The immersion - A certified training with Ashley Lopez

TOPICS

Day 1 .- April 2nd, Saturday (10am-14.30pm 30-minute break included)

           * You will learn to overcome the fear of performing in front of an audience, to maintain composure and present your best to your audience In this class, we will cover several techniques and go through a few exercises to help you hone your stage presence skills, and to help prepare you for all of the uncertainties of live performance.

           * Balance. Poise. Power. The unearthly quality of a dancer’s grace lies in her ability to blend strength and flexibility together with excellent alignment and balance. That, coupled with technique, artistry, and stage presence…she floats.

    In this class, you will be guided through a series of alignment-focused poses and exercises that are designed to help you work out some of your body’s imbalances and asymmetries, while giving you a better understanding of the mechanics and sharpening your proprioception, or body awareness.
    

    We’ll work on cleaning up technical execution of movements and then take that a step further by playing with single-leg balancing, fast traveling, and turning.
    Get intimately acquainted with your feet, your legs and the core of your body through movement. Learn how to enter and exit beautiful shapes and be confident of your ability to master them. You’ll dance through a few sequences which will challenge you to be mentally focused, technically solid, and physically balanced.

Day 2 .- April 3rd, Sunday (10am - 17pm 1-hour lunch break included)
Please bring a yoga mat, towel and water

          * Is your shimmy weak or missing? Can you shimmy, but have trouble adding smooth arms on top? Is your shimmy stuck in one place…so you have trouble making shapes or traveling with it? Ever wonder what the difference between an up/down shimmy, a twist shimmy, and a 3/4 shimmy is? Would you like to learn specific exercises designed to help you build the muscles necessary to make your shimmy strong and consistent?

    We’ll focus on exercises that will train your “shimmy” muscles, and then we’ll explore those muscles with simple, specific movement drills. Once your motor is running smoothly, we will begin to add complexity through layers (arms, upper-body isolations and shapes, undulations and hip shapes as well!)
    Next, let’s take a walk…travelling with shimmies is challenging but is one of the quintessential bellydance steps. Learn several different ways of moving around with your shimmies.
    As time allows, we will tie it all up with a nice combo that will remind you of all the possibilities and take it home to make it your own!

           * How does “core” strength affect bellydance? The training that you do to improve your trunk strength has a massive effect on your balance, ability to turn well and do safe backbends and body rolls or undulations. Let’s also discuss the importance of range of motion through the core (think circles and figure-eights in the hips and chest.)

         Discover the power of a well broken-down belly roll and belly flutter exercises!   

          Ashley will get you to connect to your core using basic fitness techniques and the teachings of Joseph Pilates. Training on the mat will evolve into standing dance drills as we discuss moving from the center and creating energy for bellydance from, well, your belly!! You'll have the tools you need to implement essential exercises and dance drills for core strength that will inspire an edge in your dance.

          * You will practice quick, clean execution of isolated locks throughout the body. You’ll work up a sweat drilling these powerful movements with increasing speed.

    Next we will break down those notorious fluid belly dance moves: belly rolls, body rolls, figure 8’s and flowing arms. You will learn about the musculature behind those difficult movements that are so delicious to watch. Ever notice the way some dancers make you weak in the knees with their belly rolls? You’ll discover why, and how to work up to it!
        We will finish by using this dichotomy between sharp and fluid in a graceful way, so you can interchange them with ease.
    As time allows, we will go through a combo or two that illustrates what you just learned, and then we’ll put it to music and talk about how and when to use these movements so you’re interpreting the music intelligently and beautifully.