Taqsim (Arabic: تَقْسِيم / ALA-LC: taqsīm; Greek: ταξίμι, romanized: taksimi, Turkish: taksim) is a melodic musical improvisation that usually precedes the performance of a traditional Arabic, Greek, Middle Eastern, or Turkish musical composition. Wikipedia Taking a moment this week to indulge my musical side. Long before dance called to me, I was a musician. Western stylised...
“The upper limb is the lightning rod to the soul.” Robert Markison Hands – those funny things that hang off the end of your arms. They are a significant part of what separates us physically from other mammals and an underrated part of our body when it comes to dancing. When dancing, your hand and...
Documenting dance. Sounds super un-fun right? But, also kind of essential. After all, it’s one thing to remember what you’ve done, but something entirely different to remember it tomorrow! For example, I’ve spent the better part of the last 2 hours dreaming up combos for a workshop I’m running next weekend. I’ve tried them out,...
Our feet are planted in the real world but we dance with angels… John C Mitchell Feet. They’re those floppy bits on the end of your legs. They support everything that you do while you are upright from standing to walking and dancing. They connect us to the ground, take the full weight of our...
Belly dancing isn’t one of the more “normal” options when it comes to selecting a dance style. So it often comes as a bit of a surprise to people when I say that I’m a belly dancer! One of the next questions I’m commonly asked is “why do you belly dance?” “Why not?” Is often...
When I originally had the idea to share some of my belly dance life hacks, I thought I’d do a quick search to see what everyone else had already blogged about – I made a huge discovery! There are many posts out there covering belly dance life hacks, but they all seem to share the...
Like most dance styles that have been around for a while, there are always those common myths and questions that people have. I’ve collated some of the ones about belly dance below, along with some of the common themes in questions I’ve seen. There are a lot more questions than these for sure, but I’ll...
I’d like to confess something up front, I’m a procrastinator. Yes, a procrastinator. As in I put off doing tasks until I have no options but to get it done. But a part of growing as a dancer (and as an adult), requires me to overcome obstacles in my path – one of which is...
I was struck by a moment of inspiration this last weekend. My jingly-appreciative-belly-dance-husband and I went to Sydney to see a concert as a part of the Vivid Festival at the Sydney Opera House. While I let the music coming off the stage wash over me, with its complexities, I found myself daydreaming about how...
If you’re happy and you know it… clap your hands.But what if you can’t clap as a part of your performance? How would you show happiness on a stage? Or sadness. Or anger. A part of being a performer is knowing how to act – even for a dancer. Knowing how to shape my body...
