Improvisation2Coreography Part III: Dance

Improvisation2Coreography: Concepts in Restructuring Modern Raks
By Asim al-Talib/Woodrow Jarvis Hill
Adapted from work done for my Sept. 2002 seminar , kindly sponsored by Belly Revelations in Durham, NC

Part Three: Dance

Dancing with a choreography in mind is fundamentally no different that improvisation, or even freestyle, dancing; the same movements are involved, the same music. The difference lies in the dancer being able to plan ahead, being able to be more specific, more precise in what you dance. If you’re comfortable with improvisation, looking on choreography in this fashion will help a great deal. If you’re comfortable with neither, building dances via choreographies can help you understand the fundamentals of raks.

The first fundamental was touched upon in the music section; knowing not just a wide-ranging movement vocabulary, but also how to match that vocabulary to the music being played. Choreography gives you practice in doing this. When you choreograph, see if your moves match to the rhythm, or even the melody, being played. You can look to the Beledi dance styles for a hint as to how to do this, as it is something the certainly comes with practice and watching other dancers.

Another layer you can add to your dance is to develop the transitions correctly, again, the music will sometimes cue you, esp. for the more dramatic transitions you’ll use. However, many transitions simply involved changing from one more to another. This is something I’ve rarely come across as being taught in classes and seminars, but can be important to the dance. A transition that simply gets the limbs, torso, legs and hips in position for the next move will oftentimes look poorer than one that is graceful, and that grace comes, in large part, from knowing how to transition well.

Transitions should come “organically” from the movement. The move you start from, as well as the move you go into, should have a transition link that’s reflective of both of them. For instance, moving from a slow hip circle to snake arms in the same rhythmic pattern and speed should not involve your hands flying up. The arms being raised should be done with grace, and the speed of the movement should be like the speed of the hip circle. If you’re changing to a faster move, it’s a useful idea to keep the speed of the transition the same as the move you’re leaving, until you’re in position to do the next move. In this way, you’re able to keep the surprise until the last moment, and not confuse the audience.

When I plot out dances, the music charting I describe above comes in very handy. I generally place my moves in the series of beats, looking something like this:

Or this (Each line in this one equals 4 beats):

With this, I can see at a glance exactly what I’m doing at every step during the actual dance itself. This structure also makes it much easier to edit and reconstruct the dance from whatever point I wish. I can match beats to specific moves and parts of moves. This helps me avoid becoming lost when it comes time to dance or teach the piece. The alternative is to learn the musical selection back and forth, which usually takes a great deal of time if you didn’t grow up with the music in question.