Warning: belly dance may change your life

Awalim is an award winning dance company that travels nationally to perform and teach. Our curriculum has been developed over years of teaching hundreds of women with different backgrounds and needs. We start from square one and move logically from there, ensuring that a strong foundation is built and maintained. Students are always properly warmed-up and cooled-down and in between, given clear, thorough explanations of how to perform technique safely and correctly.

Although this dance has a colorful array of styles and genres ranging from Folkloric to Cabaret to American Tribal fusion, the underlying vocabulary of movement is, for the most part, the same. Awalim's Basic's class is technique that can be applied to any style of belly dance. In addition, students are introduced to many styles of belly dance, including Classical Egyptian, Tribal, and folkloric dances. The best part of the classes, especially the Improvisational Choreography (ATS) class is the camaraderie that develops between the classmates. We are always available for one-on-one feedback and guidance and private lessons are available. Stop being frustrated when attending seminars, with a good foundation you can do anything.
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Class Descriptions:

Tribal style is community based- a fusion of urban, folk, and ritual dances based on the ancient art of bellydance!

Basic Technique~ including rhythms, 48 basic movements, transitioning between these moves, traveling, appropriate arm positions, working with music and warm ups and cool downs.. These moves are solid basics for any bellydance style- Tribal, Egyptian, Turkish, etc... Taught by the director, Ziah, and members of Awalim.

Tribal Improvisational Choreography (ATS) Intermediate Emphasis on technique, basic combos, rhythms, finger cymbals & partnering. Group Improvisational Choreography is one of the things that makes Tribal unique. One dancer leads the group by a special system of cues until she is ready to rotate the group and another dancer comes forward to lead. This is exciting to watch and exhilarating to perform requiring concentration and attentiveness from all dancers. Taught by the director, Ziah, and members of Awalim.

Classic Egyptian~ the essence of belly dance from the Golden Age of its artistry in the vibrant city of Cairo, Egypt. Not only will students learn the classical Egyptian style of belly dance, but they will also be informed of all the cultural aspects that surround the Egyptian Style including music, costuming, etiquette, and style. Egyptian style choreography will be taught at the end of the session either focusing on a folkloric aspect of the style or a modern interpretation to the classical music. Taught by Majida Anwar.

Tribal Boot Camp~ Intermediate / Advanced- Awalim's Tribal styling, refinement of movements, group choreography, variations on themes and texture, this is a fast moving, stamina building class, be prepared to work! Bring finger cymbals/zils. Completion of Basic Technique required. Taught by the director of Awalim, Ziah.

Student Performance Opportunities with Banat Almeh: We will not start off by throwing a costume at you and teaching you a routine to perform in public immediately. If that is your main interest, we are not the school for you. We believe that belly dance, like any other dance or art form, deserves to be performed publicly by people who have invested some quality time into practicing. The public is less likely to start respecting belly dance as they do other art forms if they continue to only see it performed by amateurs. Performance opportunities do exist for Intermediate and Advance level students who have mastered the basic concepts of the dance. The student troupe is called Banat Almeh (Daughters of the World/Knowledge) and we do have regular shows at Nicola's and Red Light Cafe.

"Thanks for additional text from Andrea of Dandasha Dance Co. and Zanzibar Studio" www.zanzibarstudio.com.