Post-Teaching Thoughts

Here's how the dance that taught me to improvise also taught me how to teach.

Two weeks ago, my friend, Mark Bissel of Seraphim Dance, asked me to sub for his class for one Saturday. I retired from teaching FCBD-style ATS nearly a decade ago after struggling to build a regular student base and eventually becoming disillusioned.

Mark is an accomplished dancer and a familiar face in the Southern California belly dance community, having performed throughout the region and organized the Renaissance Faire Middle East stage for years. So I wasn't surprised to see his classes thriving.

The class that I needed to sub was week three of Level 1. I'd attended the first two sessions and noticed regulars (five to six people). So, I'd expect the same regulars to come to the class I was subbing, and we could review the previous moves and add more fast steps and slow moves to vocabulary (we were supposed to learn Forward Back Shimmy with half and quarter turns, and Propeller, Corkscrew, and Reverse turns).

Lo and behold, only three people showed up. The first two were practically complete beginners in FatChanceBellyDance ATS, one of them actually stayed after the earlier Zumba class. The third one who came a bit late was a more experienced dancer who's been taking Mark's class regularly. 

I knew I wouldn't be able to review the previous steps and moves from the previous two classes. I'd overload the newcomers with information, and they wouldn't be able to actually just enjoy a dance class. 

I panicked. 

I'd done a run-through of the lesson plan the night before. I'd rehearsed it and felt good about it. 

But then I remembered: ATS is all about improv. Why shouldn't that include being flexible when it comes to teaching and rolling with the punches? 

I pulled from my experience teaching non-ATS bellydance classes at gyms, and I told myself I could do this. 

In the first 10 minutes, we focused on posture and slow moves that I consider essential: Taxeem, Floreo, and Arm Undulation. 

Posture (and dance angle) is important because this is the foundation of belly dance, and most importantly ATS. Having the correct ATS posture minimizes the risk of injury and reveals the secret of maximizing the range of movement (the softer your knees, the bigger your Taxeem and Bodywave). 

After the students were able to get the hang of Taxeem and Arm Undulation, we moved on to Bodywave. Bodywave is probably one of the best moves to introduce beginners to bellydance, while not alienating the more experienced dancers because it's always a good time to revisit the mechanics of Bodywave. Plus, it's the gateway to Rhythmic Undulation.

Now we have Taxeem, Floreo, Arm Undulation, Bodywave, and Rhythmic Undulation. 

And it's time to move on to shimmies.

Shimmies are a great way to get the body moving, and it's also one of the hardest fast steps to master. ATS shimmies are what Raqs Sharqi dancers call "three-quarter shimmies." We started slow and then built up the speed. Now we have the Basic Shimmy. 

Time to add the steps that would turn the Basic Shimmy into the Forward Back Shimmy.

After the Forward Back Shimmy drills (we even did the half turn and quarter turn variations), we still had fifteen minutes. And we decided to cool down with the Corkscrew Turn and Propeller Turn. 

And for the last drill, we were able to put everything together. 

Here's the Tl;dr takeaway: 

1. It's week three (or week four or whatever). None of your regulars shows up. Instead, you have drop-in beginners. Be flexible and tap into your ATS improv roots.
2. Teach them the essentials: posture, dance angle, Taxeem, Arm Undulation, Floreo, Bodywave, as well as easier fast steps that could be used as a transition (in this case, we used the Rhythmic Undulation and Basic Shimmy).
3. Depending on how receptive the students are, try to teach that week's lesson plan (we were supposed to learn Forward Back Shimmy, Corkscrew Turn, Propeller Turn, and Reverse Turn) without alienating drop-in beginners. Shimmies are excellent because we can build Rhythmic Undulation Shimmies and Forward Back Shimmies on top of the Basic Shimmies. It's always a crowd-pleaser because it gets the body moving and is challenging. 
4. Dancing a full song of follow-along ATS is completely feasible after the students know the week's lesson plan. Mix it with the transition fast steps they just learned (in this case Rhythmic Undulation and Basic Shimmy) to get out of the fast steps in the lesson plan (Forward Back Shimmy plus its variations). 

All in all, I was relieved that Mark's regulars didn't come. If they had been present, I'd be even more torn about alienating the two drop-in beginners and making their experience with me not so pleasant.

Did not seeing Mark's regulars retraumatize me and made me question my worth as a teacher? Of course! For a moment, I was back to sitting in my own empty class, week after week, month after month. But I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt: Maybe something came up and they weren't able to come. After all, LA is vast and it was a Saturday. 

At the end of the class, I told them Mark would come back in the next session and that I was only subbing. My two drop-ins both said they wished I would teach because they enjoyed the class. 

It was an amazing thing: being complimented after a long dry spell.

But I don't think I want to come out of full retirement from teaching just yet.

Join Mark's classes on Saturdays at 12 noon (10642, Lower Azusa Rd, Temple City, CA 91780; the Google Street View was taken in 2017, it's the one that says "Qin Mobile Device Repair").

Mark also teaches on Tuesday evenings at the LA Bellydance Academy in North Hollywood.

Twelve Years

It has been twelve years since I last posted to this blog. A lot of things have happened: Tribal Fest dissolution, Covid-19, and FatChanceBellyDance no longer having a physical presence in its birthplace of San Francisco.

I had a blog post draft in 2017 entitled "Four-Year Itch," where I wanted to write about how I wanted to take a soft retirement from ATS. I was disillusioned by the ATS dance scene in Los Angeles. My inability to find students was a large contribution, as well as a disastrous sword performance. 

Los Angeles is a city of hustlers, and I don't hustle enough or have the knack to hustle. 

Still, it hurt me when a studio asked someone else to teach ATS, even if I had teacher certification and they didn't. Even if I lived five minutes away from the studio and that person didn't. Even if the studio owner knew me. 

Still, I took the classes because I enjoyed dancing ATS. 

Fast forward to 2026, and I'm a student again. I want to say I don't think I'll ever be a good enough teacher, or at least have enough students. And I've made peace with the idea of always being the bridesmaid and never a bride. 

American Tribal Style bellydance is still big in parts of the US and parts of the world. It's never going to be as big as other forms of dance, including its big siblings, raqs sharqi and tribal fusion, and I've made peace with it too. 

Being a student has its own advantages. You wouldn't need to contend with the anxiety of rejection or having to cover studio fees because nobody showed up to class. This acceptance came with age as well. 

If you're looking for American Tribal Style classes in San Francisco, my good friend Yuka Sakata still teaches pure FatChanceBellyDance ATS every Saturday and every other Tuesday. Go to her website here. 

If you're looking for American Stribal Style classes in Los Angeles, Mark Bissell teaches FCBD ATS in East LA. 

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