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How to Build Your Dance Skills to Become a Better Dancer
How do you become a more skilful dancer? Practice! But not just any practice, rather, deliberate practice appropriate for your skill level. In this blog, I’ll explore practice strategies you can use to increase your dance expertise beyond your current skill level. Continue reading
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A Guide to Belly Dance Styles
Are there different belly dance styles? I thought it was all ‘belly dance’! In this post, you will learn about the different styles of belly dance and how they relate to each other. I hope this will help you as a student inform which styles of belly dance you would like to learn. Continue reading
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How to Practice Dance: A Review of ‘Effortless Mastery’ by Kenny Werner
Effortless Mastery is a book written by Kenny Werner, an American jazz pianist and educator. It’s about overcoming dysfunctional fear-based practising and playing to achieve effortless mastery. So what can a book about music teach us about dance? In this blog post, you will learn practical strategies from Warner’s book to build your personal dance practice. You can apply this to start your journey towards ‘effortless mastery’ in dance. Continue reading
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A Guide to Musical Instruments in Middle Eastern Belly Dance Music
What instruments are commonly used in belly dance music? There are lots of them! In this post, I give common Middle Eastern examples of each of the three types of instruments (winds, strings, and percussion). Plus a sample video clip so you can hear what it sounds like and see how it’s played. I hope this will help you better hear the instruments as you dance. And that you can use this to deepen your belly dance music interpretation. Continue reading
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What is Belly Dance? A Guide to Key Characteristics
In this post, I explore the key characteristics of belly dance across its different styles. I hope that this can help you as a student to chose which characteristics are important to you. And this can inform which styles of belly dance you would like to learn. Continue reading
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The Simsimiyya Music of Port Said: Evoking a Sense of Place
In this post, I explore the sense of place that music can evoke. When I listen to Middle Eastern belly dance music, I don’t usually think too hard about the locality it comes from. But in this YouTube video of musicians from Port Said playing on the beach, I feel a strong sense of place. Continue reading
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How to Apply Laban’s Planes of Movement to Improve Belly Dance Movement Isolation
What do Laban’s planes of movement have to do with belly dance? Let’s start with the general (Cartesian co-ordinates) and then make it more specific to the human body (anatomical planes). And then apply it to dance (Laban’s planes of movement). By applying these concepts to your belly dance practice, you can improve your movement isolation, a key feature of belly dance. Continue reading