Sometimes, so much happens in life that it can pass you by in an almost dream-like trance, before you have a chance to process stuff…

And so, its been nearly 3 months since I’ve found the time to sit down and reflect on one of my most memorable dance (and life!) experiences.

Back in April, I attended a “Burning Man” regional event in the South African desert, AfriakBurn.  I was so excited to be part of an amazing camp, and happier still to volunteer and share An Introduction to Belly Dance workshop at the festival!

If you’re unfamiliar with Burning Man, it’s a community-led arts event that happens annually in the Nevada desert. It’s not your usual ‘festival’ – the idea is that everyone can bring something to share and unite by creating it together. It’s  rests on the 10 principles; Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-Reliance, Radical Self-Expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leave No Trace, Participation and Immediacy.

Shimmy and Share has proudly volunteered before at Burning Man’s London regional event, and so it was an honour to share the love once more!

ADAPTING TO THE ENVIRONMENT

This was my first time teaching at any festival, let alone, such a niche international one. And, I had never taught or danced in a desert before! Therefore, the workshop needed to planned carefully and adapted to the event and environment.

So, how it was adapted?

• Sun safety 

Safety is an important aspect of any workshop – but even more so in a survival environment like a desert and taking sun safety seriously.

Making sure that there was access to shade, plenty of water and pacing movements became really important.

I had to be acutely aware of how students were coping during the session, slowing everything down and taking  frequent water breaks. For example, the warm-up and shimmy drills sections were shorter and more laid back, avoiding excessive sweating where possible. Whereas, the cool-down was slightly longer.

• Integrating values

Linking the workshop to the Burning Man values added depth to the workshop format and gave me some points to reflect on:

Radical Inclusion:- making it clear that anyone and everyone was welcome to attend, regardless of gender or physical ability – and committing to a flexible teaching style to meet everyone’s need

Gifting:- providing free aloe vera juice (much coveted in a desert!) and silky hip scarfs

Decommodification:- no money changes hands at Burn events whatsoever, and so I ran the workshop voluntarily.

Radical Self-Reliance:- walking across a desert to attend a workshop when you’re sleep-deprived, excited by a million-different-things-at-once, hungover or dehydrated is no mean feat. It really meant a lot to me to teach people who had purposely decided to attend and make the effort in the heat!

Radical Self-Expression:- including some improvisation dance games to allow people to express! And of course, not holding back myself

Communal Effort:- it would not have been possible to share, had I not been part of the amazing camp ‘Atypical Bar’. The entire camp where the workshop was delivered (shade structure, bar, kitchen etc) was planned meticulously and built by the team together – in the searing heat!

Civic Responsibility:- It’s an honour and a privilege to teach belly dance, and wherever possible, I like to share what I can about it’s history & cultural context. With limited time, I made flyers with a suggested reading list where participants could find out more

Leave No Trace:- the desert needed to be kept as we found it, without anything at all left behind. This meant leaving the coin belts at home and opting for hip scarfs without small bits and trinkets

Participation:- encouraging everyone to join-in and have a shimmy!

Immediacy:- although there were some who had read the event programme before and decided to join, others walked past and simply decided to join there and then. Making it drop-in friendly was key!

• Going with the flow

Teaching in an environment like AfrikaBurn was an interesting experience. ‘Burners’ leave their busy lives and schedules behind, and instead embrace a more fluid and creative mind-set, open to the possibilities that the day could bring.

This meant people were in a more spontaneous and open mood. It was great to have such diversity in workshops, of people who would never have considered belly dance before.

However, it also meant that this was just one of the many things they wanted to try and do that day. It wasn’t unusual for someone to enthusiastically attend the 1st 3o minutes, only to be distracted by a parade, art car or other amazing art-thing happening near by.

I found I really had to check my expectations and usual ‘focused’ teaching style in London – embracing all levels of involvement and just going with the rhythm of the day. A humbling eye-opener to my usual perspective which I’m trying to apply to all aspects to life!

WHAT I FOUND ESPECIALLY REWARDING

Natural environment

Of course, we all know that belly dance has been in the desert for thousands of years, but that’s easy to forget from the comfort of an air-con studio in central London!

Teaching outside in the natural environment of the dance gave a unique opportunity to fully immerse students. For example, breaking down ‘the camel’ and visualising how it might move in the heat. Including a ‘desert’ themed play list like Mosavo’s album ‘Desert Passage’ felt surreal and magical.

Deeper connections

I taught the workshop over two days. On day one, I only had a single student. One day two, it fluctuated between 5 – 15. Someone in the camp said to me, “today was much more successful, you had so many more students!”. I thought about this for a moment, and actually felt that  the class progressed further when I had a deeper connection with just one very enthusiastic student. This really challenged what “teaching successfully”  is to me, and how I’d like to approach workshops in the future. The principle of  ‘decommodification’ meant that paying for studio rental didn’t even enter my mind brought it back to why learning how to teach is meaningful to me. I can appreciate that this in itself is a privilege, and the reality of renting expensive studios in London changes that somewhat…however, where possible I’d like to consider any workshop as a gift to future students first.

Sheer randomness 

Again, remembering that this was a teaching experience in a festival environment, as well as a desert, created some hilarious moments. This tested my professionalism against the ability to not take oneself too seriously 

Our camp made an ingenuously creative Art Car which was essentially a giant multi-coloured flashing LED turtle on wheels that shoots water. A necessity for running a dive bar in the middle of the desert (more on that in our camp’s blog here!) because it means that ice can be collected for drinks daily. During the workshop, it hurtled through the middle of a shimmy drill crammed with people and ice. The bewildered students shimmyed on!

Community support

Overall, it was an unforgettable week at AfrikaBurn and an amazing learning tool for teaching dance. Preparing for this would not have been possible it were not for the support from Melissa Bellydance during the teacher’s training course. And, the Shimmy and Share community for supporting the development of leadership skills in dancers. THANK YOU!