Is there a secret to slow, serpentine movements????

[antares]

No secret, just long, thoughtful, careful hours of practice. A few of my hardest tasks as a teacher: 1)convincing my students to SLOW DOWN and
2) convincing them to be precise in practicing new movements, and 3) convincing them they will not commit a movement to body memory by practicing it half a dozen times or so.

HOWEVER... you can try adding sour cream if you think that will help.

I have noticed that a lot of students have problems with dancing slowly (when music calls for it) Last week i began attending a three year long bellydance teacher's course/bellydance perfectioning course (in order to be able to make a beautiful performance as professional bellydancer and/or teach bellydance) Sorry for my English but i hope you understand what kind of course i mean. Students are suppossed to have a solid base, thus.
On the first day, our teacher had us make all kind of isolations, movements, etc. She wanted of course to evaluate our skill degree since we came from all different schools and see where we had difficulties so that she could correct them. The fact is that she had to correct a lot of students from dancing "snaky" movements WAY too fast. Some of them she had to correct almost constantly. I'm happy to say she did not have to correct me in fact, i loooove slow sultry movements and one of my dreams is to dance a very beautiful taxim PROPERLY.
Everybody is, of course, free of having her own opinion. But i hate it seen hyperkinetic bellydancers, since it looks so ugly and hectic. Of course, there are exceptions, when music is very fast, etc. And also when you dance a very dynamic drum solo. But not too fast please ....... Let your public (and yourself) have a break from time to time. There is nothing like changing the pace of your performance from time to time (when it fits in the music, of course)
Anyway, i really understand that having to correct your students so often is a bit annoying for you as teachers.

[Shanazel]

Anyway, i really understand that having to correct your students so often is a bit annoying for you as teachers.

Nah, it's just part of the job. Sooner or later I get 'em to the point where all I have to do is look at an erring dancer over the top of my glasses and frown a bit. Wish I could raise one eyebrow as well...

[Mya]

Nah, it's just part of the job.

So true - and i'm yet to find a feeling as satisfying as when a student realises her own mistake and fixes it without me even having time to think about correcting her.

[PriscillaAdum]

You mean you can't? How can one hope to ever be a good bellydance instructor if one can't shimmy with one's eyebrows??

Regards
Priscilla

Wish I could raise one eyebrow as well...

[Shanazel]

My tawdry little secret is out. I cannot shimmy my eyebrows. Do you think I should resign and devote my life to good works to atone for all these years of dancing a lie?

[PriscillaAdum]

Nahhh. Just buy a video on eyebrow shimmies. There's probably 1001 different types, I think. After you watch it a couple of times...you'll be ready to teach them in your next class!

My tawdry little secret is out. I cannot shimmy my eyebrows. Do you think I should resign and devote my life to good works to atone for all these years of dancing a lie?

[Shanazel]

Good idea. I can already shimmy my eyeballs, but somehow it just doesn't look exotic or alluring, and it sort of gives me a headache.

[cathy]

What about the Persian lip quiver? Or would that signify a teacher who had lost control and was about to throw in the towel?

Seriously, very good advice about slowing down and practice. I recently read that a metronome is good for practicing shimmy. You move it up (faster) only one click at a time, and keep going at that tempo until it's on automatic. Somewhere I read (Bhuz maybe) students ask for a shortcut but this is the short cut--much faster than praying for a miracle.

And whoever said that flexible people need to learn how to put limits on it and use muscular control to avoid sliding out to the maximum--very true too. I have not only really wide hips but extreme side-to side hip flexibility, so much so that either side-to-side shimmy or maya say can be done to an absurd degree and I have to use control to keep it more centered.

I also really agree about precision and control being the opposite of mushy. No matter how fast you should be able to identify what the dancer is doing, otherwise it is imprecise and mushy.

Cathy

[Shanazel]

What about the Persian lip quiver? Or would that signify a teacher who had lost control and was about to throw in the towel?

[Jane]

I just got this Mystic Belly Dance dvd by Neena and Veena twins (this is the best of the videos I have of them, I don't like the others that much) and the movements are really very slow I think I got a little bit impatient and bored, hahaha!

I bought two N&V DVDs for $6 US. They have a Egyptian style dancer named Louchia, in the bonus section I think, who I think is a beautiful dancer.