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Kajira for inquiries.
“Dear Kajira,
There has been quite a bit of discussion lately about whether tribal style dancers (especially those doing ATS) can fully portray the richness of the music they dance to. Some folks think that since tribal style dancers usually dance to the rhythm vs. the melody they are hampered in their ability to express the music. Some people also point to the aloof or sometimes angry expressions on the faces of tribal style dancers as an example of not portraying the music fully. What is your opinion? ~ Fikriyyah”
Dear Fikriyyah,
(I wish to state to readers that I am using the female pronoun in this article but by no means imply that my opinions expressed herein are not meant for our dancing brothers, too.)
I agree that the points you have made are valid and in fact, rampant in the tribal (whether ATS or fusion) dance community. In fact, this question is so pertinent to me personally at this moment, as a review critique sent to me just a couple weeks ago from my students in CA had this very problem.
They are working on their own there now that I have moved, and doing well, but they need work on their faces. I was astonished at how pinched and angry some of the dancers appeared, and others seemed to only have one expression for the whole dance, whether fast or slow. I told them, “You guys need to work on your faces. You look like you’re going to a funeral! Remember your audience!” I advised them to practice in front of the mirror and in class solely on facial expressions for some time, so that they are not blank-faced, or worse, pissed-off-looking. I even went so far as to tell them, “If you want to dance sorrowfully or angrily, then do it in a circle alone and cry and get it out (as this was a very emotional set for them for our own personal reasons), but once they step onto a stage they had better have an active face.” **I reminded my students in CA that as dancers, our faces are our single most expressive body part we have, and to forget them is simply a shame.** I had mentioned to them that their faces were the worst part of the show they sent to me to critique. Even half-assed technique with good face is far more entertaining than an angry or blank look on a highly technical dancer (in my opinion).
I had noted that the two dancers in the group who came from oriental dance backgrounds had much better faces than the ones who had not studied oriental. I told them to ponder that and maybe take a couple other classes if they had time and definitely workshops whenever possible in any style. I know that during my oriental and American Classical Bellydance training, my teachers often had us practice “face dancing.” All by itself, no moves or steps at times, just full concentration on one’s face. They’d call out moods verbally, or play music, and we were not to look around, laugh or do anything but look directly at our own faces and make them express the mood s/he called out and/or the music. In fact, I have done this in ATS classes myself and also have used flash cards (an idea gleaned from my modern dance training, which, funnily enough, I was marked down in my final for having “too expressive” a face for modern! LOL!) Anyway, dancer’s flash cards are useful to get students away from the mirror to practice with their faces and bodies any mood they like. Anything can be on a flash card from archetypal icons to animals, plants, weather, elements, birds, inanimate objects, to ideas like “flow, cut, slash, staccato, stillness, heavy, light,” etc. It is completely up to each individual how they might portray “temple” or “bridge” or even “snail.” Again, like the mirror exercise for faces, this one empowers the individual to decide on how their faces and bodies will react to the words called out at random. This can then be translated to use with music by the instructor, with the final goal being each dancer is able to express the music, not only with their bodies, but with their faces, too.
I am going into these ideas for a reason: so any dancers - tribal or not - reading this who need help with facial expressions can start working on them right away. Because, to answer your first sentence in your question, YES, we CAN fully portray the richness of the music if we are paying attention and are not taking to the stage before we know what we’re doing. (That is another problem with many new ATS and tribal fusion dancers that deserves its own column.)
It is a myth and misconception that ATS or tribal fusion dancers should be expressionless. I don’t know where, how or why that trend began, but for many, it is here now. I think that too many tribal dancers have never trained or even taken a workshop outside their tribe’s classroom, and their teachers often are just as ignorant. They think to look blank is “cool.” I admit there are times I enjoy a robotic performance, such as when the dancers’ bodies are doing super-technical moves and isolations and their faces just seem to say “I don’t know my body is doing this at all,” but even that gets old quick if it doesn’t change.
Even worse to me that a blank face is that huge, plastered-on, relentless cheese-eatin’ grin that we have all noticed on dancers of *any style*, one after another. I’m telling ya, that’s just scary!
Recently my HI group and I performed our style/format for ATS (which is unique). This was at a show with a famous dancer from NYC who had only seen the “dark-looking” ATS or fusion. She thought we’d be wearing black (which is so old, overdone and passe` - I think) and that we wouldn’t smile. She was amazed and I think a bit disappointed that we wore bright, lively colors and smiled - a LOT! Sometimes we even laugh while dancing because we’re having so much fun. After all, true tribal allows for these nearly physic moments or “ah-ha!” while improvising, unlike any other style can. This is why *I* dance: for joy. I remind students and peers every so often that: “life’s too short to not be having fun. If you’re not having fun, do something else and stop wasting your time!” But she had expected frowns or at least very serious and dark moody looks - because that’s all she has ever seen in NYC tribal I suppose.
This could be one reason you see that type of “dark” look on so many ATS and fusion dancers - maybe that’s all they have seen, too. But let me tell you, as an audience member, I get bored really fast if the face is not involved fully. I want to see everything on every dancer’s face: her joy, her sorrow (if the music and his or her personal journey calls for that during that song, such as during a “memorial dance”), her triumph, her passion, her sensuality, her happiness she gets from sharing the dance with others. *I don’t care what style they do, this holds true for me.*
Your observation made re: following the rhythm vs. the melody is something that ATS dancers (and any dancers, for that matter) need to take into consideration while planning their sets. By the way, some folks may not be aware that ATS dancers trained in both the FatChance and BlackSheep formats use arrhythmic slow music as well as rhythmic - and we are certainly following the melody then. So, you can see why those people’s assumptions *cannot* be true in all ATS cases.
I never choose music for sets that will make my groups appear as if they are ignoring the music. We try for expressive music but not for “overly expressive” - by that I mean Middle Eastern classical/orchestrated. That should be left for soloists who enjoy that sound and who have the training to properly express Middle Eastern moods and rhythms set forth in such music. They need to know when and how to enter, when to do arm work and when to do hip work and with every rhythm change they need to know whatever it is they need to know in order to portray a Middle Eastern feeling. Is this a Saudi rhythm? Maybe I should swing my hair? That type of thing. *
*But** ATS or tribal fusion dancers are modern *world* bellydancers, **not** Middle Eastern dancers. This is something our dance community should try to understand and not judge us only by Middle Eastern standards of what is “right” or “wrong”. In fact, many of us tribal dancers are doing tribal so we don’t have to subscribe to a Middle Eastern mindset or attempt a weak, secondhand adoption of another culture’s dance style. This gives us the freedom to choose music we *should* be able to fully express: asian underground, world fusion beat, techno-tribal, world electronica, Bollywood or other Indian sounds and even traditional Middle Eastern folkloric music (which does emphasize rhythm over melody in many cases, music that can be danced to like a Ghaziya, not like a nightclub dancer).
Some may choose to use “angry” sounding music, and then I would guess an angry look would be appropriate (but why force an audience to see that is beyond me, unless part of a dance play or theatrical production.) I think some look angry because they are trying to look “mysterious” but then start concentrating too hard, like beginners can do. Maybe they’re just nervous. Any of that can translate to an “angry” look. You can always tell a beginning performer of any style (including cabaret) by watching their faces, posture and hands.
The “aloof” thing I think may be a different problem that has to do with the egos of those guilty of that charge. Maybe these are dancers who go through life aloof, who are rude in public, selfish, or uncaring of others. Perhaps they are the type of person that when you step aside to let them pass don’t say “thank you.” They instead feel that for you to be in their presence alone should be enough thanks. (Barf!) They think their “sh*t is bananas” to quote Gwen Stefani. Who knows, maybe they “ain’t no holla-back girls” and don’t want to give the impression they’re available after the show. However, with beginners, aloofness can appear because they are shy and insecure and afraid to appear fallible or uncool in public. This is true for any bellydance style, oriental or tribal. I have seen plenty aloof Egyptian dancers, actually. Just too cool for school, so they don‘t go! When training and humility is what they need most. Tsk tsk!
If the tribal groups or individuals practice (whether they are true tribal improvisational style or modern fusion using choreography) to their music they will then learn how to anticipate the changes and act accordingly, like any other type of dancer should. For instance, when we hear a “swirly” sound in the melody, we should turn. If the music is sinking low, maybe we ought to do so as well, or level change up instead. When it’s obviously happy, celebratory and upbeat we should break out our big, happy, joyful moves (with smiles to match). If we know a change is coming, we should lead into another step, change leaders and stage orientations, and create the exciting, ever-changing mosaic of movement that we and our audiences love. (I am *so* bored with “ATS” groups who stay in one formation, facing the same way - which is invariably to the stage left diagonal so they can use only their right sides, for a whole song. Bleeeck! Bor-ing!)
In short, we *can* fully express the music if the music we choose is appropriate for ATS or fusion, just like any other style of dancer can, and if we *are paying attention to it while dancing*.
I do agree that many tribal dancers these days are ignoring the music. But I and others like me are trying to educate our students worldwide that this is a dance of celebration and joy. That we need to act like we’re having fun onstage, and if that doesn’t come naturally, we need to teach our students how to make it happen until their joy can break through onto their faces without them even thinking about it. For me, as I told the famous NYC dancer who was visiting Maui, “I have always been an ecstatic dancer.” I burst at the seams with joy when I dance with my students (none of my troupe members audition, they are “brought up” in my format). I feel pride in our work. The reason students that study with me stay with me is that they feel the same. If they desire a “serious-looking” teacher I can refer them. But for me, keeping a straight face onstage is simply not in my genes, and certainly not in my classrooms.
After our shows, the single most commonly heard remark to us from our audiences are regarding how happy we look and how happy that made them feel. That is the most important compliment to me, that we were successful in sharing the joy we feel while dancing with our audiences so much so that they feel it, too! Joy is contagious! We also hear how “we light up the room when we dance” and how “our beaming/radiant faces are a joy to behold.” Who doesn’t want to feel joy? That is a basic human need.
Thank you for bringing this trend up for me to discuss. It bothers me, too, but optimistically I feel that the dancers just need to grow more. Tribal is a very new style and there are not enough teachers like myself, Paulette or Carolena who teach you to listen to and portray the music while improvising in the hardcore ATS style.
Since I have only ever taken tribal fusion workshops, I cannot say if the face is ever discussed in ongoing tribal fusion classes. It was not discussed in *any* of the fusion workshops by any teacher I have ever attended, however. Their emphasis was only on the technique of the body, and no emphasis was placed on musicality, rhythms, finger cymbals or how to know when to change a step. They all taught drills and/or choreographies but facial expressions were not built into the choreographies they taught, like they often are when you learn a choreography from a great (or even good) oriental teacher.
The newer tribal fusion dancers are much more prone to “bad face” than ATS dancers, in my opinion. That is the one thing I’d disagree with you about. On the other hand, maybe the ATS groups you have seen are like that. I’m sure you’ve seen this with oriental dancers, too. They **all** need more education, more practice and more confidence to show their lives on their faces while dancing. I have hope they will start smiling more and at least we now have a dialog about it so they know we’re watching..... ;-D
With Aloha, Kajira Djoumahna
Why not check out the pics of our many happy dancers?
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 |