Amanda (was Aziyade)
Well-known member
Personal Style Snafus | Belly Dance Geek
So the other week I came across this conference call recording from Nadira Jamal, on the subject of "Personal Style Snafus" and I thought it sounded interesting. The price was right, and it came with a pdf workbook (which is always a plus in my book) so I thought I'd give it a try. I've been on a quest for developing my own personal style for some time now, and hoped maybe I might learn a couple of things that would help. I was somewhat skeptical: I've been to a lot of "developing your own personal style" workshops over the years and haven't gotten much out of them beyond obvious and wildly generalized concepts like "be yourself."
OH MY GOLLY!
I was **amazed** at the content of this audio recording. I mean really amazed. Nadira has put together what can be described as "The Artist's Way" for finding your own personal style. It's not a lecture -- it's an exploration. She describes the most common problems people encounter when developing their own style, and then guides you through a series of journaling exercises designed to identify those problems and overcome them.
There are no sweeping generalizations like "be yourself" in this course. What she outlines are extremely specific exercises and extremely specific points to consider. If you're like me, asking "Well how exactly am I supposed to 'be myself' in my dance" then this is the course for you. This program is about specifics, not generalizations.
The call is a little over an hour, but the information is really designed to be worked through over time, like therapy
lol. I listed to the call at work and made a few notes, but when I got home I really LISTENED and took the next several days to do the kind of soul-searching that the journaling questions are designed for. This kind of inner exploration is really not easy, and some of the things I uncovered about how I viewed my dancing really surprised me.
I have to share this: I was literally in tears at one point in the journaling because I realized that a lot of my efforts in the past few years have been in trying to be the kind of dancer I thought I should be, rather than who I really am. As I was looking down at the pages of the workbook I realized that I had been making exactly those kind of mistakes Nadira described. But she sets you up with a really great framework for correcting those mistakes, and I feel like now that I'm armed with this information about myself, I can redirect my energy in a way that will allow me to "find myself" in my dancing.
Obviously it's a pretty emotional process, and not one that you want to try to go through in a few hours or a few days. It's something I will probably work with throughout the next year at least, and will probably revisit periodically if I feel like I'm beginning to "lose myself."
I can't recommend this recording enough. Really. I haven't run across a product that I was so crazy about since Ranya Renee's "Balady" dvd.
Format: Audio recording (mp3) of a conference call, and a pdf "workbook" of the notes and exercises from the call is included in the deluxe package.
Length: The call is 1 hour, 18 minutes, but this is really more of a workshop than a lecture. You are expected to spend a decent amount of time considering the concepts, journaling (or at least thinking) about them, and applying what you discover in your exploration. I would recommend taking at least a week to journal and explore, and then periodically revisiting the concepts addressed.
Content: Similar to Nadira's dvds, the course material is presented with exercises for you to do at home (in this case, it's mostly journaling and soul-searching.) There is no specific dance technique taught, so it applies to all styles of dance -- not just bellydance!
Target audience:
Everyone. About the only person who probably wouldn't get that much out of it is the raw baby beginner who is still learning steps. None of the material is style-specific, so a Tribal dancer would get as much out of it as an Egyptian-style dancer.
Overall goal:
The goal of the course is to help the individual dancer uncover her own personal prejudices and likes/dislikes that she may not even be aware of, in order to develop an individual "style" that is unique to her.
Repetition of information:
I have NEVER seen this kind of information (and the depth of the material) presented in any other medium, dvd or workshop. I've actually taken a number of "developing personal style" workshops over the years and they've not even come CLOSE to looking at the subject the way the material in this course does.
Available from:
Personal Style Snafus | Belly Dance Geek
Overall rating - 5/5 stars.
Amanda
(disclosure: I don't know Nadira other than from the internet and from buying her Improvisational Toolkit and her Raq the Routine program. She had no knowledge of and no part in authoring this review.)
So the other week I came across this conference call recording from Nadira Jamal, on the subject of "Personal Style Snafus" and I thought it sounded interesting. The price was right, and it came with a pdf workbook (which is always a plus in my book) so I thought I'd give it a try. I've been on a quest for developing my own personal style for some time now, and hoped maybe I might learn a couple of things that would help. I was somewhat skeptical: I've been to a lot of "developing your own personal style" workshops over the years and haven't gotten much out of them beyond obvious and wildly generalized concepts like "be yourself."
OH MY GOLLY!
I was **amazed** at the content of this audio recording. I mean really amazed. Nadira has put together what can be described as "The Artist's Way" for finding your own personal style. It's not a lecture -- it's an exploration. She describes the most common problems people encounter when developing their own style, and then guides you through a series of journaling exercises designed to identify those problems and overcome them.
There are no sweeping generalizations like "be yourself" in this course. What she outlines are extremely specific exercises and extremely specific points to consider. If you're like me, asking "Well how exactly am I supposed to 'be myself' in my dance" then this is the course for you. This program is about specifics, not generalizations.
The call is a little over an hour, but the information is really designed to be worked through over time, like therapy
lol. I listed to the call at work and made a few notes, but when I got home I really LISTENED and took the next several days to do the kind of soul-searching that the journaling questions are designed for. This kind of inner exploration is really not easy, and some of the things I uncovered about how I viewed my dancing really surprised me.I have to share this: I was literally in tears at one point in the journaling because I realized that a lot of my efforts in the past few years have been in trying to be the kind of dancer I thought I should be, rather than who I really am. As I was looking down at the pages of the workbook I realized that I had been making exactly those kind of mistakes Nadira described. But she sets you up with a really great framework for correcting those mistakes, and I feel like now that I'm armed with this information about myself, I can redirect my energy in a way that will allow me to "find myself" in my dancing.
Obviously it's a pretty emotional process, and not one that you want to try to go through in a few hours or a few days. It's something I will probably work with throughout the next year at least, and will probably revisit periodically if I feel like I'm beginning to "lose myself."
I can't recommend this recording enough. Really. I haven't run across a product that I was so crazy about since Ranya Renee's "Balady" dvd.
Format: Audio recording (mp3) of a conference call, and a pdf "workbook" of the notes and exercises from the call is included in the deluxe package.
Length: The call is 1 hour, 18 minutes, but this is really more of a workshop than a lecture. You are expected to spend a decent amount of time considering the concepts, journaling (or at least thinking) about them, and applying what you discover in your exploration. I would recommend taking at least a week to journal and explore, and then periodically revisiting the concepts addressed.
Content: Similar to Nadira's dvds, the course material is presented with exercises for you to do at home (in this case, it's mostly journaling and soul-searching.) There is no specific dance technique taught, so it applies to all styles of dance -- not just bellydance!
Target audience:
Everyone. About the only person who probably wouldn't get that much out of it is the raw baby beginner who is still learning steps. None of the material is style-specific, so a Tribal dancer would get as much out of it as an Egyptian-style dancer.
Overall goal:
The goal of the course is to help the individual dancer uncover her own personal prejudices and likes/dislikes that she may not even be aware of, in order to develop an individual "style" that is unique to her.
Repetition of information:
I have NEVER seen this kind of information (and the depth of the material) presented in any other medium, dvd or workshop. I've actually taken a number of "developing personal style" workshops over the years and they've not even come CLOSE to looking at the subject the way the material in this course does.
Available from:
Personal Style Snafus | Belly Dance Geek
Overall rating - 5/5 stars.
Amanda(disclosure: I don't know Nadira other than from the internet and from buying her Improvisational Toolkit and her Raq the Routine program. She had no knowledge of and no part in authoring this review.)
Last edited:
