Gilded
Serpent presents...
Gift
of the Muse:
Finding and Using “Dance Energy”
by Najia
Marlyz
July 24, 2008
One by
one, or trouping together on a festival stage, one can see
them perform burning calories but not using real dance energy!
So many of the Belly dancers of our Western countries are vibrant
young women, whose dance, though polished and rehearsed, does
not shine in memory. Why? What is dance energy? What can it
do for your dance?
Few dancers
come into their first Belly dance lessons knowing even the
fundamentals of dance technique, and rather than learn the
basic tenants that underlie all forms of dance and stagecraft,
they often settle for what they are taught by dance instructors
who, themselves, have no idea what is missing from their own
dance performances. Most audiences can detect the lack of
a dancer’s connection with the music (even though she may pause
at all musical stops) because she usually over-dances the repetitive
accents, ignoring the tunes, lyricism, and themes that make
up the heart of Middle-Eastern music. Often, it is her choice
of music that can first alert you to her missing ability
to translate the music for her audience.
A preponderance
of modern Belly dance music, even though recorded with fine
fidelity, is most often prepared with the percussion responding
dancer in mind; it is lacking in subtlety and instead, relies
heavily on a rib-rattling base in the percussion section of
the arrangement that overpowers the various themes of the music.
Yet, most new age dancers still dance with such amazing energy,
speed, accuracy, and precision that the resulting dance becomes
difficult and exhausting for an audience to watch. Just imagine
what dancers could accomplish if they became familiar with
the classical musical styles and knew how to slow down, listen
and analyze classical music!
Why then,
do dancers often fail to capture the essence of the music,
even though they believe they’ve got a handle on the perfect
Oriental dance technique? The answer is, of course, that, their
teachers have not taught them, for whatever reason, useful
musical technique and the evasive concept of dance energy—nor
how to use either of them in their performances.
Recently,
a former long-time North
Beach dancer
of the San Francisco Bay area confided to me, with a laugh,
that a newcomer to Belly
dance—a teenager—told her that the difference between the
older dancers of yesteryear and today’s dancers is that “We have
technique!” Only ignorant naïveté could forgive such a pompous
attitude!
A
dancer should not confuse physical triumph over small shards
of movement (combined or executed rapidly) with the understanding
of an entire dance technique or concept.
I have seen
very few dancers perform who knew how to perform literally
and artistically to the actual content of the music (though
they often believe that they do). Unfortunately, even fewer
have used it to improve the overall performance of Arabic style
of Belly dance; instead new dancers veer off into tangents
that seems to be a sub-category of tribal or fusion dancing
of one sort or another. While the resulting dance is often
compelling in its oddity, or simply dazzling in its excessive
speed, fusion often lacks portrayal of the background of tradition
from which the Belly dance sprang originally. While I am far
from being a Middle Eastern dance purist, still I think it
would be a welcome event to watch someone dance and more carefully
portray the story within the music itself. Instead, they often
put the “cart before the donkey”, showing the movements of
Oriental dance as if they were some sort of gateway into exhibitionism
rather than using it as the Oriental dancers in the Middle
East use it. There, the dancers use the performance to accompany
the music and translate its meanings into moments of epiphany
and illumination about life or, at least, commiseration of
emotions. I fear that many of our western dancers conceive
of their dance first and then try to locate music that seems
to “fit” their pre-conceived freestanding dance.
Most
of the meaningful and intended communication within dance
relies upon the understanding and proper use of what is often
referred to as “Dance Energy”.
Dance
Energy: What is it and what can it do?
My main
Belly dance teacher first introduced me to the subject of dance
energy and defined it for me by showing me this vivid example:
“Do
you remember how, when Dancer X enters the front door of
the classroom, everyone’s hair seems to blow backwards and
you have to hang onto your hat?” he asked me. Well, that’s
what I mean by ‘energy’. I don’t mean burning calories,
sweating, and dancing fast and large; I mean that a dancer
can have a viable inner life force that makes her affect
you and your mood in various ways. Most do not come on as
strong as Dancer X does, but they make certain you know they
are in the room and that it would be worth your while to
pay them some close attention. Dancer X has to learn how
to reign it in and control it!”
Unfortunately,
in the past decade, the term “Dance Energy” has been misunderstood. It
appears to have evolved in meaning, implying a highly athletic
form of speed in motion and rapid-fire performance of one movement
isolation after another. Seeing the result performed can be
amazing. It is somewhat like the rattle of an old-time Gatling
gun, but remember that dancing in overdrive never amounts to
much in the way of recreating ethnic meaning or even emotional,
present day, here-and-now impact. High use of rapid-fire movement
seems to be more like pointless athletics and might just as
well be a figure skater’s Triple Lutz applied to the Belly
dance.
Finding
Your Dance Energy:
It is so easy and rewarding to demonstrate
to a dancer how to accomplish a change in his/her dance, but
it is so much more difficult to put it into written words! I
cannot crosscheck to see whether what I have written has been
understood—or not. Recently, I watched some of a television fitness
program series called “Shimmy” that is funded by the Canadian
government; the series is based on typical Oriental dance movements. The
voice-over kept repeating in a kindergarten teacher style, “Good
job!” as if the at-home-viewer had actually been observed having
done something correctly—or at all! Since I cannot work personally
with each of you who are interested in learning about utilizing
dance energy, I must rely on only my written word to do a good
job here.
The
Gift of Your Muse
To
begin learning to use one’s dance energy, I think it might be better
if we could call it something less confusing than “Dance Energy”. I
prefer to think of this invisible force as the spirit of one’s
inner muse or artistic guide. No, not a Greek dance goddess like
Terpsichore, but the individual and unique spirit that moves the
dancer from the inside toward his/her extremities—from the actual
dance core which resides, as Martha Graham put
it, in the solar plexus (not the pelvis/uterus/hips as the feminists
of the ‘60s would like us to believe), dedicating that one point
of the dancer’s body to be the beginning and end of each and every
dance movement; following that point at each moment would be somewhat
like the practice of Hatha Yoga. Employing this technique alone
gives a fuller sense of completion to the viewer—and to the performer,
as well.
For example:
to raise one’s arm, movement should begin within the solar
plexus, visibly travel up the spine to the shoulder, traverse
the arm and exit the fingertips. This might happen slowly
or quickly but it always follows that same path in
order to carry the strength and meaning of the chosen movement.
There is one more requirement that makes this action work;
that is the counter-relaxation of each body part as the “point
of energy” traverses into the next. Without that relaxation,
the movement looses its sensual and logical essence. Yes, that
is correct: to move upward in a sensual way, one must keep
track of one’s point of movement tension, relaxing muscles
downward—rather than tensing or pressing them downward—along
the path it traveled upward. (Got that? As I heard on fitness
television, “Oh, good job”!)
Turns:
Additionally, one more often sees
dance turns executed with an empty motivation—emanating from
a rounded ballet-like arm confirmation (the beach ball) that
throws forward or a leg that kicks forward in a rounded motion,
causing the dancer to turn from the outside toward the inside
of his/her body. The turn, while fast and efficient, still lacks
the power of conviction for Belly dance. The resulting turn,
reach, or veil movement remains unconvincing in Oriental dance,
and therefore, ineffectual, as a movement that portrays anything
that carries substance, meaning, sensuality, or emotionality.
One
true giveaway of an empty turn is the confirmation of a “slapping
hand” that figuratively slaps the face of each person in
the audience as the dancer spins. Most new dancers are guilty
of the offence, but quickly learn to correct it, once it
is pointed out to them. A common variation is the “Back Slap”
followed by the other hand in a slap position.
If the technique
of movement begins at the dance center and pulls one’s hand
in the wake afterward, it is less likely that the non-aerodynamic
“slapping palm” will happen. Instead, the dancer’s lead hand
will naturally take a more efficient and dynamic confirmation—whether
palm up or palm down, slicing the air current—but never, never,
slapping—either forward or backward! All the rest of the typical
Oriental dance movements should be accomplished in this simple
core-related fashion—from the figure eight undulation of the
hips to all the others you learned in your beginning Belly
dance lessons. Try them!
Underlying
Power
The
concept of “Dance Energy” carries with it a power that appears
to compel the dancer to move without conscious thought or
excessive effort.
Imperfection
There
are several things a dancer can do to create this look of underlying
power: he/she can use various forms of imagery to create the
movement as if he were imitating things in nature or in common
occurrences that allow movement with difficulty through their
inherent viscosity (such as a pearl rising slowly, steadily,
but not in a straight line, through oil or detergent). Other
forces of nature can also influence additional images such as
the elliptical motion of the planets around the sun; the variations
of speed as the planet approaches the highest point of gravitational
influence give a distinct sort of rhythm (or beat) that makes
it appear to have been compelled. Such imagery can motivate dance
movement better than reliance on geometrical precision or symmetrical
repetitions. It is often too much precision that belies the
innate character of typical Belly dance movement—in the Middle
Eastern mind it is the imperfect that carries human beauty while
perfection belongs only to God. Bye-the-way, this same idea
exists and guides all the Middle Eastern crafts, including dance.
Resistance
Even though your dance teacher may often give
the command, “Relax your muscles!” or “Posture, dear, mind
your posture!” Some muscles must tense in order to give the
illusion of resistance as your point of energy moves from
one part of your body to the next. Much of dance is the
creation of illusion: you give the air the power to resist
your movements by imagery, creating the illusion of the resistance. Dance
Energy does not come from a perfectly straight spine or awareness
of line per se, but is more ethereal than that. (For example:
one can portray downtrodden humanity while employing a stooped
stance, curved spine and still employ Dance Energy.) The
speed of the movement is up to you and the requirements of
your music. However, you have only the amount of time given
by the music to accomplish the task or it ought not to be
used if the total effect is only frenzy when the music itself
is not frenzied. This leads one to the strange notion that
not all dance movement is equal—especially when it comes
to appropriate choice of what exact movement or gesture should
be called upon from one’s repertoire to portray the intent
of the music. Learning when to use resistance would fall
under the heading: Musical Interpretation.
Stamina,
Focus, and Intent
Once a dancer or dance instructor
begins to comment that one must develop greater stamina in order
to improve the grasp of dance energy, you know she has no idea
what dance energy is and that she is, instead, referring to use
of physical energy rather than performance spirit or motivation.
While conserving and expanding one’s judicious use of physical
energy (stamina) is necessary in dance and athletics, still,
it is not the same entity as employing the inner muse to focus
upon the origin, path, and method of travel for our so-called
dance energy. Focus, too, is a dancer’s term that is understandably
confused with the overall use of one’s energy. Focus is the
craft of pin pointing one’s eyes (or focusing) on the point into
which one intends to move. Hence, we also get into the concept
of “intent” of the movement (an indication from the dancer through
her focus and palpable commitment to a movement’s ultimate destination).
While these are wonderful tools, or concepts of dance, they are
no substitute for the enlightenment one carries inside, constituting
“Dance Energy”.
Projection
In your next practice session, dance to a
short piece of music for one imaginary person. It must be
done subtly: is that not true? If you sense that you are
possibly embarrassing your one-person-audience, then, your
projection of energy is too large. If you dance the same
way every time before all sizes and types of audiences, you
are not using your dance tool of projection appropriately. My
point here is: do not confuse energy in dance with projection;
they are quite different tools of performance. Projecting
energy (or spirit) is not the same thing as understanding
where it comes from and feeling what it does.
Finding
Your Muse
Each
dancer must learn how to relate to her guiding muse by finding
where it is that she feels most centered. Start by focusing
your mind on your spinal column in an area nestled next to your
heart. Breathe in deeply as if you were practicing Hatha Yoga
and exhale fully. Try to feel the calmness within and ask your
Muse to inspire your movement and imbue it with the essence of
life—its ranges of positive and negative, tension and relaxation,
as well as underlying pulses and rhythms of breathing.
Dancing in
the Moment
Performers who are amazing have learned
to dance for the actual audience that they have—In the
moment that they dance—not in rehearsal and not in choreography.
The most difficult part of the performing arts, artists
generally agree, is in spontaneous performance.
One
of the inherent beauties of the Oriental dance is its quality
of “flying by the seat of one’s pants”.
By this,
I mean that one must learn the technique of dancing in the
moment with a keen awareness and reliance on the muse she carries
within; indeed, you never really dance solo once you develop
the ability to respond to the elements of the music rather
than its basic outline of speed, volume, and rhythm. You dance
in partnership with the composers, arrangers, and musicians.
However, above all, listening to the emotional response of
one’s inner muse will open the door to so many ways to affect
an audience beyond what is usual. The muse will connect one
to a pipeline containing personal experiences, moving one to
remember and to re-experience emotion that resides within. It
can be felt as well as seen, but it will not cause your audiences
to have to hold onto their hats from your overly large projection!
You may also
enjoy reading further on this subject:
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