I critique myself!

I had SUCH an exciting time dancing in Ravia's show this past Saturday; my solo went well and so did the two group numbers I did with my PRISM Dancers. One of my dancers, Siyala, even videotaped my solo. I wasn't really sure how it would go, so I'm really thankful she did this for me. But of course I HAVE to critique it because that's what I do! I'm a good dance and performance coach - I see pretty near everything about a dancer's movements. So let me take some of my own medicine then, shall we?

In the video I'm facing away half the time because of the audience layout - but then that gives me a good view of what's happening from the back, so win-win!

Overall I think it's good, with a lot of nice touches here and there: my use of momentum, graceful arms, warm expression, audience rapport; plus a fairly good use of the space (an awkward long rectangle with people unevenly arranged on three sides). As I watch my performance I can I see how very excited and happy I am (I know I was enjoying it VERY much!).
On the other hand, I also see that quite often I'm not finishing moves; the hip work as well as some of the foot work is unevenly articulated or executed (it appears I'm still unconsiously "saving" my left hip a little); I'm rushing the movement timing a little (similar to not finishing, but different); and the timing of my hip shimmies is not quite even. And of course all those things bother me! LOL - This is what it's like to have a "coach's eye"!!

But okay, for my first solo back, it'll do. My leg's pretty strong now but I know I do tend to be awkward on that side sometimes, and as I saw in the video, I'm still not using both sides exactly the same. Did I mention this leg is now shorter than the other? Oh well - that's a small tradeoff considering that I can walk and dance again!!

Anthea Kawakib

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one show, one costume

Dancing for senior citizens is fun, and they do enjoy the sights and sounds of a bellydance show even though they sometimes don't express it as much as a younger audience. I think that they enjoy seeing dancers so much because of the colorful costumes and happy faces we wear; so for the latest show this past weekend I decided to keep all the dancers onstage throughout the entire show. That is, no costume changes - we just wore one costume through the 30 to 40 minute show (about 8 numbers). Usually we change two or three times, for the different styles of bellydance we do.

So the best choice for an "all-purpose" costume seemed to be beledi or costume dresses, and some of us added Skirt Panels* so we could do the Skirt Combos during the TOBD (Tribal Odyssey) section of the show. Here's a nice shot of our group (PRISM Dancers), several of us dancing together in front while the others are upstage (behind us): 

PRISM Dancers wearing beledi dresses and skirt panels

The dresses were a great all-purpose choice that let us stay in view throughout the show, even when not dancing. Usually I would not recommend dancers to upstage performers, and to stay out of sight, but somehow I felt that in this case the seniors would enjoy seeing as many dancers as possible. And having all the dancers present and experiencing everything together gave us a stronger communal bonding moment too, so it benefited as well.
It's times like this I really feel blessed having this dance in my life! And I'm so happy to share it with others.

*the Skirt Panels DIY tutorial is here on my TOBD blog.

 Anthea / Kawakib
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a performer's awareness: tribal versus oriental

I noticed something unusual while performing lately, about my real-time perceptions onstage and how they differ depending on whether I'm performing "regular" bellydance (choreography or solo improv), or TOBD (Tribal Odyssey Bellydance) group improv. It’s interesting to me because given how many times I’ve performed, it’s surprising to have a new experience. Not that I think I can't learn anything new about performing, I'm not saying that! It’s just that it doesn't happen very often.

I actually only realized this difference in awareness after I saw the ton of photos people posted on facebook and from watching the videos I took. After I saw the photos and videos I realized that while I was performing, I didn’t even notice the people around us - because I don’t remember them - even when they were really close to us! I didn’t even “see” the photographers right in front of us taking photos. I mean, I know I was aware that there were bodies out there around us or in front of the stage, but I didn’t notice what they were doing (or not doing). This is in STARK contrast to how my perceptions are during “oriental” style belly dance, when I’m aware of EVERYTHING.

From my expressions in the photos, of course I look like I’m “performing”, with my usual stage persona in place, smiling and looking at people, but now I realize my focus was really on our group. My eyes are looking and smiling at people, but my mind is on the other dancers!

"What photographer? I only have eyes for Akila!"

Maybe it’s because when you’re doing tribal improvisation you’re so inter-connected with your group and focused on what’s happening between everybody... plus, we were doing our newest feature, Tribal Sword, which none of us are really used to yet. This is reminding me of long, long ago at one of my first performances - actually my first performance for dancers - at a hafla for WAMEDA (Washington Area MidEast Dance Association). I did a short oriental solo I’d created; it went great, was well received, and the video shows me performing just fine, even my face; but afterwards I couldn’t even remember it! So I think something similar is happening, at least right now while we're still new at sword improv; I guess there’s just too much going on to process it all at once. Maybe it's always been like this and I just didn't notice until I saw the photos.
Does this happen to you too?

Anthea / Kawakib
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and THAT's why choreography sucks!

No, I'm kidding of course! I absolutely LOVE a well-made choreography! But sometimes you're left scrambling to adjust the show when one of your performers can't make it - am I right?

That's what just happened to me and my PRISM Dancers. Two days prior to our show at Alhamraa in Charlottesville - half of which was choreographed dances, and the rest group improv bellydance - one of my dancers had to pull out because of health issues. AND, as luck would have it, since I'd planned the show around four dancers, both of our choreographed dances were duets - and now my duet partner would be missing.

So with NO time left for rehearsals, we had to figure out how to adapt the two choreographies. There were two options: take one dancer out and have ONE duet onstage; or make the remaining duet into a trio... somehow.
Now, if it hadn't been for the fact that we were going to a show out of town where people were actually coming to see ME perform, I'd have gone with the first option, and pulled myself out of the two choreographed numbers. But I didn't want to let my wonderful fans down; they're precious supporters whom I hold dear to my heart. So instead, I hung in on those two numbers and probably made them look like what my husband would call a "soup sandwhich" - a mess!
I know I could've replaced one of the dancers and she would've understood, but I wanted my performers to experience all the dancing fun possible, and not miss half the show waiting backstage.

My dancers and I have the attitude that:

1. the show WILL go on,
2. we SHALL do a good performance,
3. AND, we WILL enjoy ourselves onstage.

So, our two choreographed numbers became "trios" - of a sort! I'm sure the staging looked a wee bit messy at times, but that's how it goes. Yes, I know it was really alright - everyone enjoyed it, including us!

Yay, we had fun!

  Anthea / Kawakib
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Dancing in December...

   My PRISM Dancers have another couple of shows coming up in December, a short appearance in a Holiday Show (put on by MFA Studios, where I teach a mixed-level Bellydance Basics class), then one of our favorite events, First Night on New Year's Eve!

   In the Holiday Show we're only doing one Tribal Odyssey number, so I wrote about that here in my TOBD blog. The "First Night" show will be longer, and we're packing in a lot of bellydance variety! We'll be dancing with quite a few props this time - canes, swords, candles, veils, and fan veils. And of course, finger cymbasl! We've also got a couple of modern Raks Sharki solos in the lineup.

   Usually in these long shows I don't get much chance to dance since I'm producing as well as emceeing, but our wonderful drummer/roadie/Buugeng artist Jasif offered to emcee - so I'm looking forward to this! I've put myself in the show THREE times: a Sharki solo, in the Candle Dance trio, and of course the Tribal Odyssey set. Delegating is wonderful - I'm going to do that more often!

New Year's Eve celebration (weather permitting!)

The last few years we've really been fortunate with the weather on New Year's Eve. It's always a gamble - I remember traveling to First Night in Leesburg years ago through horribly cold, snowy, icy conditions... let's hope for the best once again.

  Anthea / Kawakib
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Making the cut...

My annual student recital is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it, but sad as well because I had to cut it down to shave a little time off. I absolutely HATE sitting through long shows myself - I don't care what kind of chairs there are - but to sit in these metal folding chairs at the library for a couple of hours is pretty uncomfortable.

It turns out we'll have three guest dancers from out of town, which brings the total number of solo performers to seven, in addition to nine group numbers, plus a live drumming and dancing set! Something had to go.
So of course the numbers I cut out were mine: 1. my solo, and 2. advanced Tribal Odyssey. Waaaah! Oh well... it's for the best.
What's super fun though, is that for the first time I'll have students from two different locations dancing together. Two lovely ladies from the Locust Grove classes are performing, in the Beginner's Dance choreography, and as a Duet in Level One Tribal Odyssey, along with students from Fredericksburg Parks and Rec classes. That is wonderful!
So it'll be a memorable event, even if I don't get to perform as much as I wanted - we always have a great time seeing everyone having fun and making new friends (not to mention SHOPPING!).

Anthea / Kawakib
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Foot, don't fail me now

My approach to my solo for the Charlottesville show this weekend is: keep the dancing small and controlled...
With less muscle strength and a wonky foot to deal with, my style has to adapt. No longer am I comfortable relying on my body to "just do it" - whatever "it" happened to be at the moment. My wonderful dancer's body was strong and reliable for many years and many shows, allowing me to whirl away with the music however I wanted... Now my body needs more careful use.

That's okay, I'm fine with that - aging is not a freak-out issue for me for some reason; I've never felt bad about getting older. Although of course I did used to hide my age when I performed professionally, as most dancers do. Feels so nice not to do that anymore!

I've edited my music (the gorgeous "Layal" by Hassim Saleh-Eddine) to about 7 minutes. It's a lovely Oriental piece one of my former students, Adara Janaani, gave me; it's hard to find online so I'm lucky to have it. During the opening I've been doing a bunch of spins, now my knees and the THR-hip are telling me to take it easy when rehearsing! So I'm only doing a few run-throughs at a time. No chance that it'll be "over-rehearsed"!

What I do wonder is how slippery the stage will be. The foot I broke a few years ago demands to be coddled in dance slippers; dancing barefoot is not an option. A couple of my youtube videos show me dancing on a super slippery stage, in fact, they're the videos from my last seminar show before I retired due to hip pain. Double whammy! But I feel pretty confident even about a slippery stage. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and enjoying a wonderful night in the beautiful "Haven" of Charlottesville.