Ahlan! Wishing you a wonderful April from us at Zameena, the ezine/newsletter from Zara's Zouk!!
This month we are happy to welcome Catherine Taylor (above) as our guest writer. Yaaay! Catherine is a well qualified, bubbly, London-based dancer and teacher specialising in Tribal Fusion Bellydance.
_________________________________
|
|
Catherine is director of the ITS troupe Sigma, is a founding member of Tribal Fusion group Curious Verses, and co-produces the biannual cabaret show The Honeysuckle Revue.
She shares with us the whys and ways to cross train and encourages us all to try a class in a different style of dance. We also have the winners of and answers to last month's competition and more, so please, enjoy the read!
|
|
BUY ONLINE
With confidence with our no quibble money back guarantee
OR
VISIT US AT HOME IN LONDON
Have you visited us at our Walthamstow home to browse our bellydance goodies and try on costumes to your heart's delight? We love having you visit; come alone or bring a friend. We are very relaxed and there is absolutely no pressure to buy. Please call or text us on 0785 402 3948 to make an appointment.
OR
Invite our MOBILE SOUK to your event
|
|
|
|
On “Cross Training”
by Catherine Taylor
|
|
|
Dance is the reason we all started this journey. Ok, maybe we liked the costumes, too! But when I think about all the hours we spend in the studio training and rehearsing, all the blood, sweat and tears, all the hard-earned money spent on workshops, travel, accommodation... well, there’s no way we put ourselves through that just so we can prance around on stage in a sparkly outfit. Nope, we do this because there is no feeling like the one we get when we dance. This is why we’re here.
|
|
|
But it can be really easy to lose sight of that. I think we all get stuck in a rut from time to time. There are times when I just cannot summon the energy or will to practise, and I get frustrated at myself, “If you love dance so much, why aren’t you doing it?! Why are you procrastinating?!” but getting annoyed at ourselves doesn’t help. I think in those times that we’re feeling stuck, what we need is inspiration.
Now inspiration can come from many different places (art, nature, friends...), but a great way to get an injection of it is to turn up at a dance class you’ve never done before. It doesn’t matter if you only go to that one class, and then never go back again.
|
|
It will breathe life into your dance.
This isn’t about saying belly dance isn’t enough. Not at all. I’m a fusion dancer by nature, but I have a lot of respect for people who devote themselves to becoming the best they can in just one dance style. I think that’s wonderful. But doing that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun taking a class in another style – it’s ok, you’re not cheating on belly dance!
|
|
|
Cross training (defined as ‘the action or practice of engaging in two or more sports or types of exercise in order to improve fitness or performance in one's main sport’) won’t pollute your dance, it will strengthen it. A runner who swims twice a week isn’t going to start trying to do backstroke while running a race! At the end of the day, you are an artist who gets to choose which influences she will put into her dance, and which she will leave out. I choose to fuse a lot of things I’ve studied, you might prefer not to. It’s all good! Cross training won’t change that.
What it will do, though, is strengthen your overall dance skills.
|
|
Take a Hip Hop or House dance class and just look at how your feet will be so much more present, strong and graceful. Take a ballet class and see the difference it will make to your core strength, improving your posture, spins and undulations.
After a month training intensively in Silvestre Technique in Brazil, without a shimmy in sight, I got home and found that my glute shimmies were stronger and sharper than ever before - Because my glutes were stronger - And that really was a pleasant side effect. I went there with no intention of fusing the style with what I do, but just to give myself to dance. Not to a technique or an image of what I could become, but to Dance.
|
|
By all means, focus your training. Heaven knows, I am a slave to my own caprice when it comes to dance. I wanna do everything! And I know I could benefit from more direction sometimes. But, you know what? I’m having a bloody brilliant time. And you can do both – have direction and have fun, too.
I really want to encourage people to take dance classes for FUN, as well as for our development. If you’re getting that just from your belly dance classes, then great, that’s wonderful. But there’s no shame in having a little fun on the side ;)
|
|
|
Let’s stop taking classes as a means to an end. Either to become a great belly dancer, or to fuse that style with belly dance.
I want to encourage people to take a break from future tripping:
Dance for dance’s sake!
Dance for now!
And dance for you!
*******
|
|
|
|
|
