Irene
New member
Yes, I did - I think!
By the way, Irene, you were one of my zill-seminar participants, weren't you? You didn't tell me, that you already have been giving zill lessons, I was surprised to read about it.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I did come, and I enjoyed it very much, it was so well organized and clarifying etc etc... and most of all I am very happy it was a chance to meet you - I hadn't realized from your posts here that you are such a sweet and wonderful person! If only it wasn't for the total total beginners who got in there - and I cursed myself for not asking Maria about what level it was about.
On the other hand, as I said before, and everyone has written on this thread, it is totally different to know how to play zills as a musicians - as I had been taught. I mean, I have played the zills in student concerts and I played very difficult rhythms like variations and fillings of karsilama etc... - but ask me to play those while dancing and you'll roll on the floor laughing!
When, on this forum, I read about "Arabic technique of playing zills" I didn't realize you meant "the fact that most Arab dancers play just tekadum tekadum" - I thought it was some sort of finger technique or some sort of different method that would help me and I was eager to grasp. That is why I also told about the seminar to Marina who is a professional and was looking forward to something other than what she already knew. I felt bad afterwards towards her. Maybe you do have those "advanced secrets" in your pocket, but you just couldn't show them to a mixed class in which some people had never even put zills in their hands before, 'cause they would get confused with too much new information. I totally understand this! (I'll have to push you in a corner when you next come and get them from you, LOL!)
As for my students... I'm not a full-fledged teacher yet, of course, I have "many breads to eat" as we say in Greece before claiming that. I prepare beginners that want to integrate into an already going class, for instance when they come in February-March and the class has started since September. It would be a problem if they came right in, they would slow down the others and feel lost too. So I take them for some privates before. Same now in the summer, there were some girls who couldn't come to the beginners class because it's too early (5.30) and we said OK, if you like you can have a couple of months' lessons in the summer and then go directly to the second year. I happened to be here in the summer, unfortunately, so I could help them with that. Because they were only three, they advanced much more quickly than a full class of 15 or 20. As you understand, they were total beginners with zills too. To tell the truth, even advanced students in other classes I'm taking are also total beginners with zills, because none of my teachers ever teaches zills. Marina had also asked me, last year, to teach rhythms and zills to her students for a number of lessons.
By the way, I don't understand why ban all other rhythms other than 4/4 for zill playing. If one knows how the rhythm goes, why not? Karsilama, for instance, which I mentioned before, and is 9/8, sounds beautiful with zills, so does chiftetelli (of course this is 8/4 which is similar to 4/4) Why limit ourselves? Is it an unwritten law for Egyptian dancers? I'll have to watch my old Egyptian movie videos again to listen what they do! WHEN I have the time, because right now, September and October, is new student time, and we are loaded with work!!
Anyway, sweet Chryssanthi, let me profit from this chance to tell you again how much I loved meeting you - and I will love meeting you again at the CID conference and at the Morocco seminar. I told her you were coming and she was very glad.
Sorry I have to finish abruptly but they will cut electricity in five minutes because they are doing some work in the building.
Love,
Irene
By the way, Irene, you were one of my zill-seminar participants, weren't you? You didn't tell me, that you already have been giving zill lessons, I was surprised to read about it.[/QUOTE]
Yes, I did come, and I enjoyed it very much, it was so well organized and clarifying etc etc... and most of all I am very happy it was a chance to meet you - I hadn't realized from your posts here that you are such a sweet and wonderful person! If only it wasn't for the total total beginners who got in there - and I cursed myself for not asking Maria about what level it was about.
On the other hand, as I said before, and everyone has written on this thread, it is totally different to know how to play zills as a musicians - as I had been taught. I mean, I have played the zills in student concerts and I played very difficult rhythms like variations and fillings of karsilama etc... - but ask me to play those while dancing and you'll roll on the floor laughing!
When, on this forum, I read about "Arabic technique of playing zills" I didn't realize you meant "the fact that most Arab dancers play just tekadum tekadum" - I thought it was some sort of finger technique or some sort of different method that would help me and I was eager to grasp. That is why I also told about the seminar to Marina who is a professional and was looking forward to something other than what she already knew. I felt bad afterwards towards her. Maybe you do have those "advanced secrets" in your pocket, but you just couldn't show them to a mixed class in which some people had never even put zills in their hands before, 'cause they would get confused with too much new information. I totally understand this! (I'll have to push you in a corner when you next come and get them from you, LOL!)
As for my students... I'm not a full-fledged teacher yet, of course, I have "many breads to eat" as we say in Greece before claiming that. I prepare beginners that want to integrate into an already going class, for instance when they come in February-March and the class has started since September. It would be a problem if they came right in, they would slow down the others and feel lost too. So I take them for some privates before. Same now in the summer, there were some girls who couldn't come to the beginners class because it's too early (5.30) and we said OK, if you like you can have a couple of months' lessons in the summer and then go directly to the second year. I happened to be here in the summer, unfortunately, so I could help them with that. Because they were only three, they advanced much more quickly than a full class of 15 or 20. As you understand, they were total beginners with zills too. To tell the truth, even advanced students in other classes I'm taking are also total beginners with zills, because none of my teachers ever teaches zills. Marina had also asked me, last year, to teach rhythms and zills to her students for a number of lessons.
By the way, I don't understand why ban all other rhythms other than 4/4 for zill playing. If one knows how the rhythm goes, why not? Karsilama, for instance, which I mentioned before, and is 9/8, sounds beautiful with zills, so does chiftetelli (of course this is 8/4 which is similar to 4/4) Why limit ourselves? Is it an unwritten law for Egyptian dancers? I'll have to watch my old Egyptian movie videos again to listen what they do! WHEN I have the time, because right now, September and October, is new student time, and we are loaded with work!!
Anyway, sweet Chryssanthi, let me profit from this chance to tell you again how much I loved meeting you - and I will love meeting you again at the CID conference and at the Morocco seminar. I told her you were coming and she was very glad.
Sorry I have to finish abruptly but they will cut electricity in five minutes because they are doing some work in the building.
Love,
Irene
I'm glad you enjoyed the seminar though, although it was nothing new for you. Actually when we announced the seminar on bellydance.greece, I had written explicitly that it is only for beginners. I had written, that people who are very experienced with zills shouldn't come. But since announcements on bellydance.greece cannot be seen for long time, probably it was gone before anybody red it. I am happy though that we could meet and got to know each other, as well as that I could get to know Marina, who I remember from that show in the past