Mosaic

I really must buy your Fundamentals DVD A'isha. I am getting better at "listening" with the heart, but certainly need more work in the music area. I find choreography quite difficult, sometimes I think, (for me) that a choreographed movement goes against the grain, The music tells me to do something different. Here in Australia, the main method of teaching seems to be through choreographed pieces, and that is fine, especially at the beginning I think, and in a class situation it would be kind of messy if everyone went off on a tangent and were doing their own thing to music LOL! But I believe I need to step out of the choreography mode now, but also be able to step back in when in class. I find because various choreos have taught me to do a certain move at a certain point in a piece of music, I find my mind wants to do that move, but the heart tells me something else and that can cause me to "lose' it! LOL! ... so I must practice, practice, practice!

Gosh how I wish you lived nearby, I would be at your classes in a shot!
~Mosaic

Letti

Teaching through choreography is a very safe and comfortable way for learning. On one of our classes we learned a very technical choreography for mainly practicing different moves, but the first one and a half minutes of the song was improvisation and the teacher was just watching, there was nothing to follow. I remember that i felt very very clumsy and somehow embarrassed, that i basicaly just froze and waited until the music of the actual choreography started.

Anyway, nowadays i manage at least to do some moves when we have to impro but still i'm always thinking "what next".

I think impro should be also taught. It would be very very useful to teach to listen what the music says or at least point it out (what Aisha described earlier). During classes i mostly try to copy the moves of the teacher and think of technique, music is just a background. It would be much easier to impro with "an empty head but heart full of emotions", this is just so hard to realize.

Aisha Azar

Dear Mosiac,
Thank you! I teach my beginners one short choreography, but only after they have learned enough movement and become familiar enough with musical ideas that they can understand how the movement connects to the music. My continuing people get a class series in listening to music in which they create a choreography, so that they can see this as a possibility as well, but they only ever get that beginning one from me. If ever you are in Washington, I would LOVE to have you come to class. If I ever get to Australia, I will try to find you!
Regards,
A'isha