Choreography truly means a lot to local bellydance community.
Students and instructors all are so accustomed with the idea of learning bellydance via choreography that sometimes it causes problems, well, at least some potential problems.
One of the biggest issues from such heavily-choreography-oriented phenomenon is that we are kind of kept away from learning more about bellydance in a wider and deeper respect. There are so many elements consisting inside choreography: dance movements, music and rhythms, emotion preparation, historical knowledge, inspiration…. For some unknown reasons, dance movement is the most emphasized element for local instructors and students as well when a piece of choreography is taught. Those movements are perfectly duplicated and flawlessly executed, technically, without fully understanding on music, rhythms or cultural contexts.
So what? Girls just want to have fun. Dressing in sparkling costume and happily dancing are all they want! Sometimes I am very confused about this: passion is the best motivation and we should dance just for it. Somehow this passion drives me into more curiosity and strong interest in learning more about this beautiful dance: history, culture…everything!
Students and instructors all are so accustomed with the idea of learning bellydance via choreography that sometimes it causes problems, well, at least some potential problems.
One of the biggest issues from such heavily-choreography-oriented phenomenon is that we are kind of kept away from learning more about bellydance in a wider and deeper respect. There are so many elements consisting inside choreography: dance movements, music and rhythms, emotion preparation, historical knowledge, inspiration…. For some unknown reasons, dance movement is the most emphasized element for local instructors and students as well when a piece of choreography is taught. Those movements are perfectly duplicated and flawlessly executed, technically, without fully understanding on music, rhythms or cultural contexts.
So what? Girls just want to have fun. Dressing in sparkling costume and happily dancing are all they want! Sometimes I am very confused about this: passion is the best motivation and we should dance just for it. Somehow this passion drives me into more curiosity and strong interest in learning more about this beautiful dance: history, culture…everything!
Without really knowing the dance in depth, dancers, instructors and students find limitation when they encounter with finger cymbals, which is widely regarded as one of dance prop rather than musical instrument. Obviously if one has no knowledge on Middle East or Arab music and rhythms, or some musical or rhythmic training, one cannot play finger cymbals in a proper way. Some dancers or instructors with several years of experience have no idea about the difference between a downbeat and an upbeat, which is quite common here. Sometimes I am so amazed at how they could do upbeat dancing and finger cymbal playing!
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