This summer's belly dance classes are going to be awesome, so if you've toyed with the idea of taking from me. Now is a good time to dive in!
My new class sessions Start the First week of July 2008 at the Harbor East MAC. Get all the details here:
www.shemsdance.com/classes/...m#classes then email me to reserve your spot, the come and dance!
So I've been prepping for the belly dance classes I'll be teaching this summer and they are going to be awesome!
In Belly dance Essentials we'll be working on finger cymbals (aka zills or sagat). We'll learn how to play some rhythms and basic patterns. we'll learn different tones you can make. We'll learn when to play and when not to play. We'll learn how to accent our playing and how to highlight our dancing. And we'll put in a lot of practice dancing and zilling at the same time. It will be hardcore sagat action.
In Technique and Musicality we will explore the Egyptian Oriental Entrance Piece. This is the most complex and nuanced piece in a dancer's routine. It is the first impression and the moment the dancer has to show she really knows her stuff. We will learn about the origins of this dance and the feeling connected with it. We will build and sharpen our technique and learn to utilize our muscles for polish and refinement. We will explore the music for deep understanding and we will dance like queens! The queens of raqs sharqi!
In Fundamentals of Performance Quality movement we will explore creating dances. We will analyze music, discuss how to connect with musical phrasing, delve into instrument driven movement, discuss staging, delve into building dance choreography and discuss tools for good improvisation. We will spend time with transitions between movement.
In Belly Dance Basics we will be building correct technique from the get-go. Isolations, footwork, technique building, arms, we will continue to work on these things and build in an ongoing manner. If you are just starting or still want to build your basic technique. This class will take it's time to breakdown, refine, discuss muscles to use and finding movement.
Sunrise belly dance will be moving to a new time in the wee hours of Friday morning. 6 am - This class is continual belly dance movement - we start with a nice warm up drill medium paced rhythmic steps, build into shimmy drills, slow down into undulating movements and then a little stretch at the end. I love this class because an hour of straight dance in the morning is a wonderful way to start the day. As a bonus, immediately following this class is Theresa Lummino's warm yoga flow class. Which I've taken and really enjoy (part of why I'm moving the class, so I can have that hour of belly dance followed by and hour of yoga, sweet.)
I might have to cut back on how many classes I can teach next fall due to school obligations, so help me make this summer rock in serious belly dance fashion. If you are interested, I've been dying to put together a hafla of awesome porportions - live Arabic band, both performance and open dancing, the best guest performers and you!
And if you are wondering "who the heck is this Shems person and why should I take from her?" Well, prepare yourself, I'm about to do some tooting of my own horn:
I've been studying this dance obsessively for the last 12 years, supplementing my dance education with modern, ballet, jazz, body conditioning for dancers, many, many folkloric forms, Middle Eastern history, Arabic, music lessons and more. I have studied and continue to study with many of the biggest stars of Oriental dance, American, Canadian, Turkish, Lebanese and Egyptian, the list is too long to fit here, but I post it on my website. This summer I'm off to study with Dina, Randa, Dandash and Mo Gedawi of Egypt and I've already attended the Turkish Folk Tours dance camp and taken several classes with Orit Maftsir of Israel.
I have worked professionally as a full time dancer in the past and I've been in very high demand at some of the most exclusive venues in DC. I'm respected by my peers in dance and loved by many of the venue owners and the Arabic community in DC and I'm growing in reputation in Baltimore. I've also been gaining a national reputation in the belly dance community and I've been asked to teach workshops back in Utah, North Carolina and now California, as well as here in our area in Virginia and Maryland and I've been asked to dance in selective shows in several different states across the country. I've won the hearts of several of the musicians I've worked with and could give you positive references from some pretty impressive names in our Middle Eastern music and dance community. I've won 2 awards at the 3 contests I've attended in the course of my dance career. One with my former troupe, performing my choreography and that of my troupe mate Sumra (they went on the next year without me to win again also utilizing another choreography of mine) and one as a soloist in the professional category at the East Coast classic.
I'm not just your run of the mill Belly Dance instructor who took a few years of classes from a local teacher, then decided to hang up her shingle. I know my stuff in a major way and I always continue to train. When I teach I also provide supplemental information on my website so that my students can be informed and intellectual in their understanding of the very rich dance form that this is.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing all the other belly dance teachers in Baltimore, there are a few in the area I really respect for the wonderful and unique things they have to offer as well. Different people have their different strengths. I just know what I have to offer is unique and valuable.
I'm dying to find those of you who are dying to take your dancing to the next level, who want to dig deeper, go further, become above the caliber of the average professional belly dancer in our community, who want to honor this art form by really doing it extra well and have a great time in the process. Oh yes, serious dancers. I want you. I even want the not so serious dancers who do it for fun or fitness. If you can have fun, get exercise and become a great dancer in the process, why not? It's a win, win, win situation.
And those of you who think it would be cool to learn to belly dance, but have been sitting on the fence. It's time to jump in. Belly dance isn't just a few new moves to do at the club or for your husband (or wife as the case may be). It's a wonderful social community, where women bond with and enjoy the company of other women. (The occasional brave man is embraced as well!) It is a door to some of the most incredible music and cultural experiences. It is an opportunity to tap into and release deep emotions. It is an opportunity to be more glamorous then you ever thought you would have a reason to be. It is a fountain of youth, whose gentle athleticism keeps you young in heart and younger looking, because of the joy of it. It is exercise that doesn't feel like exercise. It is an opportunity to appreciate the sexiness of your own body whatever shape you are. It is so worthwhile in a hundred ways.
Come play with me this summer. Let's Belly Dance!
My new class sessions Start the First week of July 2008 at the Harbor East MAC. Get all the details here:
www.shemsdance.com/classes/...m#classes then email me to reserve your spot, the come and dance!
So I've been prepping for the belly dance classes I'll be teaching this summer and they are going to be awesome!
In Belly dance Essentials we'll be working on finger cymbals (aka zills or sagat). We'll learn how to play some rhythms and basic patterns. we'll learn different tones you can make. We'll learn when to play and when not to play. We'll learn how to accent our playing and how to highlight our dancing. And we'll put in a lot of practice dancing and zilling at the same time. It will be hardcore sagat action.
In Technique and Musicality we will explore the Egyptian Oriental Entrance Piece. This is the most complex and nuanced piece in a dancer's routine. It is the first impression and the moment the dancer has to show she really knows her stuff. We will learn about the origins of this dance and the feeling connected with it. We will build and sharpen our technique and learn to utilize our muscles for polish and refinement. We will explore the music for deep understanding and we will dance like queens! The queens of raqs sharqi!
In Fundamentals of Performance Quality movement we will explore creating dances. We will analyze music, discuss how to connect with musical phrasing, delve into instrument driven movement, discuss staging, delve into building dance choreography and discuss tools for good improvisation. We will spend time with transitions between movement.
In Belly Dance Basics we will be building correct technique from the get-go. Isolations, footwork, technique building, arms, we will continue to work on these things and build in an ongoing manner. If you are just starting or still want to build your basic technique. This class will take it's time to breakdown, refine, discuss muscles to use and finding movement.
Sunrise belly dance will be moving to a new time in the wee hours of Friday morning. 6 am - This class is continual belly dance movement - we start with a nice warm up drill medium paced rhythmic steps, build into shimmy drills, slow down into undulating movements and then a little stretch at the end. I love this class because an hour of straight dance in the morning is a wonderful way to start the day. As a bonus, immediately following this class is Theresa Lummino's warm yoga flow class. Which I've taken and really enjoy (part of why I'm moving the class, so I can have that hour of belly dance followed by and hour of yoga, sweet.)
I might have to cut back on how many classes I can teach next fall due to school obligations, so help me make this summer rock in serious belly dance fashion. If you are interested, I've been dying to put together a hafla of awesome porportions - live Arabic band, both performance and open dancing, the best guest performers and you!
And if you are wondering "who the heck is this Shems person and why should I take from her?" Well, prepare yourself, I'm about to do some tooting of my own horn:
I've been studying this dance obsessively for the last 12 years, supplementing my dance education with modern, ballet, jazz, body conditioning for dancers, many, many folkloric forms, Middle Eastern history, Arabic, music lessons and more. I have studied and continue to study with many of the biggest stars of Oriental dance, American, Canadian, Turkish, Lebanese and Egyptian, the list is too long to fit here, but I post it on my website. This summer I'm off to study with Dina, Randa, Dandash and Mo Gedawi of Egypt and I've already attended the Turkish Folk Tours dance camp and taken several classes with Orit Maftsir of Israel.
I have worked professionally as a full time dancer in the past and I've been in very high demand at some of the most exclusive venues in DC. I'm respected by my peers in dance and loved by many of the venue owners and the Arabic community in DC and I'm growing in reputation in Baltimore. I've also been gaining a national reputation in the belly dance community and I've been asked to teach workshops back in Utah, North Carolina and now California, as well as here in our area in Virginia and Maryland and I've been asked to dance in selective shows in several different states across the country. I've won the hearts of several of the musicians I've worked with and could give you positive references from some pretty impressive names in our Middle Eastern music and dance community. I've won 2 awards at the 3 contests I've attended in the course of my dance career. One with my former troupe, performing my choreography and that of my troupe mate Sumra (they went on the next year without me to win again also utilizing another choreography of mine) and one as a soloist in the professional category at the East Coast classic.
I'm not just your run of the mill Belly Dance instructor who took a few years of classes from a local teacher, then decided to hang up her shingle. I know my stuff in a major way and I always continue to train. When I teach I also provide supplemental information on my website so that my students can be informed and intellectual in their understanding of the very rich dance form that this is.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing all the other belly dance teachers in Baltimore, there are a few in the area I really respect for the wonderful and unique things they have to offer as well. Different people have their different strengths. I just know what I have to offer is unique and valuable.
I'm dying to find those of you who are dying to take your dancing to the next level, who want to dig deeper, go further, become above the caliber of the average professional belly dancer in our community, who want to honor this art form by really doing it extra well and have a great time in the process. Oh yes, serious dancers. I want you. I even want the not so serious dancers who do it for fun or fitness. If you can have fun, get exercise and become a great dancer in the process, why not? It's a win, win, win situation.
And those of you who think it would be cool to learn to belly dance, but have been sitting on the fence. It's time to jump in. Belly dance isn't just a few new moves to do at the club or for your husband (or wife as the case may be). It's a wonderful social community, where women bond with and enjoy the company of other women. (The occasional brave man is embraced as well!) It is a door to some of the most incredible music and cultural experiences. It is an opportunity to tap into and release deep emotions. It is an opportunity to be more glamorous then you ever thought you would have a reason to be. It is a fountain of youth, whose gentle athleticism keeps you young in heart and younger looking, because of the joy of it. It is exercise that doesn't feel like exercise. It is an opportunity to appreciate the sexiness of your own body whatever shape you are. It is so worthwhile in a hundred ways.
Come play with me this summer. Let's Belly Dance!
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