Music Mapping Crash Course
A good map makes exploring more fun, you can strike out confident that you'll be able to find your way back. In dance, mapping the music...
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Student Resources
Here, you will find student reading, including links to other resources, material written by our teachers, and links to lots of video clips!
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Lisa Lumina
- Feb 23
- 2 min
Level One: Undulations Unit, Class 5
Articles For the last class of each unit, we cover a different music genre. Today, it's a two-for! Egyptian Shaabi and Marhagan. Shaabi...
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Lisa Lumina
- Feb 23
- 2 min
Level One: Infinities Unit, Class 5
Articles The topic for this unit’s Music genre was going to be folkloric songs, but that is such a broad topic that I think we are better...
60
Lisa Lumina
- Feb 22
- 2 min
Level One: Figure 8 Unit, Class 5
Articles Although both "Arabic Classics" and "raqs sharki entrance numbers" use the sound of an orchestra, and many of the classics can...
30
Lisa Lumina
- Feb 22
- 2 min
Level One: Circle Unit, Class 5
Articles When I first started, the line between pop music and shaabi music was more clear. Today, many shaabi artists are very popular....
30
Lisa Lumina
- Jan 16
- 3 min
Evolution in Dance
We need to talk about "evolution" Did you know that the line up drawing of increasingly more upright apes is called the "march of...
50
Lisa Lumina
- Jan 16
- 3 min
L2 music mapping and song structures
When working on mapping out a song's verses/section, what I like to call paragraphs, there are some common pattens they can take. You can...
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Lisa Lumina
- Jan 16
- 2 min
L2: Phrasing and Transition Cues
A musical phrase is a bit like a sentence in a conversation. You will notice there are some places that you naturally try to fit in a...
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Lisa Lumina
- Jan 15
- 3 min
L2: Call & Response
I like to start teaching phrasing with call and response because I think the change between the call and the response helps to draw...
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Lisa Lumina
- Jan 13
- 2 min
L2: Taxeem, Mawal, and Tarab
Takeem (also spelled taqasim, taqsim, takseem, taxim, etc, etc) is a solo melodic improvisation. There is a structure to it that explores...
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Lisa Lumina
- Jan 13
- 3 min
L2: Bands and Orchestras
Part 1: This semester, we've worked on musical phrasing and learning to identify different instruments. All of that comes together when a...
40
Lisa Lumina
- Jan 13
- 3 min
L2: Percussion Instruments
This is intended as a source of review for students, or as an orientation. It is by no means an exhaustive list of all MENAHT...
60
Lisa Lumina
- Jan 13
- 3 min
L2: Blown instruments
This is intended as a source of review for students, or as an orientation. It is by no means an exhaustive list of all MENAHT...
40
Lisa Lumina
- Jan 13
- 4 min
L2: String Instruments
This is intended as a source of review for students, or as an orientation. It is by no means an exhaustive list of all MENAHT...
60
Lisa Lumina
- Apr 30, 2022
- 3 min
The Awalim's Spell
To understand the place of a bellydancer in Egyptian society, there are two helpful things to know about. The Awalim, and the Zeffa. The...
220
Lisa Lumina
- Apr 7, 2022
- 5 min
Leveling Up Is About More Than Technique
Most of us start out on our bellydance journey learning isolations, steps, and movements. We may be lucky enough to have a teacher who...
260
Lisa Lumina
- Mar 15, 2021
- 2 min
Lisa's Favorite Dance Quotes
"The floor section is not only a rest before the drum solo, it is a place where you can nail your soul to the stage for all to see"- Cory...
220
Lisa Lumina
- Mar 15, 2021
- 8 min
Tips For Your First Workshop
Congratulations on signing up for your first workshop! Workshops are different from regular classes for a few reasons: there will likely...
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Lisa Lumina
- Mar 15, 2021
- 8 min
Why Learn (about) Different Styles
Post 11 of 11. It can seem like an overly intellectualizing exercise to differentiate between many different styles of bellydance, and...
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Lisa Lumina
- Mar 14, 2021
- 8 min
Costuming for a Troupe
This post is less about what makes a professional, beginner, or advancing amateur quality costume, and more about the options for...
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Lisa Lumina
- Mar 14, 2021
- 5 min
Cover Ups: Why, What, and How
If you haven't already, I suggest reading Ashiya and Naajidah's piece "where have all the cover ups gone?" For a good summary of why you...
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