At the moment I am innovating a new style of belly dance, my own Tribal Gypsy belly dance style, a fast energetic style heavily influenced by my first love, which is African Dance. Please note that I am not in any way saying that what I do is "traditional or Authentic" Gypsy dancing. The word "Gypsy" to most people conveys a romantic feeling that is very intoxicating and powerful. The fact that this may have little to do with ethnological reality does not diminish the uplifting qualities that this term can bring.
So I use the term
"Gypsy" in a purely romantic sense and my dance conveys the collective
projections that people as a whole tend to do with anything associated with
"Gypsies." Using the whole body, instead of "isolation" using "whiplash" in order to get a greater degree of natural movement and utilising the tremendous potential ability of the spine and hip area to power the dance.
My partner has looked at my dance and here is his analysis using mechanical terms that I don't understand. But an outside perspective is very valuable.
Watching animals move is
fascinating! With such ease and grace. Why is it so fascinating to watch
them? Like waves on a shore or other natural phenomena there does seem to be a
universal consensus. Zehara's dance is the closest I have seen to natural
movement. I have made a close study and to my surprise it is astonishing to what
an extent the dance follows the 4 rules of dynamic motion outlined below. This
will enable us to study the dance and create a coherent movement vocabulary
based on sound principles. These are early days yet so at this stage I have
simply outlined the technical side of it without explaining it in everyday
terms. I will add this as we develop the new Dance Vocabulary.
1 - Minimise centre of gravity movement -- extensive use of counterbalance moves
2 - Maintenance of Kinetic energy in direction changes
3 - Gyroscopic action for stability
4 - no agonist/antogonist isotonic muscle action
Other features
- Highly developed Hip movement under variable load bearing conditions
Egyptian is more based on "Isolation" and "Layering."
Comparisons between Egyptian and Zehara's Urban Gypsy belly dance
<<< - UG style >>>
1 - Mostly traveling through space - counterbalance used extensively
2 - Strong direction changes with mostly hip twists to maintain Kinetic Energy
3 - Moves linked in with travels extensively
4 - Little or no layering
5 - No agonist/antagonist isometric muscle action
6 - Large bold "whole body moves
7 - Following dynamic principles for minimum expenditure of energy
8 - All belly muscle action orientated towards body movement
<<< - Egyptian Style >>>
1 - Less overall movement through space - more static work little or no counterbalance work
2 - Directions changes far softer and gradual
3 - Moves done fairly independently of travels
4 - Extensive layering within the abdomen area
5 - Extensive agonist/antagonist isometric muscle action leading to fine control of small movements
6 - Moves concentrating within the abdomen region and smaller but more complex
7 - Often opposing dynamic principles for individual expression
8 - Moves such as ripples and belly waves that don't contribute towards overall
body movement
How did Zehara develop this style?
Love of African Dance. Ever since Zehara was little she loved
African dance and has attended workshops and classes on African Dance on an
ongoing basis as a way of life, starting long before she did dancing full time
as a living. Even now in her packed schedule she will take her one night
off per week and enjoy going to an African dance class in Manchester on a
Tuesday night. Some 11 years ago her favourite African Dance class ceased for a
short while and she went to a belly dance class. Very soon after she started
working in a restaurant as a belly dancer. The need was there to develop the
belly dance side so she went on various workshops on Belly Dance by the usual
top people as and when they came to England.
The African Dance as a basis gave that "whole body" and energetic and natural basis to her dancing. The other factor is her ability to sensitively "reflect" the music. Every dancer will have a strong point somewhere and Zehara's is her ability to mimic or reflect through body movement very faithfully even the finest nuances of the music to the extent that if you saw just the dancing without the music, you could virtually "hear the music." This means that her style is not particularly "self expressive"
After about 3 years at the restaurant - other work started coming in very rapidly so that she was able to give up her "day job" so as to speak and for the next 8 years roughly has sustained herself and me on her dance engagements. This has meant many engagements - well over 2,000 professional (ie with fees at Equity rates or higher) engagements. Large proportion of these were her own "theme night specialties" where she would do at least 3, 1/2 hour dance spots and I would provide a disco at the end (where she would also join in!) A few years later she started teaching and the classes had the same flavour as well, bouncy, energetic and based very much on constant movement. So that is a hell of a lot of dancing! With her ability to "reflect" music has meant that constantly having new music and such a vast number of engagement has meant that the dance is constantly "fed" so as to speak with new influences which come via the music. A vibrant and energetic carnival atmosphere is what worked best in mainstream public situations so by sheer evolution a unique dance form has emerged that enables maximum movement for minimum energy expenditure to emerge. This is the underlying principle behind the movement of all living things - evolution has dictated that any movement must expend the minimum amount of energy
--------- Overall Impression of the Urban Gypsy Style -------------
Very natural and exuberant, powerful and extrovert - the new Contemporary Belly
Dance for the 21st Century!
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