Day of Dance May 2009
Today I went to the Day of Dance that is held twice a year in Saltaire, and on the whole I have had a very good day. Enough that I am contemplating what workshops I might like to do in the Autumn.
I went to four workshops 3 on belly dance and one on hand reflexology.
Classical Bellydance
This was my first class of the day. It was a small group, and we went over a lot of the basics - which is always good, sometimes having them explained by a different teacher can make something click. I was very impressed with the teacher, and would happliy take a class with her again. It was a good start to the day.
Hand Reflexology
I took this partly because it sounded interesting, and partly to have a 'less active' period in my day. It was very interesting, if somewhat unstructured. The teacher seemed a bit scatty, and we jumped about a bit in terms of what conditions/parts of the body we looked at. There was a lot of information to take in, and although we were given a handout map of the hands, I would have appreciated more information on where to massage for what, and a bit more general information about reflexology
Egyptian Dance
This was my least favourite class of the day. Partly due to the room being inadequate for the size of the group (they should not have let so many people sign up on the day) - which meant we couldn't all dance at the same time for some parts of the workshop, but mostly due to the teaching. We started late, the tutor spent a lot of time talking, and not much time dancing - and while the massaging your partners was fun, I really don't think it needed to take up almost 15 mins of a 90 min workshop.
However, some of the other people in this group were experienced dancers, and they had amazing costumes, which has provided me with some inspiration for the sort of thing I might like to wear.
Tribal Bellydance
This was my favourite class of the day. I don't think I want to entirely abandon traditional belly dance for tribal - or at least not yet. But I am rather in love with some of the costuming and techniques, and would very much like to take more classes/workshops in this style of dance. The tutor was excellent (founder of 400 Roses ::squee::), and we learnt a lot of moves, which we were able to use in a short choreography. I also liked the music we used, it wasn't traditional belly dance music at all, but worked very well.
I think I will definitely do another tribal workshop, but I might try some 'circle dances' next time - as I think this will feed into the bellydance, but also not be an overdose, as it is the weekend after the next Jewel of Yorkshire, which I would also like to go to.
I went to four workshops 3 on belly dance and one on hand reflexology.
Classical Bellydance
This was my first class of the day. It was a small group, and we went over a lot of the basics - which is always good, sometimes having them explained by a different teacher can make something click. I was very impressed with the teacher, and would happliy take a class with her again. It was a good start to the day.
Hand Reflexology
I took this partly because it sounded interesting, and partly to have a 'less active' period in my day. It was very interesting, if somewhat unstructured. The teacher seemed a bit scatty, and we jumped about a bit in terms of what conditions/parts of the body we looked at. There was a lot of information to take in, and although we were given a handout map of the hands, I would have appreciated more information on where to massage for what, and a bit more general information about reflexology
Egyptian Dance
This was my least favourite class of the day. Partly due to the room being inadequate for the size of the group (they should not have let so many people sign up on the day) - which meant we couldn't all dance at the same time for some parts of the workshop, but mostly due to the teaching. We started late, the tutor spent a lot of time talking, and not much time dancing - and while the massaging your partners was fun, I really don't think it needed to take up almost 15 mins of a 90 min workshop.
However, some of the other people in this group were experienced dancers, and they had amazing costumes, which has provided me with some inspiration for the sort of thing I might like to wear.
Tribal Bellydance
This was my favourite class of the day. I don't think I want to entirely abandon traditional belly dance for tribal - or at least not yet. But I am rather in love with some of the costuming and techniques, and would very much like to take more classes/workshops in this style of dance. The tutor was excellent (founder of 400 Roses ::squee::), and we learnt a lot of moves, which we were able to use in a short choreography. I also liked the music we used, it wasn't traditional belly dance music at all, but worked very well.
I think I will definitely do another tribal workshop, but I might try some 'circle dances' next time - as I think this will feed into the bellydance, but also not be an overdose, as it is the weekend after the next Jewel of Yorkshire, which I would also like to go to.