2025 marks a major milestone for me and our dance studio: 10 years of movement, joy, and connection! When I took over the studio a decade ago, it was already a thriving space for dancers. My vision was to honour its success while bringing a fresh perspective—infusing more art, strengthening the sense of community, and expanding our offerings. The journey has been transformative in ways I could never have imagined.
Throughout this year, I want to take you behind the scenes of our 10-year story. We’ll reflect on where it all began, celebrate the incredible community we’ve built, and share some fun surprises along the way.
Why do so many doctors, osteopaths, gynaecologists, and physiotherapists recommend belly dancing, even without having attended a single class? Perhaps it’s because they intuitively understand that belly dancing strengthens the body’s inner musculature. Rachida Aharrat dives into the anatomy of bellydance to unveil the benefits for your body.
Der Kosmos tanzt: Planeten kreisen und Sterne entstehen. Am weiten Nachthimmel suchen die Menschen Sternbilder und träumen von fernen Welten.
Der Kosmos tanzt: Planeten kreisen und Sterne entstehen. Am weiten Nachthimmel suchen die Menschen Sternbilder und träumen von fernen Welten.
One of our favourite accessories to dance with is the veil, the theme of our A and A/M choreographies in our next course period (KP2) starting March 4th 2024. Veils can be used to frame movements or become an extension of the dancer’s body. Dynamic, dramatic or dreamy, the movement fills the space around the dancer in colour and shape, as the veil adds a new dimension to the performance.
THE VEIL AS PARTNER
Through spending time alone with your veil you will discover some new and original ways to use the veil when you dance. This time we are going to inject some life into the veil by imagining it as a dancing partner, discovering how to use the veil in a playful or theatrical way. How does it feel to dance together?
Through spending some time alone with your veil you will discover some new and original techniques or ways to use the veil when you dance. ALIA has developed many exercises for fostering creativity, taking elements from theatrical training or contemporary dance, which she has used successfully in many performance based projects such as the Phoenix Performance Project. Here we discover how to use the veil in a deeper, more emotional way.
Dancing with a veil has become an essential element of oriental dance, whether as a short and spectacular burst of colour and movement during the entrance of the dancer or as the main player in a double veil fantasy piece.
But maybe its time to look again at how we use the veil and why, in order to create a dance far removed from cliché, a dance that is really DANCE, not just one that relies on the 'wow moments' of veil tricks and effects.
In this series of blogs we will try to answer the question, Why dance with a veil at all? Is it to cover or to reveal, to fill space, create impact, add colour, lightness or drama? By focusing on techniques to achieve a more profound use of the veil we will also include a few exercises for you to expand on your creativity.
