The PiperMethod™ School of Belly Dance

Registration begins at 8:30am, workshops and SHOPPING begin at 9am!

Scroll down for complete workshop descriptions.

Saturday, August 2^nd 2008

Sunday, August 3^rd 2008

All Levels: Beginners can focus on hipwork or foot patterns, while advanced dancers can put it all together with posture, arms, transitions, etc.

Adv.: designed for intermediate to professional dancers. Beginners may attend with the understanding that basic topics will NOT be covered.

• Register for workshops on-line
• Buy Belly Dance Magic tickets on-line
• Return to main BellyPalooza page

All workshops & Magic tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door

9am Saturday

1. Rhea: Moving through the Chakras + Zill Drill - all levels. Find your inner snake and learn those sinuous and fluid torso and hip movements. This class includes an introduction to finger cymbals guaranteed to get you dancing and playing at the same time!
2. Gerson: The Fitness Pharaoh - all levels. Belly dancers need a strong core in order to hold a proper dance posture. A dancer who can't center her pelvis will usually revert to a sway-back position which makes most Middle Eastern dance movements more difficult. This seminar will teach you how to strengthen your core muscles and improve your overall posture and dance presentation.
3. Yoga Christy:  Yoga for Belly Dancers, Form, Flexibility, and Floating - all levels.  Learn great Yoga stretches and exercises to target your chest and shoulders, spine, hips and legs -- and how to breathe deeply for greater stretching success.  Connect your breath with your balance, your mind, your emotions, and your movement and discover a greater sense of energy and grace.  Get feedback on your body-mechanics and how to improve them for dance and life!  Please bring a mat if you have one.

10:30am Saturday

1. Rhea’s Riveting Spins, Kicks and Turns – all levels. Spotting, whirling, flamenco-style kicks, and Greco-Turkish leap turns, plus combos to put it all together!
2. Piper: Shimmy Clinic – all levels. Focus on posture and clean, isolated hipwork and layering for Basic, Swing, Twist, 3/4, and many other shimmy styles besides!
3. Melina: Props, Balancing and Floorwork - intermediate to advanced. Learn all Melina's tricks for poise, presentation, and powerful performances! Bring knee pads and tube or slouch socks + prop of your choice (or borrow from Melina).

Noon Saturday

1. Latifa: Expressions – all levels. If you want to be a more expressive performer and make better connections with your audiences, then this workshop is for you! Learn to look confident, create moods, and convey emotions with "Latifa's toolbox of expressions", plus brand new ideas to use your own life experiences to create looks that are genuine and just right for YOU!
2. Piper: Upper Body Movement Clinic – all levels. Add fluidity and the element of emotionality to your dance with upper body movement. Beginners can focus on basic torso, shoulder, and arm movements, while advanced dancers will work on layering with fancy hipwork.
3. Melina: Balkan Beat Box Choreography – intermediate to advanced. Funky tri-partite combination featuring jazzy kick-ball-changes, groovy isolations, snaky level changes, classic Rhea combos, fun partner work and the group “flower” opening ending.

Break for lunch and shopping: 1:15 to 2pm

2pm

1. Artemis: Turkish Romany – all levels. Turkish "Gypsy" dance with hand gestures. Learn emphasis and accentuation for different 9/8 rhythms, from evocative slow 9s to the lightning fast, exciting karsilama.
2. Taqsim Workshop with Deniz – all levels. Begin with strengthening exercises and detailed technqiue for stomach work, and then move on to combos with arms and hip isolations for standing and floorwork Taqsim.
3. Lisa Zahiya: Tribal Basics – all levels. Explore the spontaneity of tribal improv by learning basic tribal technique and movements.

3:30pm

1. Artemis: Turkish Oriental – all levels. Cabaret Dancing in the flamboyant Istanbul style. Artemis is a performer, writer, master instructor, and dance historian. Learn from the best!
2. Dancing on Goblets with Deniz – intermediate to advanced. Technique, styling, stage presentation, and music selection for dancing while balancing on goblets or water glasses. This class includes some veil and floorwork. Please bring your own STURDY goblets, tumblers, or glasses (you’ll need 4; plastic is OK for first timers!).
3. Lisa Zahiya: Hip Hop Bellydance Fusion – intermediate to advanced. Start with basic hip hop movements and techniques and how to effectively fuse them with bellydance, then learn a combination from the routine that won Lisa the title of Tribal Fusion Bellydancer of the Universe! Be prepared to get funky and sweat. Please wear supportive jazz shoes.

Come to Belly Dance Magic

at the Baltimore Museum of Art

7:30pm Saturday, August 2^nd

9am Sunday
1. Rhea: Move Your Hips a Million Ways – all levels. Rhea is known for the fastest hips in the West! She will teach you how to move in every way imaginable. Maximize every step you take.
2. Gerson: The Fitness Pharaoh - all levels. Belly dancers need a strong core in order to hold a proper dance posture. A dancer who can't center her pelvis will usually revert to a sway-back position which makes most Middle Eastern dance movements more difficult. This seminar will teach you how to strengthen your core muscles and improve your overall posture and dance presentation.

3. Yoga Christy: Yoga for Belly Dancers, Form, Flexibility, and Floating - all levels. Learn great Yoga stretches and exercises to target your chest and shoulders, spine, hips and legs -- and how to breathe deeply for greater stretching success. Connect your breath with your balance, your mind, your emotions, and your movement and discover a greater sense of energy and grace. Get feedback on your body-mechanics and how to improve them for dance and life! Please bring a mat if you have one.

10:30am Sunday
1. Rhea: Unleash Your Inner Performer with Chiftitelli – all levels. Ever wish you could just get out there on the stage and just DANCE? Greco-Turkish Chiftitelli will tap into the natural performer in your soul.
2. Melina: Ice Queen Choreography – all levels. Learn to “put it all together” with a dramatic beginning (great rhythmic intro), a drum solo moment, slow work improvisation, and a reprise of the intro to an punch ending. Music: Ice Queen by Dinletir from Belly Dance Super Stars CD.
3. Piper: Drum Solo Technique + Aziza – intermediate to advanced. Technique for clean isolations and lovely layering, followed by classic drum solo moves, plus fun bits of the choreography that won Piper the Belly Dancer of the Year title in 2000. Click for workshop notes.

Noon Sunday
1. Rhea: Dynamic Duo Moves – all levels. Rhea’s latest combos are impressive to look at, yet easy and fun to do! Can be done alone or with a friend, +/- cymbals, your choice.
2. Naimah: Dramatic Fusion & Theatrical Combos – intermediate to advanced. Dramatic moves and poses enhance stage presence. Learn how to approach the beat with serpent-like moves and grab it with locked poses. Unexpected twists and turns to add extra drama. Then put it all together into one of Naimah's signature theatrical combinations.
3. Michelle De Vine: Fabulous Fluttering Veil Fans – all levels. Mystery and motion with scintillating silken veil fans! Gain expertise with this exciting new dance accessory. Update your repertoire with Michelle's spectacular techniques for this latest flowing dance specialty.
4. Sidqi: Introduction to Tabla Technique for beginners

2pm
1. Lotus Niraja: Drum Solo WITH Veil - all levels. Learn the piece that the NDC perform at Belly Dance Magic 2008! This non-traditional, contemporary number has the dancer enter with a drum solo and end with the veil.  **Please bring veils to workshop.
2. Melina: Linked by a hip – all levels. Vintage Rhea steps meet fusion Melina stylings, with everything linked by a hip! (with Zills for the daring, fancy hands for the shy)
3. Sidqi and Kostana: Rhythms for Dancers – all levels. Learn some of the fundamental basic rhythms in Arabic music and how to feel and internalize these rhythms through dance movement. Play with improvising to common drum solo riffs, experimenting with how to present the different sounds of the drum on the body. Gain confidence through familiarity – now, even when you don’t know the music, you will always be able to connect with, and dance to, the underlying rhythms.

3:30pm
1. Lotus Niraja: Lebanese/Hip Hop Complete with Cane/Sticks - all levels. Lotus is famous for having the fastest, coolest cane in the West! Learn the latest techniques for urban-belly fusion. A limited number of sticks and canes will be available during the workshop - please bring your own if you have one.
2. Melina & Piper: A Lifetime of Raks Kahti – all levels. Choreographed by Rhea in 1972, Rhea’s daughters have been doing this choreography their whole lives, and it just keeps getting better! Come for the choreography, or just the Proto-Tribal technique and combos, or just to hear stories of our past life as teen belly dancers in Greece and close the festival with the Daughters of Rhea. Click for workshop notes.
3. Sidqi: Intermediate to Advanced Tabla Techniques.

• Register for workshops on-line
• Printable BellyPalooza workshop schedule
• Buy Belly Dance Magic tickets on-line
• Return to main BellyPalooza page