Europamoon,

That sounds like fun! Can I just ask you to clarify something?

How does the "it" girl (ha ha) tag someone else? Is everyone just belly dancing around the room and she goes to someone and tags her and says "you're it" and that person has to freeze in a pose?

Thank you ladies for posting these great suggestions!

Diana, why don't yolu tell us about your games, too?

I do something similar to shotgun choreography. Instead, I hand out a list of 5 moves to each group, they spend part of class devising a combo or choreography together, and then each group performs their choreography for the rest of the class. The purpose of the exercise is to show how the same 5 moves can be used so many different creative ways! So many newbie dancers think "I only know ___ number of moves, so I can't do anything interesting yet," and this exercise is to show them that it is only limited by their imagination.

I love the shotgun choreography idea--it just seems to have a different focus. Will have to try that sometime. Thanks for the inspiration!

What a great idea! Don't forget BD Red Light, Green Light and BD Red Rover! OMG, ALL of this sounds like SO much fun...

Maybe they should be added to the Bellydance Olympics.....

www.zilltech.com/Writing-Humor.html

simon says-i call it Sultana Says

A game I play: I write up index cards with one move or combo on each card
another stack of cards has an emotion-most are real stage emotions

Students pick one from each pile and do it for the class till the class guesses it. It helps get them more comf with dancing in front of poeple, as well as learn emotions that can be used on stage aside from the deer in the headlights. Of course, I toss in a few goofy ones for laughter, but most of them are genuine stage emotions-Glee, pride, mystery, hypnotic, fierce, etc...

Afya! excellent! I will try this with my very shy beginners!

My Int class is moving into ADV now and so a lot of the stage prep exercises, we start using next week. I cant wait!
I plan to use:

Dancing in the Aisles-An exercise in eye contact:
Students create two lines facing eachother. You have to bounce the lead back and forth between you and the person across from you with no speaking or gesturing, but only using "feeling, vibe, and eye contact" (taken from Taxsim MIrrors). Mean while, the two at the head of the line, meet up to travel down the aisles taking turns facing out to connect with those in the framing lines and face back in to touch base with their partner. This is an exercise in
A. Following a partner whom you are facing and paying close attention to them while taking time to connect with your solo spotlight dancers so they dont feel out of the loop
B. Making eye contact
C. Moving slowly enough to meet eyes with everyone you are dancing with and for
**This exercise is created by me but inspired by not only all of you, but also by Kajira's article in the recent issue of Zaghareet about staying connected in large tribal groups. THANKS KD! : )

Persona on Stage-Most of you have stage names. Few of them us have a lot of onstage persona. For example, what do you do if dancing for children? What about adults who are feisty and might be imbibing? What about senior citizens at a care facility? Kids in a hospital? Folks who speak a foreign language? Hot single men? Lecherous pigs? Drunken old farts? Prim & proper church group?
You will notice there are signs up around the room. You each have to dance in front of each sign for 30 seconds while making your presence appropriate for that "crowd". This is an exercise in altering how you present on stage, dependent on various crowds or types of people.

This is an exercise in balance, eye contact, as well as working the entire stage without knowing how long or short your "solo" is.
Balancing Races
Here are two stacks of cards. One stack has the names of moves from Int Level ATS and the other stack has the name of an item you see in that pile. You will each pull a card from each stack and you must do the move, with the item balanced on your head, around the room, making eye contact with each of us as you go around the room. We are all in a big circle facing in. The catch? You have only a certain amount of time to work the room and the time is only known by me. I will set the timer and you will dance till it goes off. You wont know if your solo is short or long. Work it like you own it!
This is an exercise in balance, eye contact, as well as working the entire stage without knowing how long or short you have on stage. You must end in a pose.

Building a Picture-
You will all to jam freestyle. When the music begins to fade, you will end in a group pose that looks dynamic to the audience, with consideration to some gals going to the floor, some creating levels, some using arms out, some with arms up, all zaghareeting, all smiling, whatever. There is no speaking in this exercise at all. It is an exercise in working on the spot, and with eachother with no words.

Mingle Dahling, Mingle-
Using some of the signs posted on the wall from the previous exercise, each girl goes out with her tip basket (we don’t do body tipping in our group) and shows the rest of us how she pauses and dances for each tipper as opposed to sweeping by and just gathering up money. Special attention is given to each of the groups-for eg: The lecherous man reaching out to stuff a buck in your bra…the senior citizen who has no idea WTF you want from her…the hot guy who just keeps staring back at you instead of putting money in your basket…

Think Tank-
I like Amy’s idear and I’m nabbin it!

SUCH GOOD IDEAS!!! I am feeling really inspired.

I'm gonna share a game that Jessica Jane Means from Naya's trance taught me. It's called goddess names. I have a bunch of variations of this game to make it easier or more challenging depending on who is "playing" but basically we introduce ourselves and spell out our names with an isolation for the class and then the class does it together. I love cursive Y with one hip.

This game really helps you turn off the inner critique. People see that they have more flexibility and range then they knew they had.

I also use this technique to bless my audience...literally sending out love. It has alot of potential and can be used to help teach a group of people a sequence that looks insanely complicated...when really they are just going back to dot the i

Oh! I did this one day in a zils class. I had all the girls swap zils every 2 mins or so to get a feel for different styles and how they sound and play.