Do you know what season it is? RuPaul season! Yes.  We are officially into the third week of RuPaul’s Drag race and the new queens are bringing it.  Those of you who know me already understand my obsession with and appreciation for these performers.  I’ve learned so much from them since I started watching RuPaul’s acclaimed show where drag queens compete for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar.  While you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with a dance blog?”, I will answer back everything. 

As a bellydancer and dance performer I’ve found that there is so much crossover (no pun intended) in what I do every week with the art of drag.  Costuming, stage make-up, stage presence and self-promotion are a few shared elements but perhaps the most important element is knowing how to SERVE.  Any man who has the cajones to put on a dress and high heels is going to own it.  While drag performers differ in their own niches and talents, they all execute a walk that can be learned from.  Queens have mastered how to command attention and express themselves doing even the simplest steps that we learned how to do as toddlers.  Dancers take note!  Walking is the basis for more intricate movement and can be translated into choreography.  Being able to walk with authority and control will only aide your confidence and make you a stronger performer.

From watching queens, teaching different styles of dance, and performing every weekend I’ve had fun exploring the many sides of “dance walking.”  Delve into my article sharing tips and tricks of the trade so you can execute the “charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent” that RuPaul encourages out of his superstars. 

Strut Your Stuff:  Dance Walking

While we walk everyday, it’s not often we consider how to walk for an audience or how to “dance walk” to a piece of music. Dancers, models, and performers have practiced movement technique to make their struts more noticeable, strong, and even desired. Whether you’re planning an upcoming show entrance, choreographing a strut filled dance, or just trying to make some heads turn, you might be wondering how to sexify your stride. Read below for my tips and tricks on mastering your saunter and owning your walk.

Keep Your Head Held High
Beam confidence and heads will turn! Performers will often keep their gaze just over the heads of audience members as a trick to keep their focus and energy up. Think thoughts of self pride and your... Read full article HERE.

Like any good dance fan, I’ve spent endless hours watching dance videos on YouTube, drooling over choreography and inspired by everything from tutting to ballet to bellydance.  With the conveniences of the Internet, thousands of dance videos are readily available with just the click of a mouse.  With the large amount of high-level quality dancers performing today and the easy accessibility of dance videos, the dance world can be competitive in winning over its viewers and keeping their attention. Some videos keep us glued to the screen while others loose our attention after just a few seconds.   Of course dance videos don’t do their actual live performances justice, but even when seen in person, some choreographies just shine above the rest.

So what’s the secret to keeping an audience captivated?  There are a variety of factors that can make a choreography entertaining and watch worthy, but there is one factor that is essential to making a dance excellent.  Keeping it clean!  There’s a big difference between watching a dance that’s performed sloppily and watching a dance that’s well prepared, thought out and executed. 

Teaching weekly at Bella Ballroom dance studio in Costa Mesa has given me the opportunity to write dance blogs and explore dance topics as such in depth.  This week I explored tips and tricks for cleaning choreography that can be used for any style of dance performance.  Take a look…

Choreographies that stand out have undoubtedly been well thought out and practiced prior to their debuts.  Often times a choreography’s success doesn't’ depend on it being technically impressive as much as it depends on being executed cleanly.  While knowing how to perform a dance with strength and clarity takes experience, I can offer some helpful hints to consider when preparing to nail your next dance....   READ MORE FOR ALL THE TIPS

As an entertainer, I often feel like a one-woman show.   Continually venturing and expanding my knowledge of dance and the performance arts has shaped my life.  It’s fascinating to take a moment to look at the lives of the artists who played foundational roles in what we understand as dance today.  Surprisingly one of the dances currently embraced by the world started with a man whose beginnings were rooted very close to home.  From Southern California to San Francisco, vaudeville actor Henry Fox got his start before heading to New York to influence what would become embraced as Foxtrot.  Read on…

When I moved to Orange County to pursue growing as a bellydance performer and International Dance artist, one of the things I was most excited to explore was Southern California’s dance world at large.  When my bellydance gigs take me into LA County, I take advantage of being dolled up and out and about at club prime time and head out dancing after my bellydance shows.  I’ve enjoyed checking out the salsa dance scene from Malibu to Newport Beach.

              As a new face in the Los Angeles and Orange County dance scenes, established social dancers do not know me.  Being an unknown dancer can make it harder for a follow to get asked to dance in a developed dance community.  Personally, I like to leave it up to the leads to invite me to dance instead of the other way around.  Call me old fashioned, but really I’m just shy, and to some extent I haven’t needed to do the asking.   Just like dancing, there is some technique involved in getting invited to dance.  Read on as I share a five fantastic strategies to get and keep you on that social dance floor!

1. Have a Good Waiting Strategy

The key to getting asked to dance is to create the least path of resistance for inquirers.  Place yourself close to the dance floor, preferably in a higher traffic area where potential dance partners will be walking by.  Standing up and grooving to the music while waiting will make you appear more approachable and like you want to dance. Make eye contact and smile with other dancers.  Avoid sitting down, burying your head in a smart phone, or... FULL ARTICLE

What is Square Dancing?
This folk form of entertainment is for a group of dancers.  Square dancing is typically done with four couples arranged in a square with one couple on each side facing in towards the middle of the square.  In most American forms of square dance, a directed caller cues the dancers to do movements... READ MORE

By now you’ve undoubtedly heard Megan Trailor’s hit song “All About That Bass.”  (I’d guess you’ve even gotten it stuck in your head a few times.)  In the chance you haven’t been exposed to it, the catchy song pumps lyrics boasting messages of self-acceptance regardless of a bigger body size and tells ladies to embrace what cho’ mama gave ya.  While not an expected music choice for me to perform to as an International dance artist, this pop song gave me an opportunity to do something different, yet strangely familiar.

Bella Ballroom Dance in Orange County recently had its anniversary party for which I was anticipated to perform.  This would be the first time any current or prospecting dance students would see me perform since I started teaching at the Newport Beach dance studio in April.  It would also be the first dance performance my colleagues would see from me.  I made an executive decision, took a performance risk and decided to dance as… *gasp!*… myself!  Let me explain.

Any classical or international dancer understands that to be considered excellent there are certain dance standards to adhere to.  Cultural contexts and musicality formats must be respected to represent an ethnic dance appropriately and correctly.  While there may be some room for expression, a plié will always be a plié.   Regardless of the style, if a dancer is going to stay 100% true to a formatted or traditional dance, they will experience some limitations.

When I decided to “perform as myself” for the anniversary party, I chose to just move:  freely and without adherence to any genre of dance.  I left the stage persona behind and pumped up a hidden faucet of my personality.  It was a risk.  When people know you as a bellydancer, they expect to see you bellydance and they get excited to see all the bells and whistles that Raqs Sharqui has to offer.  There was a good chance my performance’s absence of bellydance would disappoint them.  Additionally, I was performing for a crowd of ballroom dancers.  A ballroom dancer’s foundational values rely on patterns, technique and formatting.  It was a risk to break barriers and do something completely unconventional for this dance-trained crowd.  Beyond this, my biggest risk of all was exposing my own personal vulnerability.  You are your art and your art is you.  As singer Erykah Badu expressed and popularized, “Keep in mind that I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit!”

So I went for it.  I All About My Bass’ed it for an unsuspecting audience.  I worked the room and moved my body in a way that felt good and true to me.  In retrospect I can say that I became a personification of the song’s message to whole-heartedly embody and be proud of who you are. 

The result?  While a performer never really knows how an audience actually perceives them, I can say that I felt personally gratified for being true to myself and sharing this juicier side of me.   I graciously received warm compliments and by the end of the night I was hired by one of the guests to do the same performance at their upcoming wedding in Huntington Beach!  Sometimes you just got to “do you” and prosper.  I celebrated self-acceptance and the results landed me another dance show in Orange County!

Ziva Emtiyaz dances for Huntington Beach Wedding November 8th, 2014.  Photos by Joel Jimenez.

Sometimes I don't know how I do it.  While dedicating a life to dance is rewarding, it undoubtedly has its challenges.  Last week the variety and amount of dance performances I had to prepare for was borderline crazy.  I was rehearsing multiple Bellydance, Russian, and Latin numbers with Sahlala International Dance Company to be debuted at Los Angeles shows throughout the weekend.  I had a special request to work as a soloist for a wedding in Huntington Beach for which I had to tailor choreography to fit new props and costume selection.  AND… the Rhythm and Movement Asian tour with Souhail Kaspar was fast approaching.  The work we do is tough and I was preparing hard-hitting choreography and material to be presented in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan!  In this moment I’m flying to Asia reflecting,  “How in the world did I manage all this?” and also thinking that I should be listening to Souhail's “Rhythm Revolution” CD right now and rehearsing in my seat!

I highly recommend all dancers or anyone looking to improve their craft read on as I share what I’ve learned along the way about staying committed to practice.

Sometimes you don’t know what life is preparing you for, or even that you are being prepared.  I never thought my experiences at music festivals and clubs would provide me with valuable insight on a dance scene that I would play a role in as a teacher.  I’ve recently come to love working with Electronic House Music dancers.  These kids are passionate and hungry for all the details within the EDM dance world.  Also bringing an eagerness to learn have been single gentlemen looking to just survive the club scene with some movement basics.  They are equally fun to show a little know-how on rave and party dancing.

The EDM world is a huge and growing one.  I recently shared some EDM dance resources and details for our Orange County dancers at Bella Ballroom in Newport Beach.  Helpful info and awesome EDM dance links ahead:


Everyday I’m Shufflin’
By Ziva Emityaz

When stepping into Bella Ballroom, you may expect to hear John Legend’s “All of Me” as couples practice their first dance for an upcoming wedding.  You might also suspect to find dancers smoothing out their waltz technique, or firing up their salsa patterns.  What you might be surprised to find in Bella Ballroom are dancers getting down to Electronic Dance Music (EDM)... READ MORE.

To this day, one of my favorite Halloween’s involved an army of zombiefied women and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” In 2013 I had the privilege of organizing a flash mob for the streets of Oakland via the one and only Hipline dance studio.  Stopping traffic, playing tribute to Mr. MJ, and being joined by an amazing group of dancing women on ghouls night was epic. “Thriller” now holds a place in my heart.  Here is why it holds a place in the worlds:


…cause this is THRILLER!
By Ziva Emtiyaz

            With Halloween around the corner, the festivities are brewing and Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit “Thriller” can be heard blaring in dance studios worldwide.  The horror themed pop song was used to produce one of the most influential music videos of all time...  ...let’s dig up some of its lesser-known details and shine some light on its dark and chilling dance!  READ MORE