Instruction

Private & Small Group Lessons

Are group classes too intimidating? Perhaps they don’t fit your schedule or needs? Do you need to learn some Middle Eastern Dance moves for a special project or role?

Whether you’re a day-one beginner or a more experienced mover, Nabila can get you started with the basic moves of Belly Dance in a non-threatening way, at your pace, safely and with ease. In addition to being a beautiful and accessable style, Middle Eastern Dance can be a gentle way to enhance your overall fitness; As exercise, Belly Dance is an excellent low-impact, core-driven movement form. And because dance classes use music, rhythm, space, shape, and travel, they engage many more areas of the brain than most forms of conventional exercise. Feel free to inquire about scheduling a private lesson or a series of sessions for yourself, someone you love, or a small group!

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Workshops for Western-Trained Dancers

As a dancer with a strong background in Ballet and Modern as well as Middle Eastern Dance, Nabila is uniquely suited to introduce this dance form and all it has to offer to trained movers in Western styles. Many major choreographers today draw from an increasingly diverse body of movement traditions, hence today’s advanced or aspiring professional dancer needs more than just rigorous ballet-based training. The well-rounded professional needs to be competent in several types of movement, and exposure to a few widely differing styles is an asset to any serious dancer. It is just as important for a developing artist to create mental flexibility and strength alongside that of the body.

Here are a few reasons why a Middle Eastern Dance workshop would be good for your students
  • Enhanced listening skills & rhythmic awareness: the relationship between the dancer and the music in Middle Eastern Dance is of paramount importance, and so “tuning into” the rhythms and dynamics of the music is emphasized from the very beginning. Because much of the music of the Middle East is so rhythm-centric, those rhythms are expected to be reflected and accented through movement, the practice of which builds musical accuracy.
  • Dynamic agility: One of the hallmarks of Belly Dance are the near-endless variations in speed, direction, orientation, or texture that can be given to a single step, movement, or phrase. Creating a setting that requires exploration of these concepts is a great way to introduce these ideas in a playful and productive way.
  • Greater interior awareness: All dance forms use the same ingredients, but they use them differently and in different proportions. Using the acute physical awareness and proprioception they already have developed, students will be asked to explore planes, space, placement, weight, breath, and stillness in ways they may never have before.
  • More confidence in their own movement: Middle Eastern Dance may be one of the oldest dance forms, but it was only recently developed as a performance art, so it has lots of room for personal style and is a great vehicle of individual self-expression. It is not codified to the extent that Western forms are, and so the joy of “letting go” and dancing for fun is something nearly everyone can–and should–rediscover.
  • Because it’s just different: Once in awhile, students with an already firm base of quality training need to hear a different voice, learn from another teaching style, see from a new viewpoint, and think in a new way.

Nabila’s classes typically include an overall dance warmup that segues into the general Middle Eastern movement vocabulary using the music that traditionally goes with it, and then combines the steps we learn into longer sequences appropriate for the students’ level.

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