A great post from Lateral Action:
http://lateralaction.com/articles/creativity-unconscious/

"Whenever you set out to do something extraordinary, there comes a point where... you have to choose between trying to control everything – or letting go and getting carried away by something bigger and more powerful than yourself."

It reminds me of a similar message from Elisabeth Gilbert in her TEDTalk, which I adore so. Head over to see a man about a horse, and possibly enjoy the same "hell yeah" I experienced when reading it. ;)

A fellow dancer and student, Meissa, posted this on the Shira.net tribe earlier this year:

"I have been told "you can bellydance to anything you want" more times than I can count True, but, I also crashed and burned so very hard on my last solo of 2009 (which was a total trainwreck and a huge pain to watch-I can't believe I subjected people to THAT kind of self-indulgence), and preparing my first solo of 2010, cause I didn't learn from my 2009 mistake. I was so hellbent on dancing to that obscure music no one had danced to before, and putting on that pretty costume that no one else had, that I forgot what I really wanted to do: BELLYDANCE.

I was so very proud of myself when I danced solo to a traditional piece for the first time. I forgot about all the trinketry and the jewelry and just allowed myself to open up and feel the music."

I simply adored these sentiments from Meissa!

My thoughts after the jump:



"It is interesting what Meissa said about when she dances to Middle Eastern music she experiences an "opening up" to the music. It's true that "authentic" bellydance music really does drive your dancing. I find that the movements that come into my mind and body when listening to Middle Eastern music is just different than when I dance to a driving techno beat. As it should be! The music *informs* our movement, and as A'isha is fond of saying, the "essence" of the dance.

So what happens when we feed our dance a steady diet of non-ME music? Our movement becomes less and less a reflection of that music, and it stands to reason it becomes less and less "bellydance" in nature. It doesn't mean the dancing is bad, and it doesn't mean the dancer is weak, it's just that the movement which naturally pairs with, and is supported by, Western music is very different than that which is supported by Middle Eastern music.

I just want to be clear that I totally get it that maybe M.E. music doesn't resonate with everyone. But I would argue that if you aren't at all inspired to move by M.E. music, then maybe bellydance isn't the dance you are seeking in your heart and soul. I would NEVER make that determination FOR someone else, and so am not at all saying "you're not a bellydancer!' That would be pretty presumptuous of me or anyone to try and say. But I think the question is an important one for a dance where the music is so intrinsic to the development of its aesthetics. And I would encourage anyone who fits that bill to try and develop greater appreciation for M.E. music--work with it more, and see how it informs your dancing. Think of it as adding a vitamin supplement to your dance diet to increase the 'energy and health' of your dance self!"

When I first got together with a troupe, we were a democratic group, with no director. Everyone contributed music and costuming and choreographies to their best ability. There was one member who always brought really diverse music that was fun to move to, but it was never anything event remotely Middle Eastern or North African. Some of it we used for variety, sure. But when she kept bringing less and less appropriate music (by our opinion of course), I had to ask her about it. Her response was "I don't really like Middle Eastern music." And I had to ask her, "They WHY are you into bellydance?" And yet today, this is a very common sentiment...bellydancers who don't care for bellydance music. How does that compute?

While I am a big proponent of being able to play with lots of different music to add variety to your dance, particularly when we perform for mostly bellydance audiences (and who wants to hear Miserlou again), I would think one of the base requirements of being a bellydancer is listening to, appreciating, and dancing to Middle Eastern music. Otherwise, I would think any number of other styles of personal expression would make more sense: modern dancer, interpretive dancer, or world fusion dance is my favorite.

So before I make this sound like I am just judging other people and don't know of what I speak, I myself have also struggled with this topic.



When my first pro troupe was younger and trying hard to establish our own voice, we began venturing in a lot of different directions to seek unique inspiration. Some were closer to bellydance, and some were much further afield. Not just with movement, but the music, too, was getting further and further from bellydance. We were having fun, and we were getting lots of workshops and performance opportunities, and it was a real peak in our troupe history. But the more we became known for our fusions, and our non-bellydance stylizations, the less time and energy we spent on bellydancing. Pretty soon, our music, choreography, movement vocabulary, and costuming had collectively grown so far from bellydance, I had the realization that we weren't really bellydancers any more--at least not primarily.

That is when I had to decide: did I want to be a bellydancer or not? So I told my troupe that I wanted to be known for being good bellydancers, and I didn't want to spend my time with the other fusions so much any more. And to do that, we needed to be spending our time working on our bellydance technique, developing an ear for bellydance music, improving our finger cymbal skills, and drawing primarily from inspirations within the genre and not so much from without. So we made a significant shift in our repertoire, and hopped back on the bellydance path and never looked back. We still did fusion choreographies, danced to a good chunk of world beat music, and as ATS based dancers, our foundations were already a bellydance fusion. But we were rooted firmly in bellydance in all we did: we anchored our performances with Middle Eastern and North African music, and carefully considered new movements and concepts that could take root in our vocabulary to make sure it suited the aesthetics of a bellydance presentation.

I still get requests for the workshop and performance material we were doing all those years ago. People really enjoyed it, we had a great time, and as a teacher my workshop income was about twice as good then. It's hard to take that kind of loss as a businesswoman, and so I have a unique understanding of and empathy for other teachers and performers who aren't really bellydancing any more, but continue to get a lot of work and notoriety from the community. But for me, I wanted to bellydance, so I made it my personal focus to study, teach, and perform the music, movement, costuming, and culture which supports that goal.

Just my personal experience, for what it's worth.

Q. "I was hoping for input from someone who's developed their own [tribal improv] method and the "proprietary" nature of the material.

I have students with their own performing group here in town, but up to now, the group improv format we do in class is off limits unless you're performing with [us], so they don't use it or teach it in their group.

They do, however like to use my choreographies & adapt my choreographies for their performances, & that's OK -

But I know that when we release the [troupe] format on DVD they'll be all over it. I know they'll ask me about using it when it comes out. I'm too close to tell how I feel about it. I don't want to make any blanket statements on it one way or the other (Yes, use it; No, don't use it) based on *nothing*.

Do I try for some kind of 'non-compete clause' within a certain territory? or just let it be a free-for-all? I just want some input from someone who's been there or seen it, an objective perspective."

A. "In general, my opinion is that once you put out a video, you're putting it out there for the world to do with as they please. Yes, you can hope they will do it justice if they perform it, you hope they will give credit as appropriate; but ultimately, you are letting the djinn out of the bottle and you can't truly control it once it is out. If you don't want your material used, then don't make a video. In fact, don't perform at all if you don't want your material scooped, because it WILL be used in some capacity! As artists, we can hope for people to be more creative and respectful, but sometimes people will outright take your work (not be "inspired by it" or "moved to try something similar, but take it wholesale) and we have to learn to breathe deeply and be zen about it. It does and will happen. From within our own student circles and without. It can be frustrating, it can even hurt our egos, but it is a reality. I have run into it many times, and I lived to teach another day. :)

As for your students, we have a non-compete clause that says that you cannot teach our material without express permission from the director, and you are not to use any unique troupe combos or concepts or costuming elements outside of the troupe. This is to keep us from shooting ourselves in the foot--we don't want to be a competition to ourselves for gigs and workshops. So we agree for the good of the collective that we won't set up any competition of any kind. That is of course only "binding" so long as they are in the troupe. Once they leave us and strike out on their own and if they continue to dance and/or teach, we ask, and can *hope*, that they won't try to bank on the troupe's work explicitly, and our contract states that they should not take troupe-specific concepts, choreographies, etc and use them once they leave, but again...we can't truly force them one way or another. So you have to breathe deeply and be zen about it...you know the routine. :)

For students, I don't feel I have any right to tell them they can use this or can't use that. After all, why are they coming to me to learn? To get information they can USE of course! I encourage them to use what I share with them, and I also encourage them to create their own ideas and run with them, allowing my ideas and knowledge to be a springboard, not a crutch. I am proud when I see students of mine in their own troupes using concepts I know they learned from me or creating concepts based on what I have shared with them. It means I did my job!

In my opinion, in a troupe it is like an employee-employer relationship, where we have intellectual property that belongs to the troupe and is not for general consumption. For students, it is a customer-vendor relationship. And what I teach them in class is for them to use freely as they see fit.

To compare:

Employee/Employer Relationship: when a clothing designer develops a pattern/design in-house, and a design employee leaves, they are not allowed to go out and start selling that exact same clothing under their own label. (There are knock-offs that come from just such a relationship though, yes? And legally, there is little to be done about that, unfortunately.)

Customer/Vendor Relationship: when a clothing company sells me a shirt and pants, I can wear it any way I want, cut it up and make it into new garments, gift it to a friend, stuff it and make a scarecrow out of it, and generally use it for my own purposes.

Now don't get too caught up in the minutiae of that argument. Yes yes, there are copyright laws and safeguards in place which address these issues and blah blah blah. But on the surface, hopefully this comparison makes sense. And ultimately, we are talking about a living breathing art, not a shirt on a hanger, right?

I've been a bit off the wagon in my home organization and healthier eating with the whole Shitpocalypse 2010 this spring and summer, so things haven't been as clean and pretty as I was keeping them. But I am getting back on all those wagons, and trying to clean, organize, and eat healthier once again. So as when I began this promise to myself all those months ago, I am taking tiny steps, doing little things which add up to larger emotional, physical, and mental rewards.

One thing I did to inspire myself to get back to it was to treat myself with some new bedding details. We haven't had a headboard on our bed since we got our King size Tempur-pedic (years), and between that and the anemic little memory foam pillows we now use, the bed looked kinda limp.  I have gotten in the habit of making my bed every morning--something I never had to do growing up and never saw a purpose to all my life--and enjoy how good it feels to walk into our bedroom during the day and see it made up nicely, and even nicer when crawling in at night. Made it feel...I dunno...just nicer.   So a few weeks ago I took it a step further and became One Of Those Women: I now have decorative pillows that live on my bed only during daylight hours.

I always thought it was a silly practice, moving pillows on and off every morning and night just for "looks". But whenever I stay in a hotel, there is something so beautiful and inviting about big overstuffed pillows and crisp linens to greet you. I wanted to feel like that at home.

So I hit up the Macy's sale, used a couple gift cards I had been saving for the right time, and here is what our bed looks like now. The pillows stay pretty much the same (they go with almost every color palette we have on the bed at any given time), the duvet changes every few weeks, and if it is solid then I fold the red quilt right side out to reveal the lush printed side with the saturated colors my Mom incorporated in the design when she made it for us (but which clashes when put on top of a printed duvet). So we have lots of "looks" out of a few little additions, and my bed just feels more lush and welcoming!

It's a smidge more work every morning to make it, but it is one little thing that makes me smile and feel pride in my home. So it's worth it. :)