Staying Inspired

pic taken from elizabethbellydance.com

When I first started dancing I did not understand what was wrong with plain old bellydance,and why a lot of more seasoned dancers felt the need to try other styles, dances from other countries, and variations on the dance. Now it get it. It is hard,when you have been dancing for a while, to stay inspired.

   I can always tell when I don't feel inspired. The first thing to go is practice time. Usually, I don't feel like practicing, or practice feels like a drag. When this happens I have two choices, A. Push on through,and practice anyway, hoping that some inspiration will catch, or B. give myself a ," bellydancing break" of a few days then try again.

    The thing is, bellydance is art. It is not reproduction, repetition, or wrote. ( if you are doing it right).... We are the canvas, the movements are the paint, and the music the brush. How we put it all together is a unique piece of art. Yes, we have to practice technique, and it won't always feel like a picnic, but if there is no juice, then we are just doing a hollow imitation of the same thing.

I also think when you reach a certain stage you are responsible for motivating and inspiring yourself .....here are some ways I do just that.

Inspiration Tools:

1. Watch performances all of the time. Go to Haflas, buy or rent performance DVD's, try to look through the eyes of a non-performer.Try to see as the audience member sees. It is easy to get caught up in "look at her hands, or damn that is a strong shimmy" instead of seeing the performance as a whole, the art of it. I try to think of each dance as a gift to me , and I just try to see what that gift is.

2. Take from different teachers. When you have learned all there is to learn from someone,or you can anticipate her next move, then switch teachers for a while.

3. Keep it fresh. Is your go-to move still the hagala with a 3/4 shimmy? Still doing mayas with a level change? Do something different! What if Picasso painted the same thing every time?....how boring would that be.
Art has to evolve.

4. If all else fails, take a break. The world won't stop if you take a weeks break from dancing, reading about dancing, or thinking about dancing. ( hard but not impossible). You will be surprised how refreshed you can feel after taking a short break.

Sniff Sniff

I got a real kick out of  Princess Farhana's Post about liking to eat makeup. It really is a riot. I am not a makeup eater unless you count those expensive flavored body powders you can get at Sephora. I have some marshmallow flavored body powder I bring out on....ahem....special occasions, and I usually take a lick or two before patting it on.
My thing is smells. I have a ridiculous sense of smell,I get it from my dad. He could tell who had sat in his chair hours after that person had gone. I never smoked pot around him, because I KNEW that he'd smell it a mile away.
  I am like the Sherlock Holmes of scent, I am always dramatically stopping, sniffing the air, and saying," do you smell that?". Which brings me to my post. My sister says I am ," generous" with smells, AKA I like things that most people think stink.
     I love the way my dance studio smells.
Every dance studio I have ever been in has had a particular smell. My first classes in '98 were in a small apartment complex recreation room. The room was full of garden print sofas that smelled like cleaning solution, and strangers. The plants were dusty and smelled of plastic. The floor was old wood panels that probably at one time smelled like wood polish, but now just smelled like feet, dirt, and wood. Combine all this with the perfumes, dinners and ....personal problems....of dancers and it was a cornucopia of scents upon entering. But like a perfume, top notes stand out to me, and make me remember. The wood/old sofa smell hit me first,and for the rest of my life that smell will remind me of the mix of fear and excitement that I felt at that time.

From 04'-05', it was church basement/mold/casseroles/and sweaty kids smell. The time reminds me of heartbreak, unsurety and depression.

From 06'-08' it was the community center/pine trees/heat/bleach/dirt. It was the cleanest place I had ever danced in and also the happiest.  That smell combination is friendship and growth to me.

Which brings me to my present studio. The FIRST thing I do each week when I walk in the doors is inhale a few times, trying to get as much of the scent in as I can before my nose gets acclimated to it.
     The studio is on a lower level,so it always has an underlying smell of basement,not moldy basement,but sort of  a concrete smell. I like concrete basement smell,I hate moldy basement smell. The next thing that hits your nose is a metal/cheap fabric smell of the bellydance costumes she sells. There are only one or two actual costumes, the rest is hip scarves, skirts, jewelry,etc. The smell of those things reminds me of the dollar store...chemicals and cheap metal. I love it.
     Her studio is carpeted. It is the only carpeted studio I have ever danced in,and as you know, carpet holds scent. So it smells like clean sweat. Her dogs ( which surprisingly doesn't smell bad,she must keep them really clean)....and years. That is the only way I know how to describe it, her studio smells like years. Years of dancing, years of sitting on the floor chatting, years of rain, and snow and sun, and all of the things that add to the smell of a place.

Maybe this is weird,but we all have our quirks.....and I have a lot of 'em.
    So don't worry, if we meet one day I won't come up and sniff you like a dog. ( but I might want to)...:)