This was the week where I gave up on the idea of doing DO every day, since I missed so many days already. But it’s also the week where I decided to start the Shimmy Mania! program. I made this decision at 2pm in the afternoon after an hour-long Skype lesson, when realistically I should have been hopping into a shower or pouring myself a cold drink.
Shimmy Mania! is 3 days a week for 4 weeks and much like its predecessor Shimmy Power Up, it features a collection of lessons that have a warm-up, a couple different shimmies, and then a cool down. This first week ranged from 30something minutes to 50something minutes, so each one was a decent amount of practice but not as hard to squeeze in as some of the 1.5-2 hour workshops on the site. Week 1 has been knee-driven shimmies (often called Egyptian shimmies) and some 3/4 variations. Teachers have included Rachel Brice, Ashley Lopez, Sedona Soulfire and Tamalyn Dallal, so basically all of my DO favorites (not to say that the other DO teachers aren’t great, but I’m especially fond of those 4).
This program is working out really well for me so far because I’ve actually been needing to work on my knee shimmies and 3/4 shimmies. I get a lot more practice out of doing a video with a teacher telling me what to do than I do drilling on my own, where I’m prone to get bored and work on something else. Plus I enjoy seeing each teacher’s approach to different shimmy styles and what they like to layer over them. It definitely helps me break out of my usual arm patterns and layering combinations.
Since there’s only today and tomorrow left in June, I’ll go ahead and use this post to share my final thoughts on this challenge, too. I feel like I didn’t make as good of us of my DO subscription as I had planned to this month. Instead of checking out some of the exciting newish long videos, I stuck mostly to short yoga and zill practice videos. My good intentions were not enough to overcome the fact that it’s been incredibly hot this month. That said, I definitely feel like the zill videos are really helping me to get ready for Cultivation, so it was good that I discovered them through this challenge.
I missed a couple of days again this week — In my defense, one of those days was due to having to take the dog to the Vet ER because she stepped on a wasp! She’s fine now, but that ate up my practice time that evening.
On the days that I did hit DO, I rotated through a collection of zill practice videos by Colette Todorov. I need to work on my zill skills for Cultivation, and Colette’s videos make it really easy because they’re all under 10 minutes long. On a busy day it’s nice to just put on my zills, play for around 8 minutes, and be done. In fact, because there’s no dancing, just playing finger cymbals, I don’t even need to be wearing workout clothes, and I don’t need to warm up or cool down.
Each spotlight video covers three zill patterns, starting with triplets/Longa and then exploring some combination of 337, 31313, 355 and alternating. After breaking down each pattern individually, Colette leads you through a repeating combination so you can drill them all one after another.
If you’re of the opinion that you should never stand still while playing your zills, you may not like these videos, as that’s just what you do here. But then again, you can easily walk around the room or do an Arabic or some other simple movement while following Colette’s zill instructions if you prefer.
I’m going to continue to make these videos part of my regular rotation, as they’re an easy way to make sure I practice zills daily no matter what else I’m practicing.
I didn’t do very good on my challenge this week. Due to a combination of laziness and laptop problems, I only used Datura Online 4 out of 7 days. Of those days, two days were yoga practices, one was jamming along with my favorite zill video, and one was ATS(R) Fast 1, which is a highlight from one of Colette Todorov’s American Tribal Style (R) lessons.
I’m working on my ATS basics for reasons which I will get into sometime in the future, so having these Datura Online videos available is very helpful, since my other options would be to buy the DVDs or drive about 3-4 hours round trip for classes in Phoenix. This video covers the Arabic, Shimmy, Egyptian and Choo-Choo, starting with the footwork and then adding the arm movements and discussing how the arms serve as the cue. After you learn and drill these four foundational moves, you get a brief explanation of zills, a quick talk-through of playing the triplet, and then you get to drill the moves again with zills. Colette Todorov teaches the class with two of her students (troupe members?) to help demonstrate, which gives the feeling of being in an intimate class.
I like the fact that this video comes pretty close to giving you an authentic ATS experience, as you get to follow the teacher as she cues between the different moves after you’ve drilled them individually. I also like that the zills are included in the video, as I was looking to practice my ATS -and- my zills, so I got to do both in one lesson. The other dancers in the video seem to know what they’re doing as well, so they don’t distract you from the teacher or throw off your attempts to follow along.
What I don’t like is that I don’t feel the moves were broken down very well. Egyptian arms especially can be tricky to get right without making them too crazy, so I felt like a little more time explaining the components of the moves would benefit a newbie. I mean, me personally, I’ve been dancing tribal style for years now, I know what I’m supposed to do and am using these videos to make sure I know the proper ATS versions of moves. They’re more of a refresher/stylistic guide for me. But if I was an inexperienced dancer curious about ATS, I might feel like I needed more instruction. I suspect this video serves better as a companion for the ATS dancer looking to practice between classes than as a lesson for a dancer without access to an ATS teacher.
The first week of my Datura Online challenge is done! I used at least one DO video a day. For 6 of those days, I used only one video, and it was always a nice short yoga cool down. I rotated through a variety of cool downs instead of defaulting to my favorite Waves Practice (which I only did on the first day). But on Saturday I built myself a little hour-long Ashley Lopez class! I did a warmup, belly flutters, drill bits and a cool down. This review will focus on the Drill Bits: Twist It! video.
Twist It! is about 26 minutes of hip twist based drilling. You pretty much jump right in, and then you don’t stop until it’s done! As such, you’ll definitely want to do a little warm-up before you start, because doing that many twists with cold abs is a recipe for a cramp. I really liked the fact that this was more of a “follow along” format than a teaching format, because it allowed me to feel like I got a good practice and a good sweat in a short amount of time.
Topics covered included sharp twisting locks, twisting shimmies of various speeds, and variations on the ATS Egyptian. Layers and arm patterns add an extra challenge. I quickly found that I can do a twisting shimmy for 26 minutes, sure, but ask me to layer any sort of chest isolation on top and my muscle memory says “Silly dancer, you want a knee shimmy for this, let us help you!” Personally, I always find it both frustrating and exciting when I find something that my body doesn’t want to do (even though I know I can do all of the component parts of the layering combo!), so I will definitely be revisiting this video the next time I have 26 minutes and want to break my brain.
Because this was such a good challenge in the perfect amount of time, and because I like Ashley Lopez (she always sounds like she’s about to laugh), I’m sure I will hit the other two Drill Bit videos (Bump It! and Shake It!) before the month is done.
Shimmy Power Up is the latest program from Datura Online. Designed to be a one-week intensive, each day you have a different set of shimmy videos to check in and tune up all of your shimmies. How did I do?
Day 1: Three videos with Sedona Soulfire, with a focus on the Egyptian Shimmy (a big, loose, knee-driven shimmy). Starts with a nice long warm-up that includes a seated drill for accessing your knee shimmy. I like that she varies the speed of this drill and also has you change the position of your legs. You will probably want to sit on a cushion or yoga mat if, like me, you have a hard floor and a bony booty. After getting nice and warm, you will do an 18 minute drill of non-stop Egyptian shimmies with different layers. I managed to get through the whole thing but there were a few times where my shimmy got really fitful. I’ll definitely be returning to this segment repeatedly until I feel confident about my Egyptian shimmy. This lesson concludes with a gentle five minute cooldown stretch. This lesson is ideal for the experienced beginner or intermediate dancer, because Sedona does not really break down how to do the isolations that are layered over the shimmy, the expectation is that you already know your basics and just want to practice combining them.
Day 2: Thirty minutes of slow, relaxed shimmies with Tamalyn Dallal! I just adore her. Something about her voice makes me feel calm. She just seems so relaxed and down to earth when she teaches. I want her to adopt me and be my cool belly dance aunt. This class goes over relaxed, knee-driven shimmies and spends a lot of time exploring how to pass them from leg to leg and how they’re different with bent and straight knees, then goes over how to layer them on slow moves, for a juicy qanoon shimmy or something like that. Then you get a nice 7 minute relaxing cool-down with Sedona. This class challenged me because I don’t normally do my shimmies this way and I rarely do one-leg shimmies, but the pace was relaxed enough that I didn’t break a sweat.
Day 3: This one is all about 3/4 shimmies with Ashley Lopez. First there’s a warm-up that focuses on accessing your obliques for shimmies. Soft shimmies, and oblique locks, ups and downs, and calf raises and walking and more. This leads into 20 minutes of walking 3/4 shimmies… In this case, a 3-beat shimmy per step, rather than a shimmy that holds on the 4th count. I had some trouble with this one. First, my legs were sore and tired from the past 2 days (I did ballet class on Day 2, so there was a lot of releve and other leg stuff), so I felt like I was not really doing my best. Plus there’s a foot pattern that involves traveling forward for 8, to the right for 8, back for 8, and to the left for 8. I have a pretty small dance space so I had to take wussy small steps and/or step in place for some of it. I probably won’t be returning to that video, but I may return to the warm-up when I want to work on oblique shimmies. This wraps up with a nice 5 minute cool-down that focuses on the legs and back.
Day 4: Back to Sedona! This starts with my new favorite warm-up, vibration shimmies with an arm workout layered on top. You’ll need small handweights or a couple cans of soup for it! I am definitely going to be using this one when the weather gets cold and I really need to get warm. After that, there’s more shimmying with some layers. Then a cute combo which uses the 3/4 shimmy and little knee-shimmy accents. Then a nice relaxing cool down. I really enjoyed this one even though I was sore and tired from doing DJ Dance Cardio the previous day.
Day 5: This one starts with a short but difficult warm-up with Ashley Lopez. Well, difficult for me. My hips don’t like doing leg lifts out to the side! But there’s some good balance work in here so give it a look. After that, you learn a combination from Sedona which uses 4 different shimmies: a waggle, an Egyptian, a choo-choo and a Turkish shimmy. There’s layers and traveling and other moves thrown in, so it’s really dynamic and fun. I found myself really getting into it and dancing it like I was performing it. If you want to do a quick check-in on the status of your shimmies, this video is a good way to do it. This practice ends with a cool-down specifically designed for recovering from a shimmy workout, also lead by Sedona.
Day 6: This is a really short one! You start with Rachel Brice’s Shimmy Drill Warm-Up, which is one of my favorite warm-up videos on DO. It’s based on Rachel’s warm-up from when she was on tour, so it’s designed to get you warmed up fast in a small space… perfect for my living room! This is followed by another fun combo from Sedona, with a few different shimmies and some traveling. There’s a lot of shoulder shimmies in this one. Even by the end of the video I found I was still getting some of the transitions wrong, but otherwise I had a good time. This session ends with the same cool from day 3, which I forgot to write about. It’s a good leg and back focused on with Ashley Lopez.
Day 7: Another shortie, maybe the shortest? Starts out with a good warm-up by Ashley Lopez. Although it has more side leg lifts like in Day 5, they were an easier variation. Also there’s a nice shimmy section with arms and floreos, which I think is a good way to get warm. Then you learn one more shimmy combo from Sedona. Like yesterday, I still didn’t “get” the combo by the end, though I was close. Sedona ends the lesson with a cool down, I think it’s the same one from Day 4. All in all, a pretty quick and well-rounded practice.
Closing thoughts: I think this is a nice and very do-able series of classes for the experienced beginner or intermediate level dancer. There’s a good assortment of warm-ups, a great variety of shimmies combined with different layers and foot patterns, and some gentle cool-downs. Because the videos are pretty short you could easily round out your daily practice with more DO videos or whatever else you want to work on, but if you’re short on time you’ll get a complete practice for your day. It’s also good if you’re new to DO and want to get a feel for several of the teachers before deciding what to do next. This program helped me discover a new favorite warm-up and gave me an idea of what shimmies I should be drilling more often. Definitely worth the time I put into it!
After almost two weeks of being sick, then a few days of focusing on cleaning the house for company, and a long weekend of entertaining said company, I was really feeling like my dance had been neglected lately. I could see it in my performances and feel it at troupe practice. I’m out of shape and my movements are not very crisp. So it’s time to get back to work!
One thing I’m doing is the Shimmy Power-Up program over at Datura Online. One week of shimmy classes every day! This seems like the quickest way to rebuild my stamina for some longer classes, as well as checking in on my various shimmies to see which ones I want to work harder on.
I did the first lesson today and I enjoyed myself, although I also kept having coughing fits, which is not a good sign. Come on body, kick the last of that sickness! Next Monday I’ll post a recap of the whole shimmy experience.
In addition to that, I have plans to go to the studio tomorrow, Wednesday and Saturday for some dance classes. Plus I want to go through my music and find at least one new song to work on a solo to, as I feel like I’ve been hitting the same songs over and over again and it’s time for something fresh.
Plus, of course, I’ll have to decide which makeup to test for Friday’s beauty blog.
Yesterday I was in the mood to do some Datura Online, but I also had a lot of my own stuff to practice so I didn’t want to dedicate 2 hours to diving back in to Raq Steady. I decided this was a perfect time to try the new Intermediate Tribal Fusion class from Ashley Lopez. I’m happy to say, it was just what I needed!
This 50 minute video is structured just like a normal bellydance class — it starts with a nice little warm-up, goes through a series of moves and layers by breaking them down and drilling them, includes some turns and traveling moves, and ends with a short cool-down. If you’re starting out cold you may want to warm up a little more than the video does, and you may want to do some extra stretches to target your own problem areas afterwards, but in general it’s nicely well-contained and perfect for when you have just an hour to work.
I found that I really enjoyed having Ashley Lopez as my virtual teacher, she had a very friendly personality in the video, explained things clearly, and drilled things just enough that I had time to understand them but not time to get thoroughly bored. Because this is an intermediate-level class, there’s not a lot of time wasted on getting into the basics of a move, which was good for me.
For the most part I already knew the moves in this video, but she combined them into layers in a different way than I normally do. That’s a big part of why I say it was just what I needed. It let me take things that I could already do, and do them in new and interesting ways. I definitely have a bad habit of falling back on the same moves and layers, so it’s good to shake things up. And since I already knew the basics of what we were doing, I didn’t waste any time getting frustrated and removing layers to be able to keep up.
I think I’ll want to revisit this video a couple of times so I can get the layers into my muscle memory, and it serves as a good drills session since the pace is pretty good. I believe this is going to be a four-class series, so I’m really looking forward to the rest of them, and I may even go back and check out her beginning-level fusion classes to see if they’ll give me some new insight into my basic moves.
As a silly aside, like all Datura videos this is filmed so that you can see Ashley from behind and in the mirror, which is really helpful for seeing the move from all angles. This video also has two students following along, and you can see them in the mirror… which lead to a weird moment where my brain was like “OMG why can’t I see myself in the mirror?!?” Oh brain. You’re so easily broken!
I let my Datura Online subscription lapse back before Tribal Fest, because my credit card on file expired and I hadn’t been using the videos very often, so it made sense to let it go dormant for a bit. However, with my current focus on practicing more, more, MORE it seemed like a good idea to turn it back in and take advantage of all the great new videos.
It’s still too hot during the day for me to want to buckle down for one of the hour-plus videos, but luckily DO has a lot of shorter options, too. I decided that I’d try Henna’s “The Cairo 8” video because I’ve been wanting to learn some more Egyptian stylization, and at 16 minutes long it was just right to round out my practice after I did my solo for Saturday and some zills.
This popular move which dates back to the Golden Age of bellydance is broken down into components, then put together, then drilled at slow and fast speeds, and is done on the right and the left, then together. There’s also a variation with a hip drop, and Henna demonstrates how a couple of Golden Age dancers did it and explains what sort of music you’ll often see it used with. I was able to keep up with the slow drills, but I’m definitely going to have to revisit the video several times until I can do it up to speed!
I like having a short video that focuses on a single move. It’s a good way to be able to really drill something specific, learn it inside and out, and build it into your muscle memory. Plus when it’s less than 20 minutes, it’s really easy to work it into your day between other things and get a little targeted dance practice.
I was finally able to make use of my Datura Online subscription tonight! The whole thing was a bit of an ordeal. It turns out that there’s something about the way they do the videos that means that I can’t play them using the internet or video sharing options on the new TV, they only work if we use an HDMI cord to plug the TV into a computer, turning it into a giant monitor. So that’s something to keep in mind if you’re shopping for a new TV with the idea of using DO: Don’t buy an LG Smart TV.
Unfortunately at the moment the only computer free to be plugged into the TV is Chris’s old laptop, which is pretty much on its very last legs. I keep having trouble with it freezing, or taking forever to load the videos. It’s hard to say when slowness is a problem with the site and when it is a problem with the stupid computer. I will probably invest in a new laptop sometime in the coming year, but right now I’m hoping to nurse this one along.
But anyway, enough about my technical problems… How is Datura Online? I have to admit that I was so annoyed about the crashing laptop that I almost gave up on dancing, but instead I loaded up a shimmy drill warm-up with Rachel Brice, and I started smiling almost immediately. I mean, when one of your favorite dancers is guiding you through a little yoga to warm up your back, how can you not feel better? I really enjoyed this video, as it did get me warmed up quickly and was an easy enough sequence that I feel like if I use it regularly, I’ll be able to memorize it and make use of it backstage before gigs, which is what she originally developed it for. I like the fact that it involves a minimum of traveling steps, making it easy to do in a tight spot like my living room or the hallway next to the bathrooms (aka what counts for backstage at most restaurant gigs).
After that I decided to try the Slovenia Slam scale combo, also by Rachel Brice. I enjoyed the scales when we did them in her workshops last year, and I like that it’s another quick 10 minute video. These scales are great drills to add to your daily practice to work on basic isolations — they’re based on the concept of the scales that musicians drill over and over again when learning to play. This one has a lot of chest isolations, including a chest circle to the back which kept throwing me off, I am too used to going to the front first! I think I’ll do that scale every day until going to the back feels natural.
I like the idea of DO because it’s flexible to what sort of practice I want to do. Tonight I wanted to warm up quickly and drill. Maybe tomorrow I will feel more like an hour-long class. Or I might decide to give the Unmata ITS language a try, since that’s gaining popularity in Tucson.
One of the main reasons why I subscribed were the conditioning videos. I know that I need to work on my strength and flexibility, but without an actual routine to follow, I tend to slack off. I feel like with workout and yoga videos at my fingertips, I will be able to make sure I’m doing enough reps, holding long enough, and have a visual representation of what I’m supposed to be doing instead of what I think I remember from class. DO will make it easy to mix and match the routines that work well for me, throwing in some drills and cool-downs, instead of having to switch back and forth between my various DVDs and YouTube videos.
I’ll be sure to post about the other videos that I try as I work to keep myself busy until classes and troupe practice return!
I really hate the end of the year. It makes me impatient. Dance classes and troupe rehearsals are invariably canceled due to holidays, but it’s hard to get any really good practice in at home in between parties and last-minute shopping and cleaning and being cold.
Then there’s the fact that my in-box is full to bursting with an endless array of “year-end sale” e-mails. This might be awesome, except 1: I’m saving up for Tribal Fest, and 2: My family exchanges gifts on New Years Day, so I can’t buy anything for myself that I previously offered up as a gift hint. Woe is me! And of course, I am impatient to get to the gift exchange, because I want to give everyone their presents, and yes, I would like to GET some gifts, too, I will admit it.
But there have been a couple of bright spots this week…
1. Datura Online finally works on my TV (sort of, in that we had to hook up a laptop and treat the TV like a monitor) so tomorrow I can start making use of that to improve my home practices.
2. I’ve been able to hang out with my friend Jen while she’s down here visiting her in-laws.
3. Today we went shopping on 4th Ave and bought GLITTER because we are dancers and that is what we do.
4. When classes start back up it will be in the new studio and it will be warm and wonderful and I think we’ll have new troupe members, too.
5. I have so. many. gigs. to look forward to in January and February, which is inspiring me to practice.
Hopefully next week I can stay a little more focused and maybe work on writing more blog posts. I have a few things I want to start doing with this blog — more vendor features, some in-progress posts of costuming (I photographed almost every step of making my latest bra), and makeup reviews. Plus I need to do a year-end review and set some goals for 2013. I just have to wait for this year to end first.
After almost two weeks of being sick, then a few days of focusing on cleaning the house for company, and a long weekend of entertaining said company, I was really feeling like my dance had been neglected lately. I could see it in my performances and feel it at troupe practice. I’m out of shape and my movements are not very crisp. So it’s time to get back to work!
