This year has been one of slight changes to the way we cross train as a troupe. For about 2 years now, we have been doing warm ups based on the Dance Movement classes that Suhaila Salimpour has online. We have all noticed how just 45 mins a week has made to our general fitness and ability to keep up in workshops! I’ve also been adding in bits from my old fitness videos from way back – Tae Bo and Cindy Crawfords videos have been indelibly burned into my muscle memory!!
However we decided this year to add in, for just an hour a month, ballet, taught by Marie Green of Dance Sensation. It’s been a discovery for us all! Even just that hour has made a vast difference (especially to me, I feel) and we all particularly enjoyed the last session where we drilled and drilled and drilled!! What this did replace was a monthly DVD hour – where I used chose various subjects and we all crowded around my small portable DVD player in the dance studio and tried things to varying degrees of success.
However what we have been doing is bringing things back from all the workshops we attend. Kathryn and Andrea have just come back from Gothla, so I suspect we will be inundated with gems gleaned from Sera Solstice , Sashi , Angela Wooi and Sabrina over the coming sessions. I have just come back from attending one day with Suhaila down in Brighton, and I have many many drills in mind for both the troupe and my regular classes! 4 of us attended the Deb Rubin workshops in Southampton in April and there were some lovely combinations that we need to work somehow into our own style. Troupe members also fitted in workshops with Candi on Shaabi this spring as well.
Kathryn has also been to workshops with Samantha Emanuel and Manca Pavli up in the Midlands, and she is working towards doing the Rachel Brice 8 Elements course in Portland in October (and fitting in a workshop or two with Amy Sigil in September!) . I’m hoping to find time to attend the Artemis Mourat workshops that Sara Shrapnell is hosting in Basingstoke in September.
And with that I’ll sign off as its time for an arm technique workshop with Elis Pinheiro. We saw her perform at the last Hipnotic and were captivated by her beautiful dancing and since she is only here in the UK for a short time we asked if she could fit in a private troupe workshop. I’ve told her we don’t mind drilling and working hard…..I hope the rest of the troupe don’t mind!!
hipnoticbellydance
