| Class tonight |
[5th November 2009|11:54 pm] |
I really enjoyed, despite thinking I might not.
We had to focus on Choreography, for both classes, because we have the Happenings Show taking place on 5th December. That means we only have four more classes before the show.
I have worked out a disgustingly twee ending to Kahramana. It's so sweet, it would give you diabetes. However in all other respects Kahramana is being a right bugger to choreograph. It's only got three tunes in it, with a heck of a lot of repetition.
Thank heavens for easy-peasy Maigurakshi. We've got all of it except for the walking and spinning section, which is easy, but a bit hard on the balls of the feet. They might want information about ballet shoes and foot-undeez. |
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| Last night's classes |
[21st October 2009|10:49 am] |
The caretaker ignored me ringing on the doorbell, and banging on the door to be let in, for quarter of an hour. Which meant he only let me in on the dot of 6.30, so I didn't have my usual prep and setting up time, which meant the class started late, and finished late. Also, there were only five people in the Beginners class (which has 16 people registered). It didn't feel as good as it should have.
But the Improvers class went well. I've got a few more bookings for Bellylicious. And there'll be eight of us going to Shisha Oui at the end of the month.
They've been sticking on the choreography. It's complicated, because it's in two groups and sometime's they are mirroring each other and sometimes they are doing the same as each other. And I'm only one body, I can't be standing in front of each group each time! (When are the scientist's going to invent the cloning machine?). So we've not covered as much of the routine as I would have liked. I think this week they got it a lot more, and we'll be able to make a hard push after half term. I'd really hoped to have got further with this, we only have four more dance classes till the end of term. We can do it, but it means a lot of seriously intensive rehearsal out of class, if it's going to be done at Fantasia. I may need to revise my plans...
But this week I made them work on the transitions between group positions, for the whole of the song, so that they know what they will be aiming for, and they've got an idea of the shape of the dance. That's progress.
I need to get the routine up on YT for the visual learners. My choreo notes, brilliant as they may be, don't suit everybody! |
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| Guildford classes |
[15th October 2009|10:52 pm] |
The Beginners class (max 30) is fully booked. So people with no experience of bellydance whatsoever have joined the Improver Intermediates class.
GGGGGAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really hate when that happens. I could teach them properly if they were in the right class, but as it is, either I compromise the level of the class by teaching downand reiterating basic moves, or I compromise my sense of professionalism, by failing to teach those students. And I guess it's not fair to compromise the class, because Improver/Intermediates is what has been advertised, that's what I should be teaching. So I'm teaching half the class badly. And they don't get the foundational stuff about grounding and core and posture drummed into them anywhere like enough for beginners.
I'm glad that bellydance is so popular, but I wish I could have students in the right class. |
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| Many brackets |
[10th October 2009|12:49 am] |
SCC Adult & Community Learning (which is what Ad Ed is currently being called) will be Inspected again, by whatever official organisation that Inspects us. So I'm trying to be a dutiful tutor, and make sure my paperwork is as proper as I can make it.
What they seem to like is proving that you're creating an exciting and extra value learning experience to learners (we're not allowed to call them students). So I have to make my lesson plans show that I have additional learning resources on my website (that would be choreography notes, plus all the other student information I have up there), that I have lots of diversity, cultural and enrichment activity planned for them (the dance is bloody Middle Eastern, is that culturally diverse enough for you?). It's not enough to do all those things, you somehow need to evidence the fact that you do
So the lesson plans are banging on about the various activities I have planned for people. And I have to show that I'm differentiating. (Fortunately I have one physically challenged Beginner, and any number of "less body-aware" older lady students that I can refer to, and being good constitutes a special need too, so I'm referring to the students I can push a bit harder). And do coaching notes.
You have to know that my lesson plans generally consist of:
W/U- mobilise & dance
Hip circles- MAKE THEM STAY FLAT!!!!!
Ab drill
Shimmy- difft intensity levels
Chor- try to get to end of verse 2
C/D
Which isn't really enough for the purposes of officialdom. You can see how much of an effort I'm having to make. It's two pages of A4 each time. It's supposed to be enough of a lesson plan that a substitute teacher could use it to teach your class. Har bloody har!
And I decided that the video night needed to have a theme, so it's Stars You Should Know, running through Egyptian Dance history from Tahia to Randa. And I figured they'd like to see some evidence that it's not just me showing my favourite videos, so apart from being specific enough in my Scheme of Work about what dancers to show and pointing out that I will bring henna for those that fancy a bit (more cultural enrichment), I decided to do a handout for the learners, giving the names of the dancers & cultural historical background for stylistic developments, and pointing them to various YouTube clips (leading them to additional learning resources & opportunities). So now I need to research this, and find the best clips to direct them to.
Damn I'm good! |
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| How did I turn into this kind of teacher? |
[10th September 2009|11:19 am] |
I'm starting to think (God help me!) that I should maybe have a student recital affair, some time in the Summer, as a matter of course. Just a small show, for my students to perform, and their friends and families to come & see them.
I have several students who are good enough to solo, but as yet I haven't been in a position to encourage them towards this. I want to do my Choreo Lab course again, to help them develop in that sort of direction. But if I did, I couldn't find room for them to perform at the March Haflah. And that wouldn't be the best place for them to do their first solo anyway. So I would need to create a performance event for them that would work better, something like a Private haflah. |
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| Class last night |
[26th June 2009|10:21 am] |
I was pretty pleased that my Guildford students remembered about the flow for Enta Omri. Even though it was two weeks ago. And they did it. Yay!
The Ava Fleming Belly Button Twin is slightly concerning me, she's not really improvising, she's mostly copying me, which is ok, I stressed that it was about letting the music guide the *way* you move, it wasn't about technique or 50,000,000 ways to do a hip drop. It's maybe because she's not done any improvising before. I think I need to have a little word with her to find out more about her background. I'm pretty sure she's a ballet girl, from her posture and movement.
This class is usually quite transitory- there's usually a core of regulars, and a range of people who'll sign up for one or two terms only. And that's fine, but it means that I have a better rapport with those regulars, and I know more about them. So maybe I need to focus more on the others, and get to know them a bit better, find out what they expect from the classes and why they're there. But it's hard in just one hour a week.
Because there was class last week, I'm having to add it to the end of the term. Which means I can't get to PE next month. Or at least, I can but I'll get there really late, and only catch the last half of the second act. Which is a bit of a bugger, but I still want to go. There'll be Daphne as the star, and various others who I'd like to see (Ziba, Nafisah).
And I decided I'm going to Saqarah this weekend. I want to see other dancers, and be inspired. |
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| Dance For All |
[15th June 2009|12:13 pm] |
This
Sadly I didn't get there right at the start of the day, so I didn't get one of the t-shirts, which is a shame, because they were quite cool and included a bellydancer as one of the four dance figures represented. Poot!
I like doing Dance Days like this- lots of tasters for kids (mostly girls, it has to be said) in many different styles- I think they had salsa, street dance, capoeira, tap, latin, tango, hip hop, bollywood, contemporary, cheerleading... It's brilliant. I like being part of community events like this. And for me as a teacher, it's a piece of cake, two forty minute tasters. For some reason I was scheduled right at the end of the day, so the energy levels were maybe a bit low (still full of enthusiasm, though!). Maybe they think BD is a lighter option for when people are flagging?
Had a couple of guys in one of the workshops, in their early twenties, I'd have said, possibly late teens though, I'm rubbish at guessing ages. And there were two little girls in the other workshop. I was careful with my use of language as a result. Which I guess I shouldn't be, because I don't usually say anything of an adult nature, possibly the occasional mild swear. But I suppose I just made it all a bit more kid friendly.
So that was all rather fun. |
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| Post-class post |
[14th May 2009|11:49 pm] |
I seem to have become a mean teacher this term, I've been pushing my students on Technique, quite hard, and bless them, they've stepped up and worked at it, even those who are not so body aware yet. Thankfully none of them seem to be resenting me. As one of them put it this evening, it could be worse, I could be making them do all these hard things and be mean with it, and at least I'm not mean about it. And in a slightly self-evaluating mood, I think I've been quite good about praising them for their progress, which I'm not always very good at doing. And I think I've been quite motivational and encouraging.
For myself, I'm still not gauging my energy levels well. I was killing myself in the last 15 minutes of the later class. It might not have been so bad if I hadn't left my bottle of water at home by mistake (thought I'd put it in my bag, but clearly I didn't). I need to look after myself better, but... pfff... ya know... |
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| It's like medecine... |
[12th May 2009|11:12 pm] |
I'm being a hard teacher at the moment. I'm making my students really work their abs, and strengthen their posture. I may not be successful, but they are building it up, baby steps first, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. We're working up to some pretty hardcore stuff, and I want them to want to come along with me.
It's quite a step change for them, but it is good for them, like eating their greens. If they go to workshops with good teachers, I want them not to be flailing. They need the exposure to all the tougher stuff, even if they don't do it brilliantly. I would hate for any of them to be as culture-shocked as I was when I first did a Shareen workshop.
I hit them with the Petrol Bomb Samosa version of Zeina tonight, as the wrap up to the first of my Songs Every Dancer Should Know. At first I wasn't sure what they thought of it, it was so unlike the classic Mohammed Abdel Wahab version (or the rather baladi Raqs x Raqs version we'd also used). But they loved it! I think it's because it's so drummy and earthy. It allows them to play to the rhythm, rather than having to work with melody, which I think is a bit of a cop-out, but I'm happy to cut them a bit of slack. Next week, Enta Omri. I hope I can make them love it as much as I do. |
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| Teaching tonight |
[5th March 2009|10:46 pm] |
Because I try to keep the Farnham & Guildford classes in synch, if only because it means I can use the Tuesday class to gauge what worked, I was doing the same sort of technique that I did on Tuesday, but because I'd had something to eat during the day, and I wasn't keeling over, I did it better. Well kinda better, because I was able to balance & pivot & actually dance. Not so better, because I have less time to do it in, so can't drill so much, which I think they'd benefit from.
Too many becauses...
I love the warm up part of the class. I wish the classes were longer, so I could justify a longer warm up, but when I've only got 55 minutes, I can't really spend more than 15 of them on the warm up. But I love that time of being able to just mobilise the body, make each individual part of it work, test it, see what's feeling tight, what's feeling flexible, stretch and just explore what I can do. I love doing the moves real s-s-l-o-o-o-o-o-w-w, so that they're done perfectly. I love that time for getting into the Zone.
I don't know how the students feel about the warm up. It would be interesting to know, but it's difficult to get feedback about it, they tend to focus more on the actual teaching parts of the session. |
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| Class was good tonight. |
[11th February 2009|12:09 am] |
I do love teaching!
I don't know what mystical ingredient it is that makes a class fun, for the students and/or for me. But whatever it is, it was there tonight, for both classes and for me too. They worked hard, and they enjoyed it (and the feedback sheets indicate this wasn't just me imagining it!). |
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| Class last night |
[21st January 2009|10:20 am] |
Last night's classes went well. It was not an auspicious start- I was running late and I hadn't had time to prepare the Lesson Plans properly (or indeed at all). I was going on my general plan as a whole for each of the two courses, having a rough idea of what I wanted to cover but I hadn't written anything down (and obv couldn't write anything down while I was driving), and I hadn't got as far as being very specific, and the drive to Farnham is one that requires concentration, so I didn't have as much thinking-while-I'm-driving time, either.
Flip knows how it works, but it does. Somehow, it came out alright. Oof!
We seem to have a few more candidates for the Mirage performance at the Reading Haflah. I'm having to buy a dress for one, for me to keep as a spare but for her to borrow. I'm not thrilled about this, as I could do without spending £50 or so unnecessarily this month. But otherwise she might not do it. She might not do it anyway- she wasn't in class last term, so she doesn't know the choreo, even if she comes to rehearsals I'm not sure she'll pick it up very easily. So I may leave the ordering of the dress till early Feb, when hopefully she'll have more of an idea of whether she will be able & willing to perform. |
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| My chicks! |
[24th November 2008|10:17 pm] |
See this, *this*, is how I could get suckered into leading a student troupe.
The girls organised a practice night, and it's great when you're able to work intensively on a proper performance piece, and get it tweaked till it's just right. And they are working really hard.
I'm not going to lead a student troupe, I'm not going to lead a student troupe, I'm not going to lead a student troupe...
Remember, I'm relying on you to stop me if I sound over-enthusiastic. |
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| Air Veil |
[20th November 2008|11:24 pm] |
It worked ok, actually! It meant I could see what their arms were doing (they were in good unison, so that bodes well).
For some reason, my beginner's class was *very* sparse. There are 30 registered, but it works out after 8 weeks, as a hard core of about 15. But tonight there were 8. Eight! I hope I haven't scared them all off. |
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| Did I say? |
[4th November 2008|10:39 pm] |
I love my students!
We were working on Fi el Awel tonight in class, and I have to say there are a couple of girls there who know it really well, and they have got the choreo down pat. Anyway... We got to the stage of doing it well enough that I didn't want to jinx it, so I asked them, do you want to quit while we're ahead and do something else? Or keep working on Fi?
And they wanted to keep working on Fi.
*is proud*
They are quite keen on the Hannan galabiyas too. I don't think it's outrageous to spend £45 on a good baladi dress that you can wear on other occasions, and though there may be a couple who might balk at it, I think enough will be willing to do a bit of a bulk order to Kay.
And it seems like we may have another opportunity for them to use their new gear...
The head of Centre was talking about having a Taste of the Middle East morning one Saturday in the Summer (seems a long way off!), luring the unsuspecting public of Farnham into our sparkly world, with mint tea and baklava and turkish delight and ME dance... Anyone got any other ideas of what we can do to pull in the public? |
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| Planning next term's classes |
[23rd October 2008|12:12 pm] |
The Beginners classes are easy to plan, the second term is kind of consolidating, and adding the hard moves that I've been saving up for them- Camels, Hagallas & messing about with shimmies some more.
The Improver/Intermediates are always more tricky. As I've been working with choreography this term, the Spring Term needs to be Improvisation, and I need to think what the focus will be. For Farnham, it's going to be all about the Baladi. Because, frankly, you can never have too much of that! Also, what's not to love. I want to get them Improvising, working in pairs or maybe even small groups, getting them to play off one another. It's going back to my Hilal roots maybe. And I think it's going to be about "feeling the music" a bit more. Both my Improver/Intermediate groups are quite mixed and if I can make it more about Personal Interpretation, rather than how many different kinds of hip drop can I do, I think it will suit the mixed-ness of both groups. |
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| And talking of Workshops |
[13th October 2008|12:59 pm] |
I've decided I need to update my Workshops Offered list. It could use a dash of new stuff. Which I know I've got, I just need to put it into words. |
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| Guildford classes |
[3rd October 2008|10:34 am] |
I did the taster class last night, all Beginners, except for a Moroccan girl (who looks & sounds just like a Croydon girl!) and another foreign student who's done BD before, but I didn't get the chance to speak to her much. I've suggested both of them join the Intermediates class, even though I didn't really get to see them dance much, because they will both be bored witless with the Beginner stuff.
I was walking back to my car and got chatting with a French girl who'd been in the class, she'd been in the tango taster on Monday too, though I don't particularly remember her. She was saying that she was definitely wanting to sign up for my classes, because I'd got her enthusiasm going, and she hadn't felt the same energy from the tango class (*polishes nails on lapel*, *sticks gold star next to Béa's name on the chart*).
Trouble is, the Beginners class only had 6 places left when I started the taster, and she wasn't in the first 6 to get to the front of the queue to sign up. I've said I don't mind the class being up to 30 people, so long as that's ok from the insurance point of view. I know from experience that we never get 100% attendance every class, and there's always a tailing off of numbers after a few weeks, so although it might be a little busy in the first couple of weeks, it will quieten down when we get to the Hardcore group. They've taken names & numbers to contact those who weren't in the first 6 queuing up. So hopefully no-one will be left disappointed. |
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| Feedback, feedback... |
[30th September 2008|10:38 pm] |
I think my students may hate me tomorrow- I made them do abdominal drilling. It wasn't even really hard stuff, just getting their abs to wake up a bit.
With the batch of three new students, the feedback on my Undulations & Camels session tonight, in the feedback sheets, was positively glowing. They love the fact that I actually broke it down and made them work on it in a way that they could "get".
The feedback sheets are interesting. I shall have to photocopy them, for reference, at the end of the term. Some of them say lovely things about the classes, and it's nice to have feedback like that, of course. Though last week one student just wrote: "I hate shimmies!", which I kinda knew already. You have to take the hard feedback with the good.
Mostly it's good though, which is reassuring, although, in fairness, if the feedback is coming from the students who like the classes enough to want to keep coming, it's likely to be positive overall.
One of the Beginners was a bit anti the feedback sheets tonight, said they take you away from all the good feelings from class. I pointed out that, yes, I can see that might not feel so great, and if she doesn't want to do them, she doesn't have to. But she's going to have to leave the building and cross the road to get to her car so it's not unreasonable to get her back into a state of mind for dealing with the everyday world! |
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| First classes of the term |
[16th September 2008|10:11 pm] |
It's good to be back!
The Beginners class is not full, it's only about 12, when our full capacity is 20. This is not so good, particularly as two of them are ladies who are too scared to move up to the Intermediates! However the Intermediates are 18 out of our max of 20, and it includes four new ladies. I think they're friends of one of the existing students, and I think they've come from a teacher in Camberley, but I shall talk to them a bit more next week, as well as leaving Beth to pump them for more information- she's good like that! And another of the Guildford students has moved to the Farnham class.
The Beginners include a lady who was living in Dubai, a couple of years ago and did BD there. I thought she'd find the Beginners classes really boring and basic, but she said she's happy to stick with it, to get back into it after having had a break. Maybe she'll feel able to move up after a term or so. Much as I want the Beginners class to be nice & full, I'd much prefer it if people were in the right level of class for them.
The Fi el Awel choreo seems to be going down well. For the beginners, I decided Ya Tabtab was too long and opted for Minarets & Memories instead, but I'm not going to start that till we've got them a bit more repertoire.
I'm not a whoowhoo teacher, but I found myself talking about energy tonight, when I was trying to explain the difference between a loose side to side or tak move, and a sharp one. I talked about how to use the muscles as well, but sometimes you do need to inject a bit of whoo. |
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| Training Day |
[14th September 2008|08:50 pm] |
Today was a teachers training/bonding/being told stuff from on high day at Surrey Uni. I found out a bit more about the spanking new Sports Centre they're building. It's going to have her-yoooge dance studios. But only two of them. However, the dance dept will be taking over the current Sports Centre, so we'll still have the two studios we've got right now, and the ginormous sports hall will become a theatre. Which, given the size of the sports hall, will also be her-yoooge. We've already got one theatre, which we've used for the Happenings Showcases, but this one would be way bigger.
What I do like about the Guildford classes is that they do very much leave you to get on with it and just teach. No paperwork to mess about with. Obv I still have an overall plan, and lesson plans, but I don't have to formalise them, and I don't have to assess my students there. I can literally just turn up & teach, then bugger off back home. Farnham is Adult Ed, so there is paperwork aplenty to file and fill in.
Talking of which, I should be offski... |
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| Plans for next term |
[18th August 2008|11:07 am] |
I'm in the throes of choreography for the next term. I've cut it down to three. I have ended up with three very "safe" pieces, pieces that have perhaps been done to death by other people, but they're fresh for me. I decided on:
- Ya Tabtab for the Beginners (both Farnham & Guildford- I figured I've got enough on my plate- if I can teach the same choreo to two different groups, that saves me from planning and learning one new routine). It's nice & cute and I'm sure they'll "get it".
- Marco Polo for the Guildford Improver/Intermediates, with Veil. This is perhaps the most predictable and boring choice, but the other piece that I would have chosen (Leh Khaletny) they've worked on before in Improv mode, and I wanted to use something that was new for them.
- Fi el Awel for the Farnham Intermediates. I want them to do some funky Sa'aidi. I'd make them use stick if I hadn't already done a Stick choreo with them last term. |
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| A bit of Tube Gossip, to start off |
[18th July 2008|12:55 am] |
"Emos, Emus, they're all the same; pale looking grumpy birds dressed in black."
Well *I* thought it was funny...
I had my Guildford students wafting Veils about tonight. It was lovely, and I think they enjoyed themselves. I always love teaching Veil to Beginners. They almost invariably seem to take to them like the proverbial duck. One more class then I'm officially on dance holiday, and I have to knuckle down & start choreographing for the Autumn Term.
My sister sent me a rather funny "Arse or Elbow" quiz. I am thinking of using it for the next Anatomy Courses. I know, I know, it's not on the official curriculum, but it would make a good ice-breaker. It looks like one of my students wants to do the London Foundation Course, which makes me feel proud. She's a smashing dancer and I'm sure she'd put a lot of effort into the course. |
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| Video Party Tonight |
[8th July 2008|05:10 pm] |
The last class of the year at Farnham usually involves a video party. I'm taking my favourites of course, so plenty of Egyptian style stuff, old & new. But I am also taking:-
- the Lebanese dancers DVD that I still haven't watched
- the rather dull Turkish DVD I've got (I ought really to get some better Turkish stuff, but I really hate to spend my own money on it)
- some BDSS (I've only got the one BDSS DVD- Folies Bergere, which I honestly think is the best one, from what I've seen)
- some IAMED (including the one with Fat Chance on it, so they get to see some old school tribal)
- some Beata & Horacio
- some me (but only a tiny bit)
So hopefully they'll get some exposure to a range of different styles. I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say about them all. |
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| My Stick choreo works |
[10th June 2008|10:36 pm] |
I finished the Stick choreo to El Dooa. I think it works really well. The intention was kinda that it would be a veil piece that was being done with a stick instead. It's mostly quite straightforward, but there is fast & complicated in it too. I'd be happy to use it as a performance piece, though I'd probably juice it up, with extra technique-y stuff, if it was just me doing it as a solo. Because I can.
The good thing is the students like it too. And they've done it all the way through now. Not necessarily to performance standard (tee hee!) but they've done it.
You know, it really doesn't take much to make me happy. |
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