Welcome to the Open University Belly Dance Club Performance Group page - Meydan

Meydan, the OU Bellydance Performance Group was launched in the autumn of 2009.
Here we would like to share our vision for the group and tell you a little about what to expect if you would like to join.

Performance groups- the norm:

Many dance performance groups work on an invitation basis – if the group leader thinks you are of a high enough standard to perform, they might invite you to join their group. The group leader usually prepares a choreography and teaches it to the group. A strong commitment to the group and to the dance is required.

Our Group – working with The Open University ethos:

We envisage running our performance group differently. We are hosted by the Open University which has always promoted inclusivity and shunned elitism. We hope to follow this ethos by making the group open to any member of the OU Belly Dance Club, regardless of experience or dance ability and for the group members to be actively involved in the creative process of choreography and performance arrangement.

How will that work then?

Rather than create a set choreography, where all the dancers are performing the same or similar moves, we will focus on individual strengths. For instance, if you want to perform, but don’t feel that you are a very good dancer, we will help you to perfect a very simply move which you can use on its own to add depth and framing to the performance area and, most importantly, build your confidence, improve your posture and make you feel “luscious”. Or, for instance, if you have mastered the Egyptian walk, but struggle with camels, we will arrange the choreography so that you can show off your Egyptian walking skills and you can avoid camels if you like.

We will choose songs to perform to by voting and the choreography will be built up incrementally, with input from everyone. We also hope to use these sessions as an informal skills share – if you are struggling with a particular move, ask others how they do it – you’ll probably find everyone executes a move in a subtly different way and different explanations might help you to master it.

But I’ve never created a choreography before...

Macarena leads the group and provides as much guidance as needed. We expect that this will be quite a lot in the beginning, but hope that you can take more of a role as your confidence, choreography and dance skills improve (and they will!).

What are the benefits of joining the performance group?

You will have the opportunity to practice your dancing and get detailed feedback on how to improve your moves. You will learn how to create a choreography and develop an awareness of what types of moves go well with different styles of music. Whilst on stage, posture is one of the most important aspects, so we aim to work on improving everybody’s dance posture.

Where will we perform?

There are regular haflas, or bellydance parties, in the local area where local groups and individuals perform, and we hope to host one ourselves in the future. For the more adventurous and confident, there are various performance nights in London clubs and bars (we’ll hopefully arrange a social outing to one of these so you can see what they are like). we also hope to hold performances at the OU to raise money for various charities, such as Children in Need, or Comic Relief. If you have any other ideas feel free to let us know.

What will be expected of me if I join?

Joining a dance group is a commitment – choreographies are a team effort, and it is very difficult to practice a dance if some of the key members of the group are missing. We understand that everyone has their lives to lead and there will be times when work or family commitments stop you attending. However, we do ask that if you join, you make every effort to attend the practice sessions (and to let us know if you cannot make it). This is particularly important in the run up to a performance, where positioning of the whole group and timing are critical.

We intend to produce high-quality performances (there is not much point in performing if you aren’t going to dance to performance standard). That means we might ask you to really practice a particular move to get it just right, or suggest that you adopt a different role in the group if the quality of a movement isn’t right. Please don’t be offended by this, but take it as an opportunity to learn and improve your dancing. There will be no charge for the group (Macarena and Steph will run it voluntarily) but we will ask you to make a financial commitment in terms of buying costumes. Costuming for a choreography will be decided by the group as a whole and there will be times when matching costumes will be most appropriate. Naturally we will try to keep the cost of these costumes down as much as possible, and we hope to involve people who are good at sewing , so that we can bulk buy material and make the costumes cheaper. The costumes will be yours to keep.

Finally, we hope this will be an interactive team effort, so feel free to ask questions and give your opinion.

OK, I’m interested – what next?

Contact Macarena to express an interest. We meet on Thursdays at 1pm in the Green Room. If we are starting a new choreography you will be welcome to join straight away. If we are more advanced in learning a choreography we may ask you to wait until we start new one.