|
If you want to try learning belly dance from video, I recommend
that you work with three or more videos:
- One that teaches basic moves.
- One that teaches continuing education skills.
- One that contains performances by professional dancers.
Don't feel you need to run out and buy all three videos at
once. Start with the basic moves video. Once you've spent time
working with it, you'll know whether you like belly dancing enough
to try additional ones.
If you want to learn belly dancing as rapidly as possible,
you need to structure your practice session effectively to ensure
the most value from the time you spend doing it. This means you
need a warm-up, a review of what you already know, some time
working on new material, and a cool-down. For details on how
to do all of this, please see my article, How
to Structure a Belly Dance Study/Practice Session at Home.
Videos Don't Mimic Real-Life Classroom Instruction
It may be tempting to just pop the video into your VCR or
DVD player and run it straight through from beginning to end,
doing each move as it is taught, moving on to the next move when
the teacher on the video does. But I don't think that's the best
way to really learn the material that it's teaching because the
structure of the information on belly dance videos is quite different
from the structure of a classroom situation.
When a teacher makes an instructional video, she first has
to look at her budget and decide what length of video she can
afford to produce. Let's say she decides to make a one-hour video.
She then faces the challenge of packing as much useful information
into one hour as she can. So for each move that she teaches,
she might show it from a couple of different angles and offer
a couple of different ways of explaining how to do it, but then
she rapidly moves on to teach the next move. In contrast, when
the same teacher stands in front of a classroom full of students,
she allows time after teaching a new move for everyone to practice
it, and goes around to correct those who need it.
How to Learn New Moves
Let's assume that you have warmed up, and let's assume that
you have reviewed what you already know, following the techniques
I recommended in the article mentioned above. Now you're ready
to start learning new material.
 |
When I teach classes, I normally teach only 4 or 5 new moves
per hour. There's a limit to how much new material your brain
can absorb in one session, and it's good to take things slowly
enough to really learn each item before you move on to
the next. Your muscles, too, need time to learn new ways of moving.
Don't rush your way through learning new material. Take time
to learn all the details. For each individual move that the video
teaches, take about 5 minutes (or more, if you need it) to practice
that move. Rewind your tape 4 or 5 times, and each time pay attention
to see whether you can pick up new information that you missed
when you listened to it before.
PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Randolph Lynch, Belmont, California.
|
When you rewind the tape to listen to an explanation again,
here's what to look for:
- Each time, listen carefully to the explanation and watch
what the instructor is doing. If there are multiple people demonstrating
the different moves, study each of them in turn - something about
the way one person is moving might help you spot something that
you didn't happen to see on the instructor.
- Pay attention to where she places her weight.
- Watch her posture, and think about her skeletal alignment.
Are the hips facing straight forward, or is the pelvis angled?
Does the rib cage face the same direction the hips are facing,
or is it angled?
- Listen to her words. She might tell you something that isn't
obvious from what you see.
- Look for details that she does not describe with words, such
as where she places her arms.
- Do the move along with the video as it is taught.
- After you have rewound the tape about 4-5 times to review
how the move was explained, pause the video, put suitable music
on your stereo, and repeat it over and over for the length of
one 3-minute song.
Make a written list of all the new moves you learned during
your session with the video. Over the next day or two, even if
you don't have time to dance, pick up the list, look at it, and
try to remember what each move was like. The next time you work
with the video, this list will remind you of which moves to practice
during your review.
Practice the New Moves
When you've finished using the video to master the new moves
that you studiend in this session, turn off the television, and
put your practice music on your stereo system. Start doing some
free-form dancing to the music, using all the moves you know,
and make an effort to incorporate the new ones you just learned.
Just focus on the music, and let your body interpret what
you hear. But make it a point to incorporate the new moves into
what you are doing. Try to do each new move at least 3 times.
If the song ends before you fit them all in, restart it from
the beginning.
Finish your study session with a cool-down, as recommended
in How to Structure a Belly Dance Practice Session at Home.
|
