Almost any profession requires professional development. For teachers in Massachusetts, for instance, that means accruing 60 PDPs (Professional Development Points) for each level and subject of certification. This can be done by taking courses, working on projects that result in printed matter (such as study skills workbooks), doing research in an area directly or indirectly related to your field of certification, working on and establishing new curriculum items for your department, etc. There is similar professional development in many other fields, especially those requiring licensing and certification.

I once had a dancer say to me: "I don't bother taking lessons or workshops anymore. Who could teach me anything that I don't already know?" I absolutely cringed when she said this, but I understood. Oftentimes, especially if a dancer lives in an area that is not rich with opportunities to take workshops featuring specially "imported" talent, it is often the same-old-same-old, especially if the teacher herself is one of very few high caliber teachers in the area (and, to my way of thinking by the way, a local area is two hour driving circumference).

However, there are many ways to get your PDPs. If you are not living in an area that offers varied workshops and classes with teachers who are not native to your area, or local outstanding teachers, there are still many ways to actively involve yourself in professional development. Videos are the best way to do this. There are specialty videos if you would like to learn a new prop. Examples of this are videos on sword, candle dancing, veil and double veil, and snakes (so I hear!). There are videos on movements of certain parts of the body, such as arm and hand work, belly rolls and flutters. There are videos on types of dancing such as Raks Sharki, American Tribal Style, Fusion, Rom, and folkloric. There are even videos devoted to costuming, makeup and tattooing. You can get videos that teach Egyptian music and dance, Tunisian music and dance, Turkish, Armenian, and Greek music and dance - to name but a few. Videos that instruct on the various parts of a routine are many - drum solo, floorwork, and veil, for instance. I myself have a library filled with teaching videos - where I already know all the steps being taught but I want to compare teaching methods of various well known dancers in order to professionally develop my own teaching skills.

Another source of professional development is study of music. I have recently acquainted myself with Sephardic and Andalusian music. Other unusual music (unusual to our belly dancing cabaret music ears) would be Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan, Spanish, and the like. (A wonderful source for unusual music can be found at www.fcbd.com/html/music.html.)

You can also educate yourself with regard to rhythms. I recently learned at a workshop given by Leyla Jouvanna and her husband Roland, that there is no such thing, really, as a balady beat. It is, instead, properly referred to as masmoudi saghir. That piece of information actually took my breath away. So my new direction is learning about rhythms. Once I started learning more and more I quickly built up a wonderful library of CDs devoted solely to rhythm study. As a further pursuit in this direction I am taking Reda Darwish's drum workshops at Rakkasah East in a few weeks. However, a warning: Don't be discouraged if the more you learn the less you know!

Under the heading of "related research" how about enrolling in an adult ballet class, or ballroom and Latin dance classes? Now that winter is almost upon us it is a wonderful time to consider figure skating lessons if you have never had them (and even if you already know how to skate). Just learning the technically correct way to glide is extremely helpful to dance because it puts all the power in your thighs and legs. I've often had students call me the morning after a class to say their thighs are killing them…I direct them to the nearest figure skating class! Figure skating is also an excellent method for learning balance, centering, and posture. Also under this heading are classes in public speaking, community theater, voice classes or being a member of a chorus. Anything that will develop your stage presence in other areas will always translate to your stage presence in dance.

Other areas that will widen your horizons in dance would include language classes (Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, etc.). Even a Middle Eastern cooking class at an adult education center would be a wonderful - and delicious! - way to learn more about the culture. Buy a color wheel and learn about combining colors; get books on the history of costuming - either for belly dancing, or theatrical costuming in general. Read books on the folklore and history of the region. DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My personal journey this year has lead me through four areas of professional development.

1) American Tribal Style: Although my primary focus for dance will most likely remain cabaret style, learning about, and subsequently teaching, ATS has opened an entirely new, rich horizon in dance for me. First of all, I am meeting wonderful people and taking seminars and classes that I wouldn't ordinarily have, and that in itself has richly textured my dance experience. But in addition to that, there are new movements and new interpretations of movements that have made their way into my cabaret style. Also, an entirely new world of folkloric music has been opened to me, including the Aisha Ali series: Music of the Ghawazee, Music of the Fellahin, and Music of the Ouled Nail.

2) Rhythms and Drumming: I spoke about that above, but I want to emphasize that working on this area has also increased my sensitivity to drum solo work.

3) Double Veil and Circular Veil: This is one prop that I have longed to do since seeing Mezdulene's video Veiled Visions. However, it was not something that I could entirely grasp from the flat surface of the television set, so I signed up for a workshop given by Leyla Jouvanna to learn it in person. I have yet to perfect this skill - maybe that will be on next year's list!

4) Egyptian style: Having devoted my 25 year career to "old-fashioned American cabaret dancing" (translation: Armenian-Turkish-Greek with a peppering of some old Arabic standbys such as Leyla, Aziza, Aya Zein, Samra ya Samra, etc.), and not learning or teaching an ounce of structured choreography, I've also started to peer beyond those boundaries as well. I actually learned a wonderful series of steps recently that I would classify as "pure" Egyptian and found myself doing them impromptu with a live performance of Shisheler! (And by the way, if you don't know all the songs I am talking about in this paragraph, then that's your subject of professional development right there!) Again, an example of something outside of your ordinary interest enriching the "menu" you already have!

If, after reading this article you still maintain there's nothing left to learn, then maybe it's time for you to hang up your zills. However, if you know you need to enrich and develop yourself but don't know where to begin, then just sit quietly and remember: "When you are ready to learn, the teacher will appear." And that teacher, and that path, can be anything.