A wiehoe moment!

[Nejmeh]

I consider myself at most as a dedicated student. I love this dance, I have a great time and I want as much info as possible. But I still don`t get the new moves right away(I have to practice them at home or my body refuses), I am no good at sharp moves and most importantly, I just don`t remember choreo`s.

Now I am in a class with a girl who has been dancing way before I started. I admired her (still do btw) so much, if I could only become as good as her... So, we were practising a choreo last night and I was behind her. I felt that to be safe spot as she would know how the choreo went. No she did not! When I finally stopped watching her, for me it actually went ok!

This probably sounds very bitchie, but it was a very 'wow, I can do it on my own' moment for me! I still find her such a beautifull dancer,but it makes me feel confident I seem to be slowly creeping up to her level! :dance:

 

[Shanazel]

Not to disparage you or your advances, but it's an iffy deal to compare yourself with another student, especially if you are measuring your advancement by that person's yard stick. Measure your gains as a dancer by looking at how far you've come from where you were and it will tell you a lot more and be considerably more accurate. Remember the person you're comparing yourself to is probably on a dynamic learning curve as well. People learn at different speeds and have different strengths. Your gift may be an excellent memory for choreographed movement. Her gift may be for improvisation.

I go a long way to avoid performing in a choreographed dance because it really sucks to be the teacher AND the one who consistently screws up the choreography. One of my beginning students remembers every move in every dance- unfortunately she can't always manage to perform the moves correctly.

Rejoice in your advances, work on your lags, and be your own measuring stick.

 

[Daimona]

Brilliantly said, Shanazel! Rep is coming your way!

I could also add that apart from choregraphy vs improvisation, different people remember different parts of a chorepgraphy better than other. When my group is repeating an old choreography, we remember different parts and hopefully we have the whole piece covered in the end (if not, we must wait until the next class and I've brought my notes on it).

Apart from that I'm in with Shan being the choreographer not even remembering her own choreographies (except from when we actually have performed it a couple of times and knowing the music in and out, up and down) and screwing things up both in class and on stage...

 

[Chani]

You do sound dedicated. It's great that you can feel your dancing level improving, however, I agree that it's best not to compare but aim to be your best and aim to improve upon that all the time. She might have had something on her mind last night or have been tired or feeling a bit unwell. She may be working on numerous new chories this week simultaneously whereas you might only have the one or two to focus on.

I have remembered chories sometimes where more experienced dancers in my class have been forgetting but that only meant one thing - I remembered a bit of chorie that night when they were forgetting that bit. My teachers and the more experienced dancers in my school often forget parts of the chorie and I figure one reason is that they have done so many, their heads are full of them, whereas I can count the chories I have learned on my hands.

I don't have a great memory and for that reason I take notes in class and when I get home always try to review what we have learned. As a result I am often the one who remembers the chorie the best and the teacher and other students will ask me how it goes but obviously they are executing the moves better and with more style that I could. It does feel good to be helpful with remembering the chorie though because I often rely on them to help me out with the actual dancing. As a lesser dancer I also try to be very helpful in other ways - setting up, packing up, bringing back up music to performances just in case, helping with costume changes, handing out flyers etc. That way I feel like I am pulling my weight.

Also, other more experienced dancers than I often don't have the chorie memorised early in the piece but I notice always have it down by the performance whereas I have to get an earlier start on the piece or I won't be able to pull it off on the night.

And you can do it on your own. I often use my classmates to cue me and find it harder to practice on my own but as you have found out you can get into trouble even when relying on other dancers, even better dancers, because we all forget parts sometimes.

 

[Aniseteph]

I agree measuring yourself against anyone else is unreliable, but I think you can get a nice reminder of how far you have come by some of those dodgy comparisons. Not in a serious assessment way, or to put down the other dancer, but just as a nudge to make you think "hey, I can do some of this now!".

 

[Nejmeh]

Good advice, but it`s difficicult though to measure my own achievements as for me, I don`t see them. My teacher is such a sweety, she does point out good aspects, but sometime I`ve got the feeling she is just making me feel more comfortable *just decided that from now on I am going to tape my practise, it can`t be I`ve been standing still the last 3 years*

I`m pretty sure though it had nothing to do with my abilities to do choreo`s...seriously, this was the first time I wasn`t focused on what everyone else was doing to see if I was doing the same, I low choreo`s!

It was really like antiseph discribed it, 'hey I can do this!':dance:

 

[LadyLoba]

I saw this original post a bit differently...to me it seems like what you did was realize that everybody...even a more advanced dancer who you look up to...can have an off day, or have some parts of the dance she is not wonderful at. It sounds to me like you're a person who can't see the good in your own dancing, who thinks "Everybody else is perfect and I fall short." I should know...I see everything about myself that way.

I think it's good that you had a moment where you could see that things are not so absolute...and that you have the potential to be as good as this more advanced dancer you admire....that it is not unattainable for you.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not disagreeing with what others said....it is important to make sure you're monitoring yourself, so you know whether or not you are actually getting better....and not just noting the times you do better than someone else....but I really don't think you're doing that. You sound like a nice, humble person.

 

[gisela]

I agree with everybody (blaha blaha, how uncontroversial :lol
that the best thing is to compare with oneself and not others etc, but... I certainly understand that one DO compare oneself to the others in class. I do that all the time. That doesn't mean that I don't notice my own progress or no-progress, or that I would ever say anything to anyone in class about it. I think it is quite all right to have some people in class you look up to and admire, not just the teacher.
It can of course be negative to compare oneself but I read Nejmeh's post as positive.

 

[LadyLoba]

For a second I thought you were laughing at me...then I reread it and realized you were laughing at yourself for saying that

I can't even follow a sentence....I must need chocolate...

 

[Nejmeh]

I seriously need to focus on how I put things into words and be more clear. Sorry, its a bit of language barrier I guess.

Ll thank you for the compliment!

 

[LadyLoba]

Don't worry Nejmeh...you should have seen what I wrote before I realized nobody was even talking to me LOL

I think we understood...and I think you are probably doing a lot better than you're giving yourself credit for. If you're ever not sure on something...I'm a Beginner...I probably have the equivalent of one 6 week introduction to belly dance class..so if I were in a class it would be Beginner II.

But there are a LOT of women on here who are real dancers...and very nice about helping newer students.

 

[Belly Love]

I think it's good that you try to better yourself & challenge yourself. Everyone is different, if it takes admiring another student to drive yourself to be better, I don't think there is anything wrong with that.