Topic: Lines & Transitions
Find three poses online from photos of Oriental dancers that you feel have beautiful lines you’d like to emulate. Practice those poses. (If you want you can email them to me, I’d be curious to see what you chose.)
Practice a traveling step, think about the movement you do to change direction, practice a transition we did in class, consider creating your own transition.
Practice one step and then another, but concentrate on the movement between the two steps. What patterns do you arms draw? What shifts happen in your torso and your feet? How does your focus change?
Watch these two youtube clips of the famous Oriental Dancer Tito from Egypt, clip two Tito in Hawaii. Watch how he transitions between movements, notice how much time he takes, notice what movements he uses, notice if the transitions are simple or complex. Try to mimic a couple of his transitions. Take a look at this golden era Egyptian dancer Katie. She has a very fun and flirty style that is a little different from Tito’s. Look at how she transitions between movements. Do you see similarities? Do you see differences? Look at them and think about them. Feel free to mimic some of your favorite moves that Katie does. Here’s a couple bonus clips if you just enjoyed watching Tito and Katie as much as I do: Tito dancing to Eshta Ya Amar and Katie in a classic film.