When does someone become a professional dancer that is asked by quite a few students.  It is also something that many do not have a good understanding of what is meant by being a proffesional and many times students and others do not know the difference  between a dancer is is only at the amatuer level and one who has reached the professional level.

We are first going to take a look at the definitions of a professional and amatuer so we can distinguish between the two.  Lets start with the definition of professional.  Professional-livelyhood or monetary gain.  Skilled, expertise, knowledgable, conforms to standards of profession, recieving pay.  It is one who is competentant and who gives instruction to others or is hired by others.  They have distinctive qualifications and is someone who is trained, experianced, a master, competent.  They teach those who want to learn and they draw an income and pay taxes.  A professional dancer has the proper training, works hard and is very dedicated and is one who seeks out legitimate training  by other dancers who are qualified and they will have either a coach or mentor.  They are one who must train constantly and the not only teach, perform but educate others and are self diciplined and their life is all about dance, in which they are constatnly working on performance and rehearsing while practicing for hours and preparing.  It requires a certain amount of talent and love for the art in order to make it a career, mastering the skills, marketing, accounting and public relations.  It takes continuas education and not only managing yourself but others.  They are true represetnitives of the art and spend time respecting, networking and working toward increasing the awarness withing the dancers own community.

An amatuer is someone who engages in an activity for pleasure there is little to none financial or professional benefit.  It is done as either a past time or hobby and the amatuer is not experianced or seasoned.  They can be be or still do not have all the skills that is needed to become professional and they do not have enough training and or study and performance.  They do not have the knowledge yet that is needed to be at the professional level. They are those that have not mastered all the elements of  the dance Most students and most dancers fall under this catagory. They have no desire to gain monetary value and do not have the desire or dedication to reach the professional level.

What does my average day look as a professional belly dancer like most of us we do have other jobs very few professional belly dancers are able to live on what they make by just dancing.  I wake up at about 6:30 every morning to get ready for my other job where I spend about 6 hours at 4 days a week.  The first thing I do in the morning is usually check my dance email and reply back to anyone that has emailed me, get ready for work and head out the door by 8:45 am.  Throughout the day I will recieve texts or phone calls about from either students I already have, prospective students, clients and so on.  I am continually touching base with each returning calls or text messages.  I go home at lunch and again check my dance email and reply to those that have emailed me. As  I go back to work and while working I will come up with choreography, moves, class curriculum is always on my mind so I jot down notes throughout the day on ideas and plans I have.  I leave for the day at 4:00 which is when I take care of family stuff but in the mix I am again emailing or on the phone talking belly dance.  Every day there is class text to do, cds to burn, packets to make, coming up with choreography, learning choreography and so on.  When I have a class I spend most of my time after I get off work preparing and driving to the class and not getting home until 8:30.  Once home then this is the time I have to work on my own choroegraphies, getting ready for performance, and or training.  Wait, there is still more….my website has to be constantly updated, writing blogs, videos and so forth. Monthly newsletters done, editing videos. Writing articles to be published and seeing what is going on in the dance community that myself and or my students can take part in and  talking with other dancers (networking).  Marketing myself is an ongoing effort in order to try and get gigs and performances and I am always looking for places for not only myself to dance but my students as well.  Then there is the financial side keeping my costs and what comes in is an ongoing thing. This usually puts me up to 11:00 pm and we have not even talked about up keep on costumes and or making, preparing for student recitals and more!!  No wonder there are some days when I feel I can’t move!!!  I will tell you though that I would not have it any other way!!  Being a professional belly dancer takes commitment and time, but for me it is truly worth it when I see a student grow or I put a smile on someones face by dancing!!

Since the start of February  my students and I have been working very hard on learning new choreography.  Specifically, we have been working on the choreography for our upcoming performance that will happen May 12, 2012 in Columbus, The Shimmy Mob.  The choreograpy has been very challenging and we have made some adjustments. but it is going very well and I am so proud of all my girls and their hard work and determination!!  Last year we had started to work on choreography to Gana and due to situations we were not able to finish it, but we will do so this year!!  I have put the final choreography notes on th choreography page and soon you will be able to watch a video performance of the choreography!!  My Intermediate group had been working on choreography to Dance of Eternity and we will be reviewing that as well as teaching it to the new students who have joined us!!!  Later down the road we will also be working on a cane choreography that I came across it is a cute choreography and I have made some changes to it.  This will allow all my students to get a feel for what it is like dancing with a prop and the students will get a feel for the saidi rhythm.  Having a few pieces of music that are choreographed will help out when we are invited somewhere to perform and will give us a few pieces to play with!!!  Learning choreography will help you see how you transition from one move to the next, but remember it will not help you impromptu dance which is my goal for all students to be able to hear music and dance to it without thinking about moves or counting.  It is about letting yourself go, being free with the music and interpreting it in your own way.  We will eventually get back to drilling.  I am asking all my students to take the time to work on your drills at home, when we are not in class.  Here is an exampe of how you can set it up and work on certain parts each day:

Sunday off

Monday Chest: drops and lifts. chest circles and chest slides

Tuesday Hips; Sharp:  Pistons both ups and downs, Hip thrusts

Wed Hips; Soft:  figure 8’s, small hip cirlces, mayas, ribbons

Thursday Glute drills

Friday Arms: moving through first, second and third position, snake arms, shoulder rolls, shoulder thrusts, wrist circles

Saturday Pelvic and Abs:  pelvic lifts, pelvic drops, pelvic roll, contract mid section of belly in and release.

Having a day for a different part of the body will allow you to focus more and will round out your dancing so that you are not working on the same movements or body parts each day!!  It will make you more aware of your movement and what needs worked on and drilling will make

Like most of us who start dancing when we go to our first class we really do not know what to expect or what we are even getting into.  For some of us Belly Dancing is a way to exercise or meet new people or it is on there bucket list, which I have just recently heard this statement more then once over the last year!   Then there are those of us who decided to take it up to fill a burning passion that is inside of us, to learn an art and culture.  The reasons why we dance or varied and what we put into the dance varies within each of us and how driven and motivated we are.

I am going to give you guidelines that I feel it is important for all students to not only grown with the dance but to learn.  Honestly, it cannot be done in a one hour class once a week.  Each student should take it upon themselves to do homework when away from class so here are just a few suggestions and you will be amazed at the results!!

Keep a Journal

Writing about your experiances wheter it is about class time, moves that you are learning, how you are feeling is a very important aspect of your dance journey.  You will find out what inspires you, what you like and do not like.  It will help you put into play what needs to be worked on and what you have accomplished.  The journal is for you to write about your feelings about the dance.  I suggest writing in it at least once a week.  This will really help you reflect on your studies.

Listen to music

There is a reason why I supply my students with music Cd’s.  This is so you can listen to the different sounds and rhythms at your own convenience away from class time.  If you have a Cd player in your car keep your music there and listen to it when you drive or take some time away from others and play your music in a quite place and just listen to it.  Thats right, no dancing just listen to the different rhythms, instruments and accents.  You will learn the music very quickly and be able to pick things out into it that will help prepare you when you go to choreograph your first piece or even improv.

Youtube

Go to Youtube and wach videos of other dancers, this will allow you to see how other dancers put moves together and give you a sense of the wonderful assortment of the different styles and how each of us interpret the music making it our own.  You will be suprised you also may pick up a cute move as you watch.  Some dancers to check out:  Suhaila Salimpour, Aziza, Suzzana Del Vehicco, Jillina, Ansuya, and my mentor Leyla Najma just to name a few.

Subscribed to a magazine

This will give you insight on what other dancers are doing and what is going on the dance community and how other dancing are achieving their dreams.  There are two magazines that I suggest Jareeda and Belly Dance Chronicles both our wonderful and very unique and different. Here are the websites:  http://www.jareeda.com/ and http://www.isisandthestardancers.com/CHRONICLES/Chronicles.htm.

Dance

This is a given, in order to improve and learn you must practice at home.  I can easily tell those students who practice away from class and those who do not.  It really does not take that long and even if you have 5 minutes pick something that you need to work on wheter it is pistons or chest circles and work on that one move.  You will be amazed at the difference it will make and sometimes it takes being away from class and in the comfort of your home for the light bulb to go on!  You do not have to carve out an hour and it is important to realize that you do not have to work on everything at once.  One day focus on just hips, another day focus on arms, or focus on just sharp movements and then another soft.

This gives you five different things to work on in the comfort of your home for five days if your feeling ambitious!!  This is just a start and basic guidelines and I will write more about this in the future and expand.

Along with this read my blogs and newsletters to keep up to date!!

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a local business wanting to know if I could do an Introduction Belly Dance Class for their employee’s and the end result on what they wanted was to say the least shocking and did not turn out as I would have hoped. The end result was that this business asked me to hold a 1 hour class for at least 18 or so women for free!! Yes, I said that word, FREE!! Let me ask all of you one question, who out there would work for free at your job at this day and age? Anyone?

Being in the entertaining business, we sometimes come across those who do not understand that this is our profession and that we are professionals. It is obvious that neither people who want something for free, first do not care nor are they educated about what we do and how much time, money and effort we put into our business. Yes, my belly dancing is my business, I wear several hats that of a dancer and a business women and to be able to make a profit, just like any other business. I have heard from not only many other dancers, but singers and musicians who are asked the same thing; will you perform for free? I have found also that in the past when someone asks me to do something for free, there is no benefit that I get out of it and it does not pay. You might say it is free advertising, but in reality it isn’t due to the fact that when someone wants something for free they are not supportive of you or your worth and they will not help you spread the word because it is too much work and takes time and someone who is not willing to pay for your expertise is not going to value what you do and spread the word to others, unfortunately this is how it is.

What is our worth? When we are hired out to perform whether it is for a birthday, wedding or organization it is important to know that you are paying for the preparation that goes into that performance or class and the time that is spent in that 20 minute performance and or hour class. Before any performance or class there is preparation that needs to be done in order to give my clients and students the best for their money. We spend many hours preparing the music, choreography’s, curriculum, costuming and last but not least traveling and gas to the event and preparation leading up to the event takes a lot of time and money. The list though does not stop here and any dancer will tell you that you get what you pay for and when someone hires me they will get the best out of the best in quality and professionalism. This is my business and I take it very seriously. Being an artist it takes a lot of not only my time and money and I spend money on rent, dance training, music, props, makeup, advertising, computers, software, website expenses, business cards, supplies for classes such as folders, music cd’s, dvd’s, ink, printers and so much more. Then there are the many hours that I spend on training and studying, editing music, adjusting and fixing costumes, engaging with clients and lastly working and performing.

Lastly, asking anyone to do something for free in today’s world is inappropriate and that my time in preparation and dancing is very much well worth the price those we dancers do charge. In fact, It think we sometimes do not charge enough and we have to be careful when it comes to how much to charge. My dancing is not a hobby anymore, even though, yes, I do enjoy it. It is my profession and my job and I treat it as such.

As Leyla Najma put it in her blog on Shades of Grey; Leyla Najma’s Hip Phylosphy; I need to ask this, “Do you work for free at your office? Would you like it if your boss said, I want you to travel and do this work for me but I can’t pay you so you’ll have to pay for all your expenses out of your own pocket?” What would be her response…?

You can read Leylas blog at: http://leyla-najma.net/3086/shades-grey/

Belly Dancing is not just about dancing and learning movements and refining the technique.  Belly Dancing is also a way to connect with yourself and to find out who you really are and how you feel about the dance.  When keeping a journal, you will find what you like about the dance, what you do not like etc….it will help you grow as a dancer and take you to the next step.  Journaling helps us to get our ideas out of our head and onto paper so that we can see what we are thinking and what is on our mind.  When we write it down it becomes clearer and will serve as a training tool.

Journaling may seem difficult at first so try not to look at it as a task something you must do, but something you want to do.  To get your started on the first page just write your name date and title it “My Belly Dance Diary “ or “ My Belly Dance Journal”.  The next step to take would be just taking a few moments and right down all the movements that come to the top of your head, without thinking.  If you find yourself thinking too hard and you stop writing; stop, even if you only have a few written down. The reason for this is a want it to be a free and natural process and these will be the movements that you are most comfortable with anyways and your core movements.  Keep the journal with you at all times so when an idea comes to mind or a movement, combination or anything else comes to mind you can write it down right away so you do not have to worry about trying to remember it.

Have a section in your journal were you write about you dance experience.  Things you can write about would be:  how you felt about class, choreography or even a performance.  These are very simple things to get you started.  It may seem difficult at first, but after a few times, you will not have a lot of difficulty and will look forward into writing in it rather than being a chore.  This will help connect with you and is a good tool in learning and expanding your belly dance dreams!