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Vagabond Princess
Tribal Fusion Belly Dancing
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
Getting back into training after a wee while overindulging in rest and food. This tip should help get you back into your practice too. Go to 8tracks and select a playlist either at utter random or say by GENIUS and sweetheart Rachel Brice (arbibi) then improvise your heart out to the whole delicious thing. Surprises abound! Enjoy.
Posted by Sam
on 03/01/12
in Belly Dance, Friends, Health, Inspiration, Practice, Practice Tip of the Month, Tribal No Comments »
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
This month’s tip is aimed at those of us who might need a little kick up the backside to positive land regarding our practice.
Dig out your first ever dance diary/note book/journal and have a read through your old practice notes.
No doubt you will notice how far you have come but above all the key to this exercise is re kindling that child like enthusiasm and excitement you felt in your first ever workshop or class, on discovering this art form… the moment the sparks flew!
Put that feeling into this month’s practice and let me know if it works for you!
This month’s book is Your Brain at Work by David Rock
Fanks!
Posted by Sam
on 17/08/11
in Belly Dance, Friends, Inspiration, Practice, Practice Tip of the Month, Tribal 1 Comment »
Monday, June 6th, 2011
CORE STABILITY
I know that’s not technically Belly Dance but without core strength you are headed for injury my dears, especially in this style of dance, using your core will dramatically improve hip work and abdominal isolation. When I started adding Pilates to my practice I noticed a difference right away. My undulations and hip work felt deeper and way stronger, isolation more controlled and posture improved.
Click here to find the online Tabata Workout Clock. You use this to tell you when your 20 seconds work is up and you use the 10 seconds rest time to prepare for the next exercise.
I usually choose 3 different exercises like push ups, sit ups and squats and vary all three for 12 minutes. You can of course do more or less time wise depending where your fitness level is at right now. This is known as interval training and I find it highly effective in a short amount of time.
A good practice day for me consists of early morning jog followed by Yoga then a Tabata session or two followed by drills and improv/choreography work. That is a very good day. I will not pretend that happens every day, as things come up…But this is my goal.
I’m going to give you a fun variation for this type of work out by adding a Pilates Ball into the equation. There are lots of how to’s on You Tube for ideas… like this lady. I pick 3 different exercises and start the Tabata Timer.I find I don’t get bored using the Tabata method and adding the ball guarantees core strengthening by trying to stay on the ruddy thing! Wikid.
If you have any daily exercises you want to share here feel free, I know many of us work in isolation, either by living in the country side or just plain cannot afford classes every week, so my thinking is the more we share what is working for us, the quicker this art form can flourish and gain the respect it deserves from the wider dance community, innit.
Note:If you have any kind of injury, use common sense and talk to your doctor about which ball exercises will work for you! Always cool down properly after this type of rigorous exercise OK!
AND HERE IS THIS MONTH’S BOOK:
The Element by Sir Ken Robinson available here
Inspired and very amusing, Ken puts all into perspective and shows us how everyone is capable of creativity when given the opportunity.
Fanks x
Posted by Sam
on 06/06/11
in Health, Practice, Practice Tip of the Month, Tribal 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
I just wanted to take a moment to share a project I am involved with right now because it is making me very happy and every one should know about it!
2011 sees the second year of the Taksim Tribal Certification program and has featured wonderful instructors such as Mardi Love, Sharon Kihara and Heather Stants to name a few. Each instructor returns to teach three times over three months, giving the rare opportunity to really get to know the group and work on a more one to one basis. As the group is individually selected on application, a higher level of technical proficiency is assured which is great fun for us in the material we can present within the workshops. There are live theatre performances to enjoy too. I only wish I could take the course myself!
This year sees Jill Parker, Sharon Kihara, Amy Sigil, Elizabeth Strong and currently…me! What a line up!!!
I am really honoured to be involved with a project such as this and Alex and Amira deserve utmost respect for their vision and hard work in bringing it all together.
Posted by Sam
on 27/04/11
in Belly Dance, Friends, Inspiration, Practice, Practice Tip of the Month, Tribal No Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
As promised.
This month’s practice tip focuses on Shimmy. Its pretty simple, find a good long track and shimmy for the entire length with no break adding layers and traveling without the shimmy being affected at all. Try big and loose, small and fast, 3/4 and 4/4 or whatever feels good to you today! I have put up a couple of tracks on my itunes PING account which you can see via HERE to use for ideas. Enjoy!
This month’s suggested reading is Inside Ballet Technique by Valerie Grieg available HERE. Regardless of whether you are interested in Ballet or not this book proves to be a useful tool and a very accessible read indeed.
Love and Fluff
Posted by Sam
on 14/03/11
in Belly Dance, Health, Inspiration, Practice, Practice Tip of the Month, Tribal 1 Comment »
Friday, February 4th, 2011
Over achievers! I have a practice tip, the first of many to be on the look out for!
As you know I am rather isolated where I live and class availability is scarce and tricky to get to of an evening. So I use DVD s to keep myself training alone. Having used the same DVD s over and over again I decided to switch it up today as I notice myself losing concentration and zoning out, knowing what was going to come next.
I put the video on mute and selected a random play list on shuffle or a random genre so I had no idea what was going to pop up (try classical!) then followed the video and toyed with hitting the down beat, or the off beat, mixing up the tempo and size of the movement to the music. This was a Eureka moment for me today, I was focused on the exercise instead of distracted and think it will help live improvisation no end. It needs to be a DVD you know really well though, so you are not missing any important instruction for safe execution of movement…obviously.
I am very excited to rediscover my old DVDs again. It has brought a second life to DVD drilling at home . Hope it does you too!
Thank you for sharing this geeky practice moment with me! I just had to share it.
As requested by you here are some of my current favorites, click on the titles to go to suppliers:
Yay!
x
Posted by Sam
on 04/02/11
in Belly Dance, Inspiration, Practice, Practice Tip of the Month, Tribal 5 Comments »
