beginners and advanced dancers?

Best Dance Advice you have gotten?

On a local discussion group, the topic of "Best Advice and Lessons" came up--people started sharing some of the key lessons they have learned from their teachers over the years.

There are so many pieces of advice that I have received over the years, but I think the most important lessons weren't put into words, but put into practice and learned by example.


Like how on the technique side, some of my teachers and fellow dancers really taught me the value of "white space" in dance--that not everything needs to be go-go-go-go! That by having stillness offset the movement, we make the movement more dynamic. "Pregnant pauses" can be just as powerful as your biggest move. Aziza of Montreal is one great example of this to me (then again, she could just stand there and probably mesmerize an audience for about 15 minutes straight :)

What do you want on this blog?

Dance Shay or Personal Shay? Or Both?



Hello lovelies!

Okay, I could use a little feedback here!

Starting this journal, my intent was to keep it strictly dance and art related, with a few sillies thrown in here and there for fun. I have a separate personal journal that hasn't seen much action as of late, except to put up some of my knitting and crocheting patterns and projects, and recipes I have been using or creating. Occasionally I will talk about personal life stuff there as well--family, vacations, home improvement, etc. Now I am having some people asking why I don't post those things more here, and on Facebook by RSS.

So what do you want? Would you prefer this stick to a dance/art only format, or would you like other creative or personal endeavors blogged about here as well? I don't want to clog up anyone's dancey reading, for those of you who subscribe to my journal presently. But certainly all of those things fall under the Adventures of THIS Tribal Dancer, so I can see them melding somewhat as well. I could perhaps even make a few tags to separate them out: "personal", "recipes", "knit/crochet", that kind of thing to help sort them.

So which would you prefer? I would like to hear from y'all to make a decision.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I love hearing from you, as well, so please post feedback and comments anytime!

What are you moving toward?

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
~M. Scott Peck, author, The Road Less Traveled

I often get e-mails from friends and colleagues who seek advice on various dance-life situations. Some have issues with their teachers or classroom environment that isn't feeling right--from lacking support to lacking information, from difficult fellow students and classroom relationships to downright abrasive teachers. Some have troupe issues where the dynamics seem to be running contrary to what they had hoped. Some are teachers in their own right and have issues with trouble students or disrespectful troupe members. Ultimately, they all have one thing in common: they all feel stuck in the middle of something they want to get out of or move past, and they are seeking a nudge to find a better path.

Is there some part of your dance life you feel stuck on or trapped in? Is there a situation or environment you feel powerless to move beyond? Or do you simply feel in a creative rut and find yourself asking, "How am I ever going to be *that good*/do *that skill*?"

What do you think you could or should be doing to move on to a happier place?

Whenever I get to feeling stuck, in any part of life, I ask myself, "If I were my own best friend, and I was hearing me tell me this issue, what would I advise her to do?" By stepping outside myself and passing on a little loving guidance, it is amazing how clear the solution can sometimes become. Then it is just a matter of going out and doing it!

Remember, “If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.”

Dance vs. Movement?

What would you consider the difference between dance and movement...even synchronized movement?

One might say expressing with music, but one can certainly dance without any music, right?

What do you think?

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...