Identify - Replicate - Perform - Embellish
For a Bellydancer, these four words are words to live by.
Oftentimes, a dancer, especially a new dancer, does not take the time to fully "explore" repetitive movement. A new dancer wants to keep changing steps and movements, believing repetition is an indicator to her audience that her repertoire is limited and/or that she doesn't know what to do next. She believes that constant change will keep the audience's attention and create interest.
Most often, this is far from actuality. Watching dance sequences which have no foundation and no structure, can be very disconcerting to the viewer. Consider..... the music has structure, a defined musical composition, which any listener can relate to, understand and recognize. Consequently, any dance form performed to music should also have a structure and composition. The music is repetitious, the dance movements should also be repetitious to compliment the music.
Dance Combinations are built around four repetitions and a dancer should consider working within these parameters: Identify, Replicate, Perform, Embellish!
The First Repetition: "Identify" - identify the music, its rhythm and the instruments. This will immediately give clues as to what steps/movements are appropriate.
The Second Repetition: "Replicate" - repeat the same step/movement, now with a greater understanding of putting it to the music - now it makes sense!
The Third Repetition: "Perform" - perform it! dance it! make it your own!
The Fourth Repetition: "Embellish" - Change it up, add layering (shoulder shimmies, hip shimmies, locks, pops); change directions; add travelling or level changes.
The audience can now see a progression of dance, they are comfortable, they can see structure which matches the music they are listening to - and, in all respects, they can recognize and take time to appreciate the dancer's skill. Don't be afraid of repetition - make it work for you!
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