Practise Tips

by Mayada

reprinted from Spring 2005 issue of MID-BITS Magazine

Practise really does make perfect. Extraordinary bellydancers usually got that way from hard work and lots of practice! I remember when I first started bellydance... I practised like a maniac! I would come home from school, set my narrow, full-length mirror up on the couch in the living room, clear all the furniture away, and work on the new moves I had just learnt at class that week. Or copy choreographies and moves from a video of my then-teacher and bellydance idol, Yasmina Ramzy. Or videotape my dancing and critique it... Still it took me a long time to perfect the basics, and to this day - eleven years later - I still practise my technique. It's a never-ending process... you can always learn more and be ever-evolving as a dancer! If you want to really maximize weekly bellydance classes (either private or group classes), you should definitely add some practise time between classes. Following ~ tips on getting the most out of your practices…

CREATE A PRACTISE-FRIENDLY SPACE

The bigger the production to clear a room and set it up for practise, the less likely you are to practise frequently. So make it easy: pick the most open and clear room with the least amount of furniture and stuff in the middle of it, then try to buy a fair-sized mirror and put it up permanently in that room as decoration, but also as your dance studio accessory! It was frustrating trying to watch myself dance in a cramped full-length bedroom mirror, and soon my mom made life easier by buying a big mirror and putting it up in the dining room. It was terrific to be able to move around freely and still check out what I was doing in the mirror. And it looked so nice that it's still up there long after I moved out!

UNDERSTAND THINGS AT CLASS!

If you don't understand something about a step or a choreography in class, make sure to ask the teacher for clarification (other students probably have the same problem and would love an explanation). Also, often you can do a step fine at class, but then when you get home and want to practise it, you don't remember how to execute it. I make a point of letting students do a step on their own after I've done it with them for a while to make sure they can remember what's happening without me there! After class, before leaving the studio, try to do all the new steps you've learnt that day, and if there are any problems, or you can't do one, approach the teacher and ask her if you're doing it right, or if she can show it to you again so you can practise it that week. Try to remember any comments your teacher makes to you personally... often these are the main things you'll need to focus on when you're practising on your own. For example, if your instructor tells you your arms are limp and you need to keep them up more, that's something you can go home and pin-point on your own - really concentrating on your arms while practising.

WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN

Start a bellydance notebook. Use it to jot down notes about what steps you learn each week in class, comments your teacher makes, choreography, and more. Try to write things that have to do with a certain class during or right after the class while it's all still fresh in your mind. You can also keep track of what your practise sessions include, your bellydance goals and plans, ideas for new steps, choreographies, costumes, and anything else that inspires you (like a picture of your favourite bellydancer, teacher, etc.)

HAVE A PLAN

Have a plan for each practise session. Practises often are too short because the dancer doesn't really know what to work on, so they dance around a bit, maybe work on a move or two, and then find some other thing around the house they feel needs to be done. Set aside half an hour or an hour and make yourself practise for that alotted amount of time. Maybe you need to work on two hard steps that you learned in class, then practise a choreography five times, then work on improvising to a taksim. Make a plan with goals like these, and stick to it. Also plan how many times you'd like to rehearse each week and set a time for it. Don't just say oh, I need to practise more... be specific! "I will practise three times a week for 45 minutes each time - Monday, Wednesday, & Fridays after the kids have gone to bed at 9:00pm." Then let your family know your plan so they can leave you alone to practise at those times and encourage you to get with it when you don't feel like practising!

VIDEOTAPE & AUDIENCE

Two ways to get feedback in your practise sessions are videotaping yourself and seeing what you think needs work, or letting someone watch you dance and hearing their truthful feedback. Try videotaping yourself either doing different technique, performing a choreography that you're working on, or improvising (depending on what your goals are). Watch the tape many times and take notes on everything you like and don't like. I recently did this and these were my notes to myself: work on arms, awkward looking feet in backward figure eight flicks, looking down too much, good big shimmy, need to do more undulating movements. Then I went to work on fixing these things! Alternately you can have your friend, husband, family member, etc. watch you dance sometime and ask for their honest opinion... if anything looked funny or awkward, what looked good, what they thought of it all. It's interesting what you can get out of this: these people usually aren't bellydance specialists, so they lend a whole new outlook on things because of that! I often ask my mom, grama, or husband to look at new choreographies of mine before I perform them and I get really interesting feedback that I would probably never have come up with myself!

THE MORE THE MERRIER!

One way to force yourself to practise and have fun doing it is to arrange with a fellow bellydance student - or maybe a few - to meet weekly and practise stuff together. It's best if everyone's at a similar level so you can work on things that benefit all.

INSPIRATIONS

Watching videotapes of your favourite dancers, trying instructional videos for a new outlook on different steps and fresh combos, and attending live bellydance shows are all great ways to inspire you to practise more and work harder at perfecting your craft. A bellydance friend of mine and I were out to see a bellydance show the other night, the dancer was so great and it was so nice to see that it really re-inspired us to work on our bellydance and tighten up our technique. Always keep yourself excited about learning and growing as a bellydancer!