What 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!
Practice 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!
