Music | Jade Belly Dance

Free music for dance cool downs, yoga and meditation!

03 Jun 2016 Leave a comment

by jadebellydance in Belly Dance, Music, Self-confidence Tags: ambient, Belly Dance, bellydancing, Dance, Free, Free Music, Jade Belly Dance, Moby, Music

Another fine musician is giving their music away for free. This time it is Moby with 4hrs of totally free music you can use to help you loosen up those muscles, or unwind from a challenging belly dance class. Moby made it to help him when he needs to do “yoga or sleep or meditate or panic”.

The music is “really quiet: no drums, no vocals, just very slow calm pretty chords and sounds and things”. So if this sounds like something you could use then get downloading dear readers and chill out.

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Yep it can even help you sleep or stress less. Let me know in the comments below if you like it or if it helps you with pre performance jitters.

Do certain instruments encourage the same belly dance moves in all dancers?

17 Apr 2016 Leave a comment

by jadebellydance in Arabic drumming, Belly Dance, Dance tips, Scientific studies, Tribal Belly Dance Tags: Belly Dance, bellydancing, Jade Belly Dance, keri sharif, movement, Music, ney, oud, scientific, study, survey, tabla, Tribal

As a scientist and a belly dancer I am always interested in the latest dance related studies and surveys.

Have you ever wondered if certain sounds illicit the same motivations to move for all dancers? I am sure you have noticed that big, deep drum beats tend to get big, juicy, earthy moves from most people. I guess Keti Sharif was wondering this too as she recently added a pdf on her survey on this very topic. She had the aim

“to observe any recurring patterns of natural movement response to each instrument, to establish predominant music-movement relationships and characteristics of movement value”.

To read the complete findings, you can easily obtain a copy through the lovely Keti Sharif’s website.

But here is a little taste of what was discovered from the 836 participants:-

Ney elicited an overwhelming preference for upper body movement and arms at shoulder level or above head.

Oud tended to elicit lower body responses with rolling and vibrating movements interspersed, and the arms were moving between chest and hip level – possibly as a response to scale.

“The survey demonstrates that in many cases, the area of the body and movement of the musician to hold instrument and create sound (eg: strumming, stroking, wavering or plucking types of movement), is often reflected intuitively through dance, in the same, or at least a close or nearby area of the dancer’s body.”

This is a very cool bit of insight into human nature and sound. I thank all participants and the Keti for putting this together. It is worth a look for all sorts of reasons but could be particularly valuable to teachers, those interested in dancing to live music or those that have trouble with improvisation.

Do you know of any other studies on dance or belly dance that you have found useful? Please share the links below.

Utopian Dream – What does dance look like when genres combine?

21 Jan 2014 2 Comments

by jadebellydance in Belly Dance Tags: Australia, Belly Dance, Coffs Harbour, Craig Monley, Dance, festival, Music, Patric Kuo, Stephen Tannos, Thomas Egan, Travers Ross, Utopian Dream

Regular readers know that I have been involved in the wonderful Utopian Dream dance festival again this year. The 2014 one was spectacular.

I am trying to compile some video footage from the week – here is my first offering – the opening night.

Open workshops were held just before the performance and participants went off in male and female groups to create a piece.

The choreographers piece was created the day before, where we gathered at the Julie Ross Dance School in sweltering conditions and co -created a dance piece based on the music mix and concept of Travers Ross. The dancers are from many genres including belly dance (’cause I was in it!), aboriginal, contemporary, hip hop, ballroom, african fusion, cuban salsa and pole dancing.

featuring choreographers – Travers Ross, Jason Winters (& Stephen), Pendu, Jade, Nadiah Idris, Matt Gode, Patric Kuo, Stephen Tannos, Sassy, Christina Monnoron, Steven Donovan, Kathleen Lugnan, Lukas Enciso, Thomas Egan, Craig Monley & Sriani Argaet. (hopefully I didn’t miss anyone).