Music Monday - Moody Monday

I love iTunes for the way it can organize my playlists. I have ones for my classes, divided up by different levels of skill and paces of music. I have ones for performances, and for styles of music (Spanish, Bhangra, etc). And for personal music, I also have ones divided up by mood or feel. I have an Upbeat playlist, as I shared last week I have a Meditation playlist, a Chill playlist, and this week, I am sharing some selections from my Moody playlist.

As I come down from the high that was the Tribal Dreams Festival weekend, and I sit in my grey, quiet living room alone, I feel a little moody. Why is it that when we're in a sad mood, sometimes the only cure is sad tunes? Well, my  Moody List isn't necessarily sad songs, but just songs with lyrics or general feel of...well...a little bit blue.

Moody Monday
Save Me                                   -Aimee Mann            -Magnolia Soundtrack
Hide and Seek                          -Imogen Heap           -Speak for Youself
Watching You Without Me      -Kate Bush                -Hounds of Love
Feels Like Home                     -Newton Faulkner     -Hand Built By Robots
Call and Answer                      -Barenaked Ladies    -Stunt
I Know Why                            -Sheryl Crow            -Wildflower (mine is an acoustic version)
Sea Dreamer                            -Sting w/Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale    -Breathing Under Water

"Can you teach me to dance like _______...?"

Most every teacher I know has run into this question in one form or another from new students--some of us hear it many times a year. "I saw 'The World Famous Debbie Dancer' on YouTube. Can you teach me to dance like her?"

The short answer? No.
The only slightly longer answer?
Neither can she!

No teacher can truly teach you to dance just like them. What they can provide you is tools for your own dance--tools perhaps they themselves used to arrive at their own personal style, which you can then take to create your own personal style.

I am here in Lincoln, Nebraska getting ready to teach my first of two workshops at the Tribal Dreams Festival, and over breakfast this morning was chatting with Jawahara of Chicago about teaching and workshops and the culture of the bellydance world today as we know it. And one phenomenon we were talking about was the propensity for some dancers to come to classes or workshops wanting to be or dance just like another dancer. Jawahara was talking about dancers who would look at old footage of Taheya Carioca and Samia Gamal, and wanting to emulate every little nuance of those dancer's performances. For others, it might be like the many people who watch Rachel Brice or Aziza of Montreal, and try to make every single detail look and feel exactly the same.

It's a good jumping-off point, but the question is, are you trying to be them, or do you want to be you inspired by them?

Inspirational Video: Hips n' Bellies

Sandi and Wendy of FatChance Bellydance are pure magic together.  Their connection is unique and inspiring. One of my favorite examples of their power as performers is in the following clip. Sure, there are some lightning-fast performances that take my breath away--the kind of speed only you and someone you know really really well, personally and professionally, can maintain together. But no other duet so far swims through my brain as such a shining example of the power of ATS arrhythmic slow as this one. None showcase the strength and grace inherent in the movements quite like this one; the way one can simply flow, like a really delicious yoga stretch, from one move to the next, luxuriating in each moment, never rushing, never pushing, but with palpable dynamic tension and oozing sensuality.

Perhaps it's the slightly gritty nature of the video. The dim, red-toned lighting. The guitar solo. The way the audience barely breathes. It evokes the feeling we're in some basement cafe in Spain, and someone with a home video camera is watching as the native dancers entertain us all.

Brief history of sword dancing

From Mish Mish via BellyTalk, a NW discussion group for bellydancers. It is confirmed by what Jamila told us at her weeklong, that she was essentially the one who conceived the sword as a bellydance prop:

"In Turkey and Arabic countries, dancing with a sword is done mainly by men as a display of skill in combat or to prepare for battle. My troupe used to have a Druse from Lebanon who did a spectacular sword dance his father had taught him and I have seen videos of a Persian dance troupe where the men feign battle and dance in unison.

Dancing while balancing a sword on your head has become popular in the United States with soloists and troupes but there is no such tradition in Arabic countries where balancing something on your head is a part of daily life, so it's no big deal The idea for this dance can be traced back to Jamila Salimpour and her seminal dance troupe, Bal Anat who became famous performing at the Renaissance Fair in California in the 1970's. Jamila was inspired by an Oriental painting from the late l9th Century by French artist Jean Leon Gerome of a group of musicians and a dancer, probably a ghawazee, dancing with a sword balanced on her head and another held in her hand. The swords belonged to the Turkish soldiers in the background who had undoubtedly hired the dancers to entertain them. A replica of this painting appears on Aisha Ali's recording of "Music of the Ghawazee" As Jamila's influence spread throughout the USA, so to did the practise of balancing a sword on your head."

Music Monday - Movin' and Groovin'

 Here's music that makes me bop around happily.  Movits! has a couple songs I love to use in high-action drills to start off my more advanced classes, and herein is one of them. Augustito 2004 is good for medium drills, with a fun spirit behind it (look up the lyrics). Louis Prima, The Beatles, Cherry Poppin' Daddies...yeah, we got a little bit of everything here.




Jump, Jive, An' Wail                Louis Prima             Collector's Series   
Fel del Av Gården                    Movits!                   Äppelknyckarjazz   
Ob - La - Di, Ob - La - Da       The Beatles             1967-1970 Blue Album\Disc 2   
Agustito 2004                          Ketama                    20 Pa' Ketama
Jump in the Line                      Cherry Poppin' Daddies          
Smile                                        Lily Allen               Smile - EP     

BTW, the Movits! video for Fel del Av Garden makes my day, too. Check it out!