Producing and Directing Center Stage
by Leyla Najma · 2 Comments
This past week as Daniel and I were discussing our weekly work schedules, we were talking about videos that I needed to do and Daniel like always came up with several ideas. I on the other just looked at him with that look; you know, the look we morph into that comes naturally when talking to our husbands?! Anyways I said, “Look it’s not like I don’t have a lot on my plate but do we really need this one?” Daniels usual response is, “Yes we do.”
So I will be doing a video talking about “Producing” shows and the pit falls that can happen at any moment. Believe me I am an unintentional professional in the pit fall arena only because unlike the poor souls who got thrown into the lions den, I skipped in with a smile on my face.
There is no definite guideline to producing shows small or large so I will go over my thoughts on how to keep your sanity and enjoy the experience. Well, okay I can’t guarantee that you will always enjoy yourself because producing shows can be a very stressful endeavor that for most of us isn’t just a rite of passage but an act of insanity until it’s all over and we can see our achievements. Actually to tell you the truth producing shows somehow completed one aspect of belly dance that seemed out of reach. Once you become a producer a time honored understanding comes over you and you understand even more about the human predisposition to be a star.
Here is a paragraph from my book talking about what I observed from one of the shows I co-produced:
I have witnessed unusual behavior with a few of my former students in regards to a few of the shows I jointly produced. Since I have been very lucky in having very talented dancers come my way I found it perplexing to say the least when a few of these highly talented dancers acted in my opinion selfishly. This is the difference in troupe mentality and the solo attitude. The troupe dancers who participated in the shows went way beyond the call of duty because they wanted the outcome of their efforts to be successful for each other. This has to do with their sense of responsibility to each other. One person’s actions would affect the outcome of the whole troupe. The few students that I asked to perform in my shows were excited but at the same time they didn’t comprehend the idea of what team effort was. If responsibility lies only with the self, than the concern for the progressive and creative concept for the whole matrix doesn’t exist. Sometimes a solo dancer can’t see beyond her own contribution because it is a guaranteed habitual offering she can take to the bank. A dancer can’t offer what she doesn’t know how to give.
So this video will be a very personal endeavor for me because with the two shows I co-produced, the learning was like a psycho boot camp experience or being a first grader in elementary school and going straight to college. Either way I survived and I have a better sense of myself because of these experiences and I think I understand women better. It’s not all lolly pops and roses but at the end of a producing a huge theatrical show it can feel like winning an Olympic gold medal. With this video in mind maybe just maybe I can help you avoid some of the pit falls, walls and Diva attitudes that came my way. And when I say Diva attitudes I mean this for men as well. Is there such a word as Divo? Just doesn’t have the same impact though…………
Article News Alert!
I just wrote an article for Jareeda’s “Costume Article Contest” and I am very excited because the contest got my writing juices flowing and I wrote about my student photo shoot of last year. I gave it a different twist and it came out like a never before created Margarita with a twang to go with the twist. So cross your fingers for us and hopefully we will be in the running. Here is Jareeda’s website. Please support the Publisher and dancer extraordinaire, Mezdulene and subscribe to her magazine; www.jareeda.com
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Shimmy Galore
by Leyla Najma · 9 Comments
Yesterday I filmed the first video of the New Year called “Shimmy Galore.” It has drills along with my own methodology compiled together for understanding how and why I do shimmies. About 3 or 4 times a month I have women writing me and asking about shimmies. It makes sense because when I started out belly dancing I had so many questions regarding how to shimmy that I was like the kid that kept asking, “Are we there yet?”
I remember back in my early days that whenever I saw any dancer who was able to do a shimmy, she was automatically placed in a heroine character called “Wonderwoman.” For many years I worked on my shimmies and not until I understood that the muscle areas had to be felt did they start to make sense to me thus my shimmies started to be more noticeably wiggly and jiggly. It was a break through moment because shimmies are the definitive signature of a belly dancer; the ultimate difference between mortal women and dancers.
I simplified as much as possible and put the shimmies into three categories;
1. ¾ Shimmy
2. In place Shimmy
3. Layering Shimmy
The layering shimmy and ¾ shimmy actually have some traveling steps in them and turns so I decided not to add in traveling shimmies. Besides the drills I put in are enough so that you can work in walking and combos with your shimmies. I felt that the shimmies themselves need to be understood in a way that simplifies them and takes the mystery and confusion away. There are some shimmies that work best for restaurant rather than stage or nightclub. It just depends on a dancer’s perception and experiences with her audience. Too long a shimmy can take away from the proficiency of the shimmy itself. I remember at a restaurant in Ft. Worth a dancer who performed one full song only doing full body shimmies. The restaurant owner actually told me she was boring and he got up from his table and walked away. I had to agree with him and that night I learned that just because a move is hard doesn’t mean it can’t be over done.
So I’m excited and “oh my God”……..do I feel it today!!!
Sphere: Related ContentChoreography Tips
by Leyla Najma · 6 Comments
Many women ask me how I learned how to choreograph dances and when did it make sense? I have to say for most of us this is more then a legitimate question; it’s an obstacle that until addressed, can offset a career in the making. It’s also a hard question for me to answer because I didn’t really pay attention the day I just started to create my own choreography, I just did it.
I remember one workshop in particular with Suhaila Salimpour that not only inspired me but at the same time knocked me off my rocker. I realized that with all her intricate ways of incorporating body movement, I was last woman standing because I felt like a blob learning to move her way. It was great to learn and almost accomplish the moves but I realized that this amazing and talented dancer had years on me in this dance field. Plus some of what I learned just didn’t feel good even when I could finally do it. After that particular workshop I went to Egypt and decided to go another route, one that made the dance more of a personal journey instead of going to workshop after workshop. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with going to workshops; I just wasn’t feeling my direction of inspired individuality. Here was my chance I thought to find out what I really should be doing. Little did I know there would be more choices than Carter has liver pills!
After I came home 6 months later from Egypt, I realized that I was energized and completely committed to belly dance but I still wasn’t sure how to work in movement to music. I sat on my bedroom floor so frustrated one day that tears were coming down my face. It was a turning point for me because I realized that if I couldn’t create my own unique dance then I needed to move on and do something else. So I picked myself up and started to listen to my music. I think it was Leylet Hob and I listened to it over and over and over again until I was ready to throw the CD out the window. But then something happened and I realized that I was instinctively moving to the music because as I was listening to it I was spontaneously dancing. Then as I was looking in the mirror I saw a move come out of me and I went, “Wow,” to myself and that was the first move I put down on paper. As I went through hours of spontaneously dancing (no exaggeration, because I was a dancing fool) I would see moves I liked and I would write them down on paper. So now I had a rough draft of moves that I liked and the moves looked pretty good to the music.
From the rough draft I decided to see what move was my most favorite and from there I started to integrate more moves that came from my spontaneous dancing that fit the music. As I pieced the moves together which meant fitting them here and there and then changing it all up, a choreography was born! She looked something like a Picasso painting of a woman with an eyeball on the side of her face but at least it was my eye ball and I was a proud momma or I should say “choreographer.”
Maybe this is my way of answering the choreography question that was so hard to answer before. As a result I thought I would put together different moves to a short song and show you how I count to music. With a variety of moves I think I can show you how you can put movement to music in different ways and then pick the one that’s right for you. Hope this helps those of you who are dealing with the choreography brain freeze or fight the short circuit feeling of not being able to put together your own unique dance.
Here’s some short Text that will go along with the video:
Arms are basic out to the side for the hip work. Bring arms down when you start working in the pelvic roll/chest circle/ab sway.
Music, Progressive Move:
Right hip twist forward and back to center 1cnt /backward stomach roll
Left hip twist forward and back to center 2cnt / backward stomach roll
Right hip twist forward and back to center 3cnt / backward stomach roll
Left hip twist forward and back to center 4cnt / backward stomach roll
Right hip twist forward and back to center 5cnt / backward stomach roll
Left hip twist forward and back to center 6cnt / backward stomach roll
Right hip twist forward and back to center 7cnt / backward stomach roll
Left hip twist forward and back to center 8cnt
Right hip twist forward and back to center 1cnt /backward stomach roll
Left hip twist forward and back to center 2cnt / backward stomach roll
Right hip twist forward and back to center 3cnt / backward stomach roll
Left hip twist forward and back to center 4cnt / backward stomach roll
In place Shimmy with a slight side thrust right to left side on 16 cnts to music.
Layering move: Do as many times as you want.
3 choices for opposition hips: 1. Move right leg behind you to start left hip. 2. Move left leg forward 3. Stay on the right hip or left hip without moving to opposite side.
Right hip down/up/out
Backward pelvic roll
Chest circle parallel to mirror
Ab sway forward/back 2xs (Faster speed than prior moves)
Left hip down/up/out
Backward pelvic roll
Chest circle parallel to mirror
Ab sway forward/back 2xs (Faster speed than prior moves)
Shoulder rolls and head spin if desired.
Finished!
Sphere: Related ContentWhat is Layering?
by Leyla Najma · 4 Comments
I get asked a lot of questions on belly dance but one that I have found that I don’t get asked often is regarding “Layering” and what it really is.
Looking at our dance field today, it has changed into an accumulation of personal interests and the pursuit of relevance for each individual dancer. So layering can be sharp to soft movements or upper body to lower body and many other interpretations in-between. Without layering our dance tends to look a little flat almost one dimensional and you can usually tell an experienced dancer from a novice by her ability to layer in movement.
Layering is also the focal point for the audience that prepares them for each chapter in a story that a dancer tells through out her dance. It’s the dramatic or subtle change in the phrasing in the music interpreted by the dancer.
As with any painting what makes it have depth is the usage of the shadows and color interchanges with subjects either in the background, middleground or foreground. The Abstract purposes that the interpretation of the strokes is just as or more important than the detailed idea. Impressionistic themes want to suggest what the image is without giving it away totally to the viewer. Realistic paintings say it all and leave nothing for the imagination because they become as real as the room you are standing in. Each style takes you in and makes you apart of the painting.
Our dance is a compilation of our own interpretation of what we like and view as beautiful. So to me “layering” is the stroke of our movements that makes the performed choreography understandable to the audience. Put a shadow of an accent to the melody of any song and you bring to life the wordless meaning of the song. Even songs with words don’t have the same impact without a dancer up on stage becoming the mime or interpreter. Sometimes it’s the impact of movement that the audience sees first and the music accompanies the dancer. I have had people say to me that the movement I did at a certain part of the song was beautiful more often then being asked, what song was I dancing to. There is a romanticism that sets our dance apart from all others because we surrender to our movements tirelessly with each performance. Because of this we have more performers questioning their dance in dressing rooms or darkened hallways; it all has to do with the realism, abstract or impressionistic stroke of their visual interpretation of their dance. Really what they are questioning is, “Did the audience see what I created?”
So “layering” isn’t just the accent of a chest lift or drop or soft swirls of hip circles with shoulder rolls but an individualized signature that takes your dance from a primitive, one dimensional performance to an explosion of movement. Even in the subtle moments of your dance stroke, you lead the audience where to look as you complete your canvas. With live performing they get to see the canvas blank first and the strokes of movement added in to create an image, story and emotional journey that otherwise wouldn’t exist. They are pulled into its meaning and they become apart of the canvas. It is and always has been the sharing of energies and imagination that keeps the dancer and the audience connected. But little do they know that it’s the “layering” of a dancers signature strokes that leads them into her dance and into her canvas.
So I have shared with you what “layering” is to me…….share with me what it is for you!
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