Brain Fade

imalexgirl

I am a Belly Dance student, who has been taking beginner classes for a little under a year. I recently was invited to participate in dancing ath the local farm/craft market downtown. It was really fun to dance out on the street with my instructor and her troupe. Now here's my question...have you ever started doing some improv, and your mind goes blank? You know there are many moves you can do, but they escape you at the moment? If it has happened to you, what did you do? I was lucky enough to be doing veil, so a bit of extra swooping and swishing occurred until my brain kicked back in. Not sure what I would have done if I had not had the veil! lol

aerochic42

Yep it happens. the worst is when you are doing a group choreography number because then it's obvious that you are wrong. But as a soloist only you know. The trick ( when doing a solo) is just what you did, keep moving. Don't make bad faces or freeze. FIgure out which moves are your default moves by just dancing around in your living room to any music that makes you move. What moves do you always do? I personally am a big fan of shimmies and backwards figure 8 ( horizontal maya essentially), that way I'm covered for any music tempos or moods and as the mood suits me I throw in some arms to match the music . I've also learned a few simple combinations of moves that I can rely on to help pull me through some of those spots.

Another option is to repeat a section of your dance, either as is or change it up in some way (do on the left side instead of the right, turn around with your back to the audience, change levels, add a layer (for instance hip drop with different arms, or with a shimmy or try to move)). so many options. You can always walk around pretty especially with a veil flowing behind you - ooh look at my pretty veil kind of walk ( you know the stuff you did when you first starting playing with a veil or as a little kid).