Being Together in Dance

If you are in a group number you need to be able to coordinate your moves with others when on the stage. Here is how to master the art of matching your movements to other dancers. Do not try to stand out from the other dancers. By matching other dancers in movements, style timing, and energy is an equally challenging skill that after practicing at home needs a tune-up. You have to commit from being a soloist to immersing yourself in the group and retaining your individuality. Following are ways to become a better team player and create powerful group performances.

Watch Each Other:

Observing each other helps dancers approach choreography and can help you observe the movement style of others. Take videos at the end of class or at rehearsals then dancers can each study and analyze whether they are dancing as a unit. Also, watch other dancers in class when you are not dancing. Watch as they go across the floor or in the center. Find something you admire and try it yourself.

Refine Your Focus:

You have to have an inner-outer focus by staying aware of your fellow dancers when you perform. You have to practice this inner focus. It helps you to feel what is going on beside and behind you as you see peripherally. As you are looking out, you are also looking in. It is a sophisticated way of focusing. This starts by using the mirror wisely in class and rehearsals. Avoid staring at yourself instead scan the room as you dance.

Master Musicality:

Timing is a must when dancing in a group. Count the music as soon as you get it. If the rhythm is unfamiliar, listen to it while standing still and picture yourself doing the choreography to it or count and clap the rhythm exactly the way the music sounds. Make sure you understand where the beat is. Focus on knowing the music backward and forward before you start to dance to it. Once you know what you are doing and everyone else does too then you will all be together

Breathe Outloud:

The breath is what keeps people together. When beginning a new piece breathe out loud. Once you know the piece (meaning everyone in the piece), then you breathe silently. This helps to keep the dynamics of the piece as one. If all dancers are breathing rhythmically and naturally then they are cohesive. If breathing shallowly it is not sharing with each other. You will not connect.

Connect Backstage:

Just like doing partner work, you have to connect. Squeeze the hands of the hands of the others. etc This allows energy to pass from one to another. This really helps! Be sure to train each dancer on how to move from the wings to the stage and how to leave the stage. This is important, especially in new surroundings This makes sure all performers arrive musically on stage.

Morwenna Assaf, Artistic Director

Art/Dance Academy, Cedar Productions, Tales1001

Walid Assaf, Music Drector,

Art/Dance Academy, Cedar Productions

Get An Uplifting Light Quality in Dance

How to achieve that enchanting quality of lightness.

This is a quality we all need to work on all the time. So how do you acquire that appearance? Lightness is an elusive quality that makes a dancer seem to float across the floor. As with all dance, these things take an enormous amount of work behind the scenes. Then it looks effortless on stage. Whether you are striving for that fast on your feet look or lightness in your arms, here are some tips to help you.

Contrast: – Contrast gives the illusion of lightness versus heaviness. You have to go back and forth between heavy & light. This is what the two are, both visible elements. The key to this is being grounded. You have to push from the floor. This gives you the easiness to lift. Once you have found oppositional energy, which comes from the legs, the core, the back, then you can lift up and move into lightness. If you are already lifted it is hard to go higher. How do you achieve this? Learn how to plie properly Strengthen those legs! The bottom half of the body is more rhythmical.

Raks el Anwar

Strong, Light Arms: – The upper body is more melody. Arm placement, holding the carriage correctly with endurance not, compensating gives you better strength and control. This will make your arms and hands lighter. Will also aid in shoulder stability. Hold your arms up with ease. Soften the elbow as you exhale. Never let it hang on the bottom. The arm is held shoulder down, elbow next facing back wall and lower than shoulders. then hands float down from there. The elbow leads the port de bras. This achieves a look of synchronicity with the body rather than the arms looking separate from the body. Or, moving on their own.

Learning to Float: – Coordinate the breath with what you are doing. Hold your breath a moment at the top of the move and then exhale when finishing. Have a clear picture of the picture you want to create. Then take a little breath at the end. Do not drop the arms down immediately. Try this with small weights, then put the weights down & try without.

Elena Lentine

Breathe Through It: – Breath control is so important to your moves. You never want clenched or stiff hands, a tense jaw, or muscles that are tense. Gripping muscles is a sign of core weakness. A good cardiovascular system and strong core go hand in hand. Practice breathing! Having a better use of breath & pressure (plie) management gives a better sense of ease and lightness.

When dancers use their breath onstage you can feel the energy and dance with them.

Morwenna Assaf
Dance Director of Art/Dance Academy
New Market, TN

760-715-2276

Morwenna Assaf

Autumn Dance Season is Here

Life IS Movement

SUMMER 2021 Art/Dance Academy

Hand Artistry

This article has come about after having a week where I realize that hands and arms come last, maybe but are so important to the total dancer. Without artistry in this area then all you do is lost. Be a complete dancer from head to toe. Not easy you say or do! I agree but an area to work on just like all else. If you are not ready yet, I beg you to save this piece and come back to it later in tour training.. It is so important. Without the finishing touch all else is wasted.
Lucia of SD.

Start making your hands with intention and artistry. Think of your hands as part of the whole in dance. Your fingers get energy from the body. The gestures do not stand alone. Think of the palms as the end of the arms. Bear weight mindfully and think of your hands as you do your feet. Hands are designed for articulation, gesture and agility. Feet are designed for stability, grounding and balance. Remain strong in your core and distribute your weight throughout your body. The alignment of hands, elbows and shoulders should be thought of the same way you think of ankles, knees and hips.
Morwenna Assaf at Continental Restaurant, Assonet, MA

Think of your middle finger as a central axis and rotate the hand around it. In classical dance including Arabic dance imagine the hands starting in the forearms. If you do not you will break in the wrist and drop the elbow. Avoid dropping at the wrist. Take care of your hands and pay attention to them. Be patient with the process. Your hands speak volumes. A muddled gesture could completely distort the affect of a movement. Stay diligent about the shape and the movements of the hands and their position in relationship to the rest of your body.
Morwenna Assaf in Boston.

Flexibility does not enter the equation when thinking hands and writs. The wrist is not as flexible as the ankle. Wrist joints have a limited set of movements. Basically they are flexion and extension. Twisting the wrist happens in the forearm. Do not try to over stretch your fingers or wrists. If you over mobilize you can cause deterioration in the ability of the wrists. Rotate your wrists on an axis to maintain a clean, elongated line during port-de-bras as you move from one position to another.
Rlena Lentine NYC

Practice more times than you feel is necessary until you feel it is second nature. Use emotion to fully bring your hand gestures to life. Use imagery to help you. Paint lines with the bones. Use props like fans, canes scarves etc. Do not shy away from simplicity and repetition.
Morwenna & Walid Assaf, Beirut Lebanon

Morwenna Assaf, Choreographer, Dance Educator, and Artistic Director of Art/Dance Academy and Cedar Productions

Morwenna Assaf, author of dance books at Tales 1001
Walid Assaf, Musical Director and educator of rhythm and music at Art/Dance Academy

Walid Assaf, Musical Director and Producer of Cedar Productions

SPRING 2021 Art/Dance Academy

Virtual/Digital Shows! – Make Yourself Stand Out

Covid -19 has made us all look for other ways to share our talents. Have to admit I am not a technician and this stuff scares the daylights out of me. I was using Zoom etc. when nobody had heard of it to keep in touch with my students far and wide. I now have a lot to learn. I envy those you have come to terms with the situation. I only ever used it for coaching. I remember my my first class on Zoom. I learned a lot.

This article though is for those who are performing in shows produced on Zoom or Skype etc. I cannot sit through one more. The people running the shows do the best they can. Most do well. It is the dancers that I worry about. All get a great introduction. After that it is all over. Most just dance to one person the camera. No, no there is not one person there. Why aren’t Arabic style dancers taught more in their choreography classes than just steps? I was taught that things done face on were flat. Have no depth whatsoever!. Facing the side has no personality. Use you angles!!!

I think most of the problem is focus. No one knows where to look. Going across the floor means just that. Have energy, unique presence and dynamics. This is called “See and Be Seen”! Focus on really performing the movement. You have to have direction on your look. It demands that you imagine an audience and show them where to look. Do not focus on your self in the camera, really be aware of where you are focusing your eyes. Sustaining warm, friendly eye contact when ever appropriate also lets the audience know your personality. You need to be present and focused. Easy to forget in a virtual realm. Be yourself and and feel you are being seen all around you. Carry yourself accordingly. This is not just your imagination at work.

You are not performing to an empty house. You have to have stage presence. Pretend you are on stage. Envision communicating to a person. Tap into that feeling of performing for others. Have a confident presence. Learn the nuances of your choreography or improvisation not just steps and moves. Really hone in to what is really being offered, it is more than just reproducing a movement or series of moves. Know the phrases of the music. Take ownership of the material and show you understand the musicality. When using improvisation, feel free embrace and respond to the music. Be an artist!

While two dimensional representation onscreen cannot fully show the richness and complexity of your dancing like in person, getting your dynamics can give a more accurate idea of who you are as a performer. The screen flattens us out and we are not fed by the energy in the theater or restaurant. So, it is even more important and imperative to compensate by being highly articulate and dynamic in your movements. Hit a movement a little harder. It turns the volume up in subtlety and nuance. Make the movement clear rhythmically, feel your connection to the music.

Practice is a great idea. Let go of imperfections or technological mishaps as quickly as possible. Keep dancing full out at least as much as you can in your limited space.

For anyone who really has no idea what I am saying, give us a call and schedule a coaching session. We can do this, it is really commonsense. But if you do not know we can help you.

Morwenna Assaf Educator an Choreographer
Arabic Style Dance & Movement
ArabiDanseAcademie@sbcglobal.net
https://ArtDanceAcademy.webs.com

Walid Assaf, Rhythm Master & Musical Director
760-715-2276

SPRING 2021 Art/Dance Academy

Egyptian (REDA ) WORKSHOP