so, as my experience as a dancer increases, I find that I'm less worried about my core set of moves and am more focused on fine-tuning my performances... This makes me really scrutinize the dancers who blow me away, looking for the little things they do that make them amazing. It's like dance research, paying close attention to the movements and postures that make a performance go from good to amazing.

For me, the main observations I've found that make a performance go to the next level are:

*understanding the importance of stillness. I see so many dancers that look frantic- like they're trying to do too much at once and doing all of them badly. So, when a dancer pauses or just does one small isolation in place, it can be riveting. a well-placed stationary moment can really heighten the drama of a performance and make a dancer/s shine.

*becoming an instrument in your music. This is a BIG one of how I separate amazing dancers from just OK ones. It really irks me when a dancer "dances over" their music instead of dancing WITH it. This especially occurs when dancers choose music that's really complicated and beyond their skill level (I've certainly done it in the past and have regretted it). But when a dancer empahsizes their music and play with ideas like filling negative space in music and hitting certain points in their music, it's just awesome. Zoe Jakes is a great example of a dancer who understands how to be an instrument in her music. She's not dancing over her music, instead she's like another accompanying instrument thrown into the mix. It makes it so much more fascinating to watch.

*POSTURE/presence. Posture is the most basic and most challenging part of Tribal bellydance. For my first year or so of dancing, I thought I had such great poise and posture... til I saw a video. Then I saw that I was slump city. I see poor posture everywhere in bellydance and it's so frustrating. Because owning that posture/tribal presence turns a dancer into a captivating, empowered tribal god/goddess. I am always so astounded at dancers whose presence seems to radiate off them. So, I've made posture my main thing to focus on, as I want to be just as riveting and radiant.

*Hands- there is a rash of "flippy hand" out there- when someone misinterprets the floreo and a fast, flippy rotation of the wrist and totally loses the grace and motion of the fingers. I know I did it for a while until another dancer called me on it. Then I started really focusing and that led me to see bad hand movement everywhere. So, when I see a dancers whose hands look like they're rippling through water instead of flipping, it's so cool. It just gives this otherworldly aesthetic.


Those are just a few of mine... what about you? I'd love to hear what you all find makes a dancer go from good to AWESOME