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I’ve heard many folks say that the folk dance of Central Asia have nothing whatsoever to do with belly dance. I beg to differ.

Turkish Oryantal dance expert Artemis Mourat notes three main “parent” dances of Turkish Oryantal dance. If you read some of her articles or attend one of her history lectures you’ll hear the hows and whys of those influences. The short version:

• the “mother” (main influence): Turkish Romany dance
• the “father” (strong influence): Egyptian Raqs Sharki
• the “auntie” (secondary influence): Ottoman court dances

It is through this third influence, Ottoman court dances, that the Central Asian connection exists. Central Asian dance certainly influenced Ottoman court dance. The Turkic people who give Turkey its name originated much father east, related to the Huns and Mongols. They crossed Central Asia and settled in Anatolia. Later, the Ottoman empire stretched all the way back to the borders of China. The Ottoman empire was known for importing artists to the capital from all over its lands.

Through this conduit, I’ve long believed, the beautiful, ornate arms of Central Asian dances made their way into Turkish Oryantal dance.

I recently attended Central Asian Dance Camp in Washington D.C., put on by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray, and in both the dance workshops and the spectacular evening show, I identified arm movements we use in Turkish Oryantal. Oryantal dancers tend to execute the movements in a more dramatic and less precise manner, but they are clearly the same.

I’ve collected clips of some of the arm and hand movements the styles have in common. In order to avoid overwhelming your browser, the clips for each movement are on a separate page. Each clip is linked to start at the movement in question. Click the page links below to see the clips.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I got a fun challenge recently – the wonderful local dancer Naharin asked me if I could find out what the song “Ölü Tavuk/Çeribaşı Istanbul” was about. After searching fruitlessly for a while, I managed to dig up the lyrics in Turkish, and had a go at translating them with the help of Google translate. I’ve posted them below, my translation in English, followed by the original Turkish.

Çeribaşı is a city name in Turkey. It appears there are two; I’m going to guess the song is about the one in Edirne province on the European side. I believe “turn the lamb’s head” refers to roasting it on a spit, and “dale dale” is just a nonsense sound like “tra la la”. Naciye is a girl’s name.

This is a fun song to dance to. There are several recorded versions; you can find one with vocals here:

http://www.amazon.com/Olu-Tavuk-Ceribasi-Kasilama/dp/B00CKUS8N4/

——————————–

They cooked the chicken
Brought it to our table
Daughters of Çeribaşı
We drank the wine and the rakı

Ah Naciye Naciye coquettish Naciye
Ah Naciye Naciye coquettish Naciye
Come to me
Come to me

Çeribaşı Çeribaşı
What beautiful eyebrows
When it comes to the holiday feast
Turn the lamb’s head

Ah Naciye Naciye coquettish Naciye
Ah Naciye Naciye coquettish Naciye
Come to me
Come to me

——————————–

Ölü tavuk pişirdiler
Soframıza getirdiler
Çeribaşı kızları
Rakı şarap içirdiler

Ah Naciye Naciye cilveli Naciye
Abe dale das dale gel bana das dale
Abe dale dale dale gel bana ah dale

Çeribaşı çeribaşı
Ne güzeldir gözü kaşı
Bayramları gelince
Çevirirler kuzu başı

Ah Naciye Naciye cilveli Naciye
Abe dale das dale gel bana das dale
Abe dale dale dale gel bana ah dale

My students can attest to the fact that I’m somewhat obsessed with pelvic alignment. Belly dance teachers still frequently teach their students to tuck the pelvis, but gone are the days when a swayback was the most common postural problem to be corrected. Most of the folks I see these days over-tuck their pelvises under and push them forward, the result of sitting at a desk all day. I spend more time guiding my students to release that tuck and bring the hips back to fall naturally under the ribcage.

Hadia of Canada opened my eyes to the fact that when the pelvis is correctly aligned, the slight knee bend of belly dance posture causes the tailbone to drop slightly on its own as the hip adductors engage, which is really all we need to be able to move those hips safely, precisely, and freely.

Here’s a wonderful article on how pelvic alignment is meant to work, and how to find it:

http://dancingsoul.typepad.com/dancing_soul/2009/09/finding-your-center-irene-dowds-article-on-pelvic-structure-and-alignment.html

And, here’s one written about prepping for squats with proper form, but it’s fantastic for finding and fixing the tight muscles that are getting in the way of your pelvis aligning properly:

http://www.katysays.com/you-dont-know-squat/

Me with some of my students at Moody Street Circus. Those smiles are from three hours of Turkish Romany dance with the wonderful, luminous Artemis Mourat!

Warming up is important. The older you get, the more important it becomes. Without warming up, cold, tight muscles don’t respond the way you want them to in order to move. They have limited range of motion. they pull your body out of alignment. They are more vulnerable to injury.

Gentle movements that get the blood flowing and create heat in the body make a typical warm up routine. Most dancers have a set of movements that they perform to warm up at the beginning of every practice. It’s easy, and not uncommon, to go through this warmup routine with the mind elsewhere, thinking about a choreography or move, or, in a group setting, socializing while moving. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But, I confess, my favorite is the mindful warmup.

Tuning into exactly what is going on in my body, even if I’m going through a set routine of movements, has benefits all its own. In some ways it’s like a diagnostic check. I can note any areas of my body that are tight (need to stretch more), hurting (be gentle with them), or out of alignment (pay attention to posture and technique). I can spend more time where necessary to loosen up and bring into alignment any area that needs extra attention.

There are also deeper, less obvious benefits. Dancers live in the body. Our body is the medium for our art, and the more connected to it we feel, the happier and more soulful I believe we are. Dancing training itself involves not just consciously learning movements, but creating “muscle memory” – actually growing new neural pathways for finer and more instinctive control of movement. The direction of your attention very much affects this process. Tuning in to your body as you warm up primes you for this growth to happen.

Lastly, I find the use of a standard warmup routine almost serves as a ritual, to get me into a dance mindset. Just as in martial arts, where we start with a “bow in” or other short ritual to tell us where we are and let the concerns outside drop away, paying attention and being present for my warmup tells me I’m in the studio, and no matter what else is going on in my life, it’s time to dance.

Here’s one of my favorite photos from Istanbul. 😉

I’ve been meaning to write a quick review on these for a while. I have cranky knees due to joint hypermobility, and when I began to increase my teaching hours I started to look for something to decrease the friction between my feet and the floor, hoping to save my joints from some wear-and-tear. I tried a few less-expensive half-sole products, both with and without ankle straps; most of these have a hole for your big toe, and then another one for all your other toes. I found those without ankle straps tended to slip forward off my foot starting from the little toe side. Not exactly secure. Those with ankle straps would ride up my foot from the little toe side, exposing enough of my sole to defeat the purpose of wearing them. It didn’t take me long to realize that this one-hole-for-4-toes design was not going to work for me.

Dance Paws are a bit more expensive than other footies of their type, but in my opinion are worth every penny. I went for the “Adjustable” model, with a velcro strap that goes around your midfoot, but the big difference with Dance Paws is the fact that you get an opening for every toe. Once these are on, they stay in place, no matter how much you spin, kick, or sweat. I throw them in the wash with the rest of my dance wear (admittedly the Dance Paws site says to handwash), and they airdry overnight. I bought a second pair so I always have some ready to go.

I still prefer to perform completely barefoot – while Dance Paws aren’t especially noticeable while on, they aren’t pretty enough to satisfy my aesthetic sense. But for workshops, classes, and day-to-day practice these guys have made me very happy.

Dance Paws

A confession: I hate to practice.

This might seem odd from a woman who has chosen a career in dance, where practice is one of the most important and time-consuming activities. And I love that period when you pick out a new piece of music and start to play with it, explore it, discover all the accents and arcs you can illustrate with your body.

But then comes the time when you’ve settled on a path for that song, and you need to put in practice. My brain will come up with almost any excuse to avoid this – I’m tired, I have email to read, I need to organize my sock drawer (OK, not really – my socks live in total anarchy). This is where I drag myself into my studio, tie on a hipscarf, go through my warmup routine, and put on my music. Sometimes, once I’m there, I really enjoy it. But lots of the time, it feels like slogging.

And that’s OK. Just as literally slogging through mud builds strength, slogging through practice builds skill and focus. Just because it doesn’t feel fun and joyous doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. Sometimes, down there in the mud, you’ll find unexpected insights and inspiration. But even if you don’t, the slog itself is worthwhile.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some practicing to do.

Princess Farhana has a fantastic blog post on costume and gig bag organization (my own “emergency packs” which live in my gig bag and class bag are based on her post, and have things like extra earrings, makeup wipes, and eyelash glue).

With a couple of my students starting to dance more frequently, I thought I would share the standard generic “gig checklist” I use for packing for a performance.

• costume bra & belt
• skirt
• gauntlets/armbands
• zills
• veil
• dance pants
• safety pins
• wig tape/roll on glue
• energy snack
• coverup
• earrings
• burned cd of music
• mp3 player with playlist and appropriate cable
• lipstick
• address and contact# set up in phone/GPS
• bluetooth earpiece
• portable speakers
• business cards
• water bottle
• towel
• travel mirror

I edit the list depending on the specifics of the gig (e.g. – I don’t pack speakers if I’m dancing at a club or restaurant I know to have a sound system), but the above makes a pretty good base list to start from. Speaking of which, I’ve got to get cracking on my packing list for tonight.

(For more detail on things like makeup, what kind of bag, what to wear to the gig, etc, check out So You’re Going to Start Performing.)

What’s on your standard gig packing list?  🙂