Sensuality in Dance ?

khanjar

New member
Quite simply, how to dance sensually ?

How would instructors on here teach sensual dancing ?

And of those that do try, how successful are you with your students regarding this of which I am understanding is not as easy as it seems ?

For the opposite of sensuality is fear and fear most of us experience for one reason or another which hinders our dancing as well as other aspects of our lives, where I understand it is common with dancers, belly dancers, perhaps particularly British belly dancers that we fear showing our feelings in public or just generally fear making an ass of ourselves in public which bears down to confidence and there the lack of it and so we hinder ourselves through perhaps irrational fear, but understandable fear as society is not exactly promoting

But of accomplished dancers, if they care to advise how do you dance sensually, is there something you think to feel to dance this way or is it you are totally motivated by your surroundings and where surroundings aren't ideal, how do you do it, is there a place you go to in your mind to feel what is not apparent where you are performing in order to perform at one's sensual best ?

So, any tips on how to dance sensually ?
 

Dunyah

New member
Slow down and really FEEL the music and the movements and enjoy the dancing. Imagine you are smelling a fragrant rose, dipping your hands in honey, moving your arms through warm water. Be comfortable with your own body and love what it can do. Have a few big accent moves like the big hip circle or a layback that allow you to move very slowly and savor the musical moment.

Those would be my thoughts. I don't like it when dancers try too hard to be sexy, not trying is sexier and more beautiful in my opinion.
 

khanjar

New member
Sexy - sensual, is it the same ?

I think not as sensuality to me is a response to the culmination of what the senses experience and in dance to me sensual is mostly slow as in savouring the experience of the senses as if they were sensors.
 

Darshiva

Moderator
Sexual and sensual are two very different things, and much like exotic and erotic they tend to get mixed up.

Sensual is about the senses, so to bring sensuality to your dance, do some exersizes in isolating the senses.

For sight, use your gaze to direct attention.

For sound, close your eyes and let your body respond to the music.

For touch, slow down each move until it feels like it is going to fall apart, and let it flow on into itself or on to the next move.

For smell, put on some perfume, light some incense and follow the scents as they waft and flow.

For taste, well, it's probably better to leave that one out of it, lest you end up licking audience members or troupemates. :p
 

khanjar

New member
It was during the sensuality exercise that even with lights dimmed it was difficult to be sensual in that all technique was somehow forgotten where I was aware what movement I do when like that is more tai chi than belly dance because when like that my eyes are closed and they are in normal class often anyway.

But technique forgotten, I wasn't the only one were I did say at home in practise and not as I listen to middle eastern music most, when I am on my own I dance where I am aware my dance is more natural on my own and technique is there, the full repertoire at my disposal where it seems it is clamouring for use, but dancing at home on my own with no one watching the music is not outside of me, the music is everywhere and I am moving with the music, not in response to it. If I could do that for others I am sure things might be different, but of us all there at that class we all had the same problem; we feel scared of what viewers might think in that we are not comfortable in showing our feelings to others, where we wondered is this a cultural thing, where we all knew with British we have a stiff upper lip we don't want.

Our teacher is french she was born into sensuality as the french are where even their language is sensual as with me when I speak french of which I know little I feel it in the language, french is a langage like not any other that I have tried except perhaps for a bit of Italian.

But sensuality, it's not sexuality I know that but it is I assume that when some see others being sensual they see sex where perhaps what they see is more about them than what performers perform for ot is very true, those that have their needs met can see art not porn.
 

Darshiva

Moderator
You're a beginner still (not a complete newbie but a beginner none the less) from what I understand. The important thing is that you are responding to the music. Learn the moves during drill time and learn how to hear the music and respond to it during dance time. The two will merge more as you become more comfortable with bellydancing, but don't force it. Let it come naturally.

Sometimes your teacher will encourage you to do more with the moves or call you out on your posture and this is to train you into a more middle-eastern way of dancing to the music. This is what I do during faff time, but the important thing is learning how to respond to the music in a natural way. You can't expect to know how to do everything all at once. :)

By the way, it sounds like your new teacher is a keeper. Congrats. :)
 

khanjar

New member
Oh yes the teacher is a keeper for sure, she an admirer of the golden age of belly dance the old sticky classics where a lot of the recordings we use are crackly from their time but an age away from now to a time almost in fantasy where the emphasis is not always the heartbeat the drums but the melody and how it makes one feel.

But yes I am still a beginner, yeah I know the moves and some I can execute with absolute precision and I can even follow precisely in class, that's easy, anyone can do that, for that is the absolute basics for this dance, to get to the next stage. But it is now the real education starts for the music is everything, one has to learn how to feel music and translate that feeling into dance and that is not exactly that easy for the stuff that belly dance training rips from where we don't know but makes us in a sense face our demons is very powerful, even scarily powerful, the likes of which we may not encounter in normal life, which makes me wonder if dance, this dance perhaps is for the purposes of training us to be human ?

There are plenty of wooden dancers about, you tube is full of them for anyone can learn to dance to say numbers, but not everyone learns to feel to dance, where I understand feelings is where it is at as feeling is emotive and emotion is the truth of life, what we feel in our existence be it the dance floor or other.

But yes our teacher for as long as she will put up with me and my peculiarities, I shall stay there as I believe she has a lot to teach; Miss belly dance UK 2011.
 

Dunyah

New member
I think the sensuous dancing you seek happens when you are alone because you are not "thinking" so much as feeling and doing. When the mind kicks in and starts with "how will others judge me?" you've lost a lot of the feeling and gone into thinking. Right?

Yes, sensuality is different from sexuality, however, seeing an attractive dancer moving in a sensuous way is sexy, I think. Not sexual, which is blatantly meant to arouse. but sexy.
 

Kashmir

New member
I'm not sure if "sensuality" is actually what you are aiming for. Certainly I have never made that a goal. What I aim for is that feeling of being in the music. Taken to its conclusion it is tarab - but there is much to be said for the journey as well as the destination.

Some time back - either on this forum or BHuz - there was a thread that spun off from advice on practicing music. Basically there are two distinct practice modes. In one you drill technique (mindfully) until good technique is automatic. The other involves letting the technique bubble through as you immerse youself in the music. (Some referred to this as left brain and right brain practice - which is a slightly inaccurate cliche but might help). Basically you need to do both - but initially do one or the other. That is, as a beginner do not think about your technique when you are practicing expression. As your technique improves this will naturally flow into your dance. Just feel what the music says to you.
 

Zumarrad

Active member
At the risk of sounding arrogant, I am often described as quite a sensual dancer. To me, what makes you that way is a) strong flexible core and b) following through and finishing movements. It's about feeling WITH the body. Being aware of your body, your feet, your hands, the lot, and enjoying it. Always flowing; not stopping hard, then continuing a movement. Moving the movement around inside your body, extending it, bringing it back.

I don't teach it. If I am ever in a position of coaching someone to make their performance better, that tends to be the sort of thing I focus on. But I'm not about telling people "how" to be "sensual". Everyone has their own kind of sensuality, and I would rather make it simply about them enjoying THEIR bodies in a way that is good for them, rather than the way I do.

Really it's about enjoying your body and being in it. It's that simple. And that hard.
 

AndreaSTL

New member
For me the dance is not a sensual thing but a soulful thing. It reflects who you are and how you feel. It can show happiness, sadness, aggression, timidity, playfulness, and seriousness. How does that particular music move you? How do you feel it?

One of the things I most love about this dance is how differently everyone interprets the same music. Even the same dancer will not approach a piece of music the same way they would have ten years ago. Life has happened, and chances are they are a different person now. If you are not a sensual person or not comfortable exposing your sensuality to an audience of strangers it's not likely to come out in a performance. It doesn't make you a bad dancer at all. If you want sensuousness as a feeling to come out in your dance then you have to change yourself to feel OK with doing that. You can do the movements over and over, but without the spirit it's just physical movement that may or may not be interpreted as sensual depending on the audience member's point of view.
 

khanjar

New member
Class is different from home, as said at home I can fluidly move and the technique is begging to be used and mostly when I dance at home it is eyes closed where one is moving within the music what I liken to moving meditation as it is that blissful. But in class so many things come to haunt, number one that dancing for others where my experience is technique is forgotten and it feels as if the music is moving faster than I am capable of moving.

Another said to me try forgetting where you are and think of home when you dance and see if that improves anything any, I shall have to try.

But sensual is it soulful, I believe it is as sensual in my understanding is a culmination of what the senses cause the self to perceive where it could even be mixed with other stuff within us for the dance to be even spiritual.

My issue I think is a lack of self confidence for it is true I am not that comfortable in my own skin and so I understand where I am not confident murphy's law come out to play, what can go wrong will.
 

Zumarrad

Active member
It may help to take gendered issues out of your body as much as you possibly can. Sensual is not about genitalia. Though of course genitals are part of our bodies. Think about things that are pleasurable that happen with the body that aren't sex: the taste of your favourite fruit, the feeling of warm water on your body, the sensation of your feet rolling as they step across the floor, the way your breath tastes... all and any physical sensation you like. Get to like how your body feels. To hell with what it looks like. This is the key.
 

Yame

New member
Sensuality is in the eye of the beholder. If you are confident with yourself while dancing, if you can dance well, if you are one with the music, if you are expressive... someone is bound to think your dance is sensual. But I wouldn't actively aim for sensuality, specifically.
 
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