www.madamhelen.com

Choreography

Introduction
The Building Blocks
Music
Utilizing Space
Tips

After the summer of 2012, this site will no longer be dedicated to belly dance. Having the "veil" continually lifted from my awareness, I have noticed some masonic symbols in the dance, which I feel uncomfortable with. The "snake" arms, especially with two intertwining snake arms (DNA) is one such symbol.
A part of me will always enjoy the dance, but as with all artistic gifts, I just wish that people would dedicate their dance for the joy of Jesus rather than for a bunch of reptilians. I suppose it would be possible? Also, many people dance for their own egos. Many will think that I have gone mad, but think about how we have become slowly brainwashed, through the media, into accepting new boundaries. I am not saying that we should not evolve in love and compassion. Rather, I feel that our morals are being eroded e.g. even inside the belly dance, see how we are baring more flesh than the stars of the golden era in order to attract attention, instead of concentrating on the art of the movement. Sadly bellydance has evolved from a hobby and pleasure into a money grabbing business.

Introduction

According to my experience in attending belly dance class, much time is spent on teaching isolations technique Unfortunately, there is little instruction on what to do with them afterwards. There seems to be a gap between learning the ¨nitty gritty¨ and the big picture of how to put it all together. It is as if it should all happen naturally, which unfortunately does not happen to me. Since I have not had much formal choreography training, I can only relate my own views and experience on the subject and the few facts I have picked up along the way. You will either agree or disagree, but may hopefully find my views useful.

How do I put a choreography together? Well, quite simply, it is what I personally take out from the music - my interpretation - the visual thoughts that the music inspires. Some choreographers might be shocked to read this as it is taught that the music should not dictate the dance.

Dance is an art form in its own right in the same manner that music is its own art form. Many say that the choreography is the working together of these two art forms. Sometimes I do have a theme for a dance and then go hunting for appropriate music. One thing is for sure; a bad choice of music can ruin the performance. For instance, if performing to a Western non belly dance audience, an extremely heavy, complicated Eastern piece may not go down too well on the untrained Western ear.

There is no point in choosing the most complicated piece of music if you are a beginner. Obviously start with shorter and uncomplicated music. Taxim music clearly asks a dancer of any level to perform slow, curvaceous isolations. The moves can then be embellished to suit your particular level.

Music where beats are regularly accented may be ideal to show off those hip drops for beginners.

If dancing to a song, it is a good idea to translate it so that you can dance it from the heart. As we all know Egyptian dancers act out the meaning with gestures. The body is the ¨eye¨ of the music. It visually translates the music according to your interpretation. The audience sees your dance according to their interpretation.

click to go to top of the choreography page at www.madamhelen.com

click to go to homepage of www.geocities.com/madamhelen

The Building Blocks

On first hearing a piece of music, everyone hears it differently, focusing their attention on different aspects e.g. some the base, some the flute or some the percussion. I tend to focus on the music's highs and unusual or dramatic statements as I hear them. These are the points where I would incorporate the most dramatic, most flamboyant, most unusual moves. Also level changes, speed changes, direction changes, gestures, poses or just silence. I tend to build around these high points. It is the succession of these high points that tell me the whole story and theme of the choreography.

The big picture, the whole music piece and the feel of the music also tell me the theme and invoke those visual pictures.

Adding costumes, make-up and if you are lucky, lighting are like the icing on a cake.

As you see I am a big picture person, starting with the high points, theme and idea and then breaking it down to the details. That is then;

blocks (compared to paragraphs) followed by
phrases (compared to sentences) followed by
combinations (compared to words) and lastly by
individual isolation techniques (letters).

Sometimes I do jump from the big picture to picking out isolations or combinations and then back to stringing the isolations into phrases. However, I do appreciate that many people are the opposite. That is starting with…

their knowledge and precision of the isolations technique and then
building them up into combinations then
phrases followed by
large blocks and finally
the whole choreography.

Once again

Technique isolations are like letters.

These are put together to make small combinations or words.

These small combinations are then put together to form phrases or sentences. Combinations tend to be two or three techniques strung together in a precise but meaningless manner.

The phrases put together form large blocks or paragraphs which when all put together tell the whole story.

Phrases should be technique plus the conveyance of feelings, the story, or pure visual pleasure. This conveyance of feelings or a story can be achieved because a phrase should ideally have a beginning, middle and an end. It can also contain a highpoint. The high point could start the phrase off, be in the middle or end the phrase dramatically.

Whilst stringing together the techniques to form combinations and phrases, that well-known rule comes into play. ¨Keep your pencil on the paper. This refers to all the different body parts. Another way of explaining this is to think of the pathways from one move to the other. This is what is known as transitions. The word is self-explanatory. For instance, if the arms are up above the head and the next move is to bring them down to the hips, one can bring them down doing wrist circles or hand ripples etc. Furthermore, the arm could come down in front of the body or via the side of the body etc. The possibilities are endless which probably makes it difficult to consciously choose from moment to moment. In our daily lives we transition without thinking, but then we don't need to be making an artistic statement.

It is the transitions that add the personal flavour and statement to the dance exactly because the possibilities of transitions are so numerous. It is like adding salt and pepper when cooking. Transitions are small nuances that change the style of the dance. The transitions can be done smoothly, slowly, sharply, quickly, roundabout or directly etc....

One of the most difficult things is to be aware of transitions.

Luckily we transition subconsciously in day to day movement. If a transition between techniques is sharp or clumsy it may go unnoticed by the general public. The body knows how to get to where it wants by itself. The general public use transitions daily and so it is possible that they will not find sharp movements unusual. Just a thought anyway.

Concentrating on the next move and the music is difficult enough. It is almost impossible to keep your mind on all your body parts and their pathways all at once. Focus on the arms and steps to start with. Speed of thought and great concentration is needed to think consciously about what one is doing.

To get used to thinking consciously about transitions it may be a good idea to string some techniques into a short dance. Repeat the dance with each time concentrating on either the arm, step or torso pathways.

What shapes do the movements create? Movements can be angular and straight, soft and curved or symmetrical or asymmetrical. For instance, whilst bringing the arms down, soft and circular wrist circles can be made or sharp hand flutters. Moreover, one arm can come down performing these hand movements whilst the other hand can remain static giving an asymmetrical feel. Viewed from the side, the body does look asymmetrical anyway.

Also think about the speed, level changes and direction changes of an action.

The Music

Belly dance is mostly danced on the beat of the music rather than around/between the beats unlike some other dance forms that use off beat movement more. This is because the isolations actually emphasize the beats and accents of the music. Mostly we do hip drops on the accent and not in between the beats. The body plays with the music on the beats and does not tend to fill in the music with its own beats. Well, at least for beginners. Experienced dancers with greater knowledge of the music are able to skillfully dance around the beat. Zills are played around the beats as well as on the beats.

Of course when improvising to new music our reflexes must be quick to anticipate unexpected strong accents which is especially true of drum solos. I am sure that we can be forgiven if we are slightly off the first unexpected accent of a succession of accents.

Utilizing Space

It has been said that space is the dancer's silent partner. The space around us can be molded and squeezed to form a shape in itself.

Negative space is the space that lies between objects. Dancers in this case. The positive space is the object (dancer) itself. Westerners tend to focus on the objects whilst Asians are better at focusing on the space between objects.

Floor space can be covered by doing turns and spins, the classic step and touch and the country¨ step. The body can be used as a pen to draw various patterns on the floor during your choreography. Circles are strong and convey infinity. The twist done in a big circle is a classic move. Following curved lines on the floor gives a soft impression, but experiment by using staccato isolations along these curved lines. Straight lines convey strength and directness, but can be softened with curvaceous isolations. A strong impression is dancing diagonally from upstage right towards the audience at downstage left.

These stage placements can be confusing. The audience sees the dancer's right as their left (as a mirror). Thus in the diagonal mentioned above, the audience sees the dancer coming from the left back corner of the stage down to the front right corner. It is a human thing that we naturally scan from the left to the right, even in countries where people read from the right to the left.

stage diagram naming areas of stage

The dancer is coming from somewhere in the distance directly down to the most intimate position on the stage, the right front corner to the audience. It is almost an intrusion into the audience's personal space.

According to Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP, it is a fact that many people visualize the past to their left and the future to their right. By coming down diagonally from the left to the right of the audience it strengthens the feeling of ¨Look at me. I've arrived¨. This floor pattern could be used to dramatically throw away your veil at downstage left before continuing with your dance.

The opposite effect is created when dancing diagonally from downstage left to upstage right. You are fading away into the sunset and back into the past. You are fizzling out. This could be used at the end of your dance piece, giving a dance partner a strong entrance from another stage position. If your dance ends by just fading out at upstage right it could be somewhat of an anti-climax depending on the choreography. A good way to contrast this fading out is to do something dramatic at the upstage right position for instance throwing your veil up in the air. The veil will give the illusion of grandness in contrast to your fading out figure.

If the left symbolizes the past and the right the future then the centre is neutral. The centre, centre position, places the dancer in full focus, the space around bows down to her/him. This is the place to be dramatic. If the dancer stays there too long it tends to loose its strength. For a more intimate contact with the audience, but staying in this neutral area, the centre front stage is ideal.

More than other dance forms, belly dancers are often confronted with an all round audience. The dance space is round. Floor patterns that look good on round dance areas are circles, spirals and squares. A point to remember with this stage shape is that, obviously, moves look different from different angles. As mentioned earlier, the body looks asymmetrical from the side view. Incorporating repeating phrases into the choreography and performing them at different sides allows all the audience to see the dance from all the viewpoints. Repeating phrases incorporates unity into the dance.

Be sparing with big hip circles and forward bends unless you want some of the audience to get an eyeful of your rearview.

A backward bend right down to the floor, often used by Tribal dancers, is better viewed from the side. This is good etiquette, the front view being better reserved for the gynaecologist. Thus this move is also limited when dancing on an all around stage.

There are ways to draw the audiences' attention to areas to where you DO want them to focus. Using your arms and hands for emphasis is one way e.g. down by the hips for downward figure eights mimicking the figure eight. There is much discussion as to the alignment of the head or gaze. Some schools of thought say that the head should be fairly rigidly facing forwards. In amicable disagreement to that school of thought, the head could also be used deliberately to focus the audiences' attention and form beautiful lines and silhouettes in alignment with the body. The head can tell a story. Another method of highlighting an isolation is simply to totally play down or hide the other parts of the body e.g. placing the arms behind the hips to show off a shimmy from the front view.

There is moving through space, S, there is timing, T and there is energy, E. The Western culture adores strength of force, high energy and power. Westerners originate movement from their extremities and the outer edge of their bodies. The movements tend to look larger and more overwhelming. Easterners appreciate softer, subtle movement. Easterners originate movement from the inside of their torso. The result being that the movements look more concise. Not that these movements lack strength since the muscles used in performing them can pull the movement strongly into place.

Force is usually paired with fast straight, staccato actions. Experiment by performing curved, slow techniques forcefully e.g. the initial impulse of the figure eight can be forceful. The figure eight can even end forcefully by locking it. Timing can also be brought into this equation by performing the figure eight quickly even though it is a curved motion. On the other hand staccato isolations can not be executed too slowly.

Tips

If dancing spontaneously to new music it is possible to feel where the music is heading. If you run out of ideas keep doing the same isolation to the music until an idea or appropriate combination comes to mind.That one isolation can always be changed by

Making the move larger or smaller
Changing the speed (to match the music)
Changing the level
Change the plane - vertical, horizontal, diagonal
Performing the isolation gently or with force into locking it
Performing it backwards or if possible, upside down
Layering the isolation with a shimmy
Changing the posture of the rest of the body or changing the direction you face
Move to a different position of the dance floor
Change the feel of it - add tension, suspense, tease, relax, laugh....
Perform only part of the isolation

If remembering the above points is really too difficult if you do get stuck, just try and remember to dance geometric shapes. Even if it is making pretty floor patterns while performing hip drops. If you really get stuck it may even be fun to draw out your name on the floor.

The arms could map out geometric shapes such as circles or wavy lines, in the space around you.

Another way to forget your woes, is to concentrate on your posture while dancing, allowing your subconscious to think up your next move. At the very least, focusing on some other aspect of dance such as posture may take away the panic of ¨What shall I do now¨.

To start practicing with choreography just take 3 isolations and try to make a dance with that. At the high points in the music a change of level, direction, speed or angle will add variety and drama.

Depending on the music, contrasting isolations performed one after the other add interest. For instance a slow chest circle contrasted with sharp hip drops. The transition from one to the other can happen abruptly or can teasingly oscillate for a while from one to the other as though the two isolations are having a conversation. In the already mentioned case (chest and hip moves), body waves can act as a telegraph wire between the two isolations. An interesting contrast is performing a slow, curvaceous move during a drum solo.

Silence and stillness (a pose) in the dance gives the audience a chance to take a rest and digest all that has just happened. It can also make a statement or create anticipation for the next move.

The beginning and ending of the dance are important, as they need to capture the audience's attention. The ending is the last image someone will have of the dance. Just as with music, the ending could be the same as the beginning, come to a forceful climax or slowly fade out.

Putting a budding choreography to video helps to point out where changes can be made. Transition refinement also becomes obvious on video as does technique and even the overall colours and impressions. Most of all it enables you to remember and pick up the choreography after an interval.
In my humble opinion, a dancer is as good as her/his choreography. The dancer may know and perform all the techniques perfectly, but what's the use if she/he can not show all this perfection in an entertaining, interesting, thought provoking or spectacular dance. Only a fellow belly dancer is likely to appreciate one perfect technique followed by another. An untrained eye wants to be entertained. A clever choreography can also make the dance spectacular even if the dancer is a beginner. There is hope for us all within choreography! Now all I have to do is take my own advise.