Help! Teaching belly dance to children

[Greek Bonfire]

I got here late too but I agree with Kashmir on saiidi, as they may like doing all those kicks and jumps.

[walladah]

...of Karsilama dance (danced in both Turkey and Greece, by both males and females, it has warrior-origin and it is not considered provocative in any way) and several gypsy-Roma dances where both males and females dance.

Both types of dances are taught to children very early and they are also very helpful for children to dance, as they have line-dance and pair versions, depending on the style of the music and the area each song comes from.

So, you can add to the Saidi/Debke several other forms of middle eastern dances, which can be diversified as children grow to be danced with knives, with bellydance costumes, etc, depending on what the grown children will decide in the future...

By the way, one of my favourite debke songs and videos, because it shows teens dancing as well, it is this

Fares Karam - El Ghorba ???? ??? - ?????? - YouTube

(i also adore the connection they make in the video between debke and street dance, i love it!).

[indrayu]

I've developed a Nubian style dance with 8-11 year olds, which they loved.

This was the original inspiration; we selected, simplified and adapted movements. The music is so feel-good appealing, people in the room next door kept on peeping in and bopping along in time.

[gisela]

This thread is interesting and has lots of good ideas and examples. There is definitely a value in keeping the conversation going, but I just wanted to point out that the original question was posted almost two years ago

Indrayu, for how long did you teach the children the nubian dance? Was it a short workshop or a weekly class? Did they stay focused?

[indrayu]

Yes, thought I'd add to the resource base, even though Nafiseh would have well and truly done her bit........

The Nubian dance began as workshops for Harmony Day (multicultural) celebrations at a primary school. Mixed-age groups of children spent the day moving through a number of scheduled hour-long activities, so four different groups did this one.

I had already plotted the music and studied the movements, so we could work efficiently in the short time. Some of the workshop groups were more focused than others, but all were attentive enough to achieve something and have fun. No group quite got to a level of confidence to want to perform for the whole school at the close of the day (I could have been pushy, there's always a few prima ballerinas-in-waiting, but the idea was for group fun rather than individual stars); there was enough interest to carry on with my own class of 8-9 year olds.

Dance works well in this school: it has a major Indigenous cultural influence as well as immigrant groups with their own strong traditions of community celebrations. My class this year has a good number of achievement-motivated children, so they worked hard to polish the dance for performance at school assembly. The weight of numbers helped keep the couple of less-enthusiastic ones positive.

Another benefit was that a number of children showed the Youtube video to their families, helping to share the joy of dance further.

[Habibi L'amour]

@Indrayu that's great! I want to someday teach belly dance, but I'd like to know when I should start (I've been going to class for 4 years, averaging 1-2 hours of practice every week) and whether teaching children or adults is easier. Since I like children, I hope to teach them dance either way. Also unlike ballet and some other western dance styles, belly dance is for ALL shapes and sizes so my other reason for wanting to teach young girls is because it might improve their attitudes on body image.

[indrayu]

All the best with your aspirations, Habibi!

Working with children is great fun. You probably are aware, but I'll say it anyway, that to teach well as an ongoing thing, you need the same level of technical knowledge as for adults, just the methods will differ.

And be prepared to see, after just a couple of lessons, children with moves to make you green with envy

Sometimes when working with children, the most difficult aspect is the parents

[Shanazel]

Sometimes when working with children, the most difficult aspect is the parents

Yep. Parents should be encouraged to use this valuable free time to do something other than sit in the dance room and glower or beam at their children.

[indrayu]

Yep. Parents should be encouraged to use this valuable free time to do something other than sit in the dance room and glower or beam at their children.

Tch tch... how can you raise the perfect child without perfect parental attention?

[Habibi L'amour]

Isn't that called "helicopter" parenting or something? I would feel uncomfortable if their parents were watching my (future) children's class - like they're judging me or don't trust me.

I'd try not to get "green with envy" if the kids get very good in a short amount of time.....it sounds like it's harder to get performance work in my area, and I'm better suited to teaching anyway....maybe I'll end up teaching some future stars