have one yet and at the time I was working really hard on
my floor work and also incorporating a lot of my Pilates
training into the movements to make them stronger. She
liked the idea and we made Flawless Floor Work, my first
full length instructional, about a year later. It was released
in 2009. After the release of the floor work DVD, Michelle
and I talked about making a DVD on Turkish style, so I got
to work pulling from the material I learned in Turkey and
created choreography, at the time it was about as challenging
as I could manage. Totally Turkish was released in 2010. A
year or so later Michelle asked me to make an arms DVD
and All About Arms was released shortly after. My last release
on Cheeky Girls Productions was Perfect Practice; it’s over
4 hours of drills, technique and ideas for practice. Deadly
Drum Solo is my most recent release; it’s fast and furious!
It was released by Raqs TV Productions last year. It’s been
a journey, and as I look back at the older DVDs I see how,
over time, my teaching has changed and developed. I’m
currently working on a new DVD project...details will be
released soon!”
14
The Belly Dance Chronicles
October 2016
How do you feel about choreographed versus
improvisational dance?
Ruby shares her experience of moving from improvisational
dance to choreographed performance and how she has grown
from the journey.
Ruby says, “I love dancing Improv, especially with live music.
When I first started performing it was all I would/could do.
I hated choreography and at that time, I thought it was for
dancers who were afraid to take the risk of getting onstage
with no agenda. Then I started choreographing for my
students and found it extremely difficult to make decisions.
I would spend hours trying to choose movements and get so
frustrated. Then I started competing and one of my mentors
(Yasmela of Bellingham, WA, USA) told me that I should
choreograph my set so that my precision would be better...
it was so hard! But I took her advice and did it, which was
the first year that I won a competition. So, I started doing
more choreography for myself but every time it was painful
and so difficult and frustrating. I hated everything I did and