Countdown to Under a Desert Moon

March 9, 2009 09:23 AM

With choreography notes printed and placed beside my mirror, and Scheherazade by Alaham Jasmin purring through my computer speakers, I practice the feminine routine that Colleen has crafted for her LI Performance students. As if she were Scheherazade herself, Colleen has kept our class in suspense by weaving new movements into the choreography each week, without revealing how our piece will end. The song is 4:22 minutes long and we’ve learned a little over 2 minutes worth of choreography so far.

Today, as I rehearse with my mirror as my only audience, I catch my reflection smiling. I’ve just realized how far I’ve come in my belly dance practice since my first performance class one year ago.

Each class, Colleen reminds her students that our desire is to be like Scheherazade onstage: intriguing. The choreography itself, especially the blocking, reflects this goal. From the moment we step onto the stage, we will showcase a wide range of movements from the LI curriculum, including traveling camels, full body undulations and of course, those dreaded chaines turns. Two classes ago, Colleen even introduced an adorable twisty step that was inspired by the recent Yousry Sharif workshop.

We are also prepared to travel on stage, landing into new formations every few sets of counts. What I particularly like about our blocking is that by constantly moving, each student will have the opportunity to shimmy up front and we will all take turns dancing in the back.

These frequent formation changes create an aura of excitement that compliment the theme of our piece, but learning to pull them off is certainly a challenge. Sometimes I get frustrated when I can’t seem to land in the correct place at the right time, or remember to transition into the next movement as soon as I’ve landed in a new formation. However, my frustrations are short-lived when I realize that one year ago, I would never have dreamed I could perform in a piece like Scheherazade.

One year ago, I struggled in Rachel’s BI/B2 Performance class with things like making it out onto the stage because my Egyptian waltz wasn’t big enough, turning in the wrong direction, and keeping my head still during hip drops. Dancing in the “wheel” formation that appears in our LI choreography (I don’t want to give too much away, you’ll see what I mean at UDM) would not have been possible last year. Nor would the coquettish chest circles and the languid mayas.

Many of my fellow stage mates from the 2008 BI/B2 Performance class have moved up this year to LI or higher and when I think about how far we all have come, I’m motivated to keep learning and dancing.

-Lauren

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