Floralia Workshop Sneak Peek: Restaurant Dancing Tips and Secrets
Here is the Floralia Workshop info for those of you who are interested in coming out to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico April 29th-May 2, 2010. Daniel wanted me to put in more detail in regards to what I will be teaching and I thought it was a good idea. I will blog again and give you all some hotel information so you will know where to stay and keep up with the busy schedule Selena Kareena has in store for everybody. I can’t wait!!
Restaurant Methodology
Restaurant dancing to me is really an art and if it’s looked upon as just another gig or venue then the outcome can be depressing and time consuming. The bottom line is if you are making money with your dancing then you have to figure out the best way to make the most out of each job you get.
It can be so disheartening to leave a restaurant gig with little or no tips and customers ignoring you. I can remember through out my restaurant years that if I left it up to the customers to make me feel good then I was setting myself up for disappointment. Most people who walk into a restaurant have one two things on their mind and that is to eat and relax. It’s our job to entertain them and how we entertain them is the key to making better tips and having an enthusiastic audience that wants to watch us perform.
Let’s face it, not everybody walking into a restaurant is going to be thrilled with our presence, dance ability or smile. As a matter of fact a few times I was an unintentional instigator to unwanted dramas and usually the culprit was what people thought I represented. Not everybody is going to walk into a Middle Eastern or Persian restaurant and be an expert in our dance field. I have found American audiences to be a bit more narrow-minded when it comes to our dance form only because of what they see on TV and lack of education.
People react to us based on self confidence issues, insecurities and phobias. I mean a couple can come in who had an argument just hours before walking into the restaurant and there you are dancing for them without a clue. They probably don’t like each other at that particular moment so this means that we have to either read minds or earn a Psychology Degree within a matter of minutes. But I have to say that as you dance for grumpy couples the clues do become obvious very quickly. The glare from the wife, the husband gobbling up his food in a very enthusiastic manner; making sure he doesn’t look at you, pretty much says “Go away!” This is restaurant dancing and this is why it is not always the favorite dance gig to perform at. But Restaurant dancing can help you become a more intuitive dancer that understands her environment and takes charge. Add in my tips and you will be able to change the way you perform, relate to and engage your audience so that that not only do the tips get better but you feel better about your dancing!
What you will learn:
In Place Dancing
1. How to make the most out of small spaces and how to work your body so that you can do “in-place” dancing. This will include “in-place” combinations/layering/speed change. Remember the opposition hips I talk about? This is when they come in handy and make the difference in tight spaces.
Body Positioning
2. Angles, turns and leg work that allows for awkward spaces or crowded rooms with no space between tables.
Arm Positioning
3. Arm work that works with small spaces so that the occasional smack or slap on the head doesn’t happen.
Restaurant Etiquette
4. Restaurant etiquette and people skills 101. Remember the two C’s; Compliment vs. Competition. People ultimately want to be entertained so if a dancer can approach a table with the knowledge of knowing important clues then the chances of making more tips will be greater.
Remember that you are a Performer who Entertains
5. Stage performing is different then restaurant performing so remember that you have to have a different mind set for each. I have seen dancers perform at night clubs and stage who dance the exact same way for restaurants and it doesn’t work. Not everyone wants to dance in close proximity to people so figure out first what type of venue you prefer; stage, night club or restaurant. Then decide what type of dancer you are which might include all three venues or just stage and night club. The best way to think of each venue is like this; they are 3 sisters, related but different. Each venue has a personality all it’s own so understand your environment first before you perform.
Restaurant Bloopers
6. The faux pas of restaurant performing can be unintentional but hysterically funny. Bloopers remind us of how human we are and they also remind us to stay grounded and laugh even if we are laughing at ourselves. Unfortunately for me, I have plenty bloopers to share with you all but fortunately for you they will give you a good laugh.
Workshop information:
Selena Kareena is the Floralia Belly Dance Festival Coordinator. ancientartsstudioprod@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/floraliabellydance www.myspace.com/selenakareena 575-743-2048
Sphere: Related ContentPractice Tip 1. For the Serious Student
Recently Daniel came to me and asked me if there were any tips I could share with dancers not only for their dancing but also for their practicing and drilling. So I thought about it and decided I would give tips that will help make a difference in the training aspect of dancing. It’s really in our preparation of dance that we start to understand ourselves so we can then go out and dance for the masses with confidence.
The tip that I am going to share with you is broad but it came to me because it is a common problem that we all have when we first start out dancing. How we focus and work within our body starts out the habitual way we train. Most of my students won’t look at the whole enchilada (body) only a specific part of the body depending on what I am showing them. After you get the move down into your body then look at your image in the mirror and see how the rest of your body looks while you are working the combination or movement. When my students can’t see the whole body they have what I call “blinder” focus. It’s almost as if they are afraid to see how it looks in the totality of the body.
Practice for ten to fifteen minutes on a particular combination or traveling step. Then practice for ten to fifteen minutes looking at your whole body while doing the combination which includes, posture, arms, head positioning, legs, feet, lifted chest etc.
The purpose of this is to help you see what the audience is going to see once you are up on stage. It will also get the eyes up away from the floor which is another common problem beginner dancers have. But interestingly enough I found that some of my students didn’t want to see what they were doing and I had one student tell me it made her uncomfortable. I started to think about this and realized that as women sometimes we don’t look at ourselves because all we see is what we lack. Remember that this can affect your confidence and the success you have with your dance.
It’s obvious that women don’t want to see what they don’t like about themselves. Practice time is about healing and feeling good about yourself. So within the hour or two hours of practice look at your full image in the mirror and relax. All you have to do is relax; that’s easy and once you take you in with no judgement then you will start to see a new you emerge that feels better not just about dance but life in general.
You can’t practice and feel bad about yourself. All you will do is feel bad about practice. So change your mindset and go for your dream or goal. If you are able to stand in front of a mirror and dance, you already have something to be grateful for which is your two legs to stand on.
Remember your four cornerstones; emotions, mind, body and spirit have to be fed equally. So look at practice time as a way of feeding yourself a gigantic spoon full of confidence, acceptance, and forgiveness. Once you let go of what you don’t like, then what you do like will start to emerge and there is nothing more beautiful on stage then a confident, happy, in the moment dancer. So I’m going to end with my favorite saying which says it all; when life gives you lemons make orange juice and make the world wonder how the hell you did it!
Sphere: Related ContentLet’s Duet
As a newbie duet member I decided I would go check out one of the most well marketed most popular local dance troupes perform in my area this week. It was the first time I really studied the technical movements of other dancers instead of watching just for the pure entertainment value of it.The Importance of Completing Dance Movement
This past 2 months I have been working with a duet and I am amazed at what the girls are accomplishing. I guess because the girls are so precise in their movements I began to think about something that has caught my attention. I realized beginner dancers want to know everything and taking small steps instead of giant leaps is very hard for them to do.
I was there and I remember feeling that same way. But If they don’t learn the moves and combinations to the point of muscle memory than they can learn the moves to the point of dancing them incomplete. After awhile of performing these particular dancers movements can become a blurr and the combinations become muddy. There is no completion in each move making it distinct from the next move. And since this is a story telling with the body, I feel it is so important to emulate what the music or voice is saying to the best of our abilities.
When I had my studio I had a student who was becoming a very good dancer. But the one thing she would do in class when she was bored was to either start doing her own dance or she would hurry up the move and complain that she knew the move already. And when I would ask her do the move for me, I would see she had no feeling in it and I would say to her, “No, you don’t have that move down because it is incomplete.” An incomplete move is a move that has no emotion or feeling to it. It is blah to the point of boring and if it is boring to you, imagine how it is for the audience watching dancers perform incomplete moves over and over again. This particular dancer would get mad at me and she eventually went to go study with another teacher. I saw her dance just recently and there is still an in-completion in her moves because to me she still does not understand how to feel movement.
So how do we teach our students to feel music and movement? This is a question that has plagued me for years. I can only go by my own dance experience and hopefully share with my students what I do and how I do it. This is one way but each student has to hear the music, it has to sing in her heart so she can dance each verse and phrasing of the song. Movement is the key element for the audience to visually see what the music is saying. So movement is an extension of how the beat and rhythm is played out in each dancers body. Just to move isn’t enough, we have to own the movement in order to make it fit and work within the story we are trying to tell.
So after looking at this dilemma I created this new curriculum so that students can understand that feeling movement means you can have the option of going fast or slow with it; play with speed. A hip circle can be a slow 4 count circle or a 1 one count circle. Right and left hip thrusts can accent outside the circle, it all depends on how fast or slow you want to go. If you dance to the voice in a song than elongate their words as they do but with combinations and movement. Adding to this means that both sides are equal and strong. So your left side can be as pronounced as your right side.
A strong dancer on stage is one who owns every move that comes out of her body. She and the music are one. Each move is completed with accents, pausing ,speed change, level changes and turns. The fact we have so many choices is what makes dance so much fun. So last but definatley not least is fun. A dancer on stage enjoying her dance is pure joy for the audience to watch. So maybe completing moves means that we allow the joy of the dance to come through us. And looking back at the dancer I had mentioned earlier, I would have to say I saw no joy in her dance.
This past week my duet laughed to the point of crying, danced to the point of exhaustion and high fived each other to the point of pure joy! It’s amazing what our students can teach us. Yes, something as simple as joy can make all the different in dance!
Sphere: Related ContentA Choreography State of Mind
The other day I was talking to my students Julie and Amy and I told them that this one combination came to me in the shower of all places. But another student Judy inspired the combination but why the heck did it evolve in the shower? Another group of dynamic turns came to me in a dream but I woke up before I figured out how I did them. I remember saying to myself in the dream that I had to remember the turns and I woke up actually talking to myself.
That was a little creepy having a conversation with myself and than answering myself! The other morning lying in bed I worked out a 6 week course curriculum and figured out how to make each class lead into the next. Is creativity possessing me through choreography? If so it is the kind of possession that never leaves you alone and can turn you into an eccentric old dancer who toots her own horn even if nobody is listening.
A wonderful quote says:
“Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.”-Maya Angelou
So maybe what is happening is that when we open the mind to inspiration it’s like opening the flood gates to creativity that rushes in with the power of the ages. I suppose that it would be easier if creativity came at the same time everyday but than wouldn’t that be a stagnant way of creating? So creativity comes visiting in my dreams, in the shower, in the car, when I’m dancing with students or without . And since creativity is directly from the Universe than this explains why there is a constant stream of ideas and moves coming my way.
How many of you feel this kind of divine unrest? It’s almost as if everything you look at has the beginnings of a movement. The tree branches blowing in the wind can be either slow and sinuous or fast and powerful movements. It’s all in the eyes of the dancer and how the tree is talking to her. Students do this to me all the time. The best combinations I have ever come up with have been the inspiration of dance students who inspire me with their talent!
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
So a choreography state of mind is what keeps the dancer alive and in her element. I didn’t understand this years ago because I didn’t see movement anywhere I went. I think when a dancer finally embraces her own individuality she can finally see what was hidden from her. It’s almost like being in a magical land that at first appears barren and devoid of life than all of a sudden things appear before you that you never saw before. Maybe the possession creativity has on us just keeps us seeing the magic in life and than we see her rhythm and than we dance to her melody.
“We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.” -Anonymous
So for now my students crack up laughing at my madness and I keep on tooting my own horn but the best part of all is my students hear me and they don’t mind listening!
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