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…

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!

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.

It’s a great big world out there.   While I’d like to think I have a strong foundation of dance knowledge, there are new dance forms developing and older forms evolving that I don't even know exist.  Getting familiar with the Orange County and Los Angeles County Dance scene, I’ve seen the word “Kizomba” pop up on fliers promoting Salsa and Bachata events.  Kiz-om-what?! Read on to find out what I discovered about this emerging dance:

Social dancing in Orange and Los Angeles Counties has given me some amazing dance memories.  It’s also given me some dance moments I wish I could forget.  In any social setting there are unspoken rules that help us “play well with others.”  Good etiquette applies to the social dance world although it sometimes feels like the unspoken rules of the dance floor need to be spoken.  In fact, after a particularly uncomfortable dance night I fantasized about printing out a blog I wrote for Bella Ballroom Dance on Social Dance Etiquette and handing it out to dancers in need.  While I wouldn’t actually do that, I share the 411 here on successfully getting your social dance on…

Living and dancing in Orange and Los Angeles counties has given me awesome opportunity to cater to one of my favorite evening activities… Salsa dancing!  The Los Angeles Salsa dance scene differs from the Orange County Salsa dance scene, but one thing they both offer is a variety of dance partners.  As a follow, I find that salseros will often disconnect from their partner for a brief moment to engage in dancing “suelto”, or dancing an improvised solo.  As a dance instructor and lifelong dance student, this inspired me to write a blog for Newport Beach’s Bella Ballroom Dance studio sharing tips and tricks on how to solo in salsa.  Get the details on how to stay connected, “do you”, cheat and more!