Movement Mythbusting: Stretching & Injury Risk for Dancers
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
6d ago
Stretching is great at improving our flexibility – something we are often looking to improve as dancers! But dance teachers are often insistent that we stretch at the end of class to “prevent injuries…” So what does the decades of research say? While many scientific papers require at least some degree of scientific training to assess their quality and relevance, this 2021 systematic review from Afonso et al. is a really reader-friendly paper, even if you have no science background! Afonso et al. go through some simple questions: “Can I?” versus “Do I have to?” stretch in multi ..read more
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Movement Mythbusting: Is it dangerous to let your knees move over your toes?
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
2M ago
I’m back to bust some more movement myths! So – is it dangerous to let your knees move over your toes? TL;DR: NO! Knees passing forward over the toes is a normal everyday movement If you walk down stairs, crouch down to get something out of a cupboard, or kneel on the ground – your knees pass over your toes. It’s a normal, functional movement pattern. And the knees – like all other joints – are capable of adapting to all kinds of movements, so long as we progress them gradually! A hinge is a hinge, and a squat is a squat Sometimes this fear of knees-over-toes (a very natural movement) causes u ..read more
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What it’s like in a Cairo Cabaret: Exploring Different Cairo Dance Venues
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
5M ago
This post was originally written for Siobhan Camille’s newsletter subscribers in 2022, and updated after another trip to Egypt in 2023. To receive cultural tidbits like this in your inbox, sign up for the Greenstone Dance Arts newsletter! Sign up for the Greenstone Dance Arts Newsletter Different venues and contexts for raqs sharqi (“belly dance”) in Cairo I’m going to dive into some of the different venues in which you can see raqs sharqi (“belly dance”) in Cairo, and how these spaces (and the clientele) affects the kind of dance you see in Egypt. Let’s dive in! Above: Being showered with m ..read more
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Fighting All or Nothing Thinking in Dance with Siobhan Camille
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
5M ago
What is All or Nothing Thinking? I spend a lot of time with my dance students and Dance Strong Challengers talking about something called “All or Nothing Thinking.” In short, All or Nothing thinking is when we think that if something can’t be done perfectly, it isn’t worth doing. Read on to learn more about All or Nothing Thinking and how I combat it in dance (and life). Wanna learn more? Check out my latest podcast episode here! How do I identify All or Nothing Thinking? You might be thinking “Well, I’m not a perfectionist.” (Or perhaps you are!). But All or Nothi ..read more
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“RICE” no more! PEACE and LOVE for Injury Management!
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
7M ago
RICE is at least 10 years out of date! The RICE (or RICED; rest, ice, compression, elevation, diagnosis) method for injury management has been advised against in the research & academic settings since at least 2010. In early 2019 I wrote an article about a more up to date method, “do no H.A.R.M” (no heat, no alcohol, no reinjury, no massage). But there’s been even newer suggestions on how to remember to manage injuries! What’s wrong with RICE? RICE ignores that there are different phases of healing, and implies that passive modalities (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) are of utmost ..read more
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How to learn choreography quickly
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
1y ago
I recently learned a pretty tricky drum solo by another dancer in 5 hours, over 3 days. When I was cast in Jillina’s stage production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I learned 7 choreographies in about 6 weeks. So here are some of my main tips to learn choreography quickly! 1. I watch well Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that fires both when we perform a specific action (like an arabesque) and when we observe someone else performing the same action. That is to say, when we see another dancer perform an arabesque, the mirror neurons in our brains fire as if we were performing the moveme ..read more
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What does “Baladi” mean?
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
1y ago
“Baladi” is a term used widely within the international belly dance community, but also within Egypt. It’s a word that can describe a person, a dance, a musical style, food, and so much more! So it can get a little confusing when trying to understand what exactly baladi is. In this blog post, I’ll touch on the multiple meanings of baladi, along with baladi dance stylisation and musical progressions.   I’ll be discussing: The idealised archetype of a baladi person in Egypt What we tend to mean when we’re talking about baladi stylised dance What a baladi solo or baladi progression is Ibn ..read more
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What’s the difference between Egyptian Raqs Sharqi and American Cabaret Style Belly Dance?
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
2y ago
Defining belly dance styles is always tricky!  Much like music styles, lines blur and definitions change over time. Do you know Def Leppard used to be considered a heavy metal band? Today they’re probably more considered to be in the rock category, with heavy metal bands sounding much heavier. Much like the Ramones were once considered super punk, but now there are much louder, noisier sounding bands in the punk category. Dance is the same. Definitions we once used might change and evolve. As a belly dancer, I’ve studied extensively and consistently with Egyptian and E ..read more
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What is progressive overload, and how do we use it as belly dancers?
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
2y ago
One of the biggest mistakes I see dancers make when it comes to training is ignoring the concept of progressive overload. What the heck is progressive overload!? Progressive overload refers to gradually (the key word here!) increasing the amount and/or difficulty of your training over time. In both the rehabilitation and athletic performance spheres, we use progressive overload to safely and effectively improve strength, mobility/flexibility, and conditioning status (cardiovascular fitness). Learn more about progressive overload, and how to tell if you’re increasing your (dance) training load ..read more
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Siobhan Camille interviews Aziza (CA/USA)
Greenstone Belly Dance Blog
by Greenstone Belly Dance
2y ago
I spoke to Aziza of Montreal, an internationally reknowned dancer and superstar – and a huge inspiration to me as both a person and a dancer.  We chatted practice, consistency, stage presence, cycling and more! Join us for online belly dance workshops and a hafla featuring Aziza of Montreal on February 5, 2022! Watch the interview with Aziza on the Greenstone Belly Dance IGTV below! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Siobhan Camille (@greenstonebellydance) I’ve adored Aziza for a long time. Not only for her extremely elegant, poised technique, but also because sh ..read more
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