This month is about Improvisation. This is a key skill for any professional or semi-professional belly dancer. Improvisation is used in all forms of belly dance and I have listed a few.

Improvisation in dance – Dancing to music with out a set choreography. The dancer will create the movement as he/she feels the music.

1. American Tribal Style Improvisation – This style of improv is done in a group and uses a leader/follow system. The leader is the creator and the followers are led by cues from the leader. All of the dancers have a set dance vocabulary which they have learned and follow. ATS (American Tribal Style) follows the dance vocabulary that was created by Carolena Nericcio for her company Fat Chance Belly Dance.

2. Tribal Group Improvisation- This style of improvisation follows the same basic lead and follow pattern as ATS, but has evolved to use different movement vocabulary depending on the troupe/company. Good examples of this style are Gypsy Caravan, Unmata and Hipnosis.

3. Oriental solo Improvisation- This style is performed by a solo dancer. It is an important quality of a trained dancer to be able to improvise. This is especially useful for long performances like restaurants gigs when a dancer is expected to have 30-45min of dance prepared. It is not always possible to have all 45 min choreographed (not enough time in the day). It is common for a dancer to go from choreographed elements to improv elements and back during a show. The skill involves making this transition seamless.

4. Taqseem Improvisation- A Taqseem in Oriental/Caberet music is a part of the music with very little or no set beat/rhythm. This is usually a musical solo performed by a particular instrument. In Oriental/Caberet dance the Taqseem is expected to be  improvisational. It is a strong emotional point in the music that is about expression.

A good example of a Taqseem-

-Nara

Which styles of belly dance improvisation have you tried? Are there any more styles you can think of?