Three Tips to create a Great Tabla Solo

Three Keys for an EXTRAORDINARY TABLA SOLO🎼📯

(they also apply to Egyptian Dance, in general; and to Life)

To discover the 3 Guiding Points for an Extraordinary Tabla Solo, keep scrolling down⤵️

Key #1 - Move like a Human Being, not like a Machine

The Kung Fu trend in Egyptian Dance - dancers, dancing as if they were in a Kung Fu fight, high kicks and punches included;

Competitive-aggressive-hysterical- and-empty movements;

A mindset of "who´s the biggest Diva in the room?";

Super fast, overloaded, mechanical steps that feel like the dancer is about to have a stroke (or give the viewer a stroke).

What´s happening with Egyptian Dance?

What´s happening to Human Beings?

My Guidance Point #1 in the creation of a GREAT TABLA SOLO, the first out of 3 Guidance Points I´m sharing, is TO MOVE LIKE A HUMAN BEING, NOT LIKE A MACHINE.

It´s easier to move like a machine. Why? Because it´s trendy, it´s how most dancers are trained, these days, and it´s a product of tension (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual tension) which is, anyway, how most people live nowadays.

Making the difficult look easy is a skill of extraordinary dancers - mediocre dancers struggle and show you that struggle.

Turning dance technique into organic, pleasurable, relaxed movement is a skill of extraordinary dancers - mediocre dancers will focus on tension, tricks, ego, and aggressivity.

Dancing like a Human Being is a skill of extraordinary dancers - mediocre dancers dance like machines and call it "expertise".

I´m aware we live in the age of robotics, machines, technology, fast-speed internet and living. I´m also aware that the Egyptian Dance business is a business, indeed, and professional dancers have to make a living.

Nonetheless, I believe that remaining Human is the goal. In dance, as in life, focusing on what makes us human is not only a challenge but our only salvation.

When you´re creating a Tabla Solo, ask yourself: how can I bring more humanity to my movement? How can I move less but better, intentionally and with emotion? How can I slow down, enjoy the ride, and focus on the experience of dance instead of focusing on impressing others, being the biggest diva in the room, or escalating the Fame Ladder at any cost?

Ask those questions. Move from there.

P.S: In this video, I´m improvising a mean Tabla Solo and committing the biggest sin of all: I´m daring to dance like a person, not like a doll. Maybe I won´t be forgiven for that - hell, I may be condemned for it - but I´m not asking for forgiveness. Or approval.

That, too, is a sign of my preserved humanity.

If you wish to develop your own Tabla Solos and Creativity as a Dancer, feel welcome to join our upcoming

ONLINE WORKSHOP

"A TABLA SOLO THAT AWAKENS YOUR CREATIVITY"

where you´ll learn an original tabla solo choreography with music composed for me, Joana Saahirah, by one of the best Egyptian percussionists of all time: Hosny Watatak.

For more information, click on the button below

Click HERE for more information about our Workshop

Key #2 - Small movements go a long way

The expression "Go big or go home" is often misunderstood by dancers who do Tabla Solos.

There´s a tendency to mistake power with tension; expressiveness with overdoing; and clarity by over-sized movements and steps that are unnecessary, out of the music, and exhausting.

Dancing a Tabla Solo should be a pleasure, an adrenaline rush, pure joy - it shouldn´t be a marathon that makes you feel anxious and exhausted.

Once you listen the music - the structure, the details, the basic rhythms and the ornamentation above them -, you see there´s loads of space for small, even tiny, movements that are 1000 times more powerful than big, chunky, flashy movements.

The key is in the correct dance technique and in the intensity you inject into those movements.

Does the seize matter? (wink, wink) It does. And it doesn´t. Follow the music and read the big, the medium, and the smallest callings. Offer yourself that variety and bring all you´ve got into what you do - no matter how big or small.

P.S: In the video you can watch below this text, I´m improvising a mean Tabla Solo filled with mall moves, tiny details, and almost invisible nuances. All of them, effective, emotionally charged, and magnetic, especially when you see them, live.

If you wish to develop your own Tabla Solos and Creativity as a Dancer, feel welcome to join our upcoming

ONLINE WORKSHOP

"A TABLA SOLO THAT AWAKENS YOUR CREATIVITY"

where you´ll learn an original tabla solo choreography with music composed for me, Joana Saahirah, by one of the best Egyptian percussionists of all time: Hosny Watatak.

For more information, click on the button below

Click HERE for more information about our workshop

Key #3 - Do It Out of the Box

Let´s face it: no matter how independent, self-accepting, and confident we may e, we´re still humans.

Therefore, we need to be liked, seen and approved of; we need connection with other people.

If understood and applied in the right context and amount, this need can be constructive. If we´re obsessed with it and allow it to rule our life - and dance, considering that dance is a part of life -, it can be destructive.

So often, dancers don´t dare to do things out of the box - creative, original, unexpected, coming from a fresh place - because they´re afraid of the consequences.

- Will be people think I´m weird?

- They ask themselves, knowingly or not - Will they like me, understand me, applaud me?

If we´re not willing to be disliked, we´re not willing to be liked.

Truly liked. Liked for who we are.

We can´t please everyone so, why try?

Tabla Solos are flags of Personal Freedom. They´re not attached to a specific context, archetype, or sensibility. They allow dancers to explore their freedom - the freedom to be and to create as they see fit.

Why aren´t dancers using that freedom?

They´re not using it because of a well-known disease called "Compulsive People Pleasing".

The need to fit the mold, not make waves, and please everyone.

It´s an impossible goal but one so many are chasing.

A great Tabla Solo doesn´t please everyone - that´s not its goal.

It requires guts from the dancer; the willingness to think, feel, and do out of the box.

Exploring rhythms in an unique way; using the music in unexpected manners; searching for different movements and creative solutions; making it fun, surprising, alive.

Many will love it. Others will hate it (just because). And others will ignore it. So, what? In the end of the day, the only question worth asking is: do you love it?

Freedom is sweet - dare to taste it

In the video you can watch below this text, I´m doing it out of the box and I´m loving it.

If you wish to develop your own Tabla Solos and Creativity as a Dancer, feel welcome to join our upcoming

ONLINE WORKSHOP

"A TABLA SOLO THAT AWAKENS YOUR CREATIVITY"

where you´ll learn an original tabla solo choreography with music composed for me, Joana Saahirah, by one of the best Egyptian percussionists of all time: Hosny Watatak.

For more information, click on the button below

Click HERE for more information about our Workshop

For more information about our workshop

"A Tabla Solo that Awakens your Creativity", keep scrolling down⤵️

A Tabla Solo that Awakens your Creativity

Unlock your Creativity & Discover your Potential as an Oriental Dancer with a Cairo-Style Tabla Solo that´s going to rock your world

▶️What you´ll learn in this 2-session live & recorded workshop:

1️⃣. A complete Cairo-Style Tabla Solo choreoraphy that is going to awaken your Creativity and Original Fingerprint.

2️⃣. How to use the Rhythms and the Tempo ("Ika´"), the heartbeat of the music, to explore new ideas, unexpected dance twists, and your own identity in dance.

3️⃣. What makes a Cairo-Style Tabla Solo (music and dance).

4️⃣. Three Keys, I learned as a professional oriental dancer in Egypt, that allow you to stand out as a dancer/performer.

5️⃣. The main Egyptian rhythms every oriental dancer must know and master.

6️⃣. How to gain confidence in your knowledge and unique perspective on the music - in other words, how to reveal the original dancer that lies within you.

▶️What you´ll receive in this Workshop:

1️⃣. Access to the 2 live sessions included in the workshop (2,30h each session) with direct contact with your teacher, Joana Saahirah, and colleagues from all over the world.

2️⃣. Access to the replay/recording of both live sessions for as long as our school exists (you can do and redo the entire workshop, in the recorded format, at your own pace and as many times as you wish)

3️⃣. Access to a bonus personalized feedback from your teacher on your rendition of the Cairo-Style Tabla Solo you´ll learn in the workshop.

4️⃣. Access to a bonus audio file with the original Tabla Solo composed by Hosny Watatak, one of the best drummers in Egypt, for your teacher, Joana Saahirah.

5️⃣. Access to bonus resources on Percussion, Tabla Solos, and Creativity.

6️⃣. Evergreen access to the workshop and all the bonuses - full access for as long as our school exists.

▶️When this live workshop is happening:

Live session #1 happens on Saturday, the 30th of May, from 3 to 5.30 PM Lisbon/London local time.
Live session #2 happens on Sunday, the 31st of May, from 3 to 5.30 PM Lisbon/London local time.

👉Important: Both live sessions included in this workshop are fully recorded; the replays, alongside the bonuses included, are made available to the registered participants for as long as our school exists. You can do them and redo them at your own pace and as many times as you like.

Click here for more information about our Workshop

Three Keys for an EXTRAORDINARY TABLA SOLO🎼📯

A Tabla Solo that Awakens your Creativity

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