Belly Dance Artistry with Tempest
By IrinaXara
Released in May 2011, Tempest’s instructional DVD Belly Dance Artistry with Tempest explores a bellydancer’s relationship with movement, music and the creative process. Tempest guides the viewer through warm-up sections, movement vocabulary and creative steps with the intention of enabling the viewer to create a full-fledged performance. The benefit of this DVD is that all of the exercises can be broken up into sections and paused at the student’s leisure or they can taken as a whole, equivalent to a full-length workshop.
Belly Dance Artistry begins with a warm-up section in three parts, divided from slowest movement to fastest. Again, these can be taken individually or mixed and matched for a warm-up of varying intensity. Then begins the “Foundation Flow/Elemental Energy” section. In this portion of the DVD, Tempest uses the four natural elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) to build movement on the body in four parts, from the ground up. Here Tempest establishes the importance of grounding and posture, subsequently layering on arm movement, torso movement and travelling steps. Her explanations of posture and placement are detailed and helpful without being too wordy. As the DVD transitions to the “Fusion Finesse” section, viewers can see how these elements become the building blocks that make up the following combinations.
“Fusion Finesse” makes up the “meat” (or tofu) of the DVD. I especially enjoy how Tempest draws in multiple influences from the early Modernist era, from 2-d to 3-d art, mentioning Ruth St. Denis, Theda Bara, flapper movement and Steampunk fantasy. The larger section begins with a smaller selection of arm position descriptions, broken up into even smaller sections for easy navigation. Then follows the “Combinations” section, with more full-body and travelling combos that incorporate layered movement. I also enjoy how Tempest breaks down the explanation of each combo and then subsequently dances it up to tempo with Nathaniel Johnstone’s music. Some of my favorite movements are the Charleston Strut, Charlie’s Hip Turn, the Egyptian Hot Stepper, Global and Berber Flap and the Ghawazee Grilled Cheese. Many of these catchy combinations are inspired by Tempest’s technique base in Turkish bellydance and also North African dance.
I was enthusiastic about Tempest’s detailed notes on arm positions with each combination, since arm framing is such an important component of bellydance. The extended practices following the combinations are both an effective movement review and aesthetically pleasing performance, complete with assistance from Tempest’s students. The “From Concept to Creation” segment of Belly Dance Artistry is a lecture that articulates helpful steps in the creative process, from finding inspiration to allowing self-reflection and critique after arriving at a complete product. In order to draw a parallel, Tempest summarizes her own creative process for the two dances that conclude the DVD. Those familiar with Tempest’s bellydance blogs may recall concepts she discusses in this portion as well.
Tempest’s Belly Dance Artistry DVD provides a formidable amount of practice material for the bellydance student. I would recommend this for somewhat experienced dancers and above, though the beginning dancer not intimidated by the breadth of material on the DVD will gain an early start if they wish to advance their creativity. Original music by Nathaniel Johnstone provides a “custom fit” of music and movement, allowing Tempest’s (and students’) movement on the DVD to look and feel more organic. A pleasure to watch; a challenge for mind and body.
IrinaXara is a Southern California bellydance performer and teacher.
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