Are You Ready to Teach Belly Dance ?
4/25/2016
In my book “Teaching Belly Dance” I gathered a huge selection of advice for the new belly dance teacher. The first question for the advanced student, the team leader, or budding workshop host who wants to move into teaching is "am I ready". Many of us fall into teaching - perhaps when our own teacher moves away or needs someone to cover her classes during a vacation. Maybe you have moved to a new area where no one teaches your style of belly dance, or maybe you want to make enough money to cover your own belly dance expenses. Whatever your motivation, here is a check list to help you make sure that you are ready to teach belly dance. How good are your basic skills ? Its time to take a critical look at your own skill set and abilities. Often in our rush to learn “new” moves we forget to focus on our basics. Assess your hip rotations, hip lifts and drops and your shimmies. Are they perfect every single time? or have you developed bad habits? Take a private lesson with a teacher you respect and work on the moves you plan to teach, to make sure that you don’t pass on any bad technique to your new students. Can you teach to all the learning styles? Teachers often teach towards the learning style that suits them best, after all that is how they learn. Your students will have a mix of learning styles, and each individual deserves the same opportunity to learn. Make sure you can teach the basic moves to the visual learner, the audio learner, the verbal learner, the logical learner, the physical learner and the emotional learner. Remember that most of us learn with a mix of styles and those styles can change week to week and depending on the move we are being taught. Teach to all learning styles, even if you are sure that your students favor one or two. Do you understand the importance of a good warm up and cool down? Don’t just repeat the warm up that your teacher does, but take time to understand its role in a class and how to for-fill the needs of your students. Put your students safety first and learn good practice, so that you can adapt your warm up and cool down to suit your dancers, the room temperature and the content of the class. Do you have enough material to teach a semester (term)? Think about how you can make the 12th class just as much fun as the first by allocating your material throughout the semester. Start by making a list of all the moves, concepts and ideas you want to teach and splitting them between the number of lessons you plan to teach. This will form the basis of your semester plan. Your lesson plans will develop out of your semester plan. Do you have a good selection of music to keep the students interested? Its time to catalog your music collection and purchase new music to fill any gaps. How is your fitness? Talking and dancing may be a new skill for you. Make sure you can complete your own warm up and still talk immediately afterwards. Do you have insurance? This is essential. You will need public liability and to check that your venue has building insurance. If you intend to host workshops or put on shows then you will need further insurance to cover those activities. In some areas you also need a business license and to register for tax before you can take any money. Check with your local small business organization for clarity. Have you picked the right venue? is it warm and inviting? Does it have a good floor? is it handy for a car park or public transport? Can you afford the rent? is it available at the right time of day to suit your students? Will you have enough students? In the early days most businesses struggle and you will probably need another form of income for at least two or three years. For every person who emails you or signs up on Facebook to your classes, assume that half will attend the first lesson and only 1/4 will still be there at the end of the course. You can find new students though flyers, postcards in coffee shops and with on line advertising, but your students will be your best promoters, so make them part of your sales team; offer them a free class if they bring a friend and give them flyers to pass out or pin on their fridge. Finally – Do you love belly dance enough to go out every night in the cold and the rain? Can you teach a figure 8 100 times this year and still make it sound fresh and fun? Can you stand back and let the dancers repeat a basic move for five more minutes when you really want to move on to something more exciting? Can you spend all your earnings on ten veils you will never use, so that your students can learn a floaty choreography ? Are you a people person? Are you the right person to be training the next generation of belly dancers? If so you have taken the first steps towards a wonderful new career. I wish you lots of happy years, filled with exciting (and profitable) belly dance classes! Teaching Belly Dance – The book about setting up, planning, teaching and enjoying belly dance classes is available on Amazon If you need help with lesson planning, Sara has a new book called "52 Lesson Plans and how to write 5,000 more". It includes a full year of lesson plans that you can teach "as is", and instructions on how to develop your own lesson plans. For marketing advice, check out the 4 part video workshop "Starting, re-starting and Kickstarting your belly dance classes" If you like this blog, go back to my blog page, for others you might like including: Or check out my Hub Blogs including:
"Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014. "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", the stagecraft handbook co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is also available on Amazon.
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We All Need Stagecraft !
4/13/2016
Recently we have been showing off the first proof of "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", at the events we have been attending. The feedback has been amazing. People love the way it looks and that it covers EVERYTHING that the student needs to become a belly dancer. However one question really surprised me: "Is this for Tribal dancers too?" Heck, YES ! Tribal dancers need stagecraft skills! Everyone who steps onto a stage needs to understand the key issues that make a dancer a performer. They need to have the technical skills, they need to have the mind of a performer, they need to look like a belly dancer, they need to match their dancing to their music and pick music that suits their audience/venue and they need to promote themselves to the wider world. Personally, I love to see a dancer of any style, who has thoughtfully put together a performance for my entertainment. I want to know that they care enough about me (as an audience member), to have connected their music, dance skills and costume to create a cohesive look. Relaxed, happy and confident performers are more enjoyable to watch - and that is our main aim in writing this book. We want to give everyone the tools they need to be the very best performer that they can be. You can dance any style of belly dance - Glam, Fusion or Ethnographic - and stagecraft skills will elevate your performance. Stage Stars come in all shapes, sizes, sexes and styles of belly dance, but they all shine under the spot light. Consider stagecraft as an essential element in elevating your performances! f you like this blog keep scrolling down, or go back to my blog page, for others you might like including:
Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” is available on Amazon. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is available in 2016 . And I don't mean "Walk the line", like as a metaphor for life. Nope - you have to be able to walk from A to B by the shortest possible route. This is one of my fundamentals of belly dance performance. You cant own a room until you can walk in a straight line. You think you already walk in a straight line? ok - Simple homework: go stand on the upper level of your local shopping mall, or at an airport or busy train station and track the route from entrance to destination. For example, people arriving at an airport come in the entrance door where their Uber dropped them, and walk to the check in desk. Their next route is check in desk to security. Watch who walks in a straight line from entrance to check in and then check in to security? Now watch who is bobbing and weaving and basically making room for those straight line walkers to get to their destination faster? I'll give you a clue - men walk in straight lines. Women bob and weave. Of course there are exceptions. Notice the female pilots and crew? They walk in straight lines. If you have ever tried to get a herd of small children through an airport you will probably have chosen a man (daddy) to lead the rabble and a lady (mummy) to sweep up the stragglers. Is it human nature or social conditioning? I don't know. I do know that I watch a lot of crowds and the men walk straight and the women walk around them. So what happens when women walk in straight lines? Chaos! Try it... Enter a busy Mall and take a moment to pick your destination. It can be anywhere, a shop front, the toilets, a food cart, but make sure you can see it. Walk straight forward and keep your eye on the goal. Don't move from your A to B route, don't slow down, don't side step. If you feel rude and anti social, go back up a level and watch the other people again. Do you think the other straight walkers feel rude and anti social? or do they think its perfectly normal to walk in a straight line when you want to get somewhere? If I walk through a crowd with my husband and he takes my arm, people get out of our way. However, if we get split up I always get left behind. I watch the crowds open ahead of him and close as he steps through. In the mean time I am making little headway, bobbing and weaving, saying "sorry" and waiting for a space to move forward. After a block he turns back and I am "lost", half a block behind him. Let me tell you what happens when I walk in a straight line. People (men mostly) bump into me. I am not being predictable. I am not acting in a socially acceptable way. They assume I will side step and then are confused when I don't. Some of them get angry, or glare, most just look confused. How do I feel when I walk in straight lines? Once I got over feeling rude, I started to feel powerful! I put my shoulders back, lift my head and glide through space while those around me adjust their stride to avoid me. Suddenly I am in control - not just able to get from A to B, but to get there without adjusting my route to please others. I'm walking like an airline pilot ! And now lets connect that action with belly dance. When I dance into a busy restaurant I need to own some space. Maybe I want 5 foot Square or 50 foot, but I want some space to present my performance. I also want some attention. People may be eating, chatting, looking at their phones, but I want them to stop doing that and look at me. One of the first things I am going to do is to walk around the space I want, with my head held high and my shoulders back. This is a cue to the audience to be quiet, shift their feet out of my space, pick up their bags, slide their chairs back and look at me. If I come onto the stage area and look apologetic for being in my space, the audience will look, and then turn away. I can't entertain them until I have their attention, and I cant get their attention without owning my space. So homework for this weekend - practice walking that line, owning some space, being assertive, confident and self assured. Think of every journey as belly dance practice and every venue as a stage! I'm looking forward to hearing about your A to B adventures in the comments below - Sara x If you like this blog keep scrolling down, or go back to my blog page, for others you might like including: "I'm Perfect for Belly Dance, And so are You!" "Assessing your Performance Videos" "Picking out a Troupe Costume" and "Why Travelling is one of the Best Ways to Improve your Belly Dance" Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s has published two books on belly dance. “Teaching Belly Dance” is the only book you need to set up, plan, present and enjoy your belly dance classes. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and at all levels . Teacher Knows Best
3/22/2016
Let me tell you a little secret about teaching belly dance: Not everyone learns in the same way, at the same speed or at the same time. Sometimes I know that one of my students is not going to get a new combo within the lesson time and that is ok. When I was doing my teacher training. the UK education system was a little bit obsessed with "Equal Opportunities". My Adult Ed teacher explained that equal opportunities in education doesn't mean what most people think it means. It doesn't mean that everyone gets the same amount of time, or attention, or must reach the same level. It means that the teacher should give everyone every opportunity to learn. I'll explain this in the context of a belly dance class: Lets imagine I am teaching a combo that is part of the opening of a new choreography. Dancer A will need to see it once and be able to perform it at the show in 6 months time. Dancer B needs me to call out the count seven times. Dancer C will need to video me dancing the combo from the front and will play the video 100 times before she can perform the combination. Dancer D will not be able to do the combo until she understands all the weight shifts. Dancer E has to make up a little song to the music. Dancer F needs to sleep on it. Dancer G would like to repeat the combo for the next 45 minutes, while Dancer H would like to move on..... I'm sure you can see that, no matter how I plan out my lesson, not everyone is going to be happy. Some will think the lesson moved on to the next topic too quickly, others wish we could have taken more time on that combo. At the end of the lesson some will think they know the combo, and others will think they don't. My job as a teacher is to have set everyone up so that they have every opportunity to learn the combo. To that end I will have shown it, counted it, sung it, explained the weight shifts, drilled it, allowed some people to video it. I also plan time into the next lesson for a refresh and renew. This is a very long way of getting to my main point, which is about corrections. Recently someone told me that I dont make enough corrections in class. My reply was that I dont think a good teacher makes lots of corrections - a good teacher makes the right corrections! Lets imagine for one moment that I am teaching that combination to a visual learner. Her mistake is that she is putting the hip lift on the 3rd count and not the 4th. If I stand at the front and shout 1234567812345678 - she won't understand why I am shouting and will continue to lift on the 3rd. However, if I move myself so she can see me and make sure to point to the hip lift, or make it super large, then she will quickly adjust her movements to match mine. Maybe I have a verbal learner who is making the same mistake. Counting may or may not help her, but singing the music might, particularly if we are lifting to a beat. Maybe I need to sing "dum,dah, dum, PING, dum, dah, dum, dum" - or "Step, cross, step, LIFT, step, cross, step, step". These are all corrections! And thousands of them happen in every lesson. Hopefully the student doesnt really notice. Because if the student noticed they were constantly being corrected, dance class might not be as much fun. And one of our main jobs as a teacher is to make belly dance class fun. So now let me get to those people I know won't get the combo during the lesson. I said before that some students need to sleep on a combo, or watch a video, or practice in their own space. The teachers role is to make sure they have all the tools they need to be able to come back next week with the combo perfected - and that might be a video, a written choreography or a song. Finally we have people in class who are having an "off day". These are dancers who would normally be able to learn the combo, but something else is causing a block. Let us imagine for one moment that the very dear loved one of a student has just been arrested. They text their teacher during the day to say they might not come to class because their life has just been turned upside down and they dont know what to do. Its no surprise that they are not getting the new combo. The teacher make the usual corrections, but its not making any difference. Their head is somewhere else. The class teacher knows that they will get the combo next week, so moves on to more familiar ground and while keeping everything upbeat and cheerful. Somethings are more important than a belly dance class ! And here is another secret - if you teach 30 or more students a week, at least one of them will be having major stresses outside the dance studio. At least one of them will be having job troubles, family strife, illness, bereavement, depression, stalker issues, or one of the thousands of stresses that we all cope with through our lives. And those issues are far more important than learning a combo. So the next time you see one of your fellow dancers make mistakes or take a long time to learn, ask yourself what is really going on. Is your teacher correcting them in a way that you dont even notice? Or is your teacher giving them space and time away from their life to enjoy dancing ? Every dancer needs to focus on their own learning. Judging others doesn't help with that journey. Forgive your classmates who take longer to learn and dont complain when the class doesnt progress at the perfect speed for you. Your teacher wants to give everyone the tools they need to learn. Everyone learns differently. And sometimes people can't learn at that moment - and that is OK. If you like this blog keep scrolling down for others you might like including: "I'm Perfect for Belly Dance, And so are You!" "Assessing your Performance Videos" "Picking out a Troupe Costume" and "Why Travelling is one of the Best Ways to Improve your Belly Dance" Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer.
She has taught more than 5,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and levels. Both are available on Amazon. Sara also teaches through the Belly Dance Business Academy. This online resource includes lessons, classes and workshops for belly dance professionals. Check out her most recent workshop "52 Lesson Plans - And How to Write 5,000 More." Assessing your Performance Videos
3/15/2016
Updated 4/18/18 It's the week after Rakkasah, and many of us have a beautiful video to remind us of our performance. However, it's hard to take a critical look at our art work and use it to improve our dancing. Some of us have "evil" voices in our heads that will knock out any confidence we might have. Others have friends, family and mentors who don't understand the use of praise as a learning tool. Finally, our videos may simply highlight mistakes we made, technique that needs improvements or how badly our nerves showed up on stage. Here are some of my tips for assessing your performance videos:
Don"t forget, every dancer is on her own journey. There is no competition. Others are looking forward to seeing your video, watching your dance, being entertained and perhaps even looking to improve their dancing by watching your skills. Share and enjoy the results of all your hard work. If you would like more information about critique, practice and stagecraft, check out "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage" available now on Amazon: Below you will find both my troupe video and solo video from 2018 Rakkasah. Feel free to share yours in the comments. Keep scrolling down for more info : If you like this blog here are others you might like including: "I'm Perfect for Belly Dance, And so are You!" "Dealing with Difficult Students" "Picking out a Troupe Costume" and "Why Travelling is one of the Best Ways to Improve your Belly Dance" Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher"
Sara also teaches through the Belly Dance Business Academy. This online resource includes lessons, classes and workshops for belly dance professionals. Check out her most recent workshop "52 Lesson Plans - And How to Write 5,000 More." Updated 3/11/24 Here is a fun post I prepared for my students, but feel free to share with your group. Plan and prepare early to avoid last minute stresses: On the First Day of Performance Prep....Put yourself first! That means commit to drinking lots of water, eating good food, getting to bed a little early and generally taking care of yourself. Of course you need to practice (about half an hour a day should do it), but also you need to relax. That might be half an hour with a book, playing a game or going for a walk ? Promise that you will do all these things every day between now and the performance. You can get drunk and eat pizza after the show! On the Second Day of Performance Prep... Fill in your calendar. Set up reminders in your phone, make appointments and generally get organised. Do you need a lift or car share? Should you book a manicure, or an eyebrow shape appointment? Maybe you want a massage before or a few days after the show ? Plan a practice session or a coffee meet up with a troupee, Ask a teacher for a private lesson to assess your choreography. If it needs to be done before the show, allocate the time in the diary now. And dont forget - you have to put yourself first... . On the Third Day of Performance Prep.... Take Stock ! Put together your packing list (Or use the one I prepared for you), check you own everything that you need and that it is in good order. Is your eyelash glue fresh? Did you run low on lipstick? Did you sew up the tear in your skirt? Then its time to make a shopping list or beg, borrow or steal (please dont steal) everything that you need. Put yourself first and fill your calendar.... On the Forth Day of Performance Prep.... Shop for your packing list. If you need to purchase something on line, you may have to pay for speedy shipping. In addition to the things on your list, you may want to purchase water and snacks to keep your energy up all day. Make sure you also have materials for tomorrow. Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock... On the Fifth Day of Performance Prep.... Fix it ! Did you mean to turn up the hem on your skirt? or spray paint your shoes gold? Does the back keep coming off your earrings? Today is fix it day. Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock, shop... On the Sixth Day of Performance Prep.... Book your Video and Photos. Fill in the forms, write the checks, put them in an envelope in your bag. Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock, shop, fix it.... On the Seventh Day of Performance Prep.... Invite your friends! Its so much more fun to dance at an event when you have friends and family in the audience. Plus they can hold your purse, take photos and tell you how amazing you look. Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock, shop, fix it!, book your video and photos.... On the Eight Day of Performance Prep... Minimize your make up. Pick out the mini bag you are going to use and make sure you just pack your stage make up. Throw away anything that is out of date or past its best. Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock, shop, fix it!, book your video and photos, invite your friends.... On the Ninth Day of Performance Prep....Mini Bag It! - create mini bags of your dance essentials to make packing easy and organised. In addition to your make up bag you will need a bag of your jewelry (pack a mini bag of spares too), one for your hair adornments, a hygiene bag (medical supplies, wipes, perfume), an office in a bag, and your music. Dont forget !!! - Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock, shop, fix it!, book your video and photos, invite your friends, make up.... On the Tenth Day of Performance Prep....Have a Dress Rehearsal! Even if your troupe had a dress rehearsal together, take the time to put together your whole look and practice your dance at home. Do your earrings like your veil? Can you spin in your shoes? Does your make up and hair look stage worthy. Now is the time to make any last minute changes. Put yourself first, fill your calendar, take stock, shop, fix it!, book your video and photos, invite your friends, make up, bag it... On the Eleventh Day of Performance Prep....Pack and Pamper Get everything into a over sized suitcase. If you are using the mini bag system this should only take 5 minutes. Double check you have everything against your packing list. Did you book your pamper sessions for today? If not then treat yourself to a home pamper - paint your nails, tidy your eyebrows, moisturize all over and condition your hair. You can even put cucumbers over your eyes. Everything else on your list should be done, so relax. On the Twelfth Day of Perforamcne Prep....Have FUN !!! - This day is all about you, so enjoy the fruits of all your hard work! If you like this blog keep scrolling down for others you might like including:
Dealing with Difficult Students
2/22/2016
Belly dance attracts the most wonderful people. Our classes are filled with bright, intelligent, funny and committed individuals who work hard in class, and are always polite. Every teacher will say that they have the best student group in the world, but secretly they will admit to having met one or two who have been a little difficult to deal with. Belly dance teachers need to build a persona, set limits and communicate their expectations of behavior. They need to be approachable, yet commanding, friendly, but the group leader - and of course educators! In this post I would like to offer other belly dance teachers a few tried and tested ways of dealing with a student who is not fitting in with your class.
In my book "Teaching Belly Dance" I wrote a chapter called "Meet Your Class". It's a very light-hearted look at the students you will meet during your teaching career, some of the problems they bring and includes suggestions on how to get the very best out of them. It also includes lots of other information about understanding your student’s aims, organizing your own events and troupe, setting up successful classes, and teaching learning styles, providing useful critique and promoting yourself as a teacher. Teaching Belly Dance is available on Amazon. The first page of the chapter "Meet your class" in Teaching Belly Dance.
Click here to like/share on Facebook or to re-tweet:Its not too late to put together your plans for improving your belly dance in 2016. Maybe you are going to take another weekly class, or do daily drills in your lunch hour. Perhaps you are going to finally write a chorography to your favorite song, or perform solo at your local event. One of the ways that I believe you can greatly improve your personal development as a dancer is to travel. Yep, a day trip, weekend away, or even a vacation can count as training ! Here are ten ways that a belly dance trip can improve your belly dancing:
Sara Says "In 2006 I set off on my first real belly dance adventure. I spent a week in New York, took Morocco's intensive training course and had my first taste of America. Through contacts made during my obsession with the MED list (the belly dancer connection board that grew through the early days of the internet), I invited myself to restaurants where the big name dancers were performing, and to drop in classes with my heroines. The next year, I took a similar trip to San Francisco. I used google and email to contact a dozen teachers in the area and plan my own intensive made up of classes and private lessons. Some of these people turned out to be upcoming stars, others were the "grandmas" of belly dance - each of them made me feel welcomed, shared their knowledge and love of dance. After taking two or three lessons with Rose Harden, I invited her to visit the UK and hosted her a couple of times over the next few years. I planned my meals around restaurant shows and fell in love with the best city in the world. The final trip in my Trilogy of American Belly Dance was to The Las Vegas Intensive in 2008. This time I took the whole package, which included hotel, workshops, performances and even some transport. I picked out workshops that covered the gaps in my knowledge, as well as those I knew I would enjoy and loved both the professional and attendee shows. By 2009 the pound to dollar exchange rate had changed and I no longer had the budget for exciting trips abroad. However, three years of training with some of the top belly dancers in the world had changed my own skills and experiences beyond recognition. Back in the UK I continued to travel to improve my belly dancing, visiting other cities and weekend events from the Isle of Wight to Leicester. Weekend events like Celebrating Dance and social dance events like Planet Egypt in London. In 2011 we had the opportunity to move as a family to San Francisco. Since then I have taken every opportunity to perform, teach, watch, learn and write ! This year I will be teaching in Merced, attending Waking Persephone in Seattle and the Las Vegas Intensive. I also plan to tour the UK with Dawn Devine once our new book "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage" is finished. If you would like me to teach in your area, I'm now taking bookings for 2016/2017!" Check out my previous Blog Posts including : "I'm Perfect for Belly Dance - And so are You !" and "Picking out your Troupe's Costume" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” is available on Amazon. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is available in 2016. Updated 12/31/2020 New Years Day ! - the day when the diet adverts start, the offers from the gym come through the mail and the wrinkle cream ads fill up Facebook. Isn't it wonderful to be reminded that you are old, fat and unfit ! If there is one thing that belly dance has taught me, it is that I am perfect. I don't want to sound self centered (although I am - and that is fine too), but this is as good as it gets. I woke up this morning, therefore I am perfect for the day ahead. I have food for my family, a roof over their heads, time to laugh and smile - that's perfect. My body may not be your idea of perfect, but as long as it processes food, gets me up the stairs and doesn't hurt, then its perfect to me. Being body positive is knowing that today is a happy day, which deserves to be shared in photos. Its about loving that pink jumper but buying it in the size that fits today, so you can wear it tomorrow. Its about knowing that some people don't like your body shape/hair color/height/sex, but that millions of other people think you are red hot - and neither group matter as long as you and the person you snuggle are perfect. Its heartbreaking to see people who put their life on pause, until they are perfect. Perfect is here and now, its you and me - it can't be a wish for the future, when today is already here. I feel sad when students tell me they are too big, too tall, too old, too "not perfect" for belly dance. Its simply not true. Because belly dance works with your body, and not against it, you are perfect for belly dance ! There are no rules, only ideas: when you dance a love song, you don't need arms that open wide, or ankles that can support your weight - you need a heart, you need honesty, you need fearlessness.... A great teacher can help you increase your strength, flexibility and coordination. Some people who take belly dance classes loose weight, some tone up, some get great abs. Everyone gets more confident. Confidence comes from learning how far your body will take you, how it can move to the music, how beautiful you feel and look. Confidence is sexy and sometimes it can be life changing. Take a moment today to say thank you to your beautiful body for all it does for you. Pamper it with good food, lots of water and rest. Put on some music and move, relax and unknot the tensions of the holiday season. Take a look in the mirror and look at the belly dancer. You are the belly dancer, and you are perfect x
More Blogs from Sara:Facebook is a wonderful tool for connecting with people, learning about them, making friends, watching performances, buying costumes, finding out about events..... and marketing your classes. No one likes to admit it, but getting students into class is a tough business. Overheads are high and class numbers are down from those we saw before the economic dip. I need 8 people a night to cover my costs. Some weeks that is easily achieved, other times not so much. One bad week can off balance the whole month. Many teachers have a wonderful core group, who come to every lesson, every week, and these are the people who keep a class going. However if sickness hits or just one or two students move away, teachers have to find new students to take their place. Facebook is full of new people ! The struggle is to find local people who might be interested in a dance class in the blurred noise of your hundreds or thousands of friends. Only a tiny % will see a post from you, and those are more likely to be your close friends and core students, who already attend your classes ! I have spoken about advertising on Facebook before, and I do recommend it for finding new students. The great thing is that you can set the limits and fine tune your advert to be aimed very clearly at people who may be interested. My most recent advert was for people who live within 5 miles of the town where I teach, women (much as I love men students - they find me, rather than "discover" belly dance on FB), 18 or above, who list fitness, dance, music, salsa, jive, zumba, running or soccer as an interest. I know these women are interested in doing an activity and live close enough to make it to class. From each advert I collect a list of names who express an interest and send them more info and a friend request. I also write their names in a little green book, and every 2 months I send them the dates of the new classes and courses. Many of these ladies never reply, few ever come to class - but I only need a couple to become core students, to stay forever, and my classes are assured for another 12 months. In a way I am collecting a mailing list. Its not a mailing list of active belly dancers. Its more of a list of people who thought about attending a belly dance class for about three seconds and then moved on. So why did I just tell Facebook that I moved house ? Facebook wants you to feel like your social network is also your local network. When you are thinking of hosting a BBQ and create an event, it gives you the chance to remember the friends you want to invite and then it offers you the chance to see a list of your friends who are local. Friends you might want to add to your invite list for your Sunday afternoon BBQ. It will also show you a list of friends from your old home town. Of course if you were thinking about who to invite to your BBQ you would really know these people and want them in your home. If, however, you were looking to invite people to your belly dance classes.... it would be really useful to have a list of people you linked up with last time you send out an advert, and the time before, and three years ago, who had a three second interest in class, accepted a friend request and who might now be free on Wednesdays, or be over their injury or have changed jobs. Because I teach in three towns (Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin - Everyone Welcome !), I would like a local list from all three. Facebook wont let me live in three towns, but it will let me move about once a year. So here I go again, all the stress (not!) of moving.... and almost instantly, I have a nice new mailing list to help with my quest for new students. If you would like to increase your student base try this:
“Sara Shrapnell is that rarest of rare, a full time belly dance instructor. Her career spans decades and continents and her knowledge is encapsulated in her books “Teaching Belly Dance” and “Becoming a Belly Dancer.” - Dawn Devine If you like this blog, go back to the blog page, for others you might like including: Being Part of the Solution Dealing with Difficult Students I'm Perfect for Belly Dance (and so are you) Or check out these Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide and on-line via the Belly Dance Business Academy. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara wrote “Teaching Belly Dance", the book about setting up, planning, teaching and enjoying belly dance classes. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is the stagecraft handbook for all belly dancers. Both books are available on Amazon. Picking out a Troupe Costume
3/2/2015
As a troupe director, I know that its impossible to please everyone when it comes to costuming. Each member has an opinion about colors, shapes, styles and coverage that works for their body. Sending a dancer out on to stage in an ill fitting, or ugly costume, or one that just doesn't suit them, sets them up for insecurities and failure. A well thought out costume, that makes them look and feel beautiful, both as part of a team and as an individual helps them perform to the best of their abilities and take home happy memories. Here are a few things to consider when planning your troupes costume:
How do you get a "put together look" with a large group of dancers? Here are my suggestions:
For the photo above each dancer was given the same instructions: The wrap top was the key fabric and comes from www.Bellydance.com. We found that the matching pants were a little short for our taller dancers, so we added in a black pant in the same cut, but an interesting fabric. Our second fabric is black and silver Assuit as we were dancing at Assuit Fest that year. The dancers added Assuit to their bras and belts as they wished. Trimming a bra with Assuit is fairly cheap if dancers can split up a piece of fabric between them. Other dancers enjoyed the opportunity to include larger or vintage Assuit pieces. Skirlets and belly drapes were options. Each dancer was asked to find jewelry that suited her personality and a large flower in a stand out color. If you scroll back to the top of this page, you will see we also mix and match the wrap and assuit with a silver skirt. In the stair case photo below our troupe chose to use a "Pick and Mix" bra and belt set as our neutral. On this occasion we paired it with matching yoga pants in a fabric we knew would stand out at the venue and a large flower in the same shade. Each dancer added wrist or arm bands to compliment her shape and jewelry that matched her personality. On other occasions we paired it with a purple skirt and wrap top. The purple set also mixed and matched with harem pants and a tube top to give a more modest look for outside events as you can also see below. We also all owned a circle skirt and veil in a candy color, which you can see in the third picture. From this one, expensive set, we had three very different looks, using cheaper, off the peg, pieces. In our new book "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", we include a chapter on simple no-sew and sew projects so everyone can make their own costume. From simple skirtlets that can be made in 20 minutes, to dresses that may take a weekend, we wanted to include looks for glam, tribal and ethnographic dancers. All of these looks could be used as troupe costumes - and its a wonderful group bonding experience to gather for an afternoon and make your costumes together. Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 4,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” was published in 2014. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all styles and levels. Both are available on Amazon. If you like this blog, go back to my blog page and check out some others like:
Teacher Knows Best Dealing with Difficult Students I'm Perfect for Belly Dance (and so are you) Why Belly Dancers need to Walk the Line Teaching Belly Dance: Making Corrections Being Part of the Solution Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" I've been following an interesting discussion on Facebook about warm ups and I wanted to share a chapter from my book including examples of the warm ups that I use. Teaching Belly Dance is available on Amazon :EFFECTIVE WARM-UPS Your warm-up has a number of aims:
You will notice that I have not listed stretching as an aim in the warm-up. Although we still see teachers stretching their students before class, it is generally considered to be unsafe to stretch before the body is fully warm. Advanced ballet dancers, gymnasts, and martial arts experts sometimes stretch to prepare the muscles, to avoid “ripping” the muscles during extreme moves. If you are teaching your students extreme moves in your belly dance classes, you may want to reconsider your lesson plan! Even professional ballet dancers do not need stretching before a belly dance class, because belly dance doesn’t require the dancer to move outside her natural reach. Most of our students are not in that 0.1 percent of top athletes or dancers who may need to stretch their muscles before placing extreme demands on them – and these people generally have professionals keeping on top of the research for them. If you plan your lesson well and teach new moves later in the lesson when everyone has had a chance to fully warm up, then you shouldn’t have any problems. If you want your dancers to be more flexible, the best way to help them is to repeat the basic moves regularly in class, which will gradually increase their range. Warm up the body gently, taking into consideration the room temperature and your students’ fitness levels as well as the kind of day they have already had. If you teach in a very hot country and your students have to climb four flights of stairs to get to your studio, you won’t want to start with squats. If, however, your students have just walked through snow to come to your class and the heating isn’t working, you would be better off allowing them to keep their coats on and to jog in place (or sending them home). Set the tone of your class and help everyone to relax by picking music that is soothing, gentle, and positive. Move with soft, flowing movements, and take time to talk to the group and perhaps introduce some of the ideas for that day’s class. The joints are lubricated with synovial fluid, which protects them from wear and tear and acts as a shock absorber and cushion during movement. Distribute the synovial fluid by using gentle circling movements at each of the joints. I find it best to start at the bottom of the body and work up in order to not leave anything out. Watch as your students move to see if anyone is favoring one side of her body or pulling a face as she moves a joint. They may not be aware of any aches or pains until they start to move. Once the body has been gently warmed up and the joints lubricated, then the warm-up can become more intense and upbeat. Pick music that is joyful and lighthearted with a regular beat throughout. Once your students know some belly dance moves, you can use them as part of your warm-up in a very relaxed, follow-me style. Unless someone seems likely to injure herself, warm-up is not the time to correct any movements. Better that they bounce around and get everything warm than tense up and try to do a perfect hip drop. For new students, a simple step tap or walk in place is enough to warm the body. Add arms, hand moves, shoulder rolls, and changes in the size of the step to add variety and interest and to make sure the whole body is working. The body tends to glow – that is, sweat – once the muscles have reached a good working temperature, so take this as an indication that you have worked your students to the right level of intensity. Practical Tip: Before your first class, practice your warm-up every day for a week so that you don’t run out of energy halfway through or sweat more than the students! Speaking while working out is so much harder than it looks and can mess with your natural breathing patterns. You want your students to feel like they’ve had a workout, maybe make them sweat a little, but you also need to be able to talk straight after your warm-up. I find it helpful to have a basic move for each warm-up. That may be a step tap, step close step tap, march, or square walk. Mark your basic move with its own arm position and return to it often and before each change of arms or combination. This allows the students to return to the familiar if they got lost in the warm-up and to keep the same pattern as the rest of the class without feeling they look foolish. If you find someone is not keeping up or it looks like too much for them, call out and remind them that they can stick to the basic if they prefer. Continue with each change for at least a count of eight, if not sixteen or thirty-two. This allows the dancers to see what you are doing and get confident in their moves. If no one can do your warm-up, it is too hard. Warm-up time is not the best point to challenge your students mentally. Think about your lesson when planning your warm-up. Focus on the parts of the body that will be working hard in the lesson, and introduce components that help with moves. It is wonderful to be able to say “You just did this in the warm-up” as you introduce a section of the main body of the lesson. SUGGESTED WARM-UP FOR TOTAL BEGINNER DANCERS. With soft music, each move repeated around sixteen times:
With upbeat music, each move repeated around sixteen times:
SUGGESTED WARM-UP FOR MORE EXPERIENCED DANCERS With soft music, each move repeated around sixteen times:
With upbeat music, each move repeated around sixteen times:
If you like this chapter, check out the "look inside" feature on Amazon and read the first few chapters of "Teaching Belly Dance" for free : Sara also has an on-line workshop called "52 Lesson Plans and how to write 5,000 more" which is perfect for new teachers or those who want to improve their lesson planning. Its available here: If you like this blog, go back to the blog page, for others you might like including: The History of Belly Dance; Where to start 10 Simple Steps to Writing a Choreography Preparing a Bio ahead of time Dealing with Difficult Students I'm Perfect for Belly Dance (and so are you) Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. She has taught more than 5,000 belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She now teaches in Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore in the SF bay area, as well as workshops world wide and on-line via the Belly Dance Business Academy. Her classes are known for their humor, detailed breakdowns and cultural context. Students who have studied with Sara have gone on to teach and perform in all styles of belly dance and many have made their living through performance or teaching. Sara’s first book “Teaching Belly Dance” is available on Amazon. Her second "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", co- written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya, is available in 2016 . Much as I wanted to include the following in my book “Teaching Belly Dance”, I know that Facebook moves and evolves its policies almost weekly. The information here is based on my understanding of Facebook in 2014.
When I joined Facebook in 2005 it had a nice, simple idea : Post stuff on your wall that your friends would like to see, see what they are posting in return. It was pretty, smart, easy to use and a good step up from Tribe, Bhuz and the MED list. Here was a new way to communicate and connect with Belly Dancers from around the world. Little did I know.... Facebook is now my top means of communication with the outside world. With the mobile app I can check my feed at least once an hour and keep track of thousands of friends I have never met. When I attend belly dance events I post first to make connections, so even though I have moved around the world, I can meet up with familiar faces. When I want to buy or sell a costume, I go to Facebook first. If I want to send a message to my students I put it on Facebook and when I want to advertise an event…. Facebook is my first port of call. Of course not everyone is as addicted as me, and we are seeing a split in the world of belly dance between those in the know (on Facebook) and those who avoid sharing their every moment with a faceless corporation with limited ethics. I want to plead the case for using Facebook to promote ideas, raise your profile and get bums on seats at your events. Please excuse me if I start with the basics : The first thing I am going to suggest is that you separate out your “family” Facebook and your “belly dance” Facebook. Using Facebook to advertise to belly dancers will be boring for your non dancer friends. Split them up. For a while Facebook worked on circles and groups, but that never worked. Have two Facebook pages, or three or four. Yes it breaks the rules, but it’s a small rebellion. You may choose to have a “fan page” instead, but I find that people prefer to be your “friend” than your “fan”. Maybe I’m just not famous enough :) Next you need to get followers. This takes work, is boring, but it has to be done. Find a friend and look on her friends list for anyone else you know. Repeat. Hopefully people will notice you and send you friend requests too. Its up to you who you accept, but I have rules :
And here we start to see the problem with advertising events on Facebook. Nine years ago most of us had 100 friends, posted twice a day and could keep up with each others news. Now I have over 1,000 and I limit my friend list. Many others have ten times that split between different accounts. In order not to bring the facebook universe to a grinding hault Facebook decided to limit your feed to your top friends, and you didn’t get a say in who those people are. Let me say that again: "You don’t get to decide whose posts you see or who sees yours." If for example you wanted to post “Informal Hafla at mine right now, bring a bottle”, some estimates say that 30% of your friends will see that post over the next few days. Not too bad, but that 30% might all be three hours plus away from where you live, while the belly dancer across town who is bored tonight will never see that post. You can influence what you see on your own feed by “liking” posts from the people you want to hear more from. If you like or comment on your class mates baby photos, Facebook will make sure you see the second batch. It therefore follows that if you want more people to see your posts you need to encourage them to “like” or comment on your posts. Some people come right out and ask and that is why you see these kinds of weird fishing posts :
These posts are all about collecting people who will see your next post. There are companies who set up Facebook pages like “Kittens are the best”, fish for highly interactive friends by posting kitten pictures then sell the page on to a company (lets say a Onesie company). A few weeks later they change the name of that page. Suddenly you find that you like “Adult Onesies are the best”, they are filling up your feed with adverts and all your friends are laughing at you. That’s a silly example, but beware, that’s how you get unexpected porn show up in your feed. As a belly dancer you may want to fish for more likes and comments to help promote events you are working on. For example your friends may all like a new video of Rachel Brice that you share, or a photo of you in your new costume. Likes cause more likes. If Facebook sees that most of the 30% of friends they showed your post to liked it, they assume it is important and show it to more. If they also like it, then your message will spread. If your next post is about your event, Facebook sees you as an important person and sends your new post out to more of the folks on your friends list. However if you post the same thing or something simiar, Facebook will limit its access to your followers who don’t want to see the same posts time and again. This is a huge problem for us if we are promoting an event. Say you posted this ;
Let us assume that 30% of your followers saw it. Three people clicked like. If you post it again, word for word, the next day it will only get seen by perhaps 10% of your followers and some of those will over lap. This second post has no hope of reaching your prime market. You feel like you sent it out to everyone on Facebook (twice !), where in reality just a few dozen saw it. We need to do more. The first thing you can do is set up an event on Facebook and invite people. Facebook prefers to send people to its own pages over outside web pages. Put everything on the events page that you would on a web page and post something slightly different to your wall : (See how I'm fishing for comments and clicks !) With an event page you have the chance to invite people directly. I suggest you start a “hit list”. As you connect with people on Facebook make a note of who they are, where they live and how you intend to market to them. It is no different to keeping an address book. I have a list of people who live within an hour of me, who I invite to events I organize. My second list is of people who have shown an interest in starting classes, and I send them an event invite each time a new course starts up. My final list is of people who may host a workshop with me when I travel. For a local event I am going to invite everyone on that first hit list. Event invites go straight to notifications and have a higher chance of being seen. However, so many people send out blanket invites (to everyone on their friends list) that many of us skip over those notifications assuming that they are out of area. Please don’t do this – it spoils the effect for the rest of us ! It also helps if the name of your event includes a location :
The next way you can enhance the views of posts about your event is to tag people. Tagging promotes your post with both your friends and the friends of the person you tag. For example, before I taught in Bristol last month I tagged the host, Sasha, in many of my posts:
Her students and other dancers in the Bristol area where more likely to see that post because she was tagged in it, and it may have helped bookings. It also helps promote her as a community leader and workshop host. She did a great job, and I want other people to know that. Some people are very open to the idea of tagging each other in posts, but limit it to people you are working with on a project. You can’t just tag the most famous belly dancer you know and expect her friends to like you too. Have you seen the posts where a costume designers puts up pictures of new costumes and tags every belly dancer in the universe? You don’t have to help promote their work if you don’t want to. However you should be open to helping out friends by using the tag option. Adjust your setting so that you have to approve any tags others might put on photos or posts. That way you can control how your name is being used, while still promoting events and products you support. Please feel free to share, tag me and comment on any posts about this blog, or about my book ! If you interact with my post it will reach more of my fiends and maybe some of yours might like to know more about me :) Personally I am a big fan of advertising on Facebook. Adverts appear in the main body or side bar of the feed of the people you target. The great thing with Facebook ads is the targeting. For example, before a new semester in Pleasanton I advertise to women over 20 who live in Pleasanton, like dance and are not already connected to me. Over this weekend I advertised to people in the UK,USA, Canada and Noway who like belly dance. That advert helped me find 40 people who liked my book, and 4 people bought it. It cost me $5. I think that is money well spent. Facebook users say they hate adverts, but I think many are more interested in seeing targeted ads. Be honest - you clicked that advert with the pretty yoga pants.... Make sure that all your promotional work links back to one place (most likely your main web site) and remember that people hate to click more than once. If you are promoting an event make sure that when they click on your post or advert they get to a place with all the information they could possibley want. Finally remember to work as part of a community. By sharing other peoples events you help that event information reach more people and position yourself as a “gatekeeper” informing other belly dancers of what is happening. Gatekeepers get more attention and are more customer friendly than those that fish. Your increased popularity in turn increases interest in you, your events and those whose information you share. The more of a community we can build the faster we can get information to people who want it. Post often but keep it fresh and mix up your topics, providing new information and topical news in amoungst your continued promotion of yourself and your events. Too little and you wont be heard, too much and you turn your market against you. Here are my top tips for marketing your event at belly dancers via Facebook: 1, Set up a web page with all the information laid out clearly 2, Set up an event and invite your “hit list” to attend. Make the location clear. 3, Post your event on your wall every few days. Say the same thing with different words, add pictures and make each post new and different. Dont always include the same web site link in the main text:
4, Fish for likes and comments:
5, Advertise on Facebook but target your ads at your prime customers. 6, Ask your friends to share your post. Share other peoples posts. 7, Tag your friends (but ask them first):
8, Don’t limit your focus on Facebook – make a web site, email the local teachers, send out flyers and talk to people over the phone. Good luck with your event, and feel free to share this post, tag me, and buy my book !! http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Belly-Dance-Sara-Shrapnell/dp/0615980848/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395867094&sr=8-1&keywords=teaching+belly+dance . In my book "Teaching Belly Dance" I advice teachers to always have a back up plan...or two. Things do go wrong, and its part of your role as a class teacher to move seamlessly through the lesson no matter what. As if the universe wanted to make me put my money where my mouth is, last Tuesday was not a good day....
So first off you have to know that my husband broke his foot two days before. While he got amazing treatment, it did mean that we spent a lot of time in the hospital and he was forced to spend a couple of days at home. I have a plan for the days when I am working in the evening. I tend to write or edit or generally work on "Teaching Belly Dance" for a few hours, then around 11 I write my lesson plans which takes about an hour, then I move on to my music plan, which is about an hour more, then I often have to practice (particularly if there is some choreography in the lesson). I cant teach it unless I can do it - and being able to do a move or a combination a month ago is not the same as being able to do it tonight ! So that was my plan last Tuesday - not particularly a busy day. Then my husband asked if we could run some errands - of course I am taxi, because he cant drive with a broken foot. One of those errands was to drop a check in with the garage. Its a bit of a drive, but we had time. Three hours later they have finally processed the paperwork and we have an appointment "soon" with the correct member of staff who can take the check. My phone is dead and we have watched three episodes back to back of some weird crime drama on their TV with the sound off. It was the pool boy... oh and I have an hour til class. Thankfully I had done my lesson plan and music plan.... practice not so much... and I hadn't downloaded my music plan to my ipod. I get home, charge my phone, put on make up and go to plug in my iPod.....Nothing. Its not flat, its just crashed. Its now five minutes til leave the house time. I do that reset thing with the outer and inner buttons..... nothing.....I grab water and try to re-set again..... and I reset again.....Now I really have to leave the house. Thankfully I have music on my phone, but not for my plan. I have millions of track - just millions - and I like to have a theme or a pattern running through the weeks for my classes. I spend a lot of time picking just the right track for each activity - but I cant keep all those tracks on my phone, its just not big enough. Instead I keep a minimum list of essentials :
Selling Yourself - social media
3/5/2014
Posted on December 19, 2013 In my book “Teaching Belly Dance” I talk about the different ways to promote your classes, but today I thought I would look at social media, and Facebook in particular, in more detail.
www.TeachingBellyDance.com Keeping Belly Dancers Safe
3/5/2014
Posted on December 27, 2013 As a belly dance teacher your role may soon evolve into that of an agent, booking dancers for restaurants, parties or shows. In my book “Teaching Belly Dance” I run through some tips for how to do this and still stay friends (Super Tip : use contracts !), but I have also added a chapter on how to keep dancers safe. This is controversial for me. I am the mother of two grown sons and a daughter. I believe that one of my most important jobs is to teach my boys not to rape, to respect women, to be the sober one at the party, to call the police, to take a drunk girl home or to call her parents, to protect her, defend her, to speak up. And yet I spend more time teaching my daughter how to stay safe. Why? I want her to be able to walk the streets after dark, just as her brothers do. She should be able to call on a neighbor to borrow sugar, stand by her broken down car and wait for the repair man, to stay in a hotel on her own…. Statistically all these things are safer than the first few weeks of dating a new man, meeting his friends, visiting his home for the first time. The Hollywood monster maybe the stranger lurking down a dark alleyway, but the real monster is the boy next door, the new boyfriend, the man who wants to ask you for a date. Yet I fear the stranger too. As your belly dance teacher I also become your mum, like it or lump it. I’m going to tell you not to take the booking, cos it sounds a bit dodgy, not cos I want the gig myself. I’m going to come with you, guard the door while you change, stand between you and the drunks while you dance (and pretend to take photos), and drive you home. I know you fancy the man a the bar, but you are not staying to chat tonight. Call him tomorrow when he is sober and you are not the “belly dancer”. Sadly he probably wont be so interested. I am old and grumpy and bossy and a spoil sport. Years ago, I would call on a neighbor each afternoon and take her for a walk. She was about ten years older than me, amazingly bright and fascinating. She had traveled the world and was a wealth of information about the Middle East. She needed someone to walk with her as she was in the last few weeks of carrying her twins. It was a joyful shuffle and sway around the block. I was first choice babysitter to her babies, walked them home from school when she went back to work, spent Christmas afternoons admiring their presents. Today one of those twins posted a very interesting blog about “rape culture”, she quoted feminists, anti-feminists, sociologists and scientists. I’m kind of proud to see that this teenager is obviously studying this subject in depth and feels strongly enough about her views to share them with others. But I am also sad. She is 15. My generation should have sorted this for her. People like me and her mother – strong, intelligent women – we have been teaching our boys not to rape, but its not enough. She sees more work to be done, and she is right. In the chapter “Keeping dancers safe” I list the things we need to do as dancers, and teach to other dancers, to be “street wise”. I wish it wasn’t necessary. I wish I could cut that chapter. I wish that every dancer could feel safe from attack. But in the mean time I’m going to spell out in my book the “rules”. I am happy to be mum to any performer, and if I cant be there then let me give you my voice in your head telling you to be alert – like it or lump it ! Teaching Belly Dance is available on Amazon - Return to Sara's Blog to read more including : "I'm Perfect for Belly Dance, and so are you!" and "Picking out a Troupe Costume".
Sara Shrapnell's new book "Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage", with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya is available in summer 2016 Aims for 2014
3/5/2014
Posted on December 29, 2013
I’m not usually one for New Years Resolutions, but I do like to set myself aims and now seems like a good time to re-set. My last set of aims was written when I moved to the USA:
I think these are going to be my new aims :
www.TeachingBellyDance.com How Much !!!?
3/5/2014
Updated : 2020 I get asked this all the time “how much should I charge for….” In our book "Becoming a Belly Dancer" - the stagecraft handbook for belly dancers - we avoided costs that would quickly become outdated, but here are a few pointers on how I calculate costs for all kinds of events: No matter what the job is start with your “I wont get out of bed for less than” price. This expression comes from the modelling world, but it works for other businesses too – just how much money do you want before you will get out of bed, put on your full make up, and “be” the belly dancer? This will depend a bit on what kind of work you are being offered – for example I hate teaching kids, but I love my regular students – I probably want twice my “get out of bed” price for a morning in a school. This also covers costs associated with being a teacher or performer that might come under the umbrella of “admin” or “hassle”. You might factor in the cost of your mobile phone, computer, internet into your annual business costs, but what about time spent on the phone or answering emails? Sometimes a booking can be organize with a quick phone chat followed by the emailing of a contract. Other times it takes twenty calls before the client decides they want to book the balloon artist instead. And I cant calculate the many hours and miles I have burnt on my quests for keys for dance studios over the last seventeen years. If you still feel as if you don’t deserve the “get out of bed” price then use it as part of your negotiation when a customer wants you to drop your price. Add in the things you can put a price on. How much will the traveling cost you? Gas/petrol, bus tickets, train fare…. add parking, entry fee if you are being charged. How much is room hire? and insurance? And how about those things that are harder to price? Do you need a new costume? or does your costume need repairs or a dry clean? You will need a full face of make up, and perhaps false nails, eyelashes or a spray tan. Divide these costs between how many jobs you do between payments. So if you perform twice a week all year and buy three costumes each year, you should divide the cost of the costumes by 100(ish) jobs (3 costumes @ $300 = $900 divided by 100 jobs = $9 per job), if you do your nails each month then that cost is divided by 8 jobs ($40 divided by 8 = $5)…. and so on Next you can charge for your skills. I charge $50 per hour to teach (or prepare a lesson) and $100 per half hour to perform – or to wait to perform ! Remember that you should be paid for all the time you are on site, not just for the time that you are on stage. You are still a belly dancer goddess while you are hanging out in the toilets waiting for the stage to be set up. Make sure that your booker knows that they will be paying for you from the moment you arrive and that you have to leave on time. Or you can simply assume that every 15 minute performance will include two hours of hanging about and be happy to know that you are being paid to text your mum or read a book. Now to preparation. Each one hour beginner lesson should take about an hour to prepare. More advanced classes are about twice that; an hour of studying the style (taking workshops, watching videos and on line research), plus an hour of lesson planning. If your preparation hourly rate is $50 then you want to recover $100 from each beginner class and $150 for each advanced class. If you have twenty students then that will be $5 each for beginners and $7.50 for Advanced. Don’t forget to add in other charges to that (such as hall hire, teaching time and insurance) before settling on a class fee. If you have a student who would like a private lesson look at how long the preparation is going to take. Assessing their choreography will take less preparation than writing a choreography especially for them. When taking a booking for a performance add in preparation time to that as well. How long will it take you to put on professional level make up? Do you need to plan a new playlist? Write a new choreography? or re-learn an old one? If the client asks that you perform to her favorite piece of music, add in the cost it is going to take you to prepare something special for that tune, and/or to purchase the music. Lets look at a few examples:
Your local area will have a “set” fee level, so once you have worked out what you feel you need to charge, talk to other local dancers and see how your prices compare. Don’t ever undercut the other local dancers. Even if you are the youngest, least experienced dancer or teacher in the area you would do better to support the local price structure than to undermine it. If other dancers are charging less than you then encourage them to move towards a more realistic pricing structure. Remember that local teachers and performers are by far your best source of work – no “cheap” gig is worth upsetting the local scene. That is not to say that you can not give your time and energy as a gift for friends or charity if you want to – just as an accountant can do his grandmothers tax, you should be allowed to teach your daughters brownie troupe if you want to – BUT – always let them know the cost of that gift, so as not to distort the general public’s idea of what a belly dancer costs. Personally I always work from a contract, even if I intend to “gift” my fee back to the charity, and I ask for payment up front on the understanding that I will return the money if the event goes well. It also means that someone with a check book approved my booking. In the early days I would turn up ready to teach or perform only to be told “Sorry, I just spoke to the committee and they didn’t realize I had invited you. They are not sure its suitable. Sorry I wasted your time….” I think its better to have that conversation three days before a performance when the check hasn’t arrived (and I can take the phone call in my PJs). Your contract should make it very clear what the client is paying for, how long you will be on site, when you get paid, if you want cash, what happens to any tips, how many students you can teach (and ask that they are sober if you are doing a party), who is paying for the room hire, who is insured and clarify the cancellation policy. If you like this blog, go back to my blog page and check out some others like: Teacher Knows Best Dealing with Difficult Students I'm Perfect for Belly Dance (and so are you) Why Belly Dancers need to Walk the Line Teaching Belly Dance: Making Corrections Being Part of the Solution Or check out my Hub Blogs including: "Your First Belly Dance Workshop" The Top Ten Belly Dance Tunes for Performance" "Finding a Great Belly Dance Teacher" The book “Teaching Belly Dance” includes some example contracts to help you hire an outside teacher to teach a workshop for your students or perform in your show, plus lots of other advice for anyone who teaches belly dance. “Teaching Belly Dance”, by Sara Shrapnell is available through Amazon. Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage is a stagecraft handbook for belly dancers of all levels and all styles. It includes a chapter on getting paid and has lots of help for those who want to find great gigs. |
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