Pelvic floor: The secret to posture, balance and grace in dance, that no one wants to talk about.

Grace in dance is achieved by strength and particularly core strength

I had been dancing for several years before finally someone (Yasmina of Cairo in fact) talked to me about pelvic floor.

As I am a perinatal yoga teacher, I am pretty pelvic floor focused. Pelvic floor control and strength is a big part of my remit and I am very aware of how little understanding most people have of this important structure.

What is the pelvic floor?

When I mention pelvic floor, most people think of the sphincter muscles, but actually, they are at best a part of the pelvic floor and potentially not the pelvic floor at all. So let's get rid of that preconception now. Toss all thoughts of kegels and stopping mid-wee away right now, this is not what we are talking about.

When I refer to the pelvic floor in this context, I am referring to the pelvic diaphragm, the sling of muscle that supports your abdominal organs by creating a hammock in the base of your pelvis, it looks like this:

This is a pelvic floor, all that muscle, let's use it.

It's made up of 2 major muscles (which in turn are made of smaller muscles) the coccygeus and the levator ani. You don't need to worry about what they are called, you just need to know you have them.

And you do have them, they are holding your insides up right now! In my perinatal yoga classes, women are often surprised to find out that pelvic floor weakness is not a consequence of birth, but of pregnancy, it is the strain of carrying the extra weight, while simultaneously not "using" the pelvic floor in a positive, strengthening way that causes the weakness; it has little to do with the delivery of the baby.

So what has this got to do with bellydance?

Well... your pelvic diaphragm is actually a really important core muscle. You know when you are told to "engage your core" or to "keep your core strong"? Well this is your pelvic floor's call to arms! Your "core" is essentially all the muscles that keep your posture strong, it includes muscles around your spine, deep abs etc, but also your pelvic floor.

Engaging the pelvic floor essentially condenses your insides a bit. It kind of solidifies your "centre" and keeps everything stable. When you turn, travel or balance (say, in an arabesque) lifting your pelvic floor and engaging your core keeps you steady and graceful.  Try it out in your next practice or dance class.

Finding your pelvic floor

Once you know that you need to use it, finding your pelvic floor and applying it to your dance is pretty easy. Try standing in dance posture, and visualise a trampoline of muscle in the base of your pelvis, like in the image above. Now imagine drawing it up from the centre, like your perineum is taking a day trip up to your belly button. There you go, now your pelvic floor is engaged. Practice this while waiting for the bus. That gives you an extra incentive not to let it show on your face.

That's awesome, how do I cross train my pelvic floor to make it even better?

OK, so first stop doing kegels.Your pelvic floor pretty much takes care of itself by being used properly. That means engaging it when you engage your core, not just dancing, but standing, sitting tall etc. Yoga squats are brilliant for pelvic floor training. Apparently bouncing (on a trampoline or gym ball) is also good. Like any muscle, challenging it gently keeps it in shape.

This is me doing a yoga squat at 39 weeks pregnant.
I make all my pregnant yogis do squats.

There is a theory amongst yoga people that our lifestyle (comfy sofas etc) has led to a weakening of the pelvic floor. Watch how a toddler moves and plays, constantly on the move, never slumping in their seat, squatting with naturally good form, often for very long periods while playing.

So keep active, keep healthy, and don't leave your pelvic floor behind.

Getting better at bellydance without leaving the sofa.

Part 5 - Using other people's performance videos to improve your dance

Are you exhausted from all those classes, drilling and conditioning? Are you perhaps recovering from an illness or injury but still craving some bellydance? The good news is, that even when you can hardly move a muscle, you can still keep working at improving your dance! This is a real thing as neuroscience is showing us that trained dancers' brains have the ability to simulate movement while observing other dancers, how cool is that?

I really love YouTube, for the vast variety of, well, everything it has on there. For a dancer it can be a really valuable resource, allowing us to catch up with the happenings of events we couldn’t get to, or see our idols perform without leaving our armchairs. I am constantly updating my playlists of dance material for my students and other dancers.

YouTube can also be a great training tool. I’m not talking about those “learn to bellydance online” videos. Forget those. Although learning from DVDs and video streaming can be a worthwhile option, YouTube is full of dancers with no credentials teaching wrong and potentially damaging technique, without the feedback or detail you need to really master the dance.

What I am talking about is performance videos. There are literally thousands of examples of bellydance performances on YouTube, some are highly polished productions, some a home camera footage from small events, but you can learn and improve your dance with all of it.

Getting out and watching live performances will always be the aspirational option, however unless you are in an extremely busy dance community, you won’t be doing that every night, or even every week. If you are, you are still missing out on amazing performances happening all around the globe, you can’t physically get to everything!

Whether the dancer is highly accomplished, or inexperienced, whether the performance resonates deeply with you or not, there is always something to take away from watching a dancer. You can optimise this by taking time to consider and reflect upon your observations.

I like to watch a video through twice. The first time I let it wash over me, I just enjoy the performance as it is, trying to avoid critical eyes. I think it is important to retain the ability to simply experience a performance. Dance is communication, listen, don’t drown out the soul of the dancer by analysing every minutia, not yet.

After the first watch, take a moment to reflect upon your impressions. It can be worthwhile to write them down. If you are a bit stuck, think about these questions:

• What was the dancer trying to convey?
• What was the mood of the piece?
• Is this a character piece? Who is the character, do you feel you know them?
• Did you like the dance overall?
• Does anything stand out as being particularly good or particularly distracting?

The next viewing is the time to start analysing, you might even want to watch in short sections, repeating anything you feel needs another look.

Try and identify what it is exactly that you liked about the performance, and if there were elements that you didn’t feel so great about, why was that the case? There are a huge number of things you could focus on. Try to pick a few based either on something you are personally working on, or something that struck you about this particular piece. Why not start by choosing just one of these elements and the example questions here?

Presentation

When we look at presentation we are taking in many different elements, from setting and costuming to audience engagement. Good presentation will vary to suit the venue and audience.

The look
Costume, make up, hair and jewelry, look at the visual the dancer has put together.

• Is the image authentic or suited to the style? If so how? 
• If there are unconventional elements, do they work in your opinion? Why?
• How does the costume and make up reflect the audience and setting?
• How does the aesthetic compliment the mood or message of the dance?
• Does the dancer use their costume for artistic effect, or dance in a way that shows off the costume?

The setting
What is the dance space like? Small restaurant or large theatre? Is the dancer on a raised stage or on the same level as the audience?

• How does the setting affect the relationship between the dancer and the audience?
• Does the dancer use the setting to its full advantage?
• What does the dancer do to overcome the limitations of the venue?
• How does the dancer move into the dance space?
• How do they use stage lighting to facilitate the entrance and mood?
• Do they use all the dance space available?

The presence

Stage presence is key to how a performance comes across, but it can appear quite intangible when you are trying to cultivate it yourself.

• Does the dancer hold your attention, and that of the audience?
• Can you identify something that makes them compelling to watch?
• How would you classify their on-stage persona, dramatic, flirtatious, friendly, intimidating?
• What do they do to reinforce your impression of their persona?
• Do they interact with the audience, even subtly? How?
• Are they unable to interact with the audience, if so, how do they keep a connection?
• If there is a band, how does the dancer interact with them?

Style

If you are working on a particular style of Middle Eastern dance, like Saiidi, Melaya Leff or Khallegi it is worth watching a range of performances to see how the style can be interpreted. The same goes in fact for all categories of bellydance.

• What style is the dance in?
• Is it true to the tradition of the style?
• How does the music choice reflect the dance style?
• What elements of the convention of this style have they incorporated?
• What have they done that is innovative?
• How do they convey their personality or individuality within the framework of this style?

Musicality

• How does their music choice reflect the style of dance they are portraying?
• Which part/parts of the music are they dancing to?
• Do they respond more to the rhythms, the melody, or mix it up?
• Does the choreography fit a beat count? Obviously so? Or is it more fluid?
• How do they interpret strong accents? Every time? Which movements? Which is more effective?
• On what part of your body do you see the music interpreted? Is this consistent or varied?
• How do they dance to repeated phrases? In the same way, a similar way, or completely differently?
• Are there times when the dancer does something “unexpected”, like dances slow to a fast section of music? What effect does this have?

Structure

• Is the piece choreographed or improvised?
• Are there repeated sections in the choreography? How do you enjoy these as an audience?
• How does the dancer use stillness or poses in their dance?
• Is there a story or journey being conveyed through the dance
• How does the dancer use the performance space? 
• Are there any major shifts in mood or style? How are these handled?
• How does the dancer deal with getting on and off stage?
• Are there changes of dancer or group within the performance? How are these carried off smoothly?
• What range of techniques does the dancer use? Are there lots of different steps, or a smaller number? What is the proportion of simpler movements to challenging ones? 
• How does it finish? Is there a false finish (such as a change to a new music track), how does the dancer differentiate between these and the true finale?

The technical bit

I remember watching a gorgeous dance by Frank Farinaro, and exclaiming to myself out loud “what WAS that, it was BEAUTIFUL”. So when I had finished the first viewing, I rewatched that section and identified the step, it was a fairly commonplace layer, but travelling on a turn in such a way that it looked so fluid and otherworldly.

If you are working on, perhaps, your arms, watch the video through, concentrating on what the dancer does with their arms. What do you like about how they use them? The same could go for hipwork, footwork or facial expressions. Concentrate on one aspect at a time and you will process it better.

Sometimes you will see a movement, or a combination that you love, so why not break it down and work out what they are doing.

Even if you don’t like the dance as a whole, the dancers persona or even the style of dance, you may well find a gorgeous snippet that you can learn and remodel into something that you can incorporate into your own dance. Changing the timing, the emphasis or the size of the movement can make it into something completely new.

Watch the section a few times over.

• Observe where the feet are falling. Does the step travel, turn or otherwise? Does it need to?
• Is the movement sharp or smooth, which parts are moving and which are still?
• Which plane are the hips/torso etc moving in? Is that a horizontal or a vertical 8?
• What are the possible ways the movement could be generated? A hip movement could be driven by the obliques, legs, glutes or some combination of the 3. Can you tell from the movement? Does it make any difference (if there are layers it likely will)?
• If you are looking at a series of steps, how does the dancer transition from one to the next?

Hopefully this has given you some ideas that will improve the value you get out of watching dance performances on video. It's just a starting point, I am sure there are many things I have missed, but I am also sure that you will discover all kinds of benefits from watching and properly reflecting upon dance videos, once you get started. Don't forget to do some actual dancing inbetween! 

Here are some to get you started.

Awesome arms- the science bit

I've just been teaching veil work, and once again, I'm harping on about how arm movements start from the back.

I like to talk about "energy" and originating the energy from your "centre" (a point in the middle of your pelvis, at a height half-way between your pubic bone and your navel) moving that energy up the spine, through the back muscles, and out through the fingertips.

It's all a bit airy fairy and artsy. That's OK, I'm an artist, I get to be artsy.

Sometimes I call the "energy" "intention". It's not the literal tensing of muscles, it is a confident relaxed feeling that the muscle is there, ready to do your bidding.

I have a little secret to share though, it's not really all artsy at all. We are going to have a bit of a delve into the anatomy that I don't really cover in lessons, as frankly, my dance students aren't there to learn anatomy (if you would like to learn anatomy though, I do tutor, contact me for my rates...)

Take a look at these lovely anatomical images.

Yes, I love anatomical images, because I am also an anatomist.

See in the top one. Can you see how the bones of your arm and shoulder attack to the bones of your "body"? They barely do. The only bone that joins your arm to your torso is that skinny little clavicle, lightly kissing the sternum. It might as well not bother. The clavicle doesn't carry weight, or move the arm, it's just there for stability. Four-legged running types don't even have a clavicle.

So take a look at the bottom one. Meaty huh? All that muscle on your back? That's what keeps your arms on. That's what bears the load, and that is what makes the movement.

OK, so I expect that those of you who don't enjoy looking a drawings of dead people as much as I do probably would like a point. So here it is:

When you hold your arms in basic dance positions, they are supported by the large muscles in your back. Mostly the trapezius (the bright red one). That is where the strain is. If you are trying to use your arm muscles to hold your posture, it will ache, your muscles will tense, you will end up looking like a chicken. Chickens don't bellydance. It's sad, I know, but we can get past that, you are not a chicken, so you can. Consciously bear the weight of your arms with your upper back. Instant improvement.

When you move your arms, again it is those muscles on your back making it happen (they have some friends in other places, but they do plenty of the work). Much like when you move your fingers it is the muscles in your lower arm working. If you envisage the movement starting at the shoulder, you create an artificial disconnect. Reach from your spine, let the movement flow out and down through to your fingertips. Isolate when you need to, but sweeping, fluid arm movements, involve the torso too.

So that's the science bit.