Encouraging Variety
By: Kashini
We all get in a rut at times and this will happen to some of your students, too. As instructors we need to have some ‘weapons’ to help our students get out of the rut.
Encourage them to take from other instructors, as long as these instructors are good at the basics/fundamentals and are ethical in their dealings within the dance community. Also encourage them to take other types of dance. For instance –
Folk Dance – you will see trends of certain types of steps and step combos in specific countries or geographic locations. Many of these steps and the dances themselves can be used in your belly dancing. Our troupe dances several Greek and Israeli folk dances at some of our performances, especially if we want to involve our audience. There are lots of fairly easy folk dances that will get people up on their feet to join in the fun. In taking folk dancing, your students will learn some of the culture of various regions. If your student needs more practice at learning and following foot patterns, folk dance is the best for this!! Folk dances are also good as warm-up exercises at the start of class time!
Ballet – If you know about some of the greats of our dance, you know many of them studied ballet. Ballet can be hard on the body, but students can also learn some fabulous moves, attitude and grace from ballet. Once you master a ballet spin, belly dance spins are SO simple (I have NOT mastered any facet of ballet, but I DO know those who have)
Hip Hop – Generally for the younger crowd, but any belly dancer can find some moves to borrow here.
Jazz – your students can definitely learn some ‘pizzaz’ to electrify their dancing!
Salsa, tango and other Latin dance styles will add some zip to a student’s dance repertoire too. These are especially nice if you want to do some “Spanish style fusion”.
As students take some of these other dance styles, they are bound to tell folks that they belly dance – it’s a great way to let other dancers and dance students know more about belly dance.
And, as your students study some of these other types of dance, check in with them on how it’s going. You may even want to establish a relationship with the studio where your students are studying other types of dance – many studios rent out space and there may come a time when you will need to find a new space. So, connect with other dance genres. There may also be an opportunity for your student(s) to dance in a dance school recital of one of these ‘other’ styles. As you make more connections in the dance community, our dance will thrive. I was invited to choreograph the Nutcracker Arabic piece one year for two of my students who also took ballet – it was fun!
As teachers, especially if we teach beginners, I feel it is our duty to give students information about other types of belly dance beyond what we teach and other types of dance that may complement and aid the new dancer’s development and skills.
If you have any questions or comments you can contact me via e-mail and put Kashani’s Korner in the subject line. I do ask you to please not add my e-mail to any distributions lists. If you’re not e-mail accessible, please send any comments or questions to me at: Kashani, c/o J. Berube, 5840 Stellar Lane SE, Lacey, WA 98513-4758. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope this column will turn into a wonderful opportunity for teachers to compare notes and for students to think of new ways to approach learning.
