Communicate through Dancing: Facial Expressions & Body Language

We all know it: the queen's glare.  Tribal belly dancers' favorite.  Sometimes, yes, it's appropriate for a sultry slow song, but even then you got to have emotion flowing just as much as the music flows. I always always enjoy a dancer who engages a variety of facial expressions during the performance.  It's nice to be reminded that the dancer is an actual human being with feelings instead of a lifeless moving sculpture.

It's hard though as a performer!  A lot is going through your mind, "Oh crap, oh crap, please don't fall.  Not here,"  or "My hair flower is slipping,"  or "Why am I not hearing any zaghareets?  God I suck. Why am I up here?" or "Ow!  Did I just step on a freaking earring?!" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.  It's so challenging to find that performer zen while letting the genuine self come through and express emotions creatively.  It takes a lot of deliberate practice.  


Humans communicate nonverbally at least 90% of the time.  What you're thinking shows on your face and body, and majority of the time you have no control over it.  The audience can subconsciously read your body language and react to it.  This is why you get anxious when you watch a dancer who is nervous.  Also, sometimes your face will quickly project emotions for a fraction of a second.  These are known as micro-expressions.  You will also see a lot of nonverbal language in the eyes.  For example, when you see something you like or if you're lying, the pupils of your eyes will dilate.  They will also shrink if you see something you don't like.   This is why a lot of professional poker players wear sunglasses to hide their tells.  This is also why you, the dancer on stage, should do everything in your power to make your eyes visible to the audience.  You can communicate a lot with your eyes.  They are after all, "the windows to your soul," and when we dance that's what we want our audience to see, right? 

So while you're preparing for your next performance.  Try out these exercises.  They will help you provide variety in your facial expressions and create powerful statements in your body language.  


Practice Your Smile (or... Embrace the Selfie)

Welcome to the Age of Narcissism and the Selfie.  I personally do not enjoy getting my picture taken or taking pictures of myself.  Let's just say it's not my personality, but I did take them occasionally when I got bored.  Eventually, I grew tired of the long line of "ick" photos of myself and decided to actually start practicing my smile.  Honestly, I still don't like my smile, but it has greatly improved.  Practicing can build muscle memory so you can automatically flash your knockout smile at random.  Also selfies help me see if my performance hair and makeup are working well.  In these photos I'm playing with the Rachel Brice look.  Not quite there yet.  

Practiced smiles are ideal for deliberate posing like for a photo shoot or striking poses in your performance.  Let it be said that when you are dancing, and you're truly enjoying the dance, forget about your practiced smile.  Your smile is the loveliest when you are genuinely happy and having fun.  It really cannot be duplicated on command.  

When you practice your smile try:
1)  Placing your tongue behind your teeth.  It creates a natural and relaxed smile.  You could also open your mouth just enough to stick the tip of your tongue in between the teeth.  Smiling this way will also keep the lips from pulling too far back and revealing the gums.  

2)  Barely squinting your eyes.  It should be almost unnoticeable, yet it will make a huge difference in your photos.  You look more genuinely happy when your eyes squint a little.  If you're able, tighten the muscles around your cheekbones and temples, also known as "smiling with your eyes."  This muscle contraction will help create a natural squint without deliberately squinting your eyes.  Your ears will wiggle a little bit too when you do this.  It really helps to relax your face completely before smiling with your eyes.  

"Plum"

3)  Tilt your chin down and forward.  At first, go for barely noticeable but experiment to see if exaggerated tilts work better.  Tilting will do several things.  It will help achieve the natural looking squint in your eyes.  It creates a stronger jawline and minimizes the double chin.  It also makes your eyes look bigger.  

4) Silently say "Plum."  This automatically creates a tiny, closed mouth smile.  I find it useful to gain control of quivering lips when I'm really cold or really nervous.  

5) Laugh.  Or fake laugh.  Either will work in creating a face that looks happy.  




Practicing other Facial Expressions

Silently say the vowels of the alphabet:  "A, E, I, O, U."  Saying your vowels automatically creates generally pleasing facial expressions.  It's the quickest way to break up your neutral face and provide variety.  You can also try saying them with different emotions or attitdudes: Depression, mischief, serenity, anger, excitement, fear, pain, misery, elation, confidence and so on.  Sometimes singing the vowels works better if you have to hold the expression for a photo.  

"A"

"E

"I"

"U"

"O"

Let the music dictate the emotions.  Sit down and relax, especially your face.  Play your music and make notes of what emotions are portrayed in the music.  Then, practice the different facial expressions that reflect those emotions.  You could also project an emotion that is opposite to what the music dictates, making a powerful statement.  Repeat as many times as you want.  I recommend recording the session on video, so you can make notes of what visually works and what doesn't.

Speaking Nonverbally

Develop a Performer's Mentality.  It's an ideology of how you think and feel about performing.  To you, performing could be just getting out there and having fun, which may cause you to have a playful personality on stage even though you're normally a serious person.  In a way, it's an alter ego, your belly dancer self.  Or it can be just another piece of costuming you put on for your performance.  Either way, the performer's mentality will set the foundation for your nonverbal communication.  It's also very useful for overcoming stage fright.  I will go more into detail about that in a future post.  

Tell a Story. Some people like to be a character dancing out a story.  It can be literally acting out or expressing figuratively or a little bit of both.  When you dance, you could focus on the general ideas that create situations within the music.  These ideas can influence of how you the character would move and react to the situations.  Or you can get very detailed in the choreography where every single movement is an intentional part of the story.  

Practice Power Posing.  We already know that the way we carry ourselves communicates what we're thinking and how we feel.  In this TED Talk video,  Amy Cuddy discusses how your you hold yourself will actually influence the way you think.  By simply changing your posture you will change your mentality.  It also goes without saying that dance posture is a power pose.  Like the performer's mentality, it sets the foundation for your body language.  You also communicate your skill level and confidence to the audience by how much you have mastered your posture.  

Just like anything else, the more you practice the easier it'll get.  Influencing your body language is worth the effort because you will dance with focus and intention, creating art for the audience to enjoy.   Feel free to add these exercises to your bag of tricks.  What works for you?  Have you discovered different techniques that are highly effective?  I'd love to hear about them.