Secrets de pratique de la danse du ventre:

Maitriser les techniques avancées

La traduction suit bientôt.

             In Oriental countries they pay attention to HOW you move more than to WHAT you do. Not just to make eight… but to make it a certain way. Not just to make a hip drop…  It should be a special one.  Oriental dancers practice specific exercises, which develop ability to perform movements in the oriental way.  It is possible to  achieve this level of skills by practicing the following: 

 

a)      Building up physical condition for legs and buttocks. We can move our hips using different groups of muscles, and every technique requers strength of  those muscles. Just usual fitness for legs and buttocks using weights will make you feel the difference very soon.

 

b)      Practicing specific exercises for exactness of  hip movements. Hip movements create best effect when they are done in precise way. For that we need first to locate the movements. Dina, famous top dancer of Egypt, shared her knowledge in her wonderfull workshop "Secrets of Dina techniques":

 

         Exercise 1. Stand straight, on straight legs with about half meter between feet. Move your hip to the left side as far as possible. From here bring your hip to the right side making 8 stops, without turning your hip, just keeping them straight.Repeat in opposite direction.

 

        Exercise 2.  Stand straight, on straight legs with about half meter between feet. Make horizontal figure 8 making 8 stops on the way.

 

        During the workshop Dina was repeating these 2 exercises many times. She said it trains your hip to locate hip accents at many different angles.

 

c)       Practicing  miniature movements using muscle controle. The smaller the movement, the more variations and directions we can give it. The same movement can look in many different ways.

         You may make hip accents with relaxed muscles, or by using muscles on your legs, belly and buttocks. When you use muscle controle, you become able to make accents much smaller and sharper. The smaller and the sharper the accent, the more possibilities with making variations. Using muscle controle means to contract the corresponding muscle at the end of an accent.

 

d)      Making small differences between  movements. Be aware that even the smallest difference between movement is well  recognized by audience. Dina's techniques and muscle controle will help you to achieve it.

 

e)      Steps technique.  The way you make your steps can change a whole impression from your performance. When you make a step, step on a straight leg, compensating movement on the level of weist (not hips). It will look more elegant than walking with bended knees.