Do you keep your belly dance class notes and workshop notes in a file? If not, you should. If you never know when you might need to credit a source, refer to something you learned a long time ago, or just recall a lost bit of information. Sometimes you are introduced to information that doesn’t quite make sense or you don’t have a sturdy enough foundation to fully use. When the time comes that it all clicks together, you can go back, review, and fully integrate it into your dance repertoire if you still have the notes.

The notebook is for helping you to remember what goes on in your regular classes. Take notes when something cool happens, you feel inspired, you see someone else do something you would like to repeat, or when you need to rephrase an instruction to help you make sense of it. If that strategy worked or you in school, this is doubly important for you because it is a strategy that enhances your learning style.

Sometimes you are out and about when a flash of inspiration hits you. Maybe it’s a costume idea, a fusion idea that blends two completely different things in a creative way, a combination, or a question that you want to ask someone. If you don’t write it down, you will probably lose it. Carrying a moleskin is perfect for those times.

Creativity and learning don’t always happen when you are in the classroom, ready to learn, or are focused on your project. Ideas can come from anywhere at any time. Having a way to record them means you don’t have to lose them. It also is a way of saying to your subconscious, “Hey! Those things are great. Keep them coming!” The more you pay attention to the information you are receiving from another person or your own thoughts, the more inspiration you will get and the better you will be able to use them for your own benefit.

When I was a new student, I tried to learn from as many different teachers as possible. I trusted everything they said because they appeared so fluid, beautiful and knowledgeable to me. I wanted to be just like them. The problem is, we can all only be ourselves. So, once you get a strong foundation of basic skills, in order to go on to be the best dancer you can be, you have to know what your strengths are and focus on them.

Have you ever seen a dancer trying best to do something she just couldn’t do? Sometimes it’s an issue of practice, but sometimes it is just something she will never be able to do well. She knows it, so she doesn’t shine as well as she could and that is communicated to the audience.

Don’t show them what you can’t do. Show them what you can! This gives you and your audience the best show possible.

I don’t know where we get this idea that belly dancers have to be good on stage, in a cabaret setting, doing tribal, Classical and folklore, in ensemble numbers, with a variety of props, to choreographies as well as improv, with recorded music as well as live. Whew! I get exhausted just thinking about it! Is that really realistic? (Now, I am not saying you don’t have to learn what you don’t like. I do believe you can only be great if ALL your basic skills are there as they will support whatever dance style you do).

If you are serious about being a stellar performer, find your niche and stick to that. Trying to be good at everything is just exhausting and impossible. Why spend a lot of time being mediocre when the same amount of time developing your strengths will get you so much further?

Don’t assume you know what your strengths are. So few of us even ask ourselves that question. Those who do often guess wrong. We can say what we aren’t good at, but we can’t say what we are. Think about some of these questions. Do you like being close to people or further away where they can’t touch you? Do you like orderly, predictable shows or shows where there is an element of surprise? Do you communicate better when you have time to plan or is it more effective when it’s spontaneous? Do you like interaction with your audience or do you prefer for the communication to be more one way? Do you feel more earthy or elegant when you dance? Are you easily bored or can you hang with an emotion and wring it out? Are you more energetic or slow and easy? Do you dance with your body or with your eyes? Do you work better with a team or as a soloist? Is your dance about giving or receiving? Are you introverted or extroverted? Subtle or daring? Innovative or traditional?

Another thing to ask yourself is, “What do you want?” So many of us go into teaching because it is considered the “next step.” From there, you have to become a workshop instructor. (sigh) I know.  I know. I did it too, but following the well worn path can get you far off track from what it is you really want to do. Teaching is a far different job than performing.

Sticking to a niche doesn’t mean you will get stale and boring or that there is nowhere to explore. No way! It means that you get to explore every little nook and cranny instead of doing the “5 countries in 5 days” type of tour. When you really spend time developing what you do, you get depth and breadth that you can never achieve by spreading yourself too thin and incorporating all your weaknesses into your work because you think you “should.”

Dare to break from the pack! Do your own thing in your own way. Dance only what is joyous and flowing. Leave out that which is laborious and not fun. Only in this way can you truly dance from your heart.

The internet is a great way to grow your dance circle, knowledge, and social contacts. However, the ease of use can also make it easy to forget that there is a person on the other end of your communication and that posts to fora and social networks are public. Here are some tips to keep interactions pleasant and respectful.

* Be cordial. Just because you are online doesn’t mean you have to abandon courtesy.

* Don’t send anything that you wouldn’t want the wrong person to see. It doesn’t have to be a naughty picture. Even an email can be easily forwarded to a friend who forwards it to another friend.

* Put on a lovely face. Show people only the best side of you. Don’t get ugly, bullyish, mean, or petty online. Remember that belly dance is a small world. Everybody knows EVERYbody. When you talk about that performance that you hated last weekend, someone was there that loved it. You don’t have to share every thought you have with strangers.

* Send group emails only to people who need to know what you are talking about. Sending random information to your whole address book is annoying.

* Keep your personal information private. The internet is NOT secure. By all means, don’t send other people’s information out over the internet.

* Don’t write in all caps. It’s considered yelling.

* Don’t add your address book to your newsletters or social groups without their permission. There is nothing more irritating than getting things that you have no interest in.

* Before attaching ginormous files to your emails or signatures, ask yourself if the person receiving it wants it.  This could hog up precious bandwidth space and put you on the “banned” list.

* Don’t be a cyber bully. I am sometimes shocked at how some people get so horrid when behind a computer screen when they would never do that in a face to face situation. Remember that there is a PERSON on the other end of your communication.

* If you are going to swear, keep it to places that are semi-private and that accept this type of talk. Norms are not the same everywhere. For example, it may be perfectly okay to swear in your house, but you might not want to do it at work or at your mom’s dinner table. Same thing on the ‘net.

* If someone breaks the rules, assume they are new and don’t know. Not everyone is intentionally rude.

If online gathering places are ugly, hate-filled, combative, competitive places where people one up each other or put our heroes down, they will cease to be meeting places where everyone (new and old) can learn. I’d hate to see that happen. So, how about contributing to keeping the belly dance internet a safe, welcoming place?

I can only see the world through my own eyes. I can’t speak to other people’s experiences, but from what I see, I think I am more zealous about music than your average person. I can’t just sit and listen to it- not even in the car. Background music becomes noise if I can’t focus and concentrate on it because it distracts me from whatever I am attending to. What that means in practice is I don’t tend to drive with music because I will start driving really fast or maybe really slow, depending on the mood and tempo of what I am listenting to. It means that I can’t really dance choreography because it takes me out of the moment. It means that I can’t really tell someone what I did during a performance because the music and movement cannot be separated in my mind. It’s all one thing.

Music is so closely associated with mood, memories and visuals in my head that I can tell you the title of a movie based on the opening music (assuming I have seen it, of course). My friends and family try to trip me up on this all the time. They die laughing when 3 notes in, without any other stimulus, I pop out the title. When music is paired well with other things, this is the effect that it has. It cannot be separated.

That’s why I think it is so important to become intimate with your music before you ever perform to it. How can you dance with nuance, feeling and expression if you don’t know what it is saying? How can you hope to embody your listener/watcher’s memories of it if you don’t have a deep understanding it of? It’s more than just timing, blocking, and tempo. It’s more than following the swells and releases. If you listen to one orchestra or musician play Beethoven vs. another, you will know that what comes out isn’t solely dictated by what is created on the page. It has to do with how the artist translates it.

The more you understand all the things that go into creating music, the more tools you have to understand and interpret it. Do yourself a favor and LISTEN to it mindfully. Let it be the only thing that you hear with your skin, feel with your heart, touch with your soul, taste with your eyes, and smell with your fingers. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you haven’t fully heard music. Let it become the only thing you sense with all your being. When you have done that, you can never phone it in while performing to that piece again.

Let’s face it. There is not likely to be a rush of demand for belly dancers any time soon. The demand for higher quality doesn’t seem to be around the corner either. Certification is not a requirement. The disparity in certification programs is huge. It takes a lot of time and money. And there is no objective body attesting to the quality of the certification programs. So, why bother with getting certified?

Some Employers Require It

If you are trying to get a job at a fitness center or college, most of them now require some sort of certification. To be honest, it’s a lot easier, less expensive and less time consuming to get a fitness certification. That will likely be enough to satisfy the job requirement too. While you will learn about teaching group classes, you will learn little to nothing about dance however.

You Show Others You Are Invested in Your Own Education

Certification in any field that does not require it shows your prospective clients and employers that you are serious about what you do, are willing to take the time to continue learning, and quite possibly have more to offer than a person without this training.

It’s a Resume Booster

Some people go around collecting qualifications. That’s fine. Certifications are another qualification that looks good on paper and can boost your prestige.

It May Demonstrate Proficiency

Some certification programs are attendance based. If you pay the fee and show up, you get the credit. Others are proficiency based. You actually have to show that you understand and can apply the material on an entry level basis. In a world where anyone can write glowing biographies that are hard to check, this gives some credibility to your claims.

It May Give the Client Recourse if Dissatisfied

Some certifying bodies hold certificate holders to a standard of conduct and/or ethics. Violations can have repercussions. This may help the customer feel better about engaging in services with this professional.

It May Give You a Community Support

Some certification programs have ways to network with others in the program. This can help you to feel supported in your journey, help you to see it through, and keep you motivated.

It Gives You a Way to Grow

Everyone’s reasons for getting or avoiding certification is valid, but for me, the biggest benefit of getting any certification is the education itself. If the education helps to to grow, expand my skills, see new things, see old things in new ways, or help me to reach my own goals, I am there!

When considering whether or not to go the extra mile to get certified in any program, ask yourself if the program can help you to meet your goals, if what you gain is worth the time and money, if you will have the support you need to complete it, and how you feel about the association with the certifying body. Looking at the big picture will help you decide if certification is for you.

Are there any Adele fans out there? Any Grammy fans? If so, you may have heard that Adele’s six Grammy wins this year have people taking a scientific look at the cause of her magic. Guess what? It’s formulaic and can be repeated! (That’s what I love about knowing theory and the technical bits of artistry).

The nutshell version of what happens was identified 20 years ago by British psychologist John Sloboda. He basically had people listen to music and point out that parts that reliably gave them goose bumps or brought tears to their eyes. Sloboda looked at those passages and found that the vast majority contained a note which clashed with the melody just enough to create dissonance (clashing or what is unexpected). This generates tension in the listener. When the music goes back to the melody (what is expected), the tension releases and it feels pleasurable. The greater the tension, the more the pleasure. When this occurs several times in a row, it is even stronger.

So, what does this have to do with dance? Well, my friend, the same thing happens in dance. So, when I urge you to learn the structure of music and dance, follow it, then learn how and when to deviate from it, THAT’S WHY! You need both conformity and strategic rebellion to create a piece with emotional impact.

Learning about theory isn’t just about acquiring knowledge so that you can talk about it from some lofty position with your egghead friends and feel superior. It’s about acquiring whatever tools it takes to make you the best dancer and teacher you can be. I’ve said over and over that some people just have a knack. I believe Adele’s style emerged organically, not as a result of a plan to win Grammy’s, so you don’t need to learn this stuff if you are naturally gifted. But if you want consistent results and to be able to lead others there, it sure does help.

My advice, learn the rules and break them in an informed way.

If you compare belly dance to other dance forms, we really work hard! In most other dance forms, no one is expected to be a performer, teacher, choreographer, marketer, accountant, AND troupe director, yet somehow in belly dance many teachers do it all. If you want to keep your sanity and stay on the success track, the best skill to have is the ability to delegate.

Delegating greatly reduces the amount of work that you have to do. If your delegates are well chosen, it can increase self-esteem of the people you rely on and group cohesion. It helps your performers understand the amount of work that you do. This can decrease complaints and increase compliance and understanding.

“Delegate what?,” you ask. Well, that depends on your situation, but here are some ideas that I used when I was head of a performing group.

Costume Lieutenant

This person was responsible for making sure that every performer had the proper costume. Sometimes this meant organizing sewing parties, going on outings to the fabric store, arranging a wholesale order from a supplier, begging and borrowing pieces from other performers, doing on site spot checks for wrinkles or missing accessories, or making sure that the correct information was sent out to all participants. The costume lieutenant was also in charge of hair, make-up and accessories. This person was chosen for her flair and fashion sense and was relied upon for input in new costume ideas.

Music Lieutenant

This person was responsible for making sure that all participants had practice music to work with at home. She also was responsible for making sure that we had two edited copies of performance music for each performance.  She sometimes was responsible for doing the editing and could be relied upon for suggestions for new music as she was chosen for her aptitude in music.

Rehearsal Nazi

This person was in charge of scheduling outside group choreography rehearsals and making sure that each student understood her part in the choreography. She might coordinate with the music and costume lieutenants for dress rehearsals. The rehearsal Nazi was tasked with using time wisely, correcting mistakes, checking with the troupe director on any conflicting ideas about what the moves or mood was supposed to be and making sure that there was one vision.

Announcer or Stage Manager

If you have someone who is injured, doesn’t have the proper costuming or doesn’t have the choreography down yet, ask that person to participate by being the show announcer or stage manager. It’s a whole lot easier to work with someone who knows the flow of events. There is a lot less chance of having your names mispronounced, leaving a veil behind, or missing a cue too. While the troupe director can do this, this frees her up to do other things that require a higher level of skill or managerial status.

In our group, we had a particularly well connected participant who could get great deals on performing and workshop spaces. She was an unofficial marketing person who acted as the liaison between her contacts and the troupe director to get us fabulous opportunities that we might not have been able to get otherwise. If you have people with special connections or skills, be sure to incorporate them into your line up of delegates.

When I’ve shared this idea with others, I have sometimes been met with hesitation because of the fear of students over stepping their boundaries. To that I say, choose well.  Don’t delegate authority to someone who lacks maturity, experience, or self-discipline. There will always be some who need more guidance than others. Choose based upon talent, aptitude and leadership.

Second, remember  Proverbs 22:6 which says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” If your students learned basic dancer etiquette, respect for you, respect for their fellow students, and have healthy boundaries with other people and the community, you don’t have to worry about conflict. They will be honored to be part of the team and will work to make the team look good. Your teaching goes far beyond teaching moves and steps. You are also training your students to be budding professionals. That includes good ethics and a solid work ethic. If you cultivate that in every class, you will have many candidates to choose from as your delegates.

If something happens and you have to miss a performance, it’s no big deal. If you want to split the troupe so that half goes here and half goes there at the same time, you can. Delegation gives you peace of mind, freedom and the ability to wear all the hats that belly dance troupe directors are required to wear.

I was asked how knowing music theory helps in dancing. Let me break this down a little bit more.

Think of learning dance like learning how to write. When you learn moves, that is like learning words. Combinations are like learning to put together sentences. Choreography is reciting something that you have already read. Music theory would be rules of grammar. So, Mary Had a Little Lamb goes:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
Everywhere that Mary went
That lamb was sure to go.

In a perfect world, your recitation (choreography) would be a perfect replication of the above. In reality, it’s often similar, but is sometimes only vaguely familiar. Teachers use it to give students a sense of accomplishment, to teach structure, and to make pieces with multiple people possible. But without the rules of grammar, if you set a student out on her own, you might get something like this:

Mary has a lamb little
It’s fleece was white as snow
Everywhere that Mary went
Goes the lamb

While this isn’t horrible, the student is likely to keep producing things like this because she doesn’t know the rules that provide the sentences with cohesion and structure. She doesn’t know how the piece is tied together.

Most of us know that sentences have a minimum of a subject and a verb. If they agree (like this: I ran; Lambs eat; Bells ring), it makes sense. If they don’t agree (like this: He dance; Dogs barks; Trees grows), it doesn’t make sense or at least sounds off. The same is true with dance. If we don’t know the rules of music, our dance can look off and not make sense.

Music has form. It’s predictable. Knowing the form makes it a whole lot easier to improvise because you can accurately predict changes and repeats. Not only can you guess what is going to happen, you can say why. Nothing is random. You start to see patterns. The biggest hurdle many of my students have is not knowing what to do when. If you can understand the structure, this gives you a whole lot of options that make sense. You aren’t just starting with a blank slate each time.

Here are some other benefits of learning music theory

If you are working hard but are not improving, but don’t know why, your growth relies on chance. If you know music theory and make changes that are in alignment with music theory, you are more likely to get results that move in the direction of improvement.

Music provides the framework for dance, yet it has its own framework as well. If you understand that musical framework, you are never starting out from scratch. You start from a place of structure which takes out so much guesswork and allows you to start confidently.

When you know how music and dance are constructed, you won’t make simple errors of ignoring repeats, putting repeats in the wrong places, moving against the timing, moving against the energy, etc.

When you know how music and dance are constructed, you can make the most of subtleties to enhance opportunities for contrast, squeeze the most out of areas of tension, and infuse your own personality and creativity into a song that has been used by others hundreds of times.

If you know the rules, it’s a lot easier to break the rules in an informed way and have a piece that is still lovely. If you apply the rules haphazardly or not at all, it’s too easy to have a piece that looks amateurish. What I am saying is, it’s a lot easier to take risks that result in rewards.

Once you know the rules, you don’t think about it anymore. It’s like we don’t think about what we are going to say before we say it to ask ourselves ahead of time if our subjects and verbs agree. This gives us room to think about the OTHER elements of dance that do need developing. When an author knows grammatical rules, he can focus on plot or character developing or setting a scene. When a dancer intuitively knows about music theory, she can focus on dynamics or use of space or light.

There are many aspects to becoming a good dancer. The more that you can conquer, the more tools you have to express what you want to express effectively. But remember, this isn’t something to be learned for academic reasons. It has to be applied in order to be of any use to you.

You often hear me praising the benefits of improvisation. It’s not because I think all choreography is crap. It’s because I don’t see it taught or performed as often as it should be given that it’s a folk dance. Still, for all my praise of improvisation, I have to say that there is a difference between good and bad improv. Just because you’re fearless, creative and feel good dancing doesn’t mean that the presentation is enjoyable or technically good.

If you know a bit about music theory and dance composition, you will know that there are various predictable elements that go into creating an enjoyable, musical dance piece. It should have some balance, some contrast, some moving with the beat and some moving faster or slower than the beat. It should follow the musical structure. It should repeat, but not too much. In other words, it should have some predictability, but not so much that it becomes boring.

Where I see improvisation fail is that it tends to have no structure at all. It’s just all “do what you feel.” Neither music nor dance is just “what you feel.” It has predictable structure. This makes no sense to my brain. It’s too hard to follow so I become overwhelmed and nod out.

Another error is that it’s too structured. It’s a good idea to do four to this side and four to that side, but not exclusively. If my mind can guess what’s coming next, my attention starts to stray and I get bored.

Finally, your core skills have to be sound. If you are mashing sloppy moves together, dancing too fast, not finishing your moves, or you just can’t tell where one move ends and the next one begins, all your enthusiasm doesn’t really mean much. Technique does count for something. Take some time to develop it. Dancing for people is about more than you feeling good. It’s also about your ability to bring others with you on that journey.

If none of this makes sense to you, my suggestion is that you learn music theory (BDT4) and dance composition (BDT 7,8, and 9). Once you understand the theory part, it’s not something you have to sit down and think about. You can just hear the structure of the music and easily fit the movement into it. You will probably have to think about repetition, variation and dynamics changes to make it different, but this gets easier and takes less thought with practice.

I’ve seen really good stage performers who get out on the dance floor to just jam who can’t string two moves together. I don’t get that. How do you get that far and not know the first thing about dancing? Do yourself a favor and don’t be one of those people. Learn how to do both. And learn how to improvise well. If you look at the greats in any artistic field, they are almost always people who have either learned or an innate sense of music theory, the ability to improvise well, and the knowledge to know when to do it.

If you are a stage performer, troupe member or member of a theater production, choreography is a MUST! You can’t go out there without it if you want a cohesive, intricate piece that is reproducible and creates a predictable effect over and over again.

Choreography even has its place in the classroom. It gives form to compositions and helps students to see how to put together a piece from start to finish. It gives students a sense of accomplishment (whereas an improvised piece is never truly “done.”) It is handy for teaching how to use elements or for pulling elements out of a whole and putting them elsewhere.

The thing I am arguing against is the over-reliance on choreography as the sole teaching tool or the sole performance method in a venue that doesn’t require choreography.

If you can’t improvise, are you truly a dancer? Can a piano player play without sheet music? Can a writer write without instructions? Can a painter paint without directions? Can a sculptor sculpt without a teacher telling him what to do in advance?

What I am trying to say is that art requires some sort of skill development. That skill is both technical and logical. If all you are teaching is choreography, it’s like telling a story and then instructing your students to give it back to you. It does build some skill, but not enough to teach the student how to write independently. If the student can’t write independently, is he truly a writer?

In order to dance improvisationally with skill (because some people can do this spontaneously, but without any skill whatsoever), you have to know how to think and feel. I don’t believe choreography is the best way to teach either of those things, nor does it develop confidence in the ability to be spontaneous, feel, or explore.

Choreography is almost a no-fail way of teaching. Students have to have the room to fail in order to learn to succeed. By learning what doesn’t work, you learn what does. If all you have is choreography, you may have something that works, but you don’t know why, so you can’t really do it again reliably. And what happens when something goes wrong with the choreography? How do you recover?

One of my favorite belly dance stories is about Nagwa Fuad. I heard that she was in the middle of a show when something happened and she lost sound. (Not sure how that could happen with a live band, but anyway…) Being a trooper and believing that the show must go on, the drummer picked up where the band left off. He and she did the first ever live drum solo and it’s been emulated ever since. That moment in history (assuming it really is history) could never have happened had either of them been sheet music reading, choreography dancing performers.

Improv is a necessary skill if you want to be a good dancer. Use choreography when it is required and improv when the venue best suits that. Both will be enhanced if you are good at both.