THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

This is a self-instruction introduction to Greek Belly Dancing. It teaches the expression of beauty with the essential elements of controlled movement, which affect the dancer's mental, emotional, and physical health. The author takes the participant through training exercises to develop control, flexibility, and grace the dancer never new existed. Experience the wonderful art of Greek Belly dancing, as the dancer's body becomes her instrument. This book is an exciting physical and mental challenge that may change your life forever.

About The Author

The author grew up in a Greek family. Dancing has always been an important part of her life. As a youth she studied ballet and expressive dancing and as an adult she became the teacher. The author demonstrates her excellent writing ability in this exceptionally articulate self-instructive manuscript.

e-BOOK

Maverick Publishing

HOUSTON, TEXAS

The

Technique of

Greek Belly Dancing

THE RED BARONESS

An Expression of Artistic Beauty

e-Book 2002

www.mittymax.com

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

e-Book

Maverick Publishing

HOUSTON, TEXAS

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my Agape= my Phielo G.W.F. He gave me the inspiration to write on the subject I know best: Greek Belly Dancing

Also many thanks to Ruth L. Dunstone, who was on the staff at Edison Community College. She spent many hours with me in the Learning Assistance Center, helping me with English Grammar.

THE RED BARONESS

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

BIOGRAPHY

I grew up in a Greek family in Ohio. The Greeks are always eating, drinking, and dancing. I would rather dance than eat. Greek Belly Dancing is imagination and rhythm. It is a free expression of one=s self. It can help ease the pressures of the everyday world. When I have a problem, I put on my belly dancing clothes and finger cymbals (zills) and dance. In doing this, I always feel much better.

I began studying ballet when I was fourteen years old: rather late for ballet classes. I did not enjoy the rigidity of ballet and began dancing, expressing my own feelings about things.

I moved to Florida in 1965. While living in Tampa, I began teaching adults and children the art of Belly Dancing. In 1975 when I moved to Fort Myers, Florida, I realized it was time to help others to express their inner selves with the movement of belly dance. Since I have been here in Fort Myers, I have been able to help many adults and children to swing their veils to Greek music and feel the rhythm from inside out, expressing the inner self with movements of the mind, soul, and body. I am attending Edison College, and whenever I have time, I teach Greek Belly Dancing workshops to adults and children.

RED BARONESS

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Prologue: Swing Your Veils 1

Belly Dancing: A Definition 1

Belly Dancing As Therapy 4

2. My Experience With Children 6

3. My Experience With Adults 11

4. Belly Dancing Exercises 14

5. Belly Dancing Dance Steps 16

6. A Conclusion & An Afterword 18

7. Bibliography

8. Notes

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

PROLOGUE

SWING YOUR VEILS

BELLY DANCING: A Definition

Belly dancing, as practiced today, derived long ago from Classical Greek dancing, the essential elements of which are movements and control which affect the dancers= mental, emotional, and physical health.

Dance, rhythmic and expressive body movements are usually coordinated into a pattern and adopted to musical accompaniment. Dance steps are created from man=s basic movements: the walk, run, jump, hop, skip, slide, leap, turn, and sway.

Some of the more important features of the dance rhythm, or relatively fast or slow variations of movements; design, or the arrangement of movements according to a pattern; dynamics, or variations in the force and intensity of movements; and techniques, or the basic steps and positions. Also important in many dances are gestures, especially hand movements.

In Greece the Greeks considered the art of dancing an essential element in their ideal of creating a sound mind in a sound body. A belly dancer=s body in Greece is considered an expression of beauty. In fact many dance classes were taught in the nude.

The dancer=s instrument is the human body, and the ways it can be used depend almost entirely on how it has or has not been trained. Because the trained dancer has brought his body to a high state of flexibility, control, and alertness, he will always be a better and more expressive dancer than the untrained.

Greek belly dancing is an art. It, like other arts, is an expression of the mind. Beautiful thoughts are reflected outwardly in a sound and beautiful body. Such dancing should, above all, be a free expression of the body. There should be no restrictions, no bound-up feelings. The best way to express such freedom is to dance in the nude. Good control of the muscles is absolutely necessary. It takes an immense amount of training to be a good belly dancer.

Historically, is it not possible that the first dance ever performed by woman was the belly dance? The dance developed as the centuries passed, and gained in popularity with Aristas, appearing in Greek sculptures as early as 5,000 B.C. The early dances, we know, were devoted to sex. As the Greek maidens danced before their men, they singled out their favorites; and the men made their choices of the maidens who attracted them. As belly dancing involves the abdomen, the hips, and the pelvis - in constant sensual movement - Greek men look (and have always looked) upon comely dancers as objects of sexual delight.

As to the geographical origin of the belly dance, there is some agreement. Most now believe that the dance originated in Ancient Persia. It is thought that Alexander the Great took his belly dancers with him when he conquered that country. It is believed Alexander introduced the belly dance, along with other Greek customs, to the Persians.

The belly dance was unknown in the United States until 1893, when Little Egypt, a young lady from Syria, and her dancers appeared at the Chicago World=s Fair and gave Victorian audiences a shock from which they never recovered. Belly dancing was here to stay. The Victorians were straight-laced people, and the belly dance was certainly not straight-laced, but instead, free, warm, and provocative.

Today, belly dancing is recognized as healthy exercise. Much of its current reputation is due to Serena Wilson, American=s foremost exponent of the belly dance who has her own belly dancing studio in New York City. Her brilliant technique, taught to the accompaniment of Middle Eastern music, leads to concentration on grace and sensuality, and also on improving their stamina. Because its feline movements require the mind to be in complete control of the body, the dancer becomes creative mentally and emotionally, as well as physically. In addition, all the dance movements carry into everyday life, so that even the simplest movements, such as walking and sitting, become graceful in their own right.

Even though belly dancing allows much freedom, it requires discipline on the part of the dancer. She must constantly control her body through her thoughts. The dance so affects the dancer outside the studio that she can easily be recognized as the belly dancer by the way she moves, by the way she walks, sits, or stands. She is ever erect. Her strong firm muscles are in complete control. Indeed, her very presence suggests a beautiful objet d= art=.

BELLY DANCING AS THERAPY

Belly dancing affects the mental and the emotional attitudes of those who practice it in several ways.

Mental and emotional problems are responsible for the overwhelming majority of unhappy lives. If, when difficult situations arise, people magnify those difficulties, and at the same time doubt their abilities to cope with them, they inevitably find themselves depressed and blue. The world seems bleak and unprofitable. On the other hand, is they refuse to face the difficulty and fortify themselves with a false sense of competence, they soon find themselves on the road to disaster.

Belly dancing forces such people to see themselves and their problems as they are. Even when learning a simple dance step, they will have the opportunity of seeing themselves at work on intellectual and physical tasks that are actually smaller counterparts of some of the greater problems of life. Belly dancing can give such people a realistic appraisal of themselves.

When people have problems they should not run away from them; but instead, should face them. Aspiring belly dancers must also learn to face problems. Learning new dance routines gives them challenges to meet and overcome. Such accomplishments carry over into their lives outside

the studio. It gives them the confidence necessary to face all sorts of difficult problems. Any kind of dancing can help such confidence, but belly dancing is especially helpful in doing so as it takes more concentration than other forms. Children as well as adults can learn to express their inner selves with movement. Music and body must become one, must blend together the imagination and skill of the dancer. Tension and anxiety flow from the body and the dancers feel spiritually restored.

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

CHAPTER ONE

My Experience With Children

Some years ago I taught belly dancing to children at the Riverview housing project in Tampa, Florida. I formed these classes in order to keep the children from getting into trouble. Most of these were on drugs, yet they responded to my instructions better than most middle-class children I had taught. They were sensitive and needed to express their creativity in some way other than getting into trouble in the streets. Many of these children came from broken homes; from families on welfare. If they had not been able to come to my classes, they might never have been able to take belly-dancing lessons.

The following are cases of some of the children who were helped by taking my courses in belly dancing. In the summer of 1971, I needed a sultan for a harem of eight giggly little girls who attended my classes. I thus sent out a circular through the project, saying that I needed a boy between the ages of eight and ten who might enjoy training for such a role. For days many curious onlookers stood around the door of my studio, but no one came along whom I felt would be right for the part. Then one day several weeks later while I was teaching, I happened to dance towards the door and there stood my sultan. He was eight years old and his name was Winnie. Winnie was considered a juvenile delinquent, because he was into marijuana, and even heroin. Also because he had been in and out of juvenile homes, had set fire to his mother=s bedroom, and had committed several robberies in the neighborhood.

Winnie entered my classes with a very defensive attitude. Being the only male in the class, he was also very shy. Yet, it did not take long for him to become so interested in his new role that he began gradually giving up his indulgence in drugs and the other nefarious activities which had kept him in trouble with the police. He, along with the girls, actually became enthusiastic over their dancing and costumes being made for the show.

I took special interest in Winnie and began frequently taking him home to my house in the country. There, in the tranquil rural surroundings he began opening up to me.

"My mother," he said, "makes me feel so unimportant. I just can't please her, no matter what I do."

"Well, you please me, Winnie," I replied, "and you're very important to me."

"Why, Miss Chanak?" he asked.

"Well," I said, "I saw lots of other boys who wanted to play the sultan's part before I saw you, but I knew right away that none of them were right for it. Then I saw you standing there by the door and knew right away that you were the one."

At that, Winnie smiled broadly.

"Tell me that again, teacher," he said.

After that there was no stopping him, and he carried off his role in the show as if he had been born to play it. Even his mother was pleased.

Another of my pupils who was helped by my classes was a ten year old black girl named

Angie. She came from a broken home in the housing project and was every bit as underprivileged as Winnie. As her mother worked, Angie was forced to baby-sit her six-year old brother and two year old sister most of the time, and as a result, had little time for her classes.

As with Winnie, I would often take Angie home with me after classes, teach her how to relax, and talk to her at great length. I found that just having her sit or lie on the floor and listen to the belly dancing music was soothing to her.

Then one day my efforts with her achieved fruition. She suddenly picked up a bright red veil that was lying on a chair and began tossing it into the air. It would gradually float about in the air, then settle gracefully to the floor. She then kept picking it up and repeating the process,

"Angie," I said, "That is wonderful."

She grinned broadly, then took her zills and began slowly tapping them to the music.

"Marvelous, Angie," I said. "It is now time for you to dance."

And dance she did. Most of that evening, and through the many days that followed.

"Oh, teacher," she later admitted, "I didn't know I could ever be like this. I don't feel tense anymore, even when I have to baby sit. I never knew life could be such fun."

Susan was only seven years old when she attended my classes in the summer of 1980 when I was teaching at South Recreation Center in Fort Myers, Florida. In the beginning Susan was very shy and retiring. In fact, I often noticed her sitting under a table and sucking her thumb. In spite of her shyness, however, I knew she had all kinds of creativity locked up inside her little body. Soon after she entered my classes and I began working with her, she became much more outgoing with her sensitivity, flair for dramatics, and fertile imagination.

Susan would do things like take a long flowing veil and act as if she were alone

somewhere in the deserts of Arabia. She would throw her veil around her shoulders and pretend that she was an Arabian princess riding her white steed across the burning sands.

When Susan's mother saw her engage in such play, she would exclaim in amazement, "My goodness, Susan could never have done anything like this until she entered your classes."

From then on she could not stop Susan dancing for herself or anyone else. Susan felt she could make others happy by merely dancing before them. Once, she even swung her veils before a neighbor in a wheelchair. I can honestly say, she was one of the most imaginative and vivacious children I have ever had in my classes. When I put the belly dancing tape on and asked the class to lie on the floor, close their eyes, and imagine what they felt, then get up and dance to what they had imagined, Susan was always the most successful. Her body seemed always to be at one with her feelings. But what made me the happiest was that Susan had come out of herself into the world and forgotten herself through dance. Getting out of herself, she began to be aware of others. I really believe it was through her new found happiness in dancing that she was able to bring happiness to others.

A much more difficult convert was Nickole, also a student at South Recreation Center. Nickole was eight years old and the complete opposite of Susan. In short, where Susan was a delight to be with, Nickole was loud and obnoxious. She would rarely ever listen to me while I was teaching the class. Instead, she would talk constantly and periodically scream for attention. While I often had to get Susan out from under the tables, I had a hard time keeping Nickole off them. While I had to bring Susan out of herself, my task with Nickole was to move her back into herself. While I had merely to encourage Susan, I had forever to discipline Nickole.

Like Angie, Nickole came from a broken home. While her mother spent the day away

from home, Nickole stayed at home with her grandmother. Though apparently a nice woman, the old lady gave Nickole everything she wanted and on the rare occasions when she did not, Nickole screamed and threw tantrums.

Finally, however, the girl began to come around. Luckily, she became fascinated with the zills and at every opportunity borrowed and played with mine. Eventually, I told her that if she would stop her screaming and interrupting my classes, I would buy her some zills of her own. It worked. Ultimately, she became not only a first rate zill player and dancer, but the best behaved pupil in my classes.

I had other experiences with children that were just as rewarding as those I have mentioned. While at the Tampa housing project, I had the good fortune to be able to teach several students confined to wheelchairs. Although these students were not able to use their legs, they were able to make use of their heads, arms, and hands. I started by teaching them various head, arm, and neck movements, then concentrated on their hands. For a long time their muscles had not been used properly, hence, they were extraordinarily stiff. I knew that even though their legs could not be used, the rest of their body was. As a result, the veils were soon flowing about the studio and the zills were ringing loud and clear. A metamorphosis had taken place in these so-called handicapped students. The butterflies had shed their cocoons.

THE TECHNIQUE OF GREEK BELLY DANCING

THE RED BARONESS

CHAPTER TWO

My Experience With Adults

In 1978 I taught a class for adults at the Lee County Day Care Center in Fort Myers.

The class consisted of elementary school teachers who had come to the class determined to get their bodies into slim, healthy, and attractive condition. They also, incidentally, wanted to learn to belly dancing. The class in essence was a six-hour workshop. As always, I devoted the first part of each class to warming-up exercises. The word exercise means to use, and use is what you do in belly dancing. You use the entire body. The head, neck, arms, hands, fingers, rib cage, hips, legs, and feet are all put through various strenuous exercises. These exercises affect the physical body by promoting loss of weight, by making the body more flexible, by insuring better balance and control over the body. In dancing, the dancer also is helped in developing poise and physical strength.

While instructing the adult class, I taught the following exercises: arms and legs moved in a snake-like motion, while the neck and head rotated from the right shoulder. Then the rib cage moved to one side without tilting or moving the lower part of the body, while with legs apart the body was slightly extended as far as the weight on the leg. While all this was taking place, the hip socket had to be loose enough to allow the hip to be extended from the hipbone.

Then the dancers were asked to stand on the balls of their feet with their heels lifted, and to move their hips from side to side in a soft circular motion.

A second warm-up exercise required the students to lie on the floor, then to lift their entire bodies, leaving their shoulders to support most of the body weight. Finally, they were asked to gradually to lower their bodies to the floor, touching each of their spinal vertebras all the way down to the tailbone.

The dancing, as well as the exercises, helped these teachers physically, as well as mentally, and emotionally. Their bodies became stronger and more flexible. It enabled them to bend, to scoop, to reach, even to walk with a lot less effort. It also helped relieve them of many of their tensions acquired from teaching long days in the classrooms. Then, of course, they had fun. In virtually all cases, they were able to go back to their pupils with a better frame of mind, to say nothing of a healthier, more graceful and beautiful body.

The sun was setting. I could see the silhouettes of the dancers against the waves beating against the shore. After teaching a belly dancing workshop to teachers at Lee County Day Care Center in Fort Myers, Florida in 1978, I thought it would be fun and helpful to teach mothers and their children of the Lee County Day Care Center. I mentioned this to the teachers and they thought it would be a good idea. So I asked the mothers and children to meet me at the Cape Coral Beach. This was the first time that I taught belly dancing outside of a classroom. We danced in the sand with the warm sun against out bodies. Everyone brought his or her own veils and zills. The day care center gave me permission to use their sound system. The class was taught how to swing their veils in various snake-like movements.

It was a beautiful sight to see my class swinging their veils of many colors. The wind was brisk and the veils looked like birds in flight. Even the zills had a different ring, because the wind fluttering against them caused the zills to tap like tinkling bells. The children seemed to enjoy classes for they, as children are not afraid to let themselves express what they feel. Myself, I experienced the sense of movement in the waves caressing the beach and the wind moving among the palm trees. Along with the dance classes we had a Greek picnic. As we sat having the Greek feast, one of the mothers said, "You know Mrs. Chanak, I never realized how Greek Belly Dancing can make me feel free like I'm dancing on air, and I'm not aware that I have a body. I feel like I'm at one with the clouds, wind, and the waves." She added, "I know it will also help the children to free their bodies from any tension."

I thoroughly enjoyed those times on the beach. It helped the mothers to understand themselves and to understand their children's feelings better. Through the dance, both mother and child had a closer relationship by responding to each other's feelings and to the rhythm of their bodies. As I look back to the time, it brings me visions of the Middle Eastern music, the dancer=s snake-like movements, the bell-like sounds of the zills, and the veils swinging in the wind. As the Greek music flowed from the tapes, everyone had felt as if they were on a Greek Island or in the Middle East instead of the Cape Coral beach. That day ended in fun with a greater sense of appreciation of the belly dance, greater appreciation of mother for child, and child for mother.

BELLY DANCING EXERCISES

I begin all my classes with the following stretching exercises.

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