Posture - Stand with your feet slightly apart, approximately hip or shoulder width, with both feet flat on the ground and your toes pointing forward. Your weight should be evenly distributed between both feet and you should feel solidly connected to the ground. Knees start out slightly bent, relaxed and flexible. Hips and pelvis are centred and held level to the ground. The ribcage is pulled gently up with the stomach held comfortably in. Shoulders are relaxed, back and down.Be aware of your centre axis, or vertical body alignment. Imagine a line running from the top of your head, through the centre of your torso and exiting between your feet.
There are many arm positions and arm movements that can accompany the basic stance, but it's easiest to just hold the arms in a graceful and comfortable pose. As a beginner, I find it best to begin with my arms out to the side, elbows relaxed with a slight bend, wrists flopped as though in ballet and palms facing the floor.
Always remember to warm up before starting any form of dance. This will involve stretching all parts of the body.
Breathing - You’ll notice a tremendous difference in your dancing if you take even as little as five minutes to do some form of deep breathing exercise immediately before dance class (or performance). The breathing goes through your entire spinal column to pull together all the forces within yourself and focus everything towards the dancing.
Three-part inhalation: First, exhale completely until there is absolutely nothing left to exhale. Pause, and begin your breath through the nose, with the mouth closed. Start the breath and expand the lower abdomen. As that area fills, let the breath move into the diaphragm area and up to the sternum under the ribs. As the area up under the ribs fills, let the breath expand to the back of the ribcage on either side of the spine. The final part of the three-part breath is to let it expand to the top of the ribcage and all the way up to the base of the neck, not to forget the back of the ribs as well. You’ll feel the breath expanding into the shoulder blades which will help release muscular tension.
Three-part exhalation. Now reverse the process by exhaling from the top, then moving on to the middle, and finally the lower abdomen. Feel yourself completely let go and retract each area from the shoulder blades, right down to the lower abdomen. Resist the temptation to bend forward and keep the entire spine up through the shoulders completely straight. During the exhalation, feel that all the stiffness, lethargy, and tension are exiting through the base of the spine.
It is important when dancing that you breathe through the mouth when executing movements. This is to avoid any stiffness in the jaw.
Head Positioning – The head is used for not only expression but balance and control. When facing the front the chin should be lifted and the head pulled up. Imagine a piece of string is attached to the crown of your head and you’re being pulled to the ceiling. When turning, try to focus on one point in the room and keep focused on that point until your body has turned, you bring your head round last and end by focusing back on the starting point. When leaning back, it looks effective when you tilt the head back as well, but remember not to tilt it too far. It should be just enough to create the arch of a semi-circle. The head can also follow arm movements that flow out to the side and upwards, but so long as they are not done too often or too quickly.
Finger & Wrist Positioning - Fingers should always be relaxed and the thumb and middle finger almost touching as though you are holding a thimble. When you turn the wrists , turn as though you are placing the thimble onto a table, then picking it back up again. The fingers and hand can be used to add snake-like effects or ripples. The wrists should be gently tilted downwards, similar to the position used in ballet.
Feet Positioning - For a lot of Egyptian belly dance, the feet are flat, some walks are performed on the balls of the feet and sometimes alternate feet will kick out in a scraping motion to the front, tap to the side or the entire foot may turn out to the side.
Sources/Research: My Teacher/youtube.com/ Shira
Belly Dance UK
Caroline Belly Dancer
No comments:
Post a Comment