Belly Dance improvisation can be uncomfortable to many dancers, and to others it can be downright terrifying. Some Western professional dancers will not dance to a live band or improvise if their life depended on it. There is a good reason for this, and there is a way out of this tunnel. Read on to find out the secrets of improvisation for yourself.

Improvisation is dancing in the moment, in full abandon, without any pre-planning of routines and choreographies. Just instant reactions to music the dancer may not have even heard before, and capturing not only the essence of the music but also every beat and nuance. This can be very challenging to students of Belly Dance and professional performers alike.

Ultimately, the moment of improvisation is a vulnerable one. Many people are not ready to experience it as it makes them feel like they are in some sort of danger. It is a moment of fear of the unknown. The mind says a lie; “if you stop using me and let go, you will lose control of what happens to you and your environment”. This is inherent to any situation when we are faced with the unknown, and people’s ability to deal with such a moment is directly linked to their relationship with control. People who keep a tight lid on their self-expression have a fear of surrender and release, qualities that are needed for improvisation. The moment of improvisation is a moment where you could spontaneously just be yourself; your true unrestricted, unbridled, uncensored self. A moment of truthful emotional expression.

In addition, the moment of improvisation is a very sensual moment, one where you experience life in your senses and in your body rather than in your mind. In the West, there is an epidemic emphasis on mentalising life. Very early on in childhood a rift happens between heart and body, and plays out in many ways throughout adulthood. This goes on to shape Western society. I can say this because I come from the Middle East and have the ability to see the West from an alien’s point of view. Objectively looking at the West, I see many ways that this rift happens, and it starts to explain why so many Western women who come to Belly Dance class or perform Belly Dance professionally find improvisation so challenging.

Observing the child-rearing habits of a society can explain a lot about that society. Most Western adults have trouble being in a space of pure emotional expression and release, as the systematic disconnection children go through from their emotional selves in the West is quite staggering.

Just go to any place where there are many young children or even toddlers, and see how many times their expression of emotion gets told “lower your voice”, “don’t jump in puddles”, “don’t scrunch your face”, “stop crying now!”, “where’s your happy face”, “smile”. Boys still get told to “stop crying like a girl”, yes even in 2007.

Be a fly on the wall at night in the home of an average Western family, and watch what happens when the baby cries. Because some “expert” somewhere wrote in a book that control-crying your baby is the only way to teach babies to sleep (this is simply incorrect, check out www.babywhisperer.com for better sleeping techniques), many Western mothers will leave the baby crying on its own in the dark. I have seen mothers do this to the point of when the baby is literally panic-stricken and in so much emotional pain you’d have to have had a lobotomy to not run into the room and scoop the child up in your arms. The funny thing about mentalising life too much is that we can become just that; mental. Control-crying is just one of the ways Western society disconnects its children from their emotional needs.

Of course children become adults, and in the West we end up with a society that honors thinking and berates feeling, and this lack of emotional agility affects ones ability to improvise. An illustration of this is the West’s aversion to “bad” feelings such as sadness. Joy is the reverse side of the same coin as sadness. So to make crying invalid and unheard, and to make sadness a no-go-zone, we inadvertently shut down the same emotional channel that helps us sense joy. As the Sufis say, the extent of which you allow yourself to feel one feeling, you will be able to feel the flip side of it. So, only if you allow yourself to experience and feel deep sadness will you know the heights of joy within your being. So what has all this to do with improvising Belly Dance?

I see many, many Western women come to class in a frozen state. They’ve lost their natural ability to smile comfortably. They find it hard to move freely in their bodies. There is a palpable disconnect between the spirit they were born with, full of spontaneous joy and expression, and the person they are today. Something happens along the way on masse.

Coming from the Middle East I see there a very natural child-rearing culture. Babies and children are held a lot and their natural needs for the language of touch are fulfilled. Control-crying in the Middle East is unheard of, and in fact if a mother did it she would probably be admitted to psychiatric help. Children are more emotionally expressive, and that leads to emotionally alive adults, and an emotionally rich society. Negative feelings are expressed more and as a result positive feelings are felt on a deeper level. At a Middle Eastern funeral people wail to release the pain in their hearts. At a Western one, people wear sun glasses so nobody can see the sadness in their eyes, as if it is something to be ashamed of.

I believe this core difference in culture is one of the reasons why improvisation comes naturally in the Middle East and seems to be the exception rather than the norm here in the West, as improvisation demands surrender to emotional expression. Child rearing is only one way Western society disconnects its citizens from their hearts, their emotions and their sensuality, core ingredients of improvisation. It is all part of the excruciating disconnect the West especially has with all things Feminine. For more on this subject read the three part series “Unveil the Feminine”.

Inner Abilities That Are Cultivated Through Improvisation

Nothing is a life sentence, so anyone can improve their improvisational ability. Just because you may have had a history that didn’t support your ability to improvise doesn’t mean that that’s the end of the story. But knowing where the roots of a weak tree lie helps in strengthening the tree.

Self knowledge is the key to personal power, as the ancients said “Know Thyself”. To find out why improvisation scares you so much, it is useful to acknowledge your history, and that the culture you grew up in may have not nurtured the part of you that is needed in improvisation: your Feminine nature and what it encompasses.

Belly Dance is an alchemical dance for a woman’s Feminine spirit; it is a training ground and a practice that can strengthen the very aspects that you may be challenged with. For example, if you have trouble with improvisation and emotional expression, simply by training in it through Belly Dance and pushing through your pain threshold, you will cultivate those very inner abilities you needed in the first place.

Following are some of the inner abilities you will develop through training in improvisation:

1.  Emotional Training:
Emotional connectedness and the ability to feel and express the whole spectrum of emotions. This is at the core of improvisation. Just watch a Middle Eastern dancer; what she feels in her belly and heart shines through her face.

2.  The Unknown & the Void:
Feeling comfortable with the unknown. The unknown can feel disorientating as the mind loves certainty, but feeling comfortable with not knowing what comes next is essential to improvisation. As there is no choreography every moment is an adventure, a jump into The Void where many treasures can be found. It is the place were receiving happens, as the poet Rumi puts it “Darkness is a visionary place”. The unknown is a Feminine principle.

3.  Surrender:
Surrender and letting go of control. Improvisation needs a lucid mind, one that can lead a little, and follow a little as well. In the moment of improvisation, the mind must take a back seat to the ear, the body and the spirit. When you improvise, your ear receives the music, your body feels it and channels it out, and your spirit flies.

4.  Meditation & Mindfulness:
An ability to meditate; to be physically in the moment without mind chatter leading your action. Silencing the chatter of the mind is where improvisation becomes a meditative exercise, training the mind and body to be in the moment as good as any recognised form of meditation.

5.  Honesty:
To stand naked; no frills, no bells and whistles, no masks, nowhere to hide. This is again in the Feminine realm, as the mind is not taking over the moment. There is a space for pure heart expression.

Go to Part Two of Secrets of Improvisation – P2 .

Footnote:
Read more about the degradation of all things Feminine including heart, emotions, sensuality, receiving, intuition, the unknown, experiencing the moment, listening to the body not just the mind, living in line with nature and much more. This degradation is a long-standing malaise in the world, and seems to be exceptionally strong in the West. For more information on this topic, and how Belly Dance helps in resuscitating and reviving a woman’s Feminine spirit, please go to the three part series Unveil the Feminine .

Read about helping to teach babies to fall into sleep without control-crying, please visit www.babywhisperer.com and look up sleeping techniques. Tracy Hogg is a master of keeping baby rearing both true to nature and practically real.