Articles

In a recent article, I addressed the #1 thing new students tell me after their first class. In this article, I’m sharing the second most common sentiment of new belly dancers, which is: how surprised they are, when they take their first peek down the DEEP belly dance “rabbit hole”  And how that same rabbit hole continues to send more experienced belly dancers on a harrowing trip to disillusionment.  At first glance, belly dancing seems rather simple, right? Then you start classes…

Can you recall a time just before your life took an unexpected turn, and how in that minute or hour before, you had absolutely no idea your life was about to change? Looking back on my first belly dance class, I never would have guessed that a few years later, I would sell my house and quit my career to study and teach belly dance full time. Especially considering, when I began my dance journey, I was a fearful young woman running from my painful past. You…

Have you ever been in a dance or exercise class, when you began doing a particular movement or the activity intensified and you became overwhelmed with emotion(s)? Maybe you were doing an upper-body movement, and you noticed that you felt tight in your chest and upper back muscles, then a rush of sadness came over you. Perhaps you were working on hip tilts or hip circles, when all of sudden you felt very anxious, uncomfortable, and self-conscious. You might have…

Over the next few articles, I’m going to be sharing with you Things Every New Belly Dancer Needs Know [Before They Start Lessons]  Even if you are an experienced dancer, you might want to hang around, because we tend to perennially experience “something new” from time to time, and need frequent reminders to practice what we already know, or at least, I do.  I’m writing this series, because the more you know about what to actually expect from a belly dance class, the less unpleasant…

Written by Kelli Nottingham How do you feel before you perform? Does your mind go into a complete fog? Does your heart flutter like a butterfly on espresso? Do your muscles feel stiff or cold? Do you forget your choreography or what your song even sounds like? Do you feel more numb than scared? Do you dread performing? Or do you just avoid performing completely? The truth is, performance anxiety affects a huge number of dancers and shows itself in…

To those dancers wishing to take their dance performances to much greater levels… This article is not for dancers that dance for recreational or personal enrichment. While dancing to gain performance experience is helpful in some regards, many improvement-driven dancers leave a few important things out. These are things that can make a much greater impact on their dancing and help them get to the skills and level of performance that they truly desire. In this article, I will share with…

Anna shows you 10 ways to annoy belly dance show producers (Short of Cancellation), as well as tips to help you avoid driving producers crazy. Producing events is tough work, but you can help the folks that give so much to our dance community by making their life easier, by being considerate and diligent when you sign up to dance in their shows. Beware that you do not commit too many of these, as show producers greatly appreciate dancers that…

We’ve all seen it! The performer ends their dance or performance set…and then – NOTHING. They leave the stage with ZERO fanfare. The energy drops and the audience is left feeling that vacuum, and maybe they are also a little confused. The audience feels this void because even though the dancer was great and brought the energy in the midst of their performance, they ended with a low vibe like an unpleasant aftertaste. Who wants this? So, how do you end…