Reported by Yasmin
On doing your thang:
"You'll never be able to please the bellydance audience, so why even try?"
"Will they really get you? Who cares what they think. Do what you need to do."
"Don't you dare ever bellydance to please me---- ever!"
"When Mozart was criticized in his day, they complained that he played too many notes."
"Be innovative."
"I never present work knowing that people will get it. It will take 15-20 years before people get it. It took 20 years for people to get Dances of the Sultan. "
"You can get away with almost anything if you dance it with honest, integrity, intelligence.... and you don't suck."
"I say: let them hate me!"
"The only way we are going to raise the level of the dance is to raise the expectations visually and physically."
"Represent the music, don't just make patterns to please the audience."
"I want you out of the box and not safe."
Personal choreography techniques to help a dancer push through barriers:
Take out all bellydance movement from the choreography.
Take 2 choreographies, change them, and mash 'em up.
Find 2 pieces of music and dance the same way for each song.
Dance the entire song in one spot. You can turn in one spot around yourself, but no traveling.
Hum the song.
Dance without the music and count it outloud.
Exhaust all angles of possibility, even if you go back to your first version of the piece.
Physicalize a taste. How would you dance the emotion of food, for example.
Tell the story.
Listen to the music and physicalize what you hear.
Watch a piece as if you were looking down from the ceiling. Notice your floor patterns.
Understand where you are within your dance
Isolate what you are doing and identify the level at which you dance.
Identify the level of other dancers that you watch.
Dance above your level for your mentors. Dance below your level for your paying audience.
Meisner Acting technique:
"Observing somebody is not the same as experiencing them."
"Taking classes with Meisner changed my life."
Question to Suhaila: What is your favorite choreography from your repertoire?
Suhaila: I don't like any of them. But that is not the point. I love them because they represent a moment in time. A moment in my life.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Suhaila Level 3 Prep Weeklong
Reported by Yasmin
But I'm not ready!
I dreaded going quite frankly. I had completed my assignments and was training regularly with the online Suhaila classes but I still didn't feel prepared. Perhaps one never feels prepared enough. With the money down on the workshop fee, my flight booked and a commitment to share the rental car and hotel with Stacey, there wasn't much choice but to go. And when I left the workshop a week later, my eyes were opened.
The first morning, Suhaila gathered us to one corner of the Berkeley area studio to introduce the workshop philosophies. The studio doors were locked and late comers were forced to wait outside for a good 15 minutes. This was our first lesson: Respect the teacher, respect your time, respect each other's time. Commitment means being on time, which from Suhaila's perspective means being 15 minutes early.
There were about 25 dancers in the workshop and perhaps a third of them had taken a Level 3 class before. A third might have been Bay area regulars. The rest came from as far away as Hong Kong, Canada and Italy.
Mornings
Mornings were filled with extensive warm-ups followed by hours of Level 3 drills. We also practiced dance movement and folkloric fusion. To me, drilling is like executing math equations in my body. Lots of mental energy at the onset and if I get it easily, my body relaxes into a smooth motoring machine. If the equation doesn't fit my body immediately, the internal mental energy picks up and my phsycial body careens on the edge, slightly out of control. Often times I just need to get out of my own way and all the pieces click into place. There seem to be different "states" of drilling based on a number of variables such as level of drill difficulty, level of fatigue, protein and water in my body, my mind's attempt to control my body, physical limitations, level of focus, and more.
Afternoons
Afternoons were dedicated to presenting personal choreography to Suhaila in front of the class. This was my favorite and most terrifying part. Actually, I take that back. The Sanford Meisner acting exercises were the most terrifying and opening experience for me that week. It was the last exercise on Thursday evening and emotions in the room were already simmering strongly from the hours of drilling, personal choreography, and Suhaila choreographies. Tears, shouts, disdain, anger, silliness, love and raw emotion came tumbling from our bodies. It was authentic. It was vulnerability like I'd never seen before. For the next few days after that experience, my senses were heightened to this almost vibrational level. I could clearly see people and most of them seemed to be emotionally half-dead.
After personal choreography feedback, the second part of each afternoon was dedicated to learning the L3 Suhaila choreographies: L3 Finger Cymbal Drum Solo, Maddah, and L2 Finger Cymbal Drum Solo with L3 increases. Soon there will be choreography kits that students can purchase to prepare themselves ahead of time. This will allow students to be able to focus exclusively on the emotional preparation, acting techniques, and personal choreography topics of Level 3.
Evenings
Evenings were spent working late into the night on our individual homework assignments. Stacey spent the evenings teaching the dance studio classes as part of her Level 5 preparation, which is focused on becoming a certified teacher within the Suhaila format. This gave me private time in the hotel room to evolve my personal choreographies, prepare my training plans and practice the L3 choreographies. I would pick Stacey up each evening around 10pm and we would go find dinner, recap the day, wind down and then head back to the hotel for more study.
Personal Feedback
As for my personal feedback from Suhaila, she thought I had made some break throughs. For one thing, I was opening up and getting out of my head. Her advice for me until I arrive in L3 next year is to take singing lessons to learn breath control patterns, projection, and pacing. This was the last thing I expected as a take-away from a dance workshop but upon further reflection it makes aboslute sense. When one sees a dancer working in unison with her breath, one sees integrated complete dance movement.
But I'm not ready!
I dreaded going quite frankly. I had completed my assignments and was training regularly with the online Suhaila classes but I still didn't feel prepared. Perhaps one never feels prepared enough. With the money down on the workshop fee, my flight booked and a commitment to share the rental car and hotel with Stacey, there wasn't much choice but to go. And when I left the workshop a week later, my eyes were opened.
The first morning, Suhaila gathered us to one corner of the Berkeley area studio to introduce the workshop philosophies. The studio doors were locked and late comers were forced to wait outside for a good 15 minutes. This was our first lesson: Respect the teacher, respect your time, respect each other's time. Commitment means being on time, which from Suhaila's perspective means being 15 minutes early.
There were about 25 dancers in the workshop and perhaps a third of them had taken a Level 3 class before. A third might have been Bay area regulars. The rest came from as far away as Hong Kong, Canada and Italy.
Mornings
Mornings were filled with extensive warm-ups followed by hours of Level 3 drills. We also practiced dance movement and folkloric fusion. To me, drilling is like executing math equations in my body. Lots of mental energy at the onset and if I get it easily, my body relaxes into a smooth motoring machine. If the equation doesn't fit my body immediately, the internal mental energy picks up and my phsycial body careens on the edge, slightly out of control. Often times I just need to get out of my own way and all the pieces click into place. There seem to be different "states" of drilling based on a number of variables such as level of drill difficulty, level of fatigue, protein and water in my body, my mind's attempt to control my body, physical limitations, level of focus, and more.
Afternoons
Afternoons were dedicated to presenting personal choreography to Suhaila in front of the class. This was my favorite and most terrifying part. Actually, I take that back. The Sanford Meisner acting exercises were the most terrifying and opening experience for me that week. It was the last exercise on Thursday evening and emotions in the room were already simmering strongly from the hours of drilling, personal choreography, and Suhaila choreographies. Tears, shouts, disdain, anger, silliness, love and raw emotion came tumbling from our bodies. It was authentic. It was vulnerability like I'd never seen before. For the next few days after that experience, my senses were heightened to this almost vibrational level. I could clearly see people and most of them seemed to be emotionally half-dead.
After personal choreography feedback, the second part of each afternoon was dedicated to learning the L3 Suhaila choreographies: L3 Finger Cymbal Drum Solo, Maddah, and L2 Finger Cymbal Drum Solo with L3 increases. Soon there will be choreography kits that students can purchase to prepare themselves ahead of time. This will allow students to be able to focus exclusively on the emotional preparation, acting techniques, and personal choreography topics of Level 3.
Evenings
Evenings were spent working late into the night on our individual homework assignments. Stacey spent the evenings teaching the dance studio classes as part of her Level 5 preparation, which is focused on becoming a certified teacher within the Suhaila format. This gave me private time in the hotel room to evolve my personal choreographies, prepare my training plans and practice the L3 choreographies. I would pick Stacey up each evening around 10pm and we would go find dinner, recap the day, wind down and then head back to the hotel for more study.
Personal Feedback
As for my personal feedback from Suhaila, she thought I had made some break throughs. For one thing, I was opening up and getting out of my head. Her advice for me until I arrive in L3 next year is to take singing lessons to learn breath control patterns, projection, and pacing. This was the last thing I expected as a take-away from a dance workshop but upon further reflection it makes aboslute sense. When one sees a dancer working in unison with her breath, one sees integrated complete dance movement.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
By Dancers For Dancers Vol 6~includes Stacey Lizette!
Sabaya sista's could not be happier for Stacey. Her performance will be in the By Dancers For Dancers Vol.6 to be released in November!
Monday, August 10, 2009
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