Lightbulb Moments

[Yame]

Let's talk about those moments that had the power to change our belly dance experience forever:

What were some of your favorite "lightbulb moments" throughout your journey with belly dance? How did the moment come about (Were you watching a video, practicing in front of the mirror, talking to a friend? Was it a correction from a teacher, mentor, or workshop instructor?)? How did it change you as a dancer? How does it continue to influence you?

I got the idea for this thread from this quote:

One of the best itty-bitty corrections I ever got was in my 4th workshop with Hadia (Yeah, I'm a fan) and I was thinking I was all hot diggity professional artist, and she points to me out of the crowd of about 100 and says "no, keep your knees closer together." That one simple correction made a HUGE difference in my line and in the presentation of a lot of hip work (working on the S curve and all). I STILL think of that correction when I'm practicing in the mirror. Without that, I maybe would have known something was kind of "off," but it might have taken me years to figure out what it was, if I ever did.

Personally, I've had so many lightbulb moments I've lost count, but the one that came to mind as I was reading that statement was a private class I was taking with Kahina on hip techniques.

I seemed to already know most of what she was teaching or to be picking it up fairly quickly. Meanwhile, she kept correcting my arm frames. During the entire class, 90% of the corrections I got were on arms, even though we weren't even working on arms (we were just using them to frame the body).

That was my cue that I *really* should start working on arms... I knew they sucked and kept putting off working on them, but after that class I decided that was it. 1 and a half years later, I'm still working on arms. It's a constant, uphill battle, but at least I know what I want to accomplish with them, how to go about it, and what teachers and inspirations to seek.

 

[Jane]

My light-bulb moments weren't a technique epiphany, but I'll share anyway.

The first time I ever saw someone dancing in Egyptian style. I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like what I'm learning in my belly dance class. I wonder why?" Such was life before the internet. Incidentally, it was A'isha Azar at Azar's restaurant.

My second light-bulb moment was kind of a self revelation. I was thinking about my dancing and I asked myself, "What's Middle Eastern about this?" It was then that I decided I wanted to quit studying American Oriental, Pan Arabic and Tribal stuff and concentrate on native styles instead.

 

[Yame]

My light-bulb moments weren't a technique epiphany, but I'll share anyway.

The first time I ever saw someone dancing in Egyptian style. I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like what I'm learning in my belly dance class. I wonder why?" Such was life before the internet. Incidentally, it was A'isha Azar at Azar's restaurant.

My second light-bulb moment was kind of a self revelation. I was thinking about my dancing and I asked myself, "What's Middle Eastern about this?" It was then that I decided I wanted to quit studying American Oriental, Pan Arabic and Tribal stuff and concentrate on native styles instead.

Did you end up studying with A'isha? She seems like a wonderful teacher and resource!

 

[Jane]

Yep. She lives far, but I've picked her brain on the phone for hours, gone to her workshops, read all her publications, and done a private intensive with her. She set me on the path I'm on today.

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

The first time I ever saw someone dancing in Egyptian style. I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like what I'm learning in my belly dance class. I wonder why?" Such was life before the internet. Incidentally, it was A'isha Azar at Azar's restaurant.

Lol -- that was me too, only I had bought one of Morocco's videotapes of Sohair Zaki, and I couldn't figure out why what we were doing in class wasn't what she was doing (which I thought was just the height of awesomeness.)

Another lightbulb moment for me was with Dina, realizing that what she was doing WASN'T a side hip lift, but rather a kind of internal contraction of the ovary (best description someone gave!) that pulled the hip up and kind of into the body. Later this was demonstrated brilliantly on Ranya Renee's baladi dvd, but at the time I was astonished that Dina would do an "improper" hip lift, and decided I loved it and would imitate it. lol.

 

[Ariadne]

For me the first lightbulb moment was when after extensive study of the different styles of dance it hit me that I really am not interested in performing Egyptian style dance at all. I can thank Ranya Renee for that. I was able to get a look at a copy of her Baladi instruction DVD when I was seriously thinking of buying it. She impressed me immensely but it convinced me that that was the opposite direction of where I personally wanted to go.

The next was when I started looking for good examples of Turkish and Vintage Oriental dancers. I knew I was looking for something that was missing in a lot of the dancing I had seen and I noticed that their dancing was a lot simpler then the modern stuff. Then the light bulb went off, the modern style performances are technical rather then expressive! Now I'm not worrying about being able to layer every little thing. Instead I want to learn how to improve to the music in a way that is expressive rather then just imitating the notes; an emotional connection.

I don't suppose anyone knows of an instructor that teaches Turkish/Vintage Oriental dance improve via the net?

 

[Greek Bonfire]

When I finally was able to execute the Egyptian twist. I always loved that move!

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

I don't suppose anyone knows of an instructor that teaches Turkish/Vintage Oriental dance improve via the net?

Ansuya That's what GypsyNet is about.

I wouldn't say she's really "Turkish" style, but she can certainly dance in the Vintage Oriental style, and her emotive improvisation instruction is fantastic.

Ansuya TEACHES a lot of different things -- including some more fusion-type stuff, and she dances just about whatever she feels like, but she's also a TERRIFIC instructor (even of styles and stylizations that you don't usually see her dance) and even being the Egypto-phile I am, I have really learned a lot from her that I do actually apply to my dancing.


Just a thought

 

[BellydancerofWillendorf]

I don't suppose anyone knows of an instructor that teaches Turkish/Vintage Oriental dance improve via the net?

Have you investigated Artemis? She is a master in the Rom/Turkish style and her zill work is amazing!

 

[MissVega]

Oh good topic.

I have them all the time, but a major one was finally getting score sheets and videos back from Belly Dance Nationals (nov 2010) and BDUC (2011). I used the same song for the fusion category at both pf these competitions. Different costume, and the song had to be shortened for BDUC, but you get the jist.

When I finally saw the nationals video i was actually really pleased with it. Other than the ending I couldn't have asked for it to have gone better. My Score was 82%. BDUC my score for the fusion was 96%. HOLY huge improvement right? Then I saw the video and didn't like it nearly as much as I did the performance from nationals. despite the noticable improvement in score, I didn't think it was better, nevermind improvement than the one from Nationals. Aside from the ending, which went better at BDUC.

I realized I appreciate the feedback and find it very useful, but at the end I still stick with my gut feeling, despite the difference in score I would still say that the nationals performance was better and the BDUC one was meh. Moral of the story, listen to all feedback, but stay focused on what MY goals and likes are. I'm not going to change my mind that because of the scores the BDUC performance must have been better. I am sticking to my guns. lol

 

[Darshiva]

First lightbulb moment was in a workshop with Trisnasari (Melbourne based teacher/dancer), which was also one of my first ever workshops. I'd never been corrected on posture (or anything else for that matter - it was all 'follow the bouncing butt & hope for the best') and she corrected me. The lightbulb moment wasn't that 'yay, posture = good' it was 'oh, I LIKE being corrected, this is what learning is all about, I want MORE!' That same workshop I had another bing moment of having been introduced to the concept of layering for the first time ever and it just made sense right from the get go. I'm counting it as a bing moment because NOTHING ever makes sense to me that quickly. EVER!

Another funny bing moment was when we were discussing hand posture on the forum and I was getting into a heated debate with Amulya about Egyptian hand posture and I pulled out my classical videos and had a look at hand posture for the first time. The realisation of not only where the 'oriental style' hand posture came from, but why just popped into my brain fully formed like something from greek mythology.

I've had a billion of them, but none so funny as when I was doing my certificate IV in Lab Skills. I never understood chemistry. It was just fail fail fail the entire time. Nothing ever made sense, no matter how hard I tried. So after what was my fourth go at basic chemistry (thrice at uni) I was listening to the lecturer and writing notes when suddenly it stopped being swahili and suddenly congealed into English. I stood up in the middle of the lecture and said 'Oh finally. This all makes sense now. Thanks' and sat down with a very smug smile on my face.

 

[MissVega]

I've had a billion of them, but none so funny as when I was doing my certificate IV in Lab Skills. I never understood chemistry. It was just fail fail fail the entire time. Nothing ever made sense, no matter how hard I tried. So after what was my fourth go at basic chemistry (thrice at uni) I was listening to the lecturer and writing notes when suddenly it stopped being swahili and suddenly congealed into English. I stood up in the middle of the lecture and said 'Oh finally. This all makes sense now. Thanks' and sat down with a very smug smile on my face.

LOL thank you for sharing that. I had a hard time in Chemistry as well and had some good light bulb moments in chem, although I had a harder time in physics and I still don't feel that my physics light bulb ever went off!

 

[Darshiva]

Physics always made sense for me. I've got a weird brain - the harder something is supposed to be to learn, the higher the likelihood that I'll get it first go. Basic math took me years, Physics - I cracked open my dad's old physics textbook from uni once out of boredom and it all made so much sense. Had no problems doing any of the exercises in the book. Weird.

 

[Marya]

Originally Posted by Jane View Post
My light-bulb moments weren't a technique epiphany, but I'll share anyway.

The first time I ever saw someone dancing in Egyptian style. I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like what I'm learning in my belly dance class. I wonder why?" Such was life before the internet. Incidentally, it was A'isha Azar at Azar's restaurant.

Did you end up studying with A'isha? She seems like a wonderful teacher and resource!

Aisha is the best teacher I have ever had, I live a bit closer than Jane but it still takes be 4 hours to get to Spokane for a private class, in the good weather I try to make it up there once a month. I have been with Aisha for more than 10 years now and the more I study with her the more I learn.

I got to meet Jane in Butte Montana this April!

Marya

 

[shiradotnet]

My first few efforts at creating my own choreographies were to take songs I loved, then fit step combinations to them that I'd learned over the years. That worked, but I felt as though something was missing. They felt kind of stale to me.

And then I had my light bulb moment - instead of just stringing step combinations together, I realized I needed to forget I knew them, and just respond to the music. I loved the spark that my newer efforts acquired as a result.

 

[Aniseteph]

A'isha... . Not so much a lighbulb as a slow dawning; I owe her for getting my thoughts into line on the ...er... broad range of stuff that is presented as belly dance. I would have been confused for a long time without her posts here. Now I can go WTF? in confidence.

And the learning styles she talked about; I've found it so helpful to focus on what works for me. Mine is not the way we are mostly taught in class, so I've learnt to find my own ways to think about things. And provided teacher does not start saying what on earth do you think you are doing?, it's OK.

Definite lightbulb moment from Yasmina of Cairo: hip drops by contracting the butt/upper leg/I don't know the muscle names on the opposite side. It's completely different technique to what I'd been taught and I'd never have worked it out by myself. It looks different, feels different, can be used differently... I had NO IDEA.

Caroline Afifi teaching chonks/ down hips: I'd been taught them straight down, remembered someone here (Kashmir?) saying actually the Soheir Zaki ones are down with some sideways movement (aaargh too much info for my brain and body to work out)... Caroline's explanation and bingo! the penny dropped. It's not just getting the one move, it's the realisation that things you think of as really complicated might actually be quite simple if you look at them the right way.

And Caroline for another one - you don't have to do the I-am-Sad emoting and acting out the lyrics to a sad song. It just made so much sense.

 

[Jane]

I got to meet Jane in Butte Montana this April!

<Waves> Pleasure to meet you too! Loved your dance in the showcase :clap:

 

[Ariadne]

Have you investigated Artemis? She is a master in the Rom/Turkish style and her zill work is amazing!

She doesn't teach online though.

Ansuya That's what GypsyNet is about.

I wouldn't say she's really "Turkish" style, but she can certainly dance in the Vintage Oriental style, and her emotive improvisation instruction is fantastic.

Ansuya TEACHES a lot of different things -- including some more fusion-type stuff, and she dances just about whatever she feels like, but she's also a TERRIFIC instructor (even of styles and stylizations that you don't usually see her dance) and even being the Egypto-phile I am, I have really learned a lot from her that I do actually apply to my dancing.


Just a thought

Thanks Aziyade, that is a good idea. I had avoided even looking at it before but I just need to get over it and figure out how to work it into my finances. It looks like the once a month personal lesson makes the price worth it all by it's self.

 

[Marya]

<Waves> Pleasure to meet you too! Loved your dance in the showcase :clap:

Thank you, I was happy to finally meet you too and I was glad to see you dance from the audience, Aisha loved it too.

Marya

 

[shiradotnet]

The next was when I started looking for good examples of Turkish and Vintage Oriental dancers. I knew I was looking for something that was missing in a lot of the dancing I had seen and I noticed that their dancing was a lot simpler than the modern stuff. Now I'm not worrying about being able to layer every little thing. Instead I want to learn how to improve to the music in a way that is expressive rather then just imitating the notes; an emotional connection.

I don't suppose anyone knows of an instructor that teaches Turkish/Vintage Oriental dance improve via the net?

Maybe you could start with a DVD? That would be something you could keep for a long time, using it over and over, then put away for a while and later get it back out for a refresher.

This one by Artemis Mourat teaches Turkish style: Turkish Style Belly Dance DVD Video Artemis

It's slightly discounted on Amazon: Amazon.com: Turkish Style Belly Dance: Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, Susan Evans: Movies & TV

If the price seems steep to you, maybe you could find someone on bhuz or on my Belly Dance Videos Yahoo Group that would sell you a used copy?

If your focus is more along the line of improvisation with moves you already know rather than studying Turkish style specifically, you might consider Nadira's materials. She offers 3 episodes of FREE podcasts on improvisation, plus an improvisation toolkit video: Taktaba

I hope you find some of these resources helpful!