I feel you on the starting with awesome music thing...but once I get up to dance, it's just me cueing for no one! I need more experience too. :o)

So raw. So real. Very honest. Pure.

:oP

That's the thing...I have a good grasp of musicality I would say. At least when cueing I always try to change moves to coordinate with music changes and really emphasize "different stuff is happening now because the music says so" for drama and presence, etc. And I've never had any trouble just busting it out on the dance floor at a club...I just can't really find a medium between club dancing and my tribal cue system. Remember the gig at Red Cheetah? Good thing everyone there was trashed and mostly naked, so no one was paying much attention to my sweet ass half club half dance class groove.

You're right: tribal soloists never actually seem to do "moves" or combos...when we work on soloing in class I try to work on that, but it's like I said earlier: I end up feeling like I'm just drilling.

As always, I guess the key is practice.

Thanks for the thoughts, Mel.

Hi Mellie,

I found your response, very interesting as I can really relate to it. When I first decided to do a solo, a few weeks ago, I first had the idea to either use a late period Madonna song, or another techno song, with a similar tempo. Having never soloed with the Jazz and Ballet classes that I performed at high schools with, I either had my partner or the rest of the group to rely on, eliminating the need for cues. This is definitely a habit, that I have brought into Katy's class. I realized that in order for me to write my own solo, I should just put something on, move to it and let it flow. It felt much more comfortable for me to improvise using something at a slower tempo. Even in a club, there seemed to be some kind of telepathy with the other people on the dance floor. So, I picked something very short and slow, a couple of weeks ago, and I have been religiously moving to it repeatedly. I did not plan any of my moves, but I just started moving the way that I wanted to, and my solo is now starting to become more cohesive. I must also confess that my solo is now deriving more from ballet than "bellydance" as the tempo and speed of the music seems more ballet-ish. I will not let anyone know what I am using for music yet, although I did e-mail Katy a "WMP" file of it, but I will give a hint as what to expect. I wanted to choose something very different and oddball, with a lot of orchestration. I have always been a fan of those groups from the sixties that used different types of melodies, orchestrations, vocal harmonies, and different times signitures, like The Beatles, Beach Boys, The Who, The Byrds,etc.; This kind of music, to me seemed exotic enough for me to do something simple, fun, and different. I am using a one minute song from that genre and my idea is starting to come together nicely. I can't wait to see what everyone else is doing.

Cheers!

Chris