Esraa Warda is a North African performance and teaching artist originally from Algeria. Having grown up between Brooklyn and Algeria, she was introduced to dance within informal women's spaces and weddings and was quickly acknowledged as a talented dancer within her community and family. She now professionally teaches and performs Moroccan Chaabi and other Algerian dances such as Rai, Chaoui, Kabyle, and Allaoui. Her dance style and teaching methods are non-commercial and focused on the "transmission" of body knowledge mirroring the same way she learned - through informal women's dance circles. Her dance principles focus on legacy and cultural preservation that we should leave behind dance artistry that is valuable to the transformation and evolution of culture.
Esraa’s artistic pedagogy is centered around politicising cultural work to keep North African dance technique authentic (and African-centered!) in the face of cultural imperialism/appropriation. She continues to perform at dozens of local Moroccan traditional gatherings and cultural festivals, political festivals such as the May Day Festival of Resistance, and at transnational feminist events such as the Havana Habibi Festival in Cuba. She routinely curates and coordinates cultural events highlighting the musical link between different African diasporic communities in effort to emphasize the global “African-ness” that underlines our cultures. Esraa will be hosting dance and music workshops in Morocco in Spring 2019 as her “Roots and Rhythms” initiative and continues to travel around the US and Europe to teach, perform, and share her pedagogy. She also runs grassroots political African centric and anti-colonialist artistic projects around New York, such as the North African Radical Education Project and The Chaâb Lab, an Algerian/Moroccan music ensemble that uses participatory performances to engage African diasporic communities in cultural solidarity.
ALGERIAN CHAOUI 101: BERBER DANCE OF EASTERN ALGERIA
In this workshop we will be learning an indigenous dance from the Amazigh (Berber) group of Eastern Algeria called the "Chaouiya" (pronounced Sha-wee-ya). This dance is unique and quite interesting - most of your dancing happens in your belly! Chaoui people highly respect their agriculture, land, and nature, so it no wonder that their women dance with their stomachs/womb area, as this place is sacred. We will learn their rhythms and of course how to "bounce" your belly Chaoui style.
Level: open // Price: 70 CHF // Language: English
PACKAGES
Reduced price for all 3 workshops Saturday 27th October: 170 CHF instead of 190 CHF
Reduced price for all 5 workshops: 270 CHF instead of 330 CHF
Places are limited. Payment is due once you have received confirmation of your place in a workshop.