Clarification on term "Six week wonders"

LadyLoba

New member
I hear the term "Six week wonders" in the belly dance community a lot. Just to make sure I know what I'm talking about....is a "6 week wonder" someone who studies for 6-10 weeks (about the typical length of a Beginner Belly Dance course) and then believes herself to be a great dancer?
 

jenc

New member
Yeah someone who goes out for professional gigs or starts teaching without knowing what s/he doesn't know
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
Someone who takes one six week course then goes out and bills herself as a professional. These people also have a tendency to undercut the regular going price, thus making it more difficult for the real professionals to get good gigs.
 

mahsati_janan

New member
In general, a 6-week wonder is a dancer who is at a beginning level who begins teaching, performing, or both professionally. The 6 week part is shorthand. They may have taken classes for 6 weeks or far more, but the most important part is that it refers to an unstudied/unskilled dancer who is promoting themselves professionally.

The time frame is less important than what you do with it. A person who takes 1 class a month for 2 years will only have taken 24 classes. Another person could take 2 classes a week in the same time period and would have taken 208 classes. The first is most likely far less skilled than the second (no guarantees, but in general).

Sadly, there are actually students who declare themselves professional after taking a few beginner level classes.
 

LadyLoba

New member
I see...if anyone can relate to the phenomenon of "unskilled people getting ahead" in the field...it's a writer! Just look at all the poorly written books that get published. I know I bristle when I read a particularly horrible book, then flip to the back and read "The author took a 5 week writing workshop at the ABC center. This is her first attempt at writing."
 

Amanda (was Aziyade)

Well-known member
Professional performance and transmission of this dance also requires an understand of music and culture that 99% of American students aren't born with. You may be able to "get the moves" after a short period of time, but I don't think you can really act as a cultural ambassador, or communicate the real SPIRIT and heart behind the dance until you have a LOT of experience with it. It takes a lot of training and experience to "do it right" even on a small scale.

The "6-week wonder" doesn't recognize that her training is just the tip of the iceberg. She doesn't know (and often doesn't care) that there is an entire MOUNTAIN of work to do just under the water.

Just like the writer who says "look I wrote a first draft, now I should publish it and get famous!" (I always want to say, "yay for you! Now go do the HARD part, which is the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. draft.)
 

Elfie

New member
Just like the writer who says "look I wrote a first draft, now I should publish it and get famous!" (I always want to say, "yay for you! Now go do the HARD part, which is the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. draft.)

19, 20, 21...

I'm not a novel writer. I do write novels, but they suck. I know they suck.I'm a short story and poetry writer. It took me my entire life to be good enough to publish anything. I quit school in the tenth grade, went back and got my GED (which is a sort of high school equivalency test). I wrote for years with just that. I have yet to return to college, but through self-discipline, receiving critiques and reading, reading, reading some more, checking grammar dot com if I was unsure, I am fairly comfortable with my writing now.

The beginner dancer is like a Kindergartner. They have to learn to recognize the letters and numbers, learn the sounds each letter is capable of making... then it's on to shaping those letters for themselves with pencil and crayon, perfecting those formations and stringing them with others to make simple words. If a Kindergartner wrote 350 double spaced pages of narrative, it would be very like the beginner dancer preforming at a professional gig. In my opinion, that is exactly what it looks like.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
Professional performance and transmission of this dance also requires an understand of music and culture that 99% of American students aren't born with. You may be able to "get the moves" after a short period of time, but I don't think you can really act as a cultural ambassador, or communicate the real SPIRIT and heart behind the dance until you have a LOT of experience with it. It takes a lot of training and experience to "do it right" even on a small scale.

The "6-week wonder" doesn't recognize that her training is just the tip of the iceberg. She doesn't know (and often doesn't care) that there is an entire MOUNTAIN of work to do just under the water.

Just like the writer who says "look I wrote a first draft, now I should publish it and get famous!" (I always want to say, "yay for you! Now go do the HARD part, which is the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. draft.)

And as Elfie said, 19, 20, 21. . .that's how it is with my choreos, not to mention improv practice.
 

Amulya

Moderator
The sad thing is: not all 6-week wonders are dancers who have taken only a few lessons. I knew a dancer (not naming her of course!) who danced for 10 years and could do the basics right, neither did she know much about the dance. I saw her teaching and I cringed at what she was doing to the students.
 
The sad thing is: not all 6-week wonders are dancers who have taken only a few lessons. I knew a dancer (not naming her of course!) who danced for 10 years and could do the basics right, neither did she know much about the dance. I saw her teaching and I cringed at what she was doing to the students.

Amulya, this is so true, and I think part of it is the lack of formal teacher training in belly dance (unlike ballet, for instance).

When I attended my first belly dance classes in Sydney, I was mystified to find that the belly was never mentioned. In fact I was taught that all hip movements were generated by the knees - the "tucked pelvis" was mentioned at the start of the class, but otherwise the abdominal muscles were never mentioned except in belly rolls/undulations. We were encouraged to dance with our muscles relaxed and "pulling up" in the tummy muscles was discouraged.

So I worked hard to unlearn the use of those muscles in hip work (which I'd learned in jazz ballet)...

I moved on to another school - still no mention of the abdominal muscles. I mentioned this to a teacher once - her response was that "we don't teach the use of the abdominal muscles until the Advanced class". I began to notice that some professional bellydancers let their stomachs hang out unattractively while dancing, and began to believe that belly dance technique was seriously flawed!

Since then, I've studied with dancers who trained overseas, and in Queensland and WA and - surprise! - they do place emphasis on keeping the core turned on to protect the back, and using the abdominal muscles to move the hips. And I notice that when I see Queensland or Perth dancers perform, they have taut mid-sections and much better control.

Although there are many belly dancers in Sydney, most of the local dancers ultimately come from a few major schools. I can only assume that somewhere in the transmission down the generations of dancers, the information got lost in Sydney where it didn't elsewhere - like Chinese whispers.

Edit: I should say that this doesn't apply to every Sydney dancer, by any means, nor to every school.
 
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walladah

New member
I think that the

despise this dance suffers from affects the quality of dancers and teachers. There are people who believe that once you have everything a woman has, this is enough to bellydance!

Which makes many people believe that you are professional dancer and teacher once you say so, or at least, you wear a costume with beads and sequins...

The curious thing is why so many women accept and reproduce this despise: they accept as bellydance any anti-aesthetic series of movement and they are happy to say "i have had bellydance lessons" irrespective of whether they have learned anything at all, or whether they have been trained in a way that permits them to express themselves, even in simple moves...

I think that this despise permits everyone to be lazy... i have heard female teachers and dancers despising male bellydancers for being men ("they cannot teach you, they cannot dance, they lack what a woman has") although those male dancers were excellent in their dance, very educated in middle eastern culture and with a vision about what they danced and taught to others...

I am afraid that a woman's art, attract emphasis on "woman" and not on "art".

Maybe this explains that i 've met not only 6-week wonders, but also 2-weekend-workshop wonders as well...
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Considering the skills and experience of many dancers today, I often feel like I should give up teaching since I'm an over the hill wonder myself. In a larger market in a larger city, I wouldn't even try to compete. In my small community, I'm content with my niche, but wish there was someone nearby for me to take lessons from and to send my students to when they outgrow me.
 

walladah

New member
Shanazel, i understand your worries

but the discussion is not about teachers who worry whether they can offer to their students the best available in bellydance, but we discuss about dancers and teachers who do not worry at all!

You are obviously a very good teacher, if you place yourself with modesty at... the student's level when compared to great dancers we all watch on videos or at great events.

You may be sure that the 6-weeks-wonders do not spend time getting updates about oriental dance or to watch videos from abroad or communities far from their own. And those same "wonders" do get mad if you ever dare, as a student, to ask: "how can i do this move, i have seen it on youtube video XYZ" - because they will never accept that they need to study the move and teach it at the next lesson...

those are the same teachers who will never accept that their students have outgrew them or that they might need to see another style than the one they teach (quite opposite to you then!) and they keep information about other teachers in their area and about workshops secret, to hide their own incompetence...

i have had the great chance to study oriental dance with great teachers and guess what? the better and more experienced the teacher,
the more open-minded she/he is about other teachers around,
the more receptive they are when they see that their students study with other teachers to learn more styles than the ones they teach,
the more ready they are (this is amazing!) to learn from their students
and the more ways they give you to study things they might have never seen anywhere, but once a student asks, they provide all kinesiological means to get the student advanced at points the good teacher had never thought on its own...
and they always say: i am still learning!

6-weeks-wonders usually cannot stand to study with such teachers...
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
but the discussion is not about teachers who worry whether they can offer to their students the best available in bellydance, but we discuss about dancers and teachers who do not worry at all!

You are obviously a very good teacher, if you place yourself with modesty at... the student's level when compared to great dancers we all watch on videos or at great events.

You may be sure that the 6-weeks-wonders do not spend time getting updates about oriental dance or to watch videos from abroad or communities far from their own. And those same "wonders" do get mad if you ever dare, as a student, to ask: "how can i do this move, i have seen it on youtube video XYZ" - because they will never accept that they need to study the move and teach it at the next lesson...

those are the same teachers who will never accept that their students have outgrew them or that they might need to see another style than the one they teach (quite opposite to you then!) and they keep information about other teachers in their area and about workshops secret, to hide their own incompetence...

i have had the great chance to study oriental dance with great teachers and guess what? the better and more experienced the teacher,
the more open-minded she/he is about other teachers around,
the more receptive they are when they see that their students study with other teachers to learn more styles than the ones they teach,
the more ready they are (this is amazing!) to learn from their students
and the more ways they give you to study things they might have never seen anywhere, but once a student asks, they provide all kinesiological means to get the student advanced at points the good teacher had never thought on its own...
and they always say: i am still learning!

6-weeks-wonders usually cannot stand to study with such teachers...

:clap::clap: This says it all.
 

Amulya

Moderator
I moved on to another school - still no mention of the abdominal muscles. I mentioned this to a teacher once - her response was that "we don't teach the use of the abdominal muscles until the Advanced class". I began to notice that some professional bellydancers let their stomachs hang out unattractively while dancing, and began to believe that belly dance technique was seriously flawed!

I had a teacher like that too once, she said you should always leave the belly relaxed, not attractive indeed!

I also have heard many complaints about a dancing school (not naming where, because it will be obvious who they are) where they never explain HOW to do movements. I had some students who came from that school. The idea behind this is to keep students longer at the school.

I have a different method, I believe in getting results with students asap, so they feel good about themselves even if they are simple movements, but they can at least do a bit of dancing. It's amazing how fast people can learn to shimmy, but in the classes I went to as a student that took ages.
 

Darshiva

Moderator
I could almost quote Amulya word for word, although with the exception of the instruction to relax the belly.

Six week wonders give me the jeebies, especially if they don't learn how to be better dancers/teachers as time goes on. I feel that is what disrespects students & gives our dance a bad public rep (along with the 'sexydance' thing).
 

da Sage

New member
Considering the skills and experience of many dancers today, I often feel like I should give up teaching since I'm an over the hill wonder myself. In a larger market in a larger city, I wouldn't even try to compete. In my small community, I'm content with my niche, but wish there was someone nearby for me to take lessons from and to send my students to when they outgrow me.

I think there is always a place for good, dance-centered and student-centered teachers, whether they are over-the-hill or surprisingly young. Also, even "top" teachers are not necessarily the right fit for every student. Thanks for continuing to teach, and sharing the love of dance with those who seek it!:):cool:
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
Considering the skills and experience of many dancers today, I often feel like I should give up teaching since I'm an over the hill wonder myself. In a larger market in a larger city, I wouldn't even try to compete. In my small community, I'm content with my niche, but wish there was someone nearby for me to take lessons from and to send my students to when they outgrow me.

Well, that's a load of bunk! The ones who have been dancing the longest have the most to share! I think it's those ridiculous western beliefs that the older must be replaced by the newer, but what experience do they have? Sure, they know some of the newer stuff, but there are things only someone with experience and longevity could know. In fact, especially in this dance, the older and more experienced a dancer is, the richer her dancing is. I'd love to take classes with "the old school teachers" if I could find one.
 
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