Afternoon!
- Thread starter Lunahabibi
- Start date
Wasn't "goosh" originally a Jamila Salimpour term? I've only had one teacher who used it, and she applied it to the scooping-up-to-down "maya" traveling sideways with a level change. I can't remember if she also used it on the opposite-direction maya. "Goosh" seems to be one of those terms from the early days that different places chose their own definition for, but it's almost always some kind of sideways vertical infinity move.
Zorba, are you familiar with Ava Fleming's sideways "B" method? She teaches mayas as infinities cut in half so they are semicircles connected by a flat hip slides instead of fully rounded shapes (scoop down and out to the right, slide straight across to the center, scoop down and out to the left, slide straight across to the center, and the reverse is up and over, flat across, up and over, flat across...). It's a slightly altered look--not one I'm saying you should necessarily adopt--but perhaps practicing it would help you find a different muscular engagement.
Do you also try practicing half-maya, one-side-emphasis circles? Or those multiplanar eights that are roll, pitch, and yaw all at once?
Zorba, are you familiar with Ava Fleming's sideways "B" method? She teaches mayas as infinities cut in half so they are semicircles connected by a flat hip slides instead of fully rounded shapes (scoop down and out to the right, slide straight across to the center, scoop down and out to the left, slide straight across to the center, and the reverse is up and over, flat across, up and over, flat across...). It's a slightly altered look--not one I'm saying you should necessarily adopt--but perhaps practicing it would help you find a different muscular engagement.
Do you also try practicing half-maya, one-side-emphasis circles? Or those multiplanar eights that are roll, pitch, and yaw all at once?
Zorba
"The Veiled Male"
Half maias yes, probably not "muliplanar eights"! But yes, as a West coast bred dancer, Jamilla is my great dance grandmother. Terminilogy is a bit different here on the east coat. A "Camel" is a a "full body undulation" here, what we would call a "lower body undulation" or "lower camel" is simply a "Camel" here. Then there's an Egyptian instructor who eschews all these names altogether, "its the Nile River! - whatever you want to call it..."
Not familiar with Ava's method, never had the opportunity to study with her.
Not familiar with Ava's method, never had the opportunity to study with her.
I was thinking that maybe if you leaned into practicing the versions that twist, learning to control the extra movement intentionally might help learning to stop it when you don't want it?
"Camel" is another one of those moves with a general theme (body undulation in the front-back plane), but regional variety in how it is applied.
I took a class with a dancer once who insisted the reverse undulation (hips going forward up and over, sitting motion in the back half of the move) should have been the "camel" since it looked more like a camel's loping gait than the other direction. My first exposure to the reverse move was called "Turkish back walk" when it was traveling, and "roll up" when it wasn't, although I've also heard dancers jokingly call the stationary full-body version all sorts of graphic oddities like "throwing up," "cat with a fur ball," and "put your boobs on a shelf." Go figure...
I don't know if Ava teaches it on a video. I got it from a workshop with her...a hellish workshop where she had everybody practice this for what seemed like an hour while she went around and personally evaluated and corrected each student. I've never been so sore after a workshop!