A Review of Technique at Ya Halla, Y’All

By Michelle

Aziza was, as always, a fabulous, charming teacher. She taught her signature technique and then a drum solo choreography. I went to her Albuquerque workshop in June and figured she'd be teaching the same drum choreography--after all, she's a busy woman, how many can she have at the ready within two months? Well, more than one (and probably more than 6 or 7)! It was the fastest three hours!

Her signature isolation exercise has become a staple at Farfesha Studios since I first studied with her. In this extended exercise, you slide your right hip to the forward right diagonal, slide it back to center, slide it directly to the right side, back to center, then to the back right diagonal and back to center. Repeat many times. Then repeat to the left side. It is important to really isolate your hips from your upper body. My “signature” routine for helping separate chest and hips is to take a deep breath, feeling your ribs lift. Now exhale, but make sure to leave your ribs lifted. (When you breathe, your shoulders don’t generally raise also, but if yours have, make sure you pull them down.) Repeat this slide isolation a dozen times. Next, execute ½ a maia (vertical figure 8 over) to each of the three positions. Again, make sure to keep the upper body out of the move. Try to get as much extension in each movement as possible. Repeat on the other side. Try this exercise with a variety of hip moves—my favorite is the shimmy slide.

Aziza’s drum solo was dynamic—choreographed to the Veena and Nena Belly Dance Fantasy drum solo. A couple of movements really struck my fancy. The first was what I called in my notes a cantilevered chest square (or diamond). The cantilever refers to the rest of the upper body moving in opposition to the chest movement. (Rather difficult to explain without a body to demonstrate, isn’t it?) You begin as if you are simply drawing a diamond with your ribs: lift the chest, slide it sideways and down diagonally, collapse it down, slide it sideways and up diagonally, then lift it back to center. When the chest slides sideways and down diagonally, push the shoulders the other direction, away from the ribs. Think hip hop with Egyptian polish. The second move I loved involved sharp shoulder drops with a sharp hip drop. It is natural to drop the opposite hip but this gives you a Betty Boop move. Instead, drop the same hip as the shoulder. This takes some work on muscle memory, but done sharply enough is really dynamic.

Aziza made us laugh, gave us quick breaks just before we were about to drop, and flashed her famous smile in encouragement. Plus, on Saturday, she wore her Farfesha shirt--what a complete sweetie! Her Friday night show was gorgeous, but she absolutely blew us away on Saturday night with a veil piece that was pure butter! She then wrapped herself in the veil and with the last tek of the drum, dropped the veil which fell like the opening of a stage curtain. It was so cool! She just exudes charm. One thing that stuck with me and I only realized long after I returned home was that she kept her costuming simple, simple, simple, allowing her moves to shine rather than the bling of what she was wearing. Friday night she wore her carmel brown velvet/chiffon set which you can see on one of her videos (I think Aziza Raks?). But the Saturday night costume was exquisite in fit and simplicity. It was a green bra base with gold coins and a gold metal belt. A very sleek green skirt and variegated green silk veil completed the look. It made me really glad I’ve never succumbed to those $800 costumes beaded and sequined within an inch of their lives.

Saturday was Jillina’s workshops. This was our first study time with Jillina and Wow! She taught for SIX HOURS and then delivered a ten minute live drum solo that night. The morning choreography was typical Jillina--typically beautiful that is. One simple yet effective move was a grapevine. Rather than a sideways-travelling ethnic grapevine step, she used the crossing feet, yet turned her body so that it became more of a forward movement. She also had an excellent demonstration of Egyptian shimmies. She had us sit on the floor, legs extended out. She then had us bend and straighten our knees rapidly, slapping our legs on the floor. When we stood up, our Egyptian shimmies were markedly better! Even more fun was the afternoon class which was with Issam, the fabulous drummer! We worked on drum rhythms, including which rhythms were used in different parts of a song and a drum solo. She also advised us which moves best fit each rhythm (the hand out which included a break down of the rhythms was very helpful). Then, the drum choreography! In case you are one of the few who don’t know that drum solos are my absolute favorite, let me tell you, I was in a state of bliss! Dancing a hot drum choreography to an amazingly talented drummer. As soon as we had it (an hour later!), we danced and danced it to his drumming--heaven! Oops, now I'll have to tell Fesh drummer Charles I cheated on him...hope he forgives me!

Jillina’s performance on Friday night began with a lovely choreography and ended with a snappy drum solo with Issam. They closed this show and what a way to send the audience home! Saturday night’s performance also closed the show, but this time Jillina skipped the canned music, instead dancing extensively to Issam’s drumming. She included her signature move—wicked head tosses with flaming hair a-flying. On Friday night, her costume was very suble—dark teal accented with rhinestones, very little fringe but with an elegant waist and off-the-shoulder drape. Saturday night’s costume was anything but subtle, unless you consider cobalt blue and electric lime green subtle, but it was so effective! And while the colors were eye-popping, the overall line of the outfit was sleek and perfectly proportioned to her.

Sunday’s classes began with Virginia from Miami. I first saw Virginia on the Egyptian Academy of Oriental Dance videos. She always struck me as such an elegant, refined dancer that I incorporated several of her moves into my own choreography. In this instance, I saw her perform both Friday night and Saturday night before taking her class. She couldn’t be ungraceful if she tried, but her style has changed somewhat—she has a lot more non-stop shimmy in her performance now (or at least she did in these shows). While she is a master of the shimmies, I kind of missed the ballroom-dancer ease of some of the video performances of her I’d seen. Nevertheless, she had some really dynamic moments, especially when she threw herself on the floor a la Martha Graham at the end of her Friday performance. She also had a stellar beginning to her Saturday performance, having the stage curtain open to reveal her wrapped in irridescent wings of Isis veils. One thing I really admired about her wings performance was the fact that she continued to move her body while she fluttered the veils. All too often, I see dancers simply swoop their arms around, allowing the Isis veils to be the dancer, rather than using the veils to highlight their bodies and their moves. Virginia’s costumes ranked high on the glitter factor—bright pink on Friday, white and silver on Saturday. They did suit her coloring perfectly.

Virginia’s class began with some basic technique review (including a very different description of an umi—more glut oriented rather than lower ab or inner thigh), but very quickly moved into choreography to Harramt Aheback, an Egyptian song of heartbreak and scorn (aren’t they all?) I found the choreography challenging to frustrating as did many dancer around me, but when I realized how many hours we had taken classes, combined with several late night shows, I considered that we were all simply on overload with thousands of shimmies floating in our heads, pounding drum solos filling our ears, and eyes bleary from watching so many great dancers. Virginia presented some great travelling combinations with slinky leg work and stage-covering direction changes. She also reminded us of Dina’s squat turn. Virginia had us perform a three-step-turn to the left. On the last step, we quickly squatted low, swooping our hips around before straightening up, pushing our hips forward. Dynamic!

Jehan Jamal and Amir Thaleb also instructed during the Ya Halla Y’all weekend. Unfortunately, our plane was five hours late arriving on Thursday night and we performed Friday night, so we had to factor in some recovery time so we were forced to miss Jehan’s Friday class. Amir Thaleb’s class, which I’m sure was high energy, was Sunday afternoon, but our return flight prevented us from taking this class.

Overall, we came home with pages of notes, that dizzying sense of accomplishment for having danced so hard and so long, the euphoria of nailing our performances and having them well received, and the determination to improve our technique and styling! Well done Ya Halla!

Farfesha Belly Dance © 2004