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Vagabond Princess
Tribal Fusion Belly Dancing
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
A little late I know…and this follows on from last month’s tip:
I’m going to suggest taking your favourite practice DVD…say Rachel Brice’s Serpentine for example and, if it feels good to you, adding a smooth 4/4 shimmy to the drill sections whilst using the traveling steps. Just to check in on how well we can control the 4/4 through all those weight transitions! Enjoy.
This month’s book is Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance by Eric Franklin
Posted by Sam
on 27/04/11
in Belly Dance, Inspiration, Practice, Tribal No 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 »
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Fellow Vagabonds of the Dance!
How goes your New Year so far? Mine has been one of the best yet, seeing it in teaching at FCBD studios in San Francisco and creating a new show with none other than Elizabeth Strong and Zoe Jakes to live music by the incomparable Dan Cantrell. I am a very lucky bunny indeed.
I wanted to let you all know that I will not be traveling to teach and perform as much as I have in recent years due to embarking on a big, exciting and ever so slightly daunting personal project at home in Scrumplewumpleshire involving lots of mud and timber. So any workshops you see on my website will be special indeed and not to be missed as there may not be so many opportunities to see me on the road in 2011/2012, just thought you might want to have this little heads up to keep you all in the loopy loop.
My only US visit for 2011 will now be Tribal Fest! My four hour intensive workshop is SOLD OUT…Wow!!! Thank you so much for booking. There are a some spaces left on my combos class, so if you are interested in training with me at the one and only Tribal Fest, grab a place while you still can! I can hardly wait for May to come around, there will also be some exciting collaborative performances to look out for there and at the After Party. Not to be missed my friends.
Thank you for your continued support and looking forward to catching up with you this year…somewhere along the road that loops.
Love and Fluff
Vagabond Princess
Posted by Sam
on 27/01/11
in Belly Dance, Friends, Inspiration, Practice, Tribal 1 Comment »
Friday, December 31st, 2010
Kicking off 2011 in the BEST WAY EVER!
Teaching and performing with Elizabeth Strong and Zoe Jakes in none other than the Fat Chance Belly Dance studios in San Francisco. I am so very lucky to be able to work with my friends across the pond again, it’s been a while. We will teach a week long intensive and also put on a show together. Yay, yay and also YAY!! For full booking info check out my calendar page where you will also find details for my ONLY other US visit in 2011… TRIBAL FEST!!!
Posted by Sam
on 31/12/10
in Belly Dance, Friends, Health, Inspiration, Practice, Tribal, Wild Weird and Wonderful 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Yesterday I attended my first ever Clowning workshop. Taught by John Wright,an international director of theatre, co-founder and artistic director of “Told by an Idiot” and co-founder of Trestle Theatre Company.
This workshop looked at the “ways and means of generating play”. We explored; “conscious and unconscious play, finding the game, revealing the game, hiding the game and opening up texts and situations through play”.
I went into this workshop with no idea what to expect, having had absolutely no theatre training, and my goodness… it was HARD!! I have a new found respect for Clowns every where. It takes such skill to perfect the timing and nuances required to make an audience laugh and keep them with you. What was most challenging was the fact you were not trying to create a character…you were trying to be your self, put into bizarre situations and you had to be ready to drop that game in an instant to switch to a new one. Like child’s play. My sides ached from laughing all day. Whilst it was really hard and a little intimidating, it was extremely funny to see everyone’s clowns emerge.
John was an excellent teacher, giving us game after game after game with barely a chance to catch your breath before you were given the next challenge. For someone who has been in the theatre world for so very long, I was pleasantly surprised to find him down to earth, humble, supportive and extremely funny.
I am very glad I went especially as I am taking a week long intensive at the London International School of Performing Arts this month. I am broadening my training horizons in the hope I might feel more confident in my dancing and in myself, by attempting something COMPLETELY different.
I also enjoyed my first collaborative workshop event with great friend Michelle Ridings this week end in Exeter. She taught performance skills for dancers and the workshop was excellent! She has so much experience in the field and she was a dancer, so she knew exactly what it was we needed to help us grow as performers.We will be working together again at the next Exeter workshops in October. We all learned a vast amount in her two hour session and I am starting to feel more confident about the exercises but I know there is SO MUCH MORE, we have barely scratched the surface. So peeps the next Theatre Skills workshop with Michelle will be three hours…at least!
Posted by Sam
on 10/08/10
in Friends, Inspiration, Practice, Wild Weird and Wonderful 2 Comments »
