Saturday, February 19, 2011

Saturday Dance Class 19 Feb 2011 Homework

Homework for my Saturday Class on Raqs Baladi

• Listen to music.

• Watch taqsim and baladi clips on blog.

• Posture: Practice your posture all through your daily activities. Take moments out to see how tall you can become. Think about lifting your ribcage with a each inhale and pulling in your core with each exhale, keeping your shoulders relaxed. Think about what direction your pelvic triangle points, and use your deep, low abdominal muscles to adjust your pelvic alignment when you walk, stand or dance to shoot for a neutral alignment. Be aware of how this may differ from how you normally align.

• Arm path drills

• Shoulder shimmy

• Hip lifts


• Hip slides

• Hip circles - Remember to keep the abs engaged throughout the movement. Using the glutes to push through to the front and the abs to pull back.

• Hip hits

• Stomach pop

• Shimmy drills - We used Hanna Drumzilzia - Strictly Bellydancing Vol 5 - Eddie 'the Sheik' Kochak in class.
Hanna Drumzilzia - Tabla Solos (Various Patterns) - Strictly Belly Dancing Volume 5



• Vertical Figure 8 - Maya and Egyptian (Note that this move was named after Maya Medwar - Mayan is not the correct name...)


• Undulations


• Bellyrolls

Extension work for advanced dancers
• Taqsim practice! 1. Find an instrumental piece of music and practice taqsim movements. 2. Practice taqsim movements to a baladi progression.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Some Baladi videos for my Saturday Class

Souhair Zaki was famous for her baladi performances. She often used them as the second number in her set after the mergence or entrance.
Souhair Zaki dances to Hassan Ya Khouli


Souhair dances a baladi taqsim (c 1::20 into show).


Taqsim starts about 42 second into the clip:


The very famous song Shik Shak Skok has a taqsim in the middle:


There are a couple of nice articles on baladi by two teachers I have studied with:
Hadia of Canada on Baladi
(I took several long dance and teacher training workshops with Hadia in Canada. Hadia actually become my husband's cousin's main teacher after I introduced her to the dance. )

Hossam Ramzy on Baladi
(When I was a brand new baby dancer I was fortunate enough to take a weekend workshop with Hossam. It was amazing to have the opportunity to dance to such a well known musician. I learned so much from him! My love for Baladi stems from those early days.)

Tito Seif