Student Ethics
As a student, there are many things to consider in the area of ethics. The first thing to think about is classtime and what goes on there. Some people take dance classes for just the fun of it, and others take dance classes because they want to eventually become professional dancers. As one of the students who is there just for fun, you need to be thoughtful of those who are there for serious study. As with any other learning environment, you should not horse around in class, laugh loudly, or distract others who are working.

This is a technical and difficult dance form, just as ballet, jazz, and any others that you can think of. Often, movements will be hard to figure out at first, sometimes though, a movement may be easier for you than for others. If someone is struggling with a movement and is looking less than graceful, never, never make fun of them, even in a lighthearted way. Even gentle ridicule can cause someone to stop comming to class.

Classroom guidelines to think about.

If your class starts at 6:30, don't arrive at 6:27 and expect to explode into class while everyone else is already stretching. You should make sure that you are there in plenty of time to change, fill your water bottle, shut off your cell phone, and tend to any of the other things that you need to. If for some reason you have to be late in getting to class, go in quietly and take a place at the back of the class, even if you are usually right in front.

Any dance student with common sense will never wear her street shoes onto the studio floor. They should be outside the room, and if there is not a safe place for them, then remove your shoes directly outside the studio and carry them in. No one wants to dance on sand, mud, or semi-melted snow.

Once the class begins, do not joke around, whisper to others in the class, or interrupt others who are working on movements. By all means, ask questions of the teacher at any time, but try to do so when she is not explaining something to someone.

If you have come to a teacher after being with another teacher, do not speak ill about the other teacher in class. Quite often, teachers are friends, and you mey be dissing your new teachers bud. Also, if your new teacher has you doing a movement in a way you have not done, don't holler out "So-and-so says that hers is the right way!" or any variation of that statement. There are many ways to do many movements. No teacher alive or dead can claim to know "the only right way". There are five or six ways alone to do a three-quarter shimmy that are taught in the intermediate levels.

This rule can be taken further. It is never a good idea to insult anyone publicly, whether it's a teacher, fellow student, or a dancer at your fave Greek restaurant. The dance community is small, and soon enough, everyone will hear blown out of proportion versions of your classroom comments.

Please always remember this one important thing. If a teacher corrects you, she is not picking on you, or trying to make you feel inept. When a teacher corrects a students' movements it's because the student is progressing and will be able to do the movement with a little tweaking. If you can do the movement and the teacher is still correcting you, it's because there is still a little polishing that can be done. Teachers notice little things that students haven't trained themselves to see yet, such as the angle and bend of arms. Sometimes, if your arms are supposed to be straight overhead, the teacher will see that they are bent even if you don't notice.

If you watch teachers with an objective eye, you may notice that sometimes, the better dancers get the most correction.

As you are taking off your shoes outside the studio, along with tucking you socks into your shoes, tuck your ego in there as well. You are there to learn, please do yourself the favour of not going in there believing that you know it all. This is especially important if you have had other teachers, of other types of dance training. No one wants to spend an hour and a half with an out of control ego beside them. No matter how good you are, you will learn something from every teacher you have, whether its stunning moves, or a really good work ethic.

More rants on this line coming soon!


The Professionals Versus The Recreationals

There are two types of dancers out there who have, for the most part, finished with the "student" stage of their dance life.

Type 1 is the professional dancer, the one who twirls around the restaurants, or ends up on the stage when a prominent Middle Eastern musician comes to town.

Type 2 is the recreational dancer, she can be found at all the Haflas and doing solos at the student recitals. She dances for the love of it with no illusions about her talent or place in the greater scheme of things.

Sadly, it seems that the two sides can't seem to sit in the same room sometimes. There needs to be a separation, but not a line drawn in the sand like there seems to be sometimes.

Here's what a beginning student dancer sees when she looks at her dance community:

"The professionals are threatened by recreational dancers." That is not the case though. It's not that the pro's think that the rec's are out to get their jobs, the pro's are just worried that the reputation of Middle Eastern Dance will be dented by recreational dancers who are not as finely polished as they have worked so hard to become. Recreational dancers, not being at the professional level, aren't always aware of some of the things that the professional dancers have to go through to raise the reputation of the dance form.

Professional dancers spend a lot of time working on their craft, for some, it's a full time job. There are endless hours of practice, tons of cash spent on music, videos, workshops, costumes, costumes, and more costumes. These are usually the expensive Egyptian numbers, not something sewn at home while watching T.V. Add to that, business cards with photos, brochures, color publicity stills, jewelry, and all the other business expenses, and you have a costly job.

They also have to deal with all sorts of things the rec's don't. Some have to deal with nasty restaurant owners that always want more dancing for less money, less costume, more flirting, later start times, and other things that we won't mention. It takes extreme effort at times to deal with those people who automatically assume that you are either a stripper or hooker, or both. We have worked very hard to get rid of the hoochy koochy reputation. It's a sad fact, but the professional dancers are a little over-protective of their turf.

Look at it their way. If a dancer who was not well trained were to climb into a home-made costume, go into a restaurant and dance a set for half the price, there would end up being problems.

"The recreational dancers resent the professional dancers hogging all the best venues to themselves"

This is sometimes true. The best venues need the best dancers, with the best costumes, and the best music. Where it can become a problem is if the professional dancers try and stop the recreational dancers from having dance parties on evenings when the venue does not usually have dancing. There are some professional dancers who are of the opinion that the recreational dancers should never dance in a public place.

I have even been told in an e-mail by a retired dancer (from Florida) that recreational dancers, having not paid the dues that the professionals have, should not dance anywhere except their own basements, and have no right to call themselves belly-dancers unless they are an actual registered business. She even said that students should not appear in their first recital for at least a full year of "intense training". To her, I say....

Students, rec's, and teachers all have the right to dance anywhere they damn well please!

I feel the need to point out that this long retired dancer made her career out of Belly-grams and Stag-parties.


Cultural Ethics

Coming soon!