Video: Amira Jamal's Student Recital

It took a while for me to finally get my things together and grab my copy of this DVD.  It then inspired me to dig up my past recital DVD's just to see how much has changed in the past several years.

My goodness.  I don't know if I could really show you those videos of me.  Perhaps if you would like a personal viewing, then...maybe...

But I'm really quite proud of this year's performance.

Thank you so much to Nadira Jamal (www.taktaba.com) for the videography!!

Amira Jamal's Student Recital 2010

On Sunday, May 2nd, Amira Jamal hosted her annual Student Recital at the Pacific Arts Center of Metro West, in Framingham, MA.

I love her student recitals for many reasons, including the opportunity to see my amazing classmates dance and to see some of the newcomers perform.  This might sound horrible, but (and I mean it in a really positive way)it's nice to watch the newbies because it reminds me of where I came from.  A closet full of belly dance clothes later, I can proudly say that I'm no longer a newbie.

Mainly, I love the student recitals because it's been great practice for me.  I've always been exceedingly nervous about performing in public, especially around other, more professional dancers.  But this year, I felt different.

In a way, the recital snuck up on me.  I had been extremely busy, and with a new kitty, it has been difficult to do much dancing around the apartment.  Next thing I know, it's April and the recital is a month away.

When I'm working on choreographing a piece, I usually just play the song over and over on my mp3 player.  Strangely, I find it really productive to choreograph while riding the T.  This time around, I really tried to focus more on where the music was taking my movements and build upon that, instead of trying to incorporate every little step that I knew into a dance.

But the real difference was that this year, I danced to an actual Arabic piece.

In the 5 years that I've been taking classes with Amira Jamal, I've danced to Tori Amos' "Sweet the Sting," Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," Bjork's "Bachelorette," The Beatles' "Something," and Pink Martini's "Never on Sunday."

I've always loved the idea of fusing different concepts together to create something beautiful, which is mainly why I've focused on dancing to different types of music than traditional Middle Eastern music.

The great thing about Amira's classes, however, is the fact that we're exposed to so much Middle Eastern music, from classical Arabic to more pop tunes.  She encourages us to keep broadening our understanding of the dance by understanding the music.

So, this year, I danced to "Balady ala Accordion" by Hassan Abou el Seoud (This song can be found on Shik Shak Shok and 10 Songs Every Bellydancer Should Know).

Oh, ya.  Another difference was that my costume wasn't completely green.  It was mainly purple, and only had the tiniest hint of green.

Most of the pictures were taken by my boyfriend, so they're a little blurry.
This was my entrance.

Shocker!  I know!

Oh ya, baby...those are zills!

I couldn't really tell you why I finally decided to dance to an Arabic song for the recital.  I have talked in a previous post about doing a Filipino/Middle Eastern fusion dance, but I haven't learned enough about traditional Filipino dance to put something together in time for the recital.

I had already danced to "Balady ala Accordion" at an event I organized, and I really love the song itself.  Also, in the past, I had been dancing to somewhat slower songs.  I figured it was time to up the tempo, and go for playing my zills.

Confident and smiling!

Overall, though I know I needed to improve my zill playing, I actually felt extremely confident about my dance.  Since we got the chance to perform for each other in class earlier that week, I had received really great feedback from my classmates - dancers I really respect.

I am really proud of myself for a 6th recital under my belt, and for feeling not as nervous as I stepped out onto the stage area.  It was also quite nice to get complements from some of the audience members, of whom were mainly family members of the performers.

It was also great to have my boyfriend there supporting me.  Though he isn't so good at taking pictures, it's always nice to be reminded that I have someone in my personal life that enjoys and supports this hobby.

Nadira Jamal Improvisation Workshops

The really awesome thing about the belly dance community is how connected it is.  I have the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful dancers and teachers, and learning tons from them!

As I've been taking classes with Amira Jamal since I moved to Boston, I've been able to learn from many dancers who I consider masters.  Recently, one of Amira's students who's moved on to teaching her own classes and producing instructional DVD's, came back to class to share some of her knowledge.

Nadira Jamal gave two workshops during our scheduled classes on Monday, one on March 22nd and the second on April 5th.  She, with her wicked smaht engineering brain, has taken the frightening idea of improvisation and breaks it down into workable bits.

Her video series, Improvisation Tooklit, is a great guide for anyone who feels nervous about getting on the dance floor without a set and choreographed routine.  Though there currently two DVD's, she's working on completing the set of 5 to make master improvisers in all of us dancers.

The workshops she brought to us were a shortened version of the two DVD's.  I must admit that I was a bit nervous!  Though we've done quite a bit of improvisation in Amira Jama's classes (just putting on music and moving on the dance floor), I was worried that I might not be able to hold on to what she taught us.

But she started right away with building up our confidence and dance self-esteem.  She reminded us that we should not only have fun and enjoy the dance, but that we also have the ability to remember specific moves if we are having fun.  And, even if we can only remember 3 or 4 moves, there are so many bits one can add to the dance (like level changes, moving around the floor, angles, arm movements, timing, etc.), that even the same movements can have a different effect.

I was excited to be part of these workshops.  Though I'm not a professional like many of my classmates or like Nadira, I can at least fake it til I make it.

I now feel much more comfortable with improvisation, though I'm sure I'll always be a little bit nervous about performing.  Also, I feel like this comfortability with improvisation would greatly aid in choreographing, as one can take the moves from improvising and reuse them.

Dancing to Live (Music)

When I first moved to Boston 5 years ago, I knew that I wanted to continue taking belly dance lessons.  Since I considered belly dance a hobby, I didn''t realize that I would feel as passionate about the art as I do now.  While I don't consider myself a professional yet, I think it's something I'm considering more and more with every new experience.

I've had the pleasure to interact and learn from fabulous dancers, and I look forward to continuing my dance and music education. Through the different teachers, I've been exposed to opportunities that I've never thought I would be a part of.

Well...let me backtrack for a second.

I've done some performing for most of my life - from piano recitals to orchestra and band concerts in high school.  Perhaps because of my being trained classically, I've always been freaked out by improvisation.  Even in jazz band, I was so unsure of my abilities that I didn't think that I could possibly pull off something as musically awesome as some of the old songs I love.

When I was in undergrad, I participated (performed and directed pieces) in the Queer Fashion Show.  I loved that whole experience!  Working with large groups of people and putting together an entertaining peice...oh, then the performance!  I loved it.  But I never performed on my own.  I felt that the people who I performed with were like my backbone, giving me strength to go on through my anxiety.

When I began to belly dance, I anticipated a lot more troupe performances.  When recitals would come around, I would get extremely nervous.  I had to psych myself up, just saying to myself that I've done this before, there's nothing to worry about.  

Four recitals later (in 2008), I gathered enough courage to perform at a casual talent show in Vermont.  It was the first time I had sought out dancing alone for a group.  I was so nervous!  I couldn't even tell you about the massive amounts of butterflies in my stomach and the bullets I was sweating afterwards.  But throughout the weekend, I received so many complements.  People I didn't even know were watching came up to me in the days following my performance, complementing me and asking me about my dance background.  It was an exciting feeling.

(Celebration of Expression, Photo taken by Cat O.)

Later that year, my fellow social workers and friends organized an event that created a safe space for women to express themselves.  One friend read erotic poetry, another friend shared her baking wisdom, and I danced.  It was my first time performing a full routine (though broken into sections) for a live audience.
 
2008 seemed to be the year I finally had enough "belly dance balls."  Prior to the last two shows I wrote about, I was given the chance to dance with the Jewels of Jamal at the Athenian Corner in Lowell, MA.  This time was different.  This time, I danced to live music.  Amira Jamal had been preparing us for this experience through all her classes, encouraging us to dance to songs we weren't familiar with.


 (Athenian Corner, Photo by Albert Ma)


All of her lessons were flooding into my head at that moment.  Don't forget to smile, make sure your hands are "alive," move around the floor.  I'm surprised I didn't fall over from all the thoughts in my head.  In the end, I survived.  I knew that dancing to live music was another goal to add to my list of accomplishments.