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“Greetings Kajira!
I have been studying ATS since 2001 and more recently the Alexander technique. The Alexander Technique is the proper use of self, which has brought up many questions for me about the ATS posture. I am on my third time of reading The Tribal Bible and have seen most of the ATS instructional DVDs. I understand that the hips are neutral, it is the upper back/chest lift that has my Alexander teacher and I puzzled. It was first explained to me as “70% lift of the chest.” Is that the whole ribcage or just the front/chest area? Is it really necessary to create that tension in the upper back? I also have issues with the way back bends and undulations are performed in ATS. I seems to put a great deal of strain on the lower back. Don’t get me wrong, I love the powerful proud posture displayed by talented ATS dancers. I simply want to understand it better. ~ With Many Happy Ululations, Hallie “Calliste” Tibbs, Basharaat World Dance Co.”
Happy Zagrouta to You, too, Hallie!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for asking these well-thought-out and important questions. Thank you also for exploring such helpful forms as the Alexander Technique, which can only make you a better dancer and teacher if ever you are pulled in that direction. I am thankful you asked because you have allowed me to share my personal discoveries about this subject with many people. And, of course I wish to thank you for re-reading your Tribal Bible!
As the years have passed, I have continued to become a better, more observant teacher with every workshop I teach and every class I take. Currently, my ongoing weekly studies are in the practice of Odissi Dance, a devotional Classical form from Orissa in East India, with my dear Teacher Sarala Dandekar, who also holds a Master’s Degree in Dance.
In turn, my teaching schedule has evolved from regular, ongoing classes to workshops around the globe monthly except when producing Tribal Fest. Ongoing classes are now held wherever there are teachers certified in my KD/BSBD Format for ATS BD, esp. in the SF North Bay of CA, home base from the start of BlackSheep BellyDance and its former incarnations, under the tutelage of our troupe’s excellent Certified Teachers and my Acting Director, Seba.
I have learned that what feels good to me personally in some cases is not necessarily the exact same way I had been taught. You probably know I spent 8 years under my beloved Teacher of ATS, Carolena Nericcio of FCBD. One of the reasons I broke away was because I knew some things could be different, in a way that felt better to my body. This was not done out of disrespect, but exploration. Carolena and I still work together every year. I am still innovating after 7 or so years on my own, as are my teachers in BlackSheep BellyDance. The more I work in-depth while doing one-on-one privates and/or Instructor Certifications, the more I have modified my wording and presentation of certain movements intrinsic to ATS.
I have heard the same explanation from FCBD-trained teachers in regards to your quote above: “70% lift of the chest.” And yes, in this situation, they do mean “just the front/chest area.” When I was studying, that description was accompanied by this comment: “There is a mini-backbend, up high, at the choli strap line.”
Today I personally describe the posture of my own Tribal BellyDance Format exactly like Anthea (Kawakib) did in the last issue (Nov./Dec. 2007, page 49) of Zaghareet!, all the way to “arms.” At “arms” I would describe the correct ATS “resting position,” which is: elbows turned out towards the sides of the room (but relaxed, so the elbows may be pointing slightly “side-back” in actuality), with the side of the hand between thumb and index finger touching the thighs, much lower than one’s actual hips (for most people). “Long” arms, not bent to rest at the hips, not making a big triangle (that look could be a cue for a move, though).
I feel that by merely turning out the elbows, one engages muscles that serve to open, or broaden, one’s ribcage area slightly. From this position, keeping the ribcage lifted the same amount all around, I ask students to also lengthen their necks, keeping their head lifted the same amount all around, looking forward, smiling and breathing.
The act of lifting one’s chest evenly all around does indeed involve the back, but should not cause much tension at all. I feel this action all around my lower ribcage, evenly and comfortably, including in my sides. I tell my students this so they know what to feel for.
Next, I remind students to keep their shoulders “melted onto their backs,” asking for more attention to the bottom of the shoulder blades than the top. I want their shoulders to be as relaxed as possible without slouching, and with “attention” as I ask for in the arms. What I’m really asking for is a series of mini-isolations!
I’m a stickler for keeping the shoulders in place for this style of dance unless a move or cue calls specifically for them to move. I definitely watch for students who allow their shoulders to “creep up” while concentrating on other new ideas, as they will, so this must be watched for and corrected.
I provide “visual aids,” such as pulling up a couple dreadlocks closest to the back of the crown of my head while allowing my mozuna rope “tail bone extension” to show the line that serves to lengthen the spine that I wish them to mimic. I will also demonstrate on both ribcage and head using my hands on my body what I mean by “lifting evenly all around.” I explain that we’re “trying for the longest possible spine, tail bone reaching into the Earth while the crown of our heads reach in as straight a line possible (for each person’s body) through the Heavens.”
I then ask them to breathe in a bit more than their normal resting breath, and to keep their ribcages in place while exhaling. This action seems to produce more work in the front of the body than in the back. I feel it mostly in my upper abdominals! Yay!
Of course perfecting these mini-isolations takes practice like any do. What I’m looking for is actually quite detailed. One must be able to sense/feel when a muscle group is working when not needed and to relax said muscle group in order to do any type of isolation. For example, it is common for one’s back or neck muscles to try to “help” one’s front muscles much more than needed in this exercise. Place focus on the abs in order to take it off the back. Please also note that students need frequent posture reminders no matter what styles of dance they pursue.
This is the best solution I have come up with (so far!) which seems to gain results with the least amount of tension in the back as possible, yet gets dancers into a nice ATS posture. As you know from The Tribal Bible, this may not have been exactly the same way I described our posture in 2003. It may not be the same in 2008, either, as if I find a better way, I’ll gladly put it to use in my classes.
Please indulge me while I call readers’ attention to two more articles from the last Zaghareet! (Nov./Dec. 2007, page 36) by Carrie Konyha and (Nov./Dec. 2007, page 44) by Hossam Ramzy, because they kind of touch on some of what I’m saying above.
Carrie has noticed the trend I wrote about in the Sept./Oct. Issue of our magazine of, well, basically the ignorance of many dancers who only ever study some kind of “Tribal” or “Tribal Fusion,” or who are super-new to the scene and want to “make up a new style,” or who have not trained in traditional styles and yet insist on calling their dance “bellydance” and still ignore the parts that make it “Bellydance:” the music, the moves and the hand percussion. This is why I suggested they use different titles to describe what they are doing and have said that in my opinion, many of the newer styles are not even “belly dance” at all. Seems Hossam knows what I’m talkin’ about by the comments he had for some of the newer American non-bellydance styles he’s seen lately, though he greatly approves of ATS, or as he put it, “Tribal Belly Dance.”
Both authors want Tribal dancers to know “their roots,” and I agree with them. I’m with Carrie in that I have always taught ATS as a musical style of dance, and that prompted many of my innovations and the fact that BlackSheep BellyDance never fully choreographs anything, allowing for the unexpected, and always choose live music over canned, even if we’ve never heard the musicians before. BlackSheep was the first troupe to land a performance spot at our local Greek restaurant dancing with the band, because no other groups could “go with the flow of the music” - and Greek music is not even the “usual Tribal fare!”
We can do this because of my many years of study with Middle Eastern musicians and dancers, who if I named each one would cover a page. I gained my understanding of the music and cultures of the Middle East mostly during my 9+ years on Staff at Mendocino Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp in Northern CA - nearly a decade of working closely with musicians and dancers from many countries, including the very same gents Carrie mentioned in her article and many more equally talented and touted. I’ve learned from Turkish and Balkan Rromany musicians at Voice of Roma’s original U.S. Herdeljezi many years running as well as from fellow Staff at Folk Tours Camp.
I’ve told you this because my innovations on the original FCBD ATS Format have stemmed from actual Middle Eastern dance training via private lessons, workshops, seminars, ongoing classes and camps in as many styles of Middle Eastern dances I could find. It’s evolved from my work with innumerable musicians, my earlier membership in the Classical American Cabaret and Folkloric Troupe, Gypsy Caravan (along with our own musicians), from training at my local junior college I attended when I decided to teach in order to learn anatomy and physiology as well as some Feldenkrais technique, Modern Dance and Ballet basics. The rest comes from the constant learning while doing as described earlier.
Let’s address your issues with ATS backbends and undulations. I/we have several types of Tribal Bodywaves (a.k.a. undulations) in my Format, the “original” medium size (“original” is what I call things I learned from Carolena and FCBD), the original tiny chorus size, our own BSBD four-count up and four-count down Rhythmic Bodywaves we use mostly in chorus (more Oriental-influenced, but not as large or wiggly, keeping the movement between the hips and chest, not affecting the head at all), our own Dawn’s Bodywave Variation and the one we call “The Great Big Bodywave,” a FCBD original but BSBD-changed. Of course all of these are performed BSBD-Style with the ability to use both front diagonals or center if the audience is uni-directional and “limitless fronts” if not, unlike the original ATS style.
I believe all sizes of ATS Bodywaves are safe as long as the teacher is watchful except The Great Big Bodywave. This is where people can get into trouble because in performances and in some teachers’ classrooms it incorporates a true backbend. I instruct firmly that I want my students to learn this as a “knee bend” - NOT a “backbend.” I get down on the floor and demonstrate one of the “plank” exercises - gee, there are so many of these, it’s like “camel” in bellydance! I mean the one where your stomach is in, pelvis is neutral, you are kneeling and your hands rest on your thighs as you go back, keeping perfectly straight, to where you feel “that quiver” in your thighs, then come up. (Carolena taught me this exercise, BTW.)
I tell them that if we transfer that action to standing position (with one foot forward to accommodate the weight change needed for this step), we can still do it, and in a completely safe way! This is the ONLY way I repeat this move over and over in class (using the knee bend). Once in awhile when fully warmed up, I’ll demonstrate a full backbend and tell my students that is more like what they would see during a performance, but in performances we would do only one, if any (as they lose their “wow” factor). I explain about show adrenalin and how that affects performers, and I emphasize the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of LENGTHENING - NEVER COMPRESSING - the spine while working with any form of backbend.
I tell them to be extremely careful and not to release their lower backs at all at first while learning. Once they’ve developed strength, especially in the deeper transverse abdominals and ‘psoas, with a spotter and only in Level Three are my students introduced to actual backbends. *What’s more is that the ability to do a flat backbend is not a requirement for membership in BSBD!* This is because I truly feel not everyone can do them safely.
Our rule during shows is: “Go back only as far as you personally feel comfortable that day and can still see the leader so you know when to come up.” This is also how we think of level changes - not how low can you go, but how well you can go. I want us all to dance until we’re ready for the next life, so we’re extremely careful about anything possibly injurious. It is so true that every body is different!
Carolena earned her American Council on Exercise (ACE) Personal Trainer Certification while I was with her. I remember her saying in class never to push a backbend, and that: “Some people are born with rounded disks between their vertebrae, while others are more squared-off. If you have the rounded disks, you will be able to go farther back than if you have squared-off disks.” Interesting!
We have a very strong yogini who is a BSBD troupe member and teacher, who can do full flat laybacks and beyond because she has taken several years to strengthen her body and gain the flexibility required to do them. It did come up to me, “Should she be doing them in class?” We decided no, to make sure none of the students try to mimic her. I feel class time is strictly for focusing on our impressionable students’ well-being.
Torso Twists and our BSBD variations of them are moves I also do not have students practice very many of before moving on to another move. We come back to them periodically instead, as no matter how well you describe them, when people tire the chances for injury increase.
Dancers who are new to any style or only study one style may not be aware that earlier “Vintage American Cabaret” dancers (who were our first true fusion artists due the many varied countries of the band members at the time, who played a fusion set and who helped “train” the American nightclub dancers of the 50's-70's in what they saw in their home countries), incorporated many dangerous ideas into their dancing! Many dancers of the time were taught to use a posture that places the weight behind the body’s center. Ansuya Rathor is today’s well-known example of one who still uses that style of early posture in carrying on her mother’s legacy. But, the posture was not kind to many dancers’ backs who did not do the necessary abdominal strengthening needed for that type of posture (hips actually in front of the chest).
Others, such as the amazing Delilah, who is another incredible example of Vintage or Classical American Cabaret Belly Dance, is still famous for her ability to safely do a true “Turkish Drop” - which was done by spinning quickly, leaping into the air, and landing in a full, flat layback on the floor! Hopefully, with your shoulders and tops of your feet hitting the floor at once, followed immediately by your knees and butt. Many dancers broke their big toes or worse - I have a story from one of the musicians I mentioned working with that took place in a New York nightclub, of a dancer hitting her head and knocking herself unconscious! They kept playing until she woke up with the help of a drink thrown in her face by one of the band’s members. It was a big hit with audiences, though - I’ve been told of how the owner of one of the clubs in Los Angeles would stand by the light switch to turn off all the lights for a second as soon as the dancer leapt up, so when they came back on “it looked like she had disappeared” until she’s arise and be seen by people beyond the first row of tables.
Remember, though - these were also the days of almost zero knowledge of how the body works and no supplemental workouts or yoga or Pilates - just a bit later, Jane Fonda was telling us to bounce our stretches! Dancers have come a long way if you look at where we came from in this country, as now Tribal and Tribal Fusion BellyDancers use the much more controlled and slow version of that Turkish Drop, don’t spin and leap into the air (the name for this famous move was coined by Jamila Salimpour, incidentally).
I will close this article with one more very important consideration: NO FORM OF DANCE IS COMPLETELY RISK-FREE. Why? Because it’s dance! Dance is not “normal, natural” movement or it would be just that: nothing special. We wouldn’t even need such a word in our language. Can you imagine a world without dance? Still, this is VERY IMPORTANT for all dancers to realize because it’s not talked about often in our circles, and in today’s world we all should be aware.
The Great News is that these risks can definitely be minimized, especially in any form of Middle Eastern-derived dance, which is, in comparison to many forms and in my opinion, rather benign. We are able to continue dancing until we drop, by doing some moves less and others better as our experience and age increases. Some amount of risk is worth the incredible bounty of rewards for most of us. To quote my Odissi teacher, upon me questioning her about some of the things we do in that Classical Indian Dance Form: “Odissi does take a toll on the body, even the ‘kinder and gentler’ form that I teach and there is really no way to get around that. I guess it is the flip side of the strengthening and conditioning and spiritual groundedness that we get out of the same said form.”
Aloha and a hui ho,
Kajira Djoumahna
Winner of 2 awards for Favorite Instructor (IAMED & Zaghareet!’s Golden Belly Awards), 2 awards for Favorite Event and Promoter for Tribal Fest (Zaghareet!’s Golden Belly Awards - thanks to all of you readers!) and some honorary awards for DVD content and outstanding achievement. Author of the Tribal Bible, 2 instructional DVDs, producer of Tribal Fest and Maui Intensives, global workshop teacher and director of BlackSheep BellyDance CA & HI. www.BlackSheepBellyDance.com |