tip | Jade Belly Dance

How to flip videos to make learning dance choreography easier.

As some of my belly dancers may know, I am currently cast to perform in the Perth version of Bellyqueen’s ‘Journey along the silk road’ production. 🙂 I am super excited!

As I live in a regional area, most of my learning of choreographies for the shows comes from watching videos posted on youtube. Some of the clips are in front of mirrors and shot from behind which makes it easier, but some are not. Flipping the video footage of dances shot face on makes it much easier to get left from right as you can just mirror the dancers in the clip.
It is not only big shows that flipping a movie clip is useful, if you are collaborating with anyone online, this simple trick can be useful. I realised from comments on the shows forums that not everyone knows how to this, so I thought I would share the quick method I use. You can also use video editing programs such as iMovie but it is a bit more fiddly – this way is fast and easy.

STEP 1

Go to youtube (or whatever platform you are sharing video clips from) and find the clip, copy the URL.
Open another tab and load “youtubeinmp4.com” (if you don’t like this one just do a search for ‘youtube to mp4’, there are several websites that do this – beware of ads, etc when using these sites)
Paste the URL into the field and hit ‘download mp4’ , in the case of this program it takes you to another page where you can select other formats you may want it in. I always use mp4.

Now you have a copy of the clip on your own computer.

STEP 2

Open QuickTime player (this is available for both Mac and PC) and open the clip (if it didn’t automatically open for you on download of above clip).
Go to ‘File’ and ‘Duplicate’ if you want to keep the original view as well. OR skip this and go straight to
‘Edit’ and ‘Flip Horizontal’
Next save the clip. This was a bit tricky for me as the name field kept being greyed out BUT if you try and close the clip it offers you the chance to save and re-name it.

And that’s it – your clip is now flipped and you can mirror the moves – just be aware that if the dancers turn around at any time in the clip then following can get confusing 🙂 Happy dancing! Belly dance show in Australia

If you are in Western Australia at the end of the month be sure to catch the fantastic show!

Do you have another method of flipping videos for dance? Please comment below.

Stuck with choreographing your next piece? Try this….

Another of my super quick belly dance tips. 🙂

Ever found yourself in the situation where you just can’t find the next move in your dance? Maybe you have half of it down but can’t link it up. Maybe you are stuck in the same movements? A little trick I have found that can sometimes lift the choreographers block is to stop dancing and have a short break, like maybe a cup of tea. Ok, so now you are probably thinking ‘Well that all well and good but I have to have this piece finished, that’s not really helpful!!’.

I don’t usually clean my studio in costume! A friend took this when I went to knock down a few cobwebs.

Luckily, that is only part 1 of the tip, the second part is to put on some really different music to whatever you are choreographing but that still inspires dance. For me that means I will let my kids put on some mainstream dance music (as opposed to my awesome world music) and then I will do something like start cooking dinner or sweeping the floor. This multi tasking helps you get your chores done but functions primarily to stop you over thinking your movement. I find myself starting to dance and without even realising it I have come up with a great new combination on my way over to the fridge or new take on an old move while sweeping the lounge room. Taking away the music you are attached to and associate with ‘having to dance’ and putting on something you really don’t care about at all can allow the creative well to express itself without pressure. And hey, if it doesn’t work for you then at least your studio /house is clean!

Try it and let me know if it works for you too! (Comment below)