Isolations and Coin Scarves

maria_harlequin

maria_harlequin

New member
Why is it that so many teachers insist on using coin hip scarves to see if a student's doing an isolation correctly or not? I think for that purpose alone, coin scarves are completely obsolete. A teacher should be able to see if an isolation's being performed correctly or not just by a trained eye - not listening if something's going to jingle.

I think slapping a coin scarf on a beginning student to see if a move is being executed the right way is just going to make the student stiffer than he or she already is as they're trying not to make a coin jingle. And if we were using a coin scarf for isolating, wouldn't it only work for upper body isolations?

What are your thoughts?
 
alosha

alosha

New member
I like the coin scarf for the 3/4 shimmy because you can HEAR that you're doing it right.

Sometimes it's fun to throw one on when I drill, just cuz it sounds pretty...
 
khanjar

khanjar

New member
I think the idea is that when a student correctly performs the movement, it is hoped the student will remember the correct action by the sound that is made by the belt. Well, that's my reasoning for it, and why I now choose to use something that is rattly, the noise made indicates to me, if the hip movement is correct and with upper body isolations, any jangling indicates I was not successful in preventing the hips from moving, so a sound, no sound indication is beneficial to learning. It is true, a mirror could be used, but not all dance learning venues have mirrors, nor does everyone have a suitably long and wide mirror to practice in front of at home. A noisy hip belt is very portable.
 
Aniseteph

Aniseteph

New member
Insisting on coin scarves as a teaching tool is a bit odd. If they are for the teacher's benefit there's something very odd going on. IMO

I think the coin scarf is more for the student's benefit, an extra bit of feedback if you are e.g. keeping your hips still. And a bit of fun dress-up.

As feedback for whether you are moving your hips right... :confused: For me I find that if I focus on shaking the coins the move changes depending on the scarf, and I'm not sure that's right. And for regular shimmies focusing on coin noise puts me slightly off the beat because of the delay. I have to remember to dance to the music, not shake the coins to it!
 
khanjar

khanjar

New member
Yes, there is a delay in noise compared to movement, but it is an indication, that is all, the movement is what you have learned, the feedback via noise helps. I am, of course a beginner, but the time may come where my body becomes used to the movement that a noise indication is not necessary. Then, it will be just fine adjustments on the learned movement to make the movement right. For beginners, I think it does help, as BD movement and the muscles involved we are not used to. For beginners, we might very well have the range of movement and the muscles to control that movement, but because of our normal lives, the movement might not come that natural.
 
kalila_raks

kalila_raks

New member
I agree that the coin scarves are more for the benefit of the student than the teacher. Wearing a coin scarf puts weight on your hips and makes it easier to "feel" the movement as well as providing visual and auditory feedback. Also, I have close to 30 students in my classes sometimes. Yes, if I walked up to each one, I would easily be able to tell if they are doing an isolation correctly, but when I'm watching someone through a mirror five rows back, the coins are helpful. It's also helpful in providing whole group feedback, such as, "Your coins should be twisting." or "You shouldn't be hearing your coins."
 
Kashmir

Kashmir

New member
khanjar said:
I think the idea is that when a student correctly performs the movement, it is hoped the student will remember the correct action by the sound that is made by the belt. Well, that's my reasoning for it, and why I now choose to use something that is rattly, the noise made indicates to me, if the hip movement is correct and with upper body isolations, any jangling indicates I was not successful in preventing the hips from moving, so a sound, no sound indication is beneficial to learning. It is true, a mirror could be used, but not all dance learning venues have mirrors, nor does everyone have a suitably long and wide mirror to practice in front of at home. A noisy hip belt is very portable.
Click to expand...
Yes, and what happens when you perform without your noisy hipbelt? All my students use coin hipbelts only for very specific performance pieces - certainly less than 20%. No coin/noisy hip belts in class at all unless we are doing something that specifically calls for it.
 
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