🦄 3 Myths You Probably Believe About Fusion Bellydance Improvisation

There are some very common misconceptions about improvisational performances that are probably holding you back. Let’s break them down and bust through them so you can unleash your bellydance brilliance!

1. You have to create totally new movements during every second of an improvised transcultural dance performance.

A lot of people think that if you plan any aspects of your performance it doesn’t count as improv. I totally disagree. Improvisational dance performances are often comprised of a dancer’s favorite movements, patterns, and choreographed combinations. I have several combinations of movement that I love doing and I am always delighted to see how they magically line up in brand new ways when I dance them to different songs and genres of music. 

I’ll venture to say that most improvisational dancers have a huge vocabulary of movements and combos that they use over and over again. Each new context gives each movement a new quality, making sure they never get bored with even their most favorite combinations. 

I still teach and perform many of the combinations that appear in this group choreography I made and performed with Rose Movement Studio in 2018 (check out the video below). In fact, many of these combinations have been adapted and codified into my cued group improvisation format, Cued Cohesion (which you can learn inside The Cohesion Collective). 

2. There is one correct way to bellydance to certain rhythms, instruments, and songs.

Raqs sharqi and fusion bellydancers tell me all the time that they are scared to dance “the wrong way” to certain music. This concern is completely valid and coming from a kind place. Dancers want to understand the musical context and feel confident about their creative choices. So do I! That’s why we know it’s best not to dance to lyrics we do not understand or have reliable translations for. 

It is also true that certain rhythms and instruments tend to pair well with certain movement qualities and vocabulary. For example: when I hear a fast malfuf rhythm I feel inspired to travel around the stage building the energy up with movement that has an energetic climactic quality. When I hear a slow chifteteli rhythm I feel inspired to stay in place doing sinuous figure eight type movements (I might even drop for some floor work or a back bend). The fast-paced plucking of a qanun often inspires me to shimmy while the continuous flow of a ney usually inspires me to undulate in various parts of my body. 

While there are generally accepted conventions and commonly made choices, there are not agreed-upon exact hard and fast rules. The key is to become familiar with the classic songs, instruments, and rhythms of raqs sharqi so you can form your own individual relationship to each one. By forming your own personal relationship to each layer of the music you will invite a wide range of dynamics into your performance!

Check out the video and see the different movement qualities that emerge with each Middle Eastern rhythm featured in this choreography. You can learn most of these combos inside my online coaching program The Cohesion Collective.

Very soon I’ll be teaching an updated version of the chifteteli combo featured in this dance (with optional floorwork and backbends!) so apply to the program today to join in time for my live workshop!

3. You can only dance an improvised raqs sharqi performance as a soloist, never with a group.

Yes, raqs sharqi is typically performed as a solo improvised dance but there are plenty of exceptions to that! We’ve all seen cheeky duet choreographies from the Golden Era and large stage productions with a huge corps troupe of dancers all performing in sync together. 

For fusion bellydancers, many of us LOVE cued group improvisation. Whether it’s Fat Chance Belly Dance Style, Improv Team Sync, Datura Style, Cued Cohesion, or one of the many other cued group improv systems, they all have a similar structure. A dancer in the “lead position” of a formation gives visual cues to the rest of the dancers occupying “follower positions” that tell the group what moves they will all do next. In most cases, every dancer gets to take a turn in the lead position. Cued group improvisation is truly a group effort and SO MUCH FUN! The movements may be created entirely on-the-spot or (most often) dancers are improvisationally arranging movements and combinations that they have practiced many many times. 

Here is an example of Drake and I dancing Cued Cohesion (the cued group improvisation format I teach inside The Cohesion Collective).

If you want to feel more confident during your improvisational performances, apply to join us inside The Cohesion Collective TODAY. I’ll teach you to identify musical components that will inspire your solo improvisations and a whole library of combinations you can use over and over again!

There’s no obligation to join and when you apply you’ll get access to my advanced private training where I explain exactly how I train people to become brilliant bellydancers!

Warmly,

April Rose and The Cohesion Collective Team 🌹

“Improvisation was scary to me but now the feeling in the moment of ‘being danced’ is truly magical! Every decision is a conscious choice, not a gamble. It feels great.”

— Drake von Trapp, Dance Cohesion Trained Teacher

Become a Brilliant Bellydancer

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