I
created materials for the DVD Bellydance: Beautiful Technique;
the Beginner’s Guide to Flawless Artistry (World Dance New
York, 2009) to provide a resource for anyone who wants a deeper
understanding of how dance works, to define a style of belly dance
appropriate for artistic and theatrical performance, and to advance
the wider recognition of belly dance as a serious and skilled
performing arts discipline within and beyond the realm of ethnic
dance.
Beautiful
Technique can be used as an instructional program by someone who
has never danced before, but also contains a huge amount of reference
material for belly dancers at any level, choreographers, teachers,
critics, aficionados, and dancers and artists from other disciplines.
Like the content of any reference volume, the content of Beautiful
Technique is easiest to appreciate and access when it is easy to
search; Beautiful Plans was created to provide a detailed
table of contents and other materials that enhance my program’s
accessibility, present supplemental information, and help independent
learners develop their own training programs.
Think
of the Technique section of the DVD not as a lecture, but as a users’
manual. I created the Detailed Table of Contents for Beautiful
Technique DVD (included in this booklet) as an outline that makes
it easier to keep track of concepts and refer back to specific
sections for review.
Beautiful
Technique’s seven “Practice Flows” are training
choreographies that teach musical interpretation, demonstrate how the
movements from the Technique section are used in the context of
dance, and give students an opportunity for some practical training.
As a master-level illustration of concepts, this section is designed
for an active learner, rather than one who approaches training with
an expectation of being swept along passively. (I developed these
segments to be “Practical Exercises.” They are called “Flows”
in Beautiful Technique to conform to familiar terminology for
dance-along content.)
If
your principal goal is building technical skill, I recommend “flow”
in dance practice only in the sense that I discuss it in the
Technique section, as a positive energetic state that connects the
body and mind. Ideally, dance performance should look effortless and
feel fluid; but, for training, be intentional, and gently resist the
current. Imagine moving yourself upstream in a series of locks (the
sort used in canals to move boats uphill); spend time swimming at
each plateau, feel your level rise, and keep moving upward. Push
yourself “upstream” in training so that you may enjoy flowing
“downstream” in performance, showing skilled yet relaxed dances
that will be a pleasure for both you and your audience to experience.
If
you are using Beautiful Technique as a primary resource to
learn belly dance, I recommend focused repetition of individual
movements and transitions to supplement your work with the DVD. The
Lesson modules in this booklet are designed to facilitate this
independent practice. Corresponding with the seven Flows, each
Lesson is progressive (incorporating review then building new
movements from previously mastered skills), and provides a training
plan of the specific moves one must drill to develop or maintain the
cleanest technique and to advance to the level for each new Flow.
Lessons may also be an aid to teachers developing their own curricula
and lesson plans. Each Lesson also includes diagrams for every piece
of music used on the DVD, and choreography notes for Azure (the
Practice Choreography and second performance), each Flow, and the
Warm Up and Arms sections. (Not included are notes for “Raqs
Ameera,” my first performance, for the simple reason that they do
not exist. Because it is a complex piece I chose to document this
dance by videotaping my rehearsals rather than creating a written
record).
Unlike
the Flow segments, which were choreographed primarily as exercises
(emphasizing repetition and using a limited vocabulary of moves
corresponding to the level it demonstrates), my Practice
Choreography, Azure, was designed with the simple goal of matching
beautiful movements to music to create a greater beauty than that of
the movements or music alone. As an artwork, Azure is meant to give
happiness both to those who move through this dance and to those who
watch it. As a training tool, Azure demonstrates the aesthetic
merits of matching the structure of a dance to the structure of its
accompanying music, whether in choreographed or improvisational
performance; shows that “advanced” movements are less important
to beautiful dancing than clean technique, musicality, expression,
and charismatic presence; and provides an additional Practical
Exercise.
Beautiful
Technique is a complete resource for a few topics, but, as a
single-volume DVD, it could only include a small part of my program.
I chose to focus on movement vocabulary, but, rather than limiting
Beautiful Technique to a survey of only basics, I chose to show how a
few basics evolve into complex expressions, illustrate how clean
execution of advanced steps depends on strong foundation skills, and
illustrate the value of a systematic approach to building and
understanding dance vocabulary. The movements included in Beautiful
Technique represent the vocabulary I use most often to create belly
dance for a theater setting, further narrowed to torso isolations
that come from a neutral-pelvis posture.
Among
the technical skills left for future releases are: upper-body
isolations; full-torso undulations; traveling moves; spins and turns;
wrist circles; arm undulations; shoulder accents; and the many
movements that I dance with an engaged core (the alignment often
taught for the modern Egyptian style) such as vertical-plane figure
8s, isolated tilts, weighted hip drops, and ummis.
Also
left for future releases is in-depth treatment of the many other
components that dancers need for a complete training program:
conditioning exercises to build strength and flexibility, drills,
finger cymbals and other props, musical interpretation, emotional
expression, performance skills, cultural and stylistic context, and
an aesthetic framework to build choreography and improvisation. The
information I’ve provided on these topics (included in this booklet
as Practice, Choreography, and Advice to Dancers; included on
Beautiful Technique as Introductions and Philosophy) should be
regarded only as a starting point. In particular, I recommend that
independent learners seek out supplemental resources that teach the
rhythmic structure and instrumentation of Middle-Eastern music.
→ Next in Beautiful Plans:
Time-Indexed TOC for Beautiful Technique DVD (Technique Section)
← Previous: Introduction to the 2014 HTML-format Beautiful Plans
↑ Beautiful Plans Table of Contents
↑↑ Beautiful Technique from Step One
↑↑↑ Autumn Ward Presents Artistic Belly Dance Student Resource Center
← Previous: Introduction to the 2014 HTML-format Beautiful Plans
↑ Beautiful Plans Table of Contents
↑↑ Beautiful Technique from Step One
↑↑↑ Autumn Ward Presents Artistic Belly Dance Student Resource Center
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