Dance your Values

After shopping your values (you took the pledge, right?), come express them in movement at Embodied Bellydance class! (May 12, 2-4, 440 studios; sign up by May 10 to be sure of a spot!)
We'll use fluid phrasing and movements sourced from developmental biology to lift your spirit and let your soul shine through.
Wrap up your week in style!

Ecstatic and Meditative Dance

I've been taking 5Rhythms and BodyMind Dancing classes lately in pursuit of my movement therapy certificate, and it's been interesting. I never thought of dance class as a way of expanding my mind, my knowledge of myself, or my knowledge of the universe. Dance class has always felt like a good physical release, but adding the mindful layer to it as well really deepens the experience and makes the learning more specific. Good stuff.

New Class! May 12, 2-4

Another Embodied Bellydance class is on its way, May 12th from 2-4 at 440 Studios. We'll be working with more Body-Mind Centering concepts, focusing on fluids. Check out a review of the last class!
Sign up by May 10 to secure your spot.

Connect with your deeper self and learn how to express yourself authentically on stage without needing to resort to stock gestures. Strengthen the connections between your body and your mind, and expand into a powerful new lever of stage presence.

In this class we'll use Body-Mind Centering principles and the somatic process to find our own unique inspiration for improvisation and choreography. Come prepared to move, roll on the floor, and take your dance to a whole new level.

Advanced beginners to professionals are welcome. Injuries will be accommodated.

Advanced purchase by May 10 gets you the $30 rate; at the door, it's $40.

Name: (required, please!)

Email in case of changes

For Everyone Who's Been Asking About Somatic Bellydance

This weekend's somatic belly dance class was amazing! I knew a lot of my somatics work dovetailed beautifully with belly dance, but not until seasoned professionals started making major movement breakthroughs did I realize how valuable this stuff is to us.

During class, we did a floor warm-up, aiming to bring our minds and bodies into alignment. Then we physically realigned our bodies with detailed deep tissue work in the hip area, freeing up the muscles and increasing our range of motion, releasing deep muscles (yes, psoas fans, you can get there from here!) and more superficial muscles directly involved in belly dancing hip work.

The really crazy stuff happened once we got deeper. Quite literally.

As part of my somatic training, we study Body-Mind Centering, which has a heavy focus on organs and glands and their role in movement. And when we began bringing our organs into the equation, it was worth ten classes on spinal flexibility! By bringing in the internal organs at the base of the rib cage, we freed up new ease of motion, new nuances of articulation, and a new joy in dancing, thanks to the sheer pleasure of our "new" ability to move. To address the hips, we began to dance from the organs in the pelvis, particularly the reproductive organs, and felt new subtlety and freedom in our movements there as well.

Once we had turned on all the lights in our bodies, it was time to move. I used imagery and metaphor to guide students through some improvisation time, then we finished up with a quick developmental movement series, balancing the glands, and finished up with a bit of qigong to round out the afternoon and bring everything to a close.

It was a great class- I left feeling energized and excited for the next workshop. Watch this space to be the first to know! And trust me- you want to be there.

Here's Autumn's review of the class, with pictures!

Workshop Details: What you need

More details on the workshop Saturday 3/24:

Wear: Something you can roll on the floor in. A hip scarf is fine, but you may need to put it aside for the floorwork portions of the class.

Bring: Any or all of the following:
Kneepads
A mat

Location:
440 Lafayette St, 4th Floor (between Astor Place and 4th St.) Look for Voodoo Sisters on the room listing, though I believe we are in 4G.

Time: Still 1-3, Saturday March 24. Pre-pay to secure your spot; otherwise $35 at the door.

See you then!

Like zombies, we rise again....

Can't keep good loonies down. Yes, we are back, or at least one of us is back. Melissa Voodoo will be teaching a workshop this month that's all about the crazy stuff I'm learning. For those of you who don't know, I'm an anatomy nerd, I've been a personal trainer for close on 10 years, taught Pilates teachers how to be teachers at one of the most technical schools in NYC, and let more professional certifications expire than I know what to do with. And now I'm studying to become a movement therapist. It just keeps getting geekier.

And with everything I study, I keep thinking , "This would be SO GREAT for bellydancers!

So, find out how all this crazy knowledge can benefit YOU! Come to class on March 24th, 1-3. Pre-pay the ridiculously low price of $30 for 2 hours, or pay $35 at the door.

This workshop is sponsored by the wonderful Autumn Ward-- find out more about her detailed dance work at www.naturalbeautybellydance.com.
Sign up for the 24th here, now:

Name: (required, please!)

Here's some more info:

The word "somatics" is derived from "soma", a living body. Proprioception is the sixth sense-- the awareness of where your body is in space. Learn how to use these concepts and more to improve your fluidity, creativity, and ability to dance.

Melissa Voodoo, co-founder of the Voodoo Sisters, personal trainer, Pilates teacher trainer, and student of somatic movement therapy will show you how to get in touch with your body's ability to move in entirely new ways, using Body-Mind Centering, Martha Eddy Technique, Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and more. As you link your mind and your body more closely together, your dance will become more expressive, more reflective of the emotions running through you and the story you want to tell onstage.

The workshop is Saturday, March 24th, 1-3 at 440 Studios. Cost will be $30 with advance registration with Melissa via Facebook or PayPal; $35 at the door. A class series may follow-- watch this space for full details

Name: (required, please!)

So, do I see you on the 24th?

White people are weird.

Seriously-- white people are really weird about pregnancy. And I say this as an official pregnant white person.

In my personal experience of unsolicited comments as a pregnant woman walking down the NYC streets, here's the breakdown:

Black people:
"Congratulations"
"You go, mama!"

Hispanic people:
"Congratulations!"
"You look great!" (from women!)

Asian people:
"Boy or girl?"
They then proceed to give me health advice.

White people:
"Does she have twins in there?"
"Any day now..." (in that "you're in for it" voice)
And many other variations on "Wow, you're huge/ready to pop (a phrase I detest!)"

Sadly, I run into more white people than anyone else.


But what I really wonder is, how are we the most numerous ethnic group in the country with this attitude? I mean, really?