Home ::

Classes

:: Class Schedules :: About Class Levels :: Best type of class for you ::
:: Private Instruction :: A note about your health :: What to Bring to Class ::
:: Interested in booking a workshop :: Teaching Rates ::

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:: Zaina's Clases at Au Set Bellydance Emporium :: Essential Motion Wellness Studio ::
:: Rising Star Dance Academy :: Au Set Bellydance Emporium ::

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About My Classes:

Come join my classes, and journey into the wonderful, rich and varied traditions of belly dance and other Middle Eastern dances. The art and craft of the dance include technical mastery, cultural and historical understandings, musical interpretation, and joy of life expressed through nuanced, sensuous, playful isolations and undulations. Middle Eastern dance is a feast for the senses and an invigorating challenge for the brain and body.

In an effort to increase the calibre of Middle Eastern Dance in Winnipeg and to push myself to greater and greater abilities, I have looked to standards set in larger cities where the dancers (professional, amateur, and student) are significantly better. The result is an adjusted, higher set of expectations of myself as a dancer and teacher, and of my students. Expect to move, groove, sweat, think, feel, and grow as a dancer. My content and pace are appropriate for gaining understanding as well as ability in this dance genre, with both breadth and depth of knowledge and technique that will allow you to keep up in workshops, other teachers' classes, and private lessons. Mastering content in levels 1 through 3 will be an excellent grounding for pursuing dancing as a solo or troupe performer.

I combine my lengthy experience as a performer, my professional training as a certified educator, my long background in sports and dance, and my considerable training in Middle Eastern dance to create a learning environment that is innovative and thorough. Classes emphasize safe, effective technique as well as the aesthetics and artistry of the dance, to provide students with not just the skills, but an understanding and appreciation of this most beautiful and complex dance tradition. I encourage myself and my students to see the many colours of this dance form and the cultures from which it comes, rather than the black and white stereotypes Westerners tend to have about belly dance and the Orient.

All Classes & Levels include:

• imagery, hands-on correction, thorough explanation, correct demonstration, break-down, combinations, partner and group work, transitions, creative exercises, interpretive time, humour, and fun
• class content is, in part, adapted from/consistent with the Cassandra School of Minneapolis
• having recently completed Teacher Training Level 1 with Hadia, I will be placing a renewed emphasis on safe, effective, correct technique and a simpler approach concentrating on the truly essential movements and knowledge of the dance
• best-practice technique and teaching methods from dancers such as Hadia, Sahra Saeeda, and Nourhan Sharif
• brain-based learning that takes into account multiple intelligences theory, how the brain does/does not think, learn, and remember; ways of remembering and recalling; Feedback for Learning methodology will be in use in all classes (where appropriate) to establish clear criteria for what you need to work towards and how it will happen
• students in all levels receive: a copy of the syllabus; basic handout package; first notification of new content added to the site; access to discounted merchandise; notes on any choreographies
• choreography appropriate for the level is prepared for June recital season
• finger cymbal (zills, sagats) technique
• each studio session generally operates on a 9- or 10-class lesson plan that will repeat, with new content, over the dance year

My warmest regards and deepest gratitude to Hadia, Canada's own master dancer and teacher for helping keep me on the right path and for her support, teaching, encouragement and candor. A real dancer's dancer, Hadia has helped numerous performers and teachers understand the dance better, provide safer and better classes, and get their acts together! For more information, see www.hadia.com .
I would also like to extend sincere thanks to the amazing, sublime and spectacular Cassandra Shore for generously sharing her school's syllabi and methods with me. Further information about Ms. Shore, her troupe, and her school is available from her website www.jawaahir.org .
NOTE: I am not claiming to be officially endorsed or certified by Hadia, Ms. Shore, Jawaahir Dance Company, or the Cassandra School.

"The body says what words cannot"
~ Martha Graham (1893-1991)

Class Schedules (click on a studio name for more information)

Winter Classes start in January 2009!