Cartoonish Expression

Some of the most important advice that we ever get as dancers is that the feeling is the most important thing. You hear this from teachers, you hear it from coaches, competition judges even, and overall Egyptian dancers. We keep hearing that we have to focus on the joy. The problem is, is that sometimes that starts to feel like just one more thing that we have to do in order to feel like we’re good enough, like it’s something else that we have to check off our checklists and if we don’t do that, then we’re failing as a dancer. When that happens, it has the opposite effect. We either get a frozen smile or we ham it up and start making faces that just don’t play as genuine. When we try and telegraph our joy instead of feeling it, it turns into the cartoon version of the feeling. So, what can we do about that?

Well, the big difference between a cartoon and real life is detail and nuance. So, instead of thinking of joy as just one thing, let’s get more specific. When I was playing around with this idea, I realized that I could think of four types of joy. Emotional, artistic, physical, and interpersonal.

Emotional joy is what we think of as joy, right? It’s happiness, excitement, or tenderness. Things that we would label as feelings.

But there’s also artistic joy and that’s the satisfaction of having an artistic experience. It’s when you feel clever for catching a nuance in the music, or when you feel playful about you use your movement vocabulary to express it, or just the simple joy of expressing what you’re feeling in the first place.

Physical joy, you can also think of this as sensual joy. It’s the joy of being in your body, of moving, feeling, smelling, tasting, touching. That’s one of the things that belly dance really has to offer us.

Then the fourth type is interpersonal joy. This is the pleasure that you get from making a connection with people in the audience or if you’re lucky enough to have live music with the band. It’s when you make them smile, or draw them into your experience, or even when you make them feel your pain.

So, how can we apply this in the moment? Well, one thing you can do is every once in a while ask yourself, “What type of joy are you feeling right now? What are the specifics? What are you joyful about?” For example, you might be joyful because you just love that little drum accent and you feel clever. That’s artistic joy. Or you might be thrilled because that little girl in the back row is bouncing in her seat and so you’re feeling the joy of that connection.

ow, often the answer to that question though is,”I’m not feeling any joy. I’m really stressed.” This is especially true if you’re a newer dancer or if you tend to get stage fright that doesn’t leave early on in your show. Another question you can ask yourself then is, “What joy can you tap into right now?” Because the thing is, we can often feel feelings even if they’re not obvious to us. So, we can feel things on demand. That’s because a lot of the things that we feel are there under the surface and they’re just being masked by our nerves. Often, if you can label the thing that you’d like to bring out in your emotional experience, you can experience it.

And if that fails, fake it until you make it. This is a time honored showbiz technique and nothing to be ashamed of. If you choose to fake whatever feeling you feel would be most authentic to right now if you weren’t having such a tough time, often that becomes the truth because we are what we repeatedly do. I’m pretty sure that quote is from Aristotle, but I’m walking so I can’t confirm it.

The thing is, even if you never actually feel that, if you spend your entire show freaked out and stressed, just the fact that you’re being more specific about what you’re trying to express is going to make it more believable and that’s going to make it better for your audience and better for you.

So, next time you’re on stage and trying to focus on the joy, ask yourself, “What are you joyful about, what could you be joyful about, or what do you need to pretend to be joyful about?” And that can make the difference between expressing Donald Duck and expressing the real you.