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BREAKING DOWN TECHNIQUES
Breaking down techniques step by step for either beginners or advanced students. All techniques can be broken down, no matter how complicated they look. Learning good practice techniques and how to smoothly transit from one technique to another.
This workshop covers all parts of the body. Including - all hip techniques such as figure eight, circles, loops and shimmies, belly rolls, undulations, ribs, chest, shoulder shimmies and rolls, head, arm & hand movements, steps and turns with neat feet, Breathing correctly and Layering of techniques are also important. Suitable for all styles of bellydance. Techniques are named for easy communication.
ELEGANT ARMS AND HANDS
Arm work makes up 50% of the dance, they can make or break your performance. Understanding a simple method of arm movements that all good dancers use & develop. From basic to more complex. Arms can be flowing or staccato like, gentle or fierce, romantic or dramatic that create an atmosphere. Also novel arms and hands that talk, express or tell a story. Learning how to practice beautiful elegant arm/ hands & how to add them to your own style of dance. There is a secret to obtaining elegant arm structure with easy flowing hands. You will learn a sequences of movements that will help you to remember arm movements without trying. By the end of 2 hours you will get the hang of it & wonder why arms where so difficult in the first place. Bring your sense of beauty and artistry to this en-lighting workshop. All arm movements have names for easy communication.
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Best of Orient Festival, 27 Sept., 2008
Workshop in Hannover, Germany - English version
Workshop in Hannover, Germany - German version
VEIL DANCING - Beginners
Learning the fine art of veil work with lots of practice. How to hold & handle the veil. Holding the veil to accommodate hip work. Simple yet interesting ways of opening & discarding the veil. Making the veil float, drape, twist & turn. How to spin without getting giddy. Steps & Turns without tripping over the veil. How to gracefully pick up the veil when it accidentally falls out of your hands. Affective way of practice to build up your confidence. Making the veil a dream to work with.
Bring a veil of 2 1/2 yards (2 metres) made from summer weight chiffon with rough edges sewn. Bring your sense of glamour.
VEIL DANCING - advanced
This workshop continues on from Veil Dancing for beginners. Finding the Art. Handle the veil at an advanced stage. Maintaining an elegant & graceful profile. Many new and interesting ways of opening & discarding the veil. Improvising veil work to suit the mood of the music, be it fast or slow. Becoming confidence, improving floating, draping, wrapping, twisting & turning. Advanced ways of spinning with steps & turns. Adding drama, romance & mystery. Adding emotional expressions appropriately to suit the music. Affective ways of practice. How to gracefully pick up the veil when it accidentally falls out of your hands, by turning the situation into a highlight or comedy. Different ways of manipulating the veil with hip techniques. Making the veil a dream to work with & delighting all your senses. Isis Wings can be included as they are an extension of good veil work.
MATURE DANCERS
Making the best use of your maturity. From 40 to 70 years young, aging disgracefully. And your children will love you for it. Developing a dignified way of dancing to suit your age group. This includes techniques, hear and feeling the music and learning a wonderful semi choreographed dance with memorable highlights.
Appreciating your body, dressing to suit your age and shape, which will making you feel terrific and look fantastic. Becoming more confident. What you can and cannot do anymore, but learning to substitute other ideas. Coping with arthritis and other ailments. Becoming more flexible, staying nimble, and keeping your pelvic floor muscles strengthened.
SHOULDER SHIMMIES
There are ugly shoulder shimmies & ugly rib, chest techniques, and there are dignified ones. Surely you have seen them, but did not know what to say. Well now you can learn a language to describe what you see. And what do you do with your own wobbling bits ? Many dancers, students and teachers simply do not understand that there is an ugly way and a elegant dignified way of executing rib lifts and shoulder shimmies. This workshop will improve your own shoulder shimmies and rib lifts, even if they where not that bad to begin with. Hip shimmies and Vibrating shimmies are also incorporated in this workshop. Also learning to alternate from rib (chest) techniques, moving down alternating to hip techniques. Arms play an important part in producing dignified shoulder shimmies . Where the head is located is also very important. Renee will show you how to put it all together in a semi choreographed dance. And because you know you are looking good with dignified shoulder shimmies, you will do them more often & have fun experimenting & showing the world how much control and dignity you have.
SPINS - STEPS & TURNS
The secret of how to spin without getting giddy. Getting out of a spin to start the next movement. Breaking up a spin with many varied steps, turns and hip techniques. Choosing a short or long spins. Some spins are slow, medium or fast. Adding interesting arms to a spin. Different spins for varied age groups. Learning to
create a fantastic ending or an enchanting introduction using varied spin techniques. Trance dancing & Whirling Dervish is incorporated.
IMPROVING & REFINING what you already know.
Varied hip techniques - Shimmies - ribs - Shoulders - Head & neck - Stomach rolls & undulations - Snaking - Arms & hands - Posture & feet. How to practice them to get optimal results. This is an advanced workshop and I encourage students or teachers to bring their own music and choreography to highlight examples.
FLOOR WORK
Emphasizing an artistic and elegant approach for the young teen and more mature dancer.
Meeting the floor gracefully in many varied ways. Exploring many varied floor techniques. Dancing to suit your age group. Learning the many ways one can dance in a sensuous but elegant manner and be viewed respectfully. Arising from a horizontal level can be a nightmare of wobbles and near misses. Many of these techniques can also be developed for sword work.
CAMEL WALK
The breakdown of the most utterly beautiful & sensual undulation techniques, including belly rolls, upper and lower undulations. Also learning to reverse all of these techniques giving you another dimension. Getting your body to become fore flexible & yielding by way of special exercises. Once you have mastered the lower undulation and belly roll you will herald a most stunning Camel Walk. Learning a dance that will combine all these movements for practice & performance. Suitable for all ages & styles.
MASMOUDI
A dance interpreted in the Masmoudi rhythm is a worthy challenge. It is a very feminine dance. It is food for the feminine sole. See my video clip demonstration which can be viewed on my web site with workshop descriptions. ............VIDEO CLIP
DRUM SOLOS
There are many ways of dancing to drum music. We will explore varied ways to express a drum pieces. From the exiting, enthralling and flamboyant to the gentle & demure, sweet or cheeky. Powerful and Dynamic. Hypnotic and mesmerizing. Innovative and artistic. For the enthusiastic Young to the more Mature student.
ELEGANCE & GRACE
This workshop is to help you understand the difference between grace & elegance. How to apply it to your own style of dance. Covering all basic techniques - toes, hips, belly, ribs, chest, shoulders, neck, head, arms and hands. Improving your dancing posture. Learning the difference between elegance and grace will apply to most styles of belly dance including Egyptian, Lebanese, Turkish, Baladi, Folkloric, Cabaret, Taqsim, Veil, Sward, Stick, Tribal and Bollywood.In this workshop I encourage students to bring their own music and dance that we can work with as examples.
ISIS WINGS
See the video clip and workshop description......VIDEO CLIP
TAXIM - TAQASM - TAQSIM (1) - beginners
Slow & emotional dancing. Listening to the music with your heart & soul. Becoming the instrument or music. Loosing your inhibitions. Learning to let go & follow your heart within the dancing techniques you know. Also learning how to refine the undulations, tummy rolls and camel walk, rib lifts & rib rolls, varied figure eights, head circles & shoulder rolls to accommodate this most ancient and feminine dance. All with beautiful arms and hands.
TAXIM (2)
Portraying an image of breathtaking feminine beauty - advanced level, teachers & professionals
Snaking the body from head to toe. Snaking the arms to suit the mood. Slow deliberate movements that enunciate the instrument or music. Poses that unwind into poetry in motion. Undulations that flow & entwine with the music. Allowing your emotional expressions to coil within your mind, giving glimpses of seduction, temptation & playful wickedness. Working your mood with calm serenity. A dancers dream. Again students can bring their own music.
TAXIM with Shimmies
This workshop has all the elements of the above but also feature vibrating shimmies with many layering. Gorgeous arm and hand techniques that compliment the shimmies and other slow snaking movements. The dancer become the instrument and conveys the feeling of the music. Sometimes telling a story of love & passion. A must for the advanced dancer, but a beginners version can be created
SLOW MOVES
This is not a Taxim but a general look at the slower movements & how to interpret the music. It is useful for slow introductions. Often fast music can be slowed down where the round & slow techniques can be successfully substituted. Shimmies or other fast techniques can be substituted with slower movements. It is learning how to with extra practice. Also Hip work can be replaced with memorable arm and hand techniques. Learning to pause & feel comfortable when you do very little. Being in control. Knowing when to speed up & when to slow down. This workshop is designed for all age groups, all levels, teachers and professionals.
EGYPTIAN WALK and SHIMMIES
There are 2 main ways to shimmy. The vibrating shimmies and the side hip shimmies. There are lesser shimmies of hip rotation and hip drop shimmies. Each has its own purpose. The Egyptian walk is made easy by using two main technique. There is a secret of how to practice this. The Shimmies and Egyptian Walk can be executed stationary, traveling or as a spin . Variety to the Shimmies and Egyptian walk is created by layering assorted techniques. Shimmies & the Egyptian Walk may be all hips but it also needs good arm work and posture with attitude depending on the music. Listening to the music to understand which shimmy to choose. Better posture and interesting arm & hands will also be included. Suitable for all styles of belly Dance.
SHIMMIES
Learn 101 ways of applying shimmies.
Side hip shimmies, vibrating shimmies, 3/4 and twist (rotating) shimmies, bouncing up & down shimmies, drop shimmies, turns &
traveling shimmies, one hip and leaning shimmies. Shoulder shimmies, rib shimmies, tummy flutters, finger shimmies, eye brow shimmies and more. Subtle shimmies to larger and boulder shimmies. For each shimmy there are many varied
layering such as hip rotation, hip drops, hip lifts, figure eights, pelvic, hip circles, undulations, hip rolls, Mayer or Sway vertical figure eight, snaking, ascending, bobs, flicks, arms & hands and so much more. How to practice & gain confidence to improving your shimmies. Covering the varied tempos & rhythms. . Earthen feet or raised heel. Stationary or travelling. Arms that suit the shimmies are also addressed. Listening to the music to understand which part of the body to shimmy. When to shimmy or not to shimmy. This workshop also covers shoulder shimmies. Suitable for all levels.
WONDERFUL HIPS
This workshop concentrates on hip techniques. Breaking down techniques for all levels. Including large movements to small subtle techniques. Working on rhythm, timing, feel and flow of the music. Dancing on the beat or just after. Covering the common techniques to more complex and unusual hip movements. Such as the many varied figure eight, varied pelvic and hip circles, hip rolls, hip loops, hip arcs and belly locks.
Easy hip drops to the more complex drops and lifts. Also how to create larger more impressive hip movement with combining upper body rib techniques. Exploring the varied hip shimmies and Egyptian walk with
layering. Understanding what layering of techniques is all about.
Learning to join, combine and mix the many simple or complex techniques to make a memorable dance.
Creating a free dance or a fully choreographed dance. Suitable for all bellydance styles including Tribal.
SAIDI STICK or CANE DANCE
Learn to kick and twirl your stick to the beat of the Saidi rhythm. Making the cane your perfect dance partner. Artistically, emotional and feminine. Keep it simple or make it spectacular. Brush up on old and learn some new tricks. The techniques will be incorporated into a short choreography with room for improvisation.
IMPROVISING
This workshop is geared towards the advanced student or eager beginners that find it difficult to remember choreography.
We will learn the many "trick" of the trade of how to improvise. It is not
difficult to learn how, if you have been entrenched with choreography. There
is a way of breaking free. However there is some preparation involved that
need to be learned. I call it "mapping" or "planning". Once you have learned
this method, your dancing will open up to many wonderful new experiences.
Being free to improvise and move about when required such as restaurant work
or entertaining at parties or Concerts.
HEAR & FEEL THE MUSIC
Learning how to hear the Music and Feel the Music. Dancing in the moment. Learning to improvise and use all the techniques you already know. For solos and groups. Dancing in large or small spaces. Let your dancing spirit sore. Learn total abandonment and give yourself to the music.
Gosford, NSW Australia.
Email Renee