I have been looking at this deck of dance cards on-line for awhile now and hadn't bought them yet.
They can be found on her site at http://www.princessfarhana.com/shop.htm
Recently in an Intermediate 1 Class we played with these cards in class and it was very interesting! We picked a couple of cards that would be the moves that we would work on and we picked a card that would be our emotion. My first card for emotion was nervousness and my movements were upward eight, hip lock up and shimmies. We also layered emotion with veil work which was also an interesting exploration. We first did the movements to the music to discover the flow of the moves that suited us and the music best. Then we layered the movements with the energy of the emotion from the card we picked. At first I was unsure of how I would dance nervousness without it being a mime like activity or a mime dancing in a musical! I totally did not want it to be hammy! But as the music was playing the intention of using the emotion blended with the energy of the music and I could see how my dancing transformed.
I found that the holding of the intention of nervousness actually made for a powerful dance even in just a few simple movements. The nervous energy created a pulled in effect which felt like it was wanting to over flow the entire time I was dancing all while I was concentrating on containing it. This inward intention changed how my movements looked. Eventually as I danced it transformed into not being nervous because I wanted to let it go. So the story of the dance was containing oneself and limiting oneself but then setting oneself free. The nervous energy I noticed had created a lot of extra heat. The bodily feeling of this energy was like a rapid flurry of a tight tornado whirling at my center around my face and heart area. I am this descriptive because I have studied and believe in the chakras and the movement of energy. Hippie Dippie and New Age Goo but it does transform how I experience life and how I experience dance.
The next emotion was jealousy. This one I found my arms changing position. I wanted to create a bigger and more intimidating presence so I found my arms going into 2nd Position in ATS and Tribal Fusion. And my face was stone and angry with my chin coming down a little. This energy also created a lot of heat. Unlike the previous emotion it did not transform or evolve into a resolution. It simply stayed put solidly which I think is what the energy of jealousy usually is about. It does not get resolved easily and the person feeling jealous holds the emotion very strongly. They may feel vulnerable but try to create an ominous presence to intimidate a person into not doing something that has hurt them. Also my hip movements became stronger, bigger, sharper, crisper. I saw my hip shimmy transform into the way I had been trying to get it to go for awhile! So, I was astonished! Which is amazing because most people describe the hip shimmy as being relaxed and taking less effort. But in this case I captured the movement by trying to express determined action with the turbulent emotion of jealousy. I also bent my knees more rather than standing taller which also makes sense. Someone else might have stood taller to create a larger presence. But in my experience when I am jealous I work to ground and earth myself. More hippie dippie language I know. It's just the best way to describe it!
The other card I drew for emotion was bewildered. I was like, " How the hell do I dance bewildered? " Again the whole image of doing a sappy dance with mime like facial features and body gestures came into my mind! I tried to dance it, mostly feeling bewildered of how to dance bewildered. This was the emotion done with veil. I think the effect it created in the dance was that I was searching, searching, searching. But like in life, I don't like to be bewildered. I like to come to conclusions as soon as possible and to let go of the feeling of being bewildered. If it's something I absolutely can't understand or figure out or accept I let it go and move on. In my dancing I quickly decided to set myself free from being bewildered which then made my dance free and exploring, present, liberated. Again this was another interesting evolution of plot within the dance. I love stories and plot and am always captivated by seeing a character grow and change by change of environment or outside events.
As dancers and as humans we need to be "Round Characters" and "Dynamic Characters." I'm talking about a few kinds of characters that writers work into the plot of their stories. Without them the story would not move forward and because the story would fall flat we as the readers would simply stop reading. And just as it's hard to write a well rounded plot with well rounded characters it has gotten to be more and more challenging for dancers to explore other emotions besides power, strength, joy, sensuality and sass.
Even though our culture has grown to understand emotion more and it's more in the open and accepted that we are not perfect by going to therapy and needing help, all of us tend to feel more in need of putting on a good face than ever. As a result our dancing has changed. We become focused on technique. But something I knew from the beginning when I started dancing was that if you embody the emotion while dancing the dance dances with you. The dance flows through you and speaks to you while you listen and answer back. The movements transform into something alive and juicy, not pasty, cardboard and flat exercises.
Also what I knew then that I forgot over time was that when you dance emotion you grow 80 times quicker! With the emotion suddenly there is a place and a direction for the dance to go and for you as the dancer to go. And though it is improv the dance becomes crisp, ripe and fresh. The dance might be simple but it becomes amazing in way that hours and sometimes years of obsessing over technique and tricks fall short. Situating practice completely around technique stunts dancers by years and years. With the emotion she flies light years ahead of the rest. Her body is able to incorporate more movements with more detail faster and her reflexes become refined. Why?
Because the dancer is no longer putting their body under a microscope. The dancer is no longer treating themselves like a thing to fix but instead is being a living, breathing human being who dances. The dancer is being a human being that has a wide variety of emotions that range from the most vulnerable to the most powerful. We try so hard to run as far as we can and distance ourselves from the animal kingdom and embodying the full spectrum of our emotions is the expression of our roots as animals. We don't like to remind ourselves or each other that we are animals rather than that we are people falling short of the "neon god" that we've made. The neon god that is so-called perfect. All technology breaks all the time, it never lasts and becomes obsolete pretty quickly. But everyday we strive more and more to be so called perfect machines. Robots with a few of the best traits that we humans see as being palatable. Our bodies have wisdom yet we tend to always believe that our bodies do not. That our bodies need to be controlled, disciplined and set to right because our bodies are so messy and seem to have no logic or reasoning. But to those who listen closely or have studied any of the healing arts understand just how wise our bodies are to ensure our survival. We look at all our bodies do wrong rather than what our bodies do right.
What we often fail to realize is that the more we distance ourselves from our roots which are not airbrushed but is instead caked with earth, is that the more we distance from those roots the more fractured our culture will be. It is the root of the breakdown of families, communities, groups, spirituality, educational and hospital institutions. I'm not saying that there is nothing right in the world or that there was a time where everything was the way it could/should be. I'm saying that in our evolution we are dropping our emotions and feel more of a need to put on a show and face because all of us are so public now that we are on-line. My reach to the rest of the world changed after I discovered chat rooms in 1997. And it changed again when Tribe, Facebook and Youtube came along. These things have been very good.
But at the same time we struggle between accepting our emotion and understanding them in a holistic way and having the basic human need of privacy. As dancers or any kind of artist which is used to putting their souls out there for everyone to see we have an unspoken need that gets translated into our dance. The natural and human need for privacy. At the same time we want to only express to the world through art what the rest of the world says is worth something. It's safe and being out there alllll the time feels very unsafe indeed! Before the net artists of every kind could more easily put up their walls enough to get to work in their studio. Some are still able to do that today. But I think most dancers and artists are more hyper aware than they ever were because of the internet and what it means to be on it everyday.
In this way a lot of art, music and dance has lost it's magical edge. The edge that cuts through all of the bullshit and reminds people of something within themselves they had forgotten. The part that's human because most of the time they are forever trying to mold themselves into something rather than just be. We still get artists, dancers, musicians and writers that have allowed themselves to be open to the creative void and to allow inspiration to pour forth from it and through them into whatever medium they use to translate that message.
These pieces are jewels and even though we are all so busy with technique and perfection, being what we "should" be part of us wakes up when an artist taps us on the shoulder. Whether it's the dancer who has claimed and held onto her soul who expresses the spectrum of emotion in her dance or a painter that did every motion with awareness as they laid paint or other objects to the canvas in a kind of yogic dance deep down we know how sacred and valuable it is and how much we need it. Not just from outside but from ourselves.
So, what's the solution? How do we change our practice? How do we stop obsessing over technique when it has become almost a compulsive addiction? How can teachers get this important message across to their students? That they can really dance right now, not when they have perfected more and more techniques and tricks to be "amazing. That we can stop criticizing and practicing compulsively to silence the self hate and criticism. The more we allow ourselves to dance with emotion the more our confidence will grow.
Mine did after this experience. For years I had tried to re-capture an ability and a feeling I had earlier on. I have actually felt I was a better dancer then even though since then I have learned so many techniques and styles of dance. I know so much more than I knew then but over time came to trust myself less. I lost my ability to trust in myself to teach myself to dance. In the beginning I had that I think from my first teacher and from not being exposed to the greater culture of belly dance that grew and changed since 2002. And now that I remember this very important part of the dance in a way that's more than intellectual I'm different. I feel and think differently not just about dance but about myself and my body. And that is very powerful.
This is why you should get these cards and incorporate them into your home practice and or your dance class plan for your students. Without emotion we become lost as artists. Without a structured frame work to hold that emotion we run away. Without a structure we also push and push to get past our horrible beginner ways rather than exploring the sacred within the simple and the basic. With these cards, it provides all of these things. It can also remind us again and again that being a beginner is a wonderful thing and shouldn't be something to be ashamed of.
Yet a lot of us are all the time. But the best students and teachers fully embrace being a continuous beginner. Not just a continuous learner but a continuous beginner. We are always beginning new in the next second and moment fresh. Students and Teachers that are continuous beginners are humble, alert, patient, thorough, and responsible which is wonderful for everybody! This means less division and stronger communities and so much more!
I challenge you to be a continuous beginner in all things, acknowledge your strengths, cradle your weakness, embody the full spectrum of your emotions in your art and in your dance and in your life. I also encourage you to give yourself the proper amount of privacy that you need so that you can feel comfortable being fully present in your art and comfortable with putting it out there.
Children of the Earth
Do What You Need
Blessed Be
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