Why , when you are already training hard on drills, choreo, projects – should you take Skype Private Class???

That was my question a few weeks ago!
Now I know deeply that this is a truely part of the Suhaila Salimpour‘s Format!

The Suhaila Level 3 test represents a HUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEE amount of work (as well as the Jamila one)!!!! Damned…
Just have a look on her website:
Suhaila Level 3
Jamila Level 3

Be don’t be scared: everything is possible and you have time!
And as Suhaila usually says: “it doesn’t have to be perfect.. it just has to be done”.
Well about this quote…  I take a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTT of time to do each because I am never happy with what I am doing, I always doubt about myself (yes i is the psychology time 😉 ), I always thing that it is incomplete….  Shortly said: I am a Perfectionist who have strongly doubts about the quality of my own job (argggg).

Because I am totally crazy, I am preparing for both test in this Summer… Suhaila Level 3 for sure, Jamila Level 3, we will see!

The topics of the projects are varied, you have: anatomy, choreography, psychology, creativity… and Music.

Here are a few words about this strange relation between Music and I.
First, we were totally strangers to each others…
Then the 1st words come and we start to discover each others…
And now ,it is my Lover…

To be very sincere, until almost 2 years ago, I was really not attracted by the classical music Regardless of whether it is western or middle eastern. I wasn’t used to listen to a lot of them ; in contrary, I was more oriented in modern, pop, short ones without a lot of difficulties in it.

In reflecting on the project on Music, I think that
* The great western classics reminded me of my childhood when I dared and listened to my great father play by reading his old scores on his piano. I admired him from the depths of my soul and I would have liked to be able to read and play these notes of music with as much ease as he did.
* The oriental classical music seemed complicated, long and too far from my usual pieces. It was a totally strange world for me, with its codes, language and singers, composers unknown until then.

In the past, when I heard someone say that she had fallen in love with the great compositions, I had difficulty to understand it seeing these disused and devoid of interest. For me, they were all alike. It is therefore with great apprehension and doubt that I began listening to them, somewhat forced by my first SL3 workshop in January 2016. It took me time to get acquainted with the eras, composers and singers.

My first choreographic exercise was disastrous: I experienced a great deal of difficulty in realizing it, not knowing how to take it with one movement behind the other without actually paying attention to all the details of the chosen piece. There was no real parallel to the lyrics or the instruments. In rethinking it, it was very academic and flat, with no real intention or emotion. I came out of this exercise full of doubts not knowing if I will someday be able emotionally to plunge me into the exercise.

I am not the style to give up but rather to seek the solution. Faced with the immensity of these pieces, I did not know where to begin. No matter where I started, I always felt lost. So the simplest was to follow the list of recommended titles and listen to them more and more trying to interest me more and more. If others could find a pleasure in knowing them, why not me?

This work began even before I had to do this work on music but I did not really have a frame of reference. In my apprenticeship – whatever the field – having a framework is for me a primordial element. Yale’s course was therefore a decisive element in my relationship with classical music – whether western or oriental. I had finally found a door to enter this unknown and complex world but which was part of my journey. Until then I was satisfied for each new song to seek the words, the composer and the interpreter. But absolutely nothing about the style, the instruments, the construction of the chosen piece.

The first difficulty was to accept to re-immerse myself in this musical universe so dear to my grandfather, to realize how much time has passed without thinking about it. The only thing I had kept of him was his piano, without really knowing if I would ever do something about it. Too bad I did not also keep his precious scores. Since the birth of my daughter, I have always hoped that she will play it one day, but I never imagined a single second to approach it to play myself.

As expected, I listened carefully to the first 3 lessons, taking notes, answering the quizz and gradually rediscovering these familiar pieces. The connection was established: my child’s soul was happy to hear them, my adult soul wanted to understand them. So I decided that even if my time is taken up by preparing for the exam, I was going to take time to get to the end of this program and why not get the certificate.

Following this program has really enriched my dance as well as my understanding of music. To make the parallel with the oriental pieces allows me to really appreciate them and to discover them from a different angle with each new listening.

Wait for the rest in a future post :-)… about comparison between western and oriental music!