Coming soon to “pay what you want” pricing

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To celebrate Nadira’s retirement and maintain our legacy, we’re opening up the Belly Dance Geek® catalog with “pay what you want” pricing and granting limited permission for classroom use.  

We’re still revamping this product for fully DIY release (our goal is to release one per month), so check back here or subscribe to receive updates from our “pay what you want” store.

Watching yourself on video improves your dancing.

torture-free-critiques

But it can also be excruciating.

When we try to critique ourselves (rather than someone else), we tend to get tunnel vision.

Instead of seeing the good, we notice every mistake, every flaw, every less-than-perfect detail.
 

It feels like torture – and it doesn’t help.

Beating yourself up over your  imperfections is demoralizing, not motivating.

Instead of learning where you can improve, you get overwhelmed by everything you need to “fix” in order to not feel like a fraud.
 
 

Instead of beating yourself up, you need to step back and evaluate your dancing objectively.

 

You need to learn how to critique, not criticize.

But that’s easier said than done.
 

That’s why I created Torture-Free Critiques

“Step aside self doubts, second guessing and self damaging criticisms. Nadira has created a step by step guide to easily assess your strengths, objectively ” - Terry, San Francisco

Terry[Nadira] calls herself a geek. But she’s a great geek! To me a geek is someone who’s obsessed on a subject and acquires a great deal of expertise through diligent study.

Most people think of dance training as being done in the studio…hours and hours worth. But there is more than that. It requires intense self examination, and with that comes the risk of overthinking, second guessing and sometimes undermining yourself at the expense of your own creativity and self esteem.

Step aside self doubts, second guessing and self damaging criticisms. Nadira has created a step by step guide to easily assess your strengths, objectively, thus providing you with a checklist of tangible elements to work on in your performance!

As a dancer, not only is it important to develop a keen sense of body awareness, at some point in your studies it is also important to develop an objective eye on your own talents and strengths.

This is an excellent program for the new performer or the seasoned pro!

Terry, San Francisco

 

In this program, you’ll learn how to critique yourself on video objectively. (Or as objectively as any art gets.)

I’ll walk you through the same process I use in my personal critiques service, using the same criteria.

“There were also concepts and topics that, while I was aware of them, I tended to overlook when evaluating my own videos. Having to think about those things gave me other ideas for growth...” - Evren, Boston

TFC is a comprehensive program that enabled me to step back from my dancing and, using a clear and diverse set of criteria, watch my video from a different perspective. I find it incredibly challenging to see anything but the mistakes when I watch my performances and spend most of the first viewing cringing at the screen, but TFC gave me objective, yet remarkably flexible items to review and evaluate my dancing.

It allowed me to more clearly articulate areas that need improvement, putting a “name to a face” of things that I could see didn’t look quite right, but that I wasn’t sure what, exactly, was wrong. There were also concepts and topics that, while I was aware of them, I tended to overlook when evaluating my own videos. Having to think about those things gave me other ideas for growth and made me appreciate aspects of my dancing that I disregard or take for granted.

TFC requires not only a significant time commitment, but also the resolve to kindly and thoughtfully critique yourself as a dancer. It may not be the right program for everyone, but I think that dancers who want to grow more comfortable reviewing their dance on video would benefit greatly from this product, as would those looking to dig deeper and take their performance to the next level.

Evren, Boston

 

Torture-Free Critiques includes:
  • 50-minute training audio
  • Written transcript, so you can read the training instead (or for quick reference)
  • Step-by-step worksheets to guide you through the critique process.

 

“I ended up feeling empowered after doing the critique, rather than overwhelmed and bad about myself.” - Annya Ishtara, Taos, NM

Annya-IshtaraI applied Torture Free Critiques to a recent performance video of mine that I was less than happy with. Critiquing myself, especially on a dance where I felt I didn’t do my best, can be much more difficult than critiquing someone else. It’s hard to have emotional perspective, for one thing. What shifted the most for me as a result of going through the Torture Free Critiques process was that I no longer hated my dance in a blanket sense. Instead I was able to discern specifics about what I didn’t like, why I didn’t like them, and, even better, I came up with some specific plans for how to improve the things I wasn’t happy with. So I ended up not feeling so disappointed with my dance after applying Nadira’s process because I was able to see my performance more objectively.

Nadira’s Torture Free Critiques also asks you to look at your strengths and brainstorm how to make them even better. I realized that my performance had many strong elements, as well as the weaknesses that had at first seemed so glaring. What a relief! I love that I ended up feeling empowered after doing the critique, rather than overwhelmed and bad about myself. Plus I’ve got some ideas for how to make my already good points even stronger.

I think this course is great for dancers who are motivated self-studiers. You have to get creative on brainstorming the best ways to help yourself improve in the areas you want to work on.You may just need to remind yourself of what you already know but haven’t been applying. And, one of your improvement strategies may end up being seeking the help of a knowledgeable teacher to help you get to the next level. If you are looking for a course that gives you all the answers, this one is not for you. However, if you are willing to look within yourself and do some work, you can definitely benefit from it.

Overall, I found this program to be quite illuminating and beneficial. It led me on an honest, introspective journey to help me improve my dancing in some very tangible ways.

Annya Ishtara, Taos, NM

 

Premium package

Upgrade to the premium package, and you’ll also get the bonus action plan training.
That will help you use the feedback you gathered in your critique to make real improvements to your dancing.

 

“The process is extremely thorough and user-friendly. ” - Nasila, San Francisco

NasilaThe process is extremely thorough and user-friendly.

I would recommend this to many of my students who are still nervous and internalizing performance issues, as Nadira touches on many aspects of performance, appearance, and intent, that students (and teachers!) tend to overlook.

Nasila, Los Angeles

 

What’s Included:

Basic Package
Premium Package
Audio Training

Training Transcript

Step-by-Step Worksheets

Bonus Action Plan Training
(worth $10)

$15
Coming soon to our “pay what you want” store
$18
Coming soon to our “pay what you want” store
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“I plan to do several more videos - because what you measure improves.” - Nepenthe, Boston

Torture Free Critiques could be used by any level of dancer to improve her dancing. All you need is a way to record video and plenty of time to review it. That, in fact, is most of what you need – time. Whether you review the written materials, or listen to it, there is a lot of material to absorb.

After that, there is no getting away from the hard work it takes to review your video multiple times, taking note of different aspects. That was the hardest part for me – and yet the most valuable. Following this, I made myself take and watch several videos of practice sessions and discovered some things I didn’t know about my dancing.

However, I had to recall Nadira’s wise advice: to give critique to yourself the way you would give it to a friend. Make no mistake – there is nothing easy about doing a video critique of yourself. It’s about as much fun as trying on bathing suits, but it’s much more rewarding than that.

Because of Nadira’s lists of questions and suggestions, you will have a lot of material to work on. In fact, you _could_ skip the video critique part and just use the materials as tips to improve your next performance! After reading the materials, I did my next practice session with more attention to my posture, energy, and the structure of my dance.

If you are going to try it, try it several times – see if you improve each time. For example, I noticed a sad expression in my face in my first video (to my great surprise as I thought I was smiling). The next time, the smile seemed more genuine – and lasted longer. I plan to do several more videos – because what you measure improves.

Nepenthe, Boston