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SABAH´S WEEKLONG
solo puedo describir esta experiencia como unica e inspiradora. tener la oportunidad de recibir de sabah su conocimiento y generosa forma de entregar el ballet ha sido hermoso.
hasta antes de este encuentro para mi el ballet era una tecnica aburrida, rigida y fuerte para el cuerpo, pero poder experimentarlo junto a sabah cambio totalmente mi persepcion de esta danza, tanto al punto que he comenzado clases despues de finalizar el intesivo con ella.
encontré en el ballet una herramienta poderosa de juntar lo sutil y lo fuerte, pues en belly dance, por mas q hagamos movimiento fuertes, es una danza que se resalta por su forma suave y fluida ondulante, sutil.
el balleta su vez es la fuerza la expansión la proyección, la rigidez en acción, es mágico ver como suspenden el cuerpo en el aire y vuelven al suelo en perfecta armonía. gracias a su coneccion con su centro y su punto de accion.
todos los ejercicios que sabah nos entrego me acercaron mas a un contacto intimo con mi cuerpo, a entablar un dialogo mas preciso con mi interior pudiendo asi encontrar un punto de partida y de fin para mis movimientos.
creo q fue de gran ayuda el que sabah sea una gran bailarina de belly dance, pero al tiempo tenga una base tan solida de ballet, pues eso hace que tenga una visión mas amplia y q a la hora de enseñar nos halla entregado en tan poco tiempo tantas cosas maravillosas que siento enriquecieron mi danza y mi estilo inmensamente.
siento que gracias este retiro intensivo, logre fortalecer mis piernas no solo en un aspecto físico si no también energético al poder sentirlas y conectarme con esa fuerza que nos sostiene y nos conecta con la tierra desde nuestra pelvis a nuestros. pies, y que se expande hacia torso y brazos, pues al poder sentirme firme y cómoda en mis piernas también me brindo mas confianza para poderme expander hacia experimentar cosas nuevas con mis brazos y a darme espacios de integrar la expresión.
simplemente agradecimiento siento por sabah y su dulce generosa y profesional forma de enseñar
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Stefanya
4:19 pm on March 3, 2010 |
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Tags: Raqs LA
I hope that everyone is as excited as I am about Raqs LA coming up in April. Highlights of this two day bellydance extravaganza will be master classes form Issam Houshan, Bozenka, Meera, plus many other talented BDSS teachers. The souk will be full of items from around the world. This year I will be buying a new set of zills and hopefully a new costume to razel dazel in. AND PLEASE>>> Don’t miss the the Bellydance Superstars performing “The Art of Bellydance” live. We love performing for our LA peeps and look forward to seeing you there!!!!!!
And if you have any questions, comments or concers just ask. I will do my best to be of service.
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Lauren
7:38 pm on February 17, 2010 |
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My bum is significantly sore after 6 days under Sabah’s instruction. Experiencing bellydance from the perspective of a professional ballerina is both unique and, I believe, essential.
Despite spinach being a very healthy & delicious food, a diet based on spinach alone, will leave a lot of gaps in the wide range of nutrition we need to be healthy. I might wake up every morning and do 100 pushups, but if that is all I do all day, I will never achieve my optimal level of fitness. The same comparison can be made with dance. If all we do is bellydance, our bodies will never get all the training, strength and coordination they need to be the best bellydancers we can be.
Enter Sabah. This woman is both a fantastic bellydancer and an amazing ballerina. This statement may seem impossible. Bellydance is usually thought of as being more loose and grounded, while ballet is usually thought of as stiff, with a higher center of gravity. How can one person benefit from training in each style? There are many differences between these dance forms, but these differences, and their similarities, make ballet a perfect method of cross training for bellydancers.
Each day of Sabah’s intensive we began with a floor-barre session: basically core strengthening exercises, reminded me of pilates. The moves were all very simple, not too exhausting, but focused on lengthening and strengthening the legs, and developing the core muscles; both essential for dance of any style.
We then moved on to the barre portion of class, tendus and plies and battement, OH MY! Sabah delivered all her instruction thoughtfully, teaching us how to strengthen areas of the body often overlooked in your typical bellydance class, but still areas that certainly add to bellydance technique and performance.
We finished the morning session with some dance in the center of the room and across the floor focusing on turns. As I discovered, turns are just as much about finding your center, utilizing the muscles of the torso, chest, back and arms as they are about spotting avoiding dizzy spells. All techniques that are essential for dance of any style.
After lunch, it was time to bellydance. We reviewed technique, looking at it from our new found perspective. Initiating movements from our newly found and developed center, layering different types of shimmies, attacking and ridding our selves of any bad habits we may have picked up along our bellydance careers. I believe I gained a lot from this all too short week of training.
Sabah’s bellydance style is strong and precise. Her movements are bold when they need to be and soft when they need to be. Her arms are fine tuned and perfectly frame her movements. She is an amazing talent and a generous teacher. A precious & unique gem in the bellydance community.
and I am not just saying this because she is my roommate on tour ;P
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Bangalore, India
After a 28 hour flight I arrived yesterday in Bangalore from Los Angeles via Dubai. I was very nervous taking this trip so soon after my last voyage to India had brought me to death’s door, but the moment I stepped into the warm Indian night, breathed in the moist air and saw the tired smiling faces of my hosts, I fell in love all over again. India has a charge about it that affects me every time. It’s proven difficult for me to express just what this country does to me emotionally, physically, spiritually…which is why I rarely write about my experiences here. Let’s just put it this way, I don’t have to drink coffee when I’m here: and if you know me, you know just how big a statement that is.
I was on the ground by 3am, at my hotel by 5am and then up and performing by 8pm that same night. Sonia joined me around noon from her journeys through Rajasthan and our sweet hostess introduced our performance as the Shiva and Shakti energies. Mine as the more fierce and commanding energy and Sonia’s as the more soft and inviting. Both strong in their own way. It was also Shiva Ratri (Shiva’s birthday). Shiva is the lord of dance and one of three supreme deities in Indian belief. It was a most auspicious day and I believe has bestowed a blessing on my voyage. Today we will explore an ancient temple and then visit an Odissi dance village just outside the main city. I will be here another month studying this temple dance, and, as I sit on my hotel sofa listening to the exotic bird song outside I feel just how lucky I am to be here continuing my dream and following my passion.
Namaste
Moria
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Sabah is a master teacher!!! It has been one hot minute since I have had the honor to study from a dancer that knows so much about EVERYTHING. She is working it out and taking us all along for the ride. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Sabah is a master of dance!!!
She is perfection personified!!!
Also, why are there so many people with out photos??? It is so much more fun when there are photos 
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happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to PJ – teaching in mexico that’s me!
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I am still enjoying the Southern California rainy spell. This has been a great time to be inside and experiment with new choreographies. I am so grateful to be feeling so inspired.
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LOVE love L-O-V-E the new picts posted under “live shots” from the Shanghai performances!!! Check them out! ALSO so excited about my workshop weekend coming up this week Jan 30 and 31st in La Paz Mexico!! We’re gonna be Spinning, Double Veiling AND Drum Solo-ing! DONT MISS IT! go to Calendar for full details on registration and location…
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In London this past year we did 5 shows at the Bloomsbury Theatre for a week run with an amazing turn out but i think often times the stuff that goes on behind the scenes in order to keep our company functioning and running smoothly so the shows look polished requires a bit of organized chaos behind closed doors. This particular day was no such exception. Moria was sick and taken to the Doctor by Stevo our tour manager, so we were ‘on our own’ in a sense – MOMENTARILY. Miles was there along with our awesome London crew but they were in up to their ears with merchandise and a sea of hip scarf’s and couldn’t waste a second playing mommy to us as they needed to get everything ready to sell by showtime. Brian, our sound engineer, bus driver, and assistant manager was there to help out, answer questions, and be our ‘go to’ guy. We’ve performed at the Bloomsbury many times before and we’re no strangers to the theatre layout. Dressing rooms are on ground floor, and floor 2 along with Green Room (coffee, tea and snacks/ general lounging area for the company), and stage is 3rd floor. Dinner, because this theatre is at a university site, is in a separate building in their cafeteria. In the past, they open a little early, you grab your lunch tray, pick your dish and drink, take a sit, eat and be merry. Schedules keep our wheels turning in BDS. A delay in anything throws a wrench in our entire day effecting tech rehearsal time, sound engineering, hair and make up and general preparation for the show. There is no room for error. We run a tight ship. But during our dinner time on this particular day, the odds were against us. WIth curlers in our hair, one eye with fake lashes glued on and one eye naked, lunch trays in hand – we eagerly awaited our dinner server to show up. We waited and waited and waited. 15 minutes later (this is an ETERNITY in BDS time), the lady comes at her regularly scheduled time unaware of our special programming needs only to be met with panic stricken faces concerned that we just might have to perform with one eye naked and one eye complete if we didn’t start eating right away! We quickly one by one troll through the line asking for what we want and don’t understand why you can only have the salad if you get fish, not pasta. Or why the ‘vegetarian dish’ is a sausage of coriander and sweet potato and we try to work our sisterly magic by trading one another for what someone else got after our disappointment from the set menu. See, we try to cut dinner options to a minimal in our own setting to prevent this very thing from happening. We usually offer a red meat dish, and a fish dish, with some steamed veggies, potato’s of some sort, and salads. So for us the choice of pasta and looking at a salad, but not being able to ‘get it’ – is foreign. It’s out of our norm. Sitting and scarfing our food down in 10 seconds flat we began feverishly discussing how this delay was now going to push our dancer tech rehearsal back, then effecting Issam’s sound check, and delaying our make up/hair and preparation time… Lauren and i looked at each other and lost it laughing! We began remembering how things like this always seem to happen anytime we’re left unsupervised for longer than 10 minutes by Stevo, and we began to realize how ridiculous we must look to that lady and all the people on the outside who don’t operate under the same intense scheduling that we do. Let’s just analyze this from her perspective for a moment: She shows up to work at her regular time to be met with a line of 20 (including crew) oddly fashioned women and men who must be starving because they are panicked about eating right away and don’t understand the concept of a set menu; which to her knowledge is how every day runs at her job and unintentionally, we just made her job so much harder! It became so obvious to us how funny it must be to watch us take everything so seriously in such weird make up and the fact that we’re panicked about food! OF COURSE even though tech rehearsal was delayed, THUS CHANGING THE REST OF OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM for the evening, Moria came back from the Doctor feeling better, Stevo re-joined us, everything got accomplished and we put on a stellar show met by a generously applauding audience to kick off our week run at the Bloomsbury Theatre! ! Sometimes it’s better to bend like a willow tree than to stand unwavering like an oak tree because that humor and ability to adapt can get you through things less stressfully in life!
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Preparing for my workshop in Mexico City this weekend. I’m so excited to be going back!
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I’m envious and i don’t have a pict stef cause i don’t know how … can you help??
Lety 7:43 am on March 12, 2010 Permalink
Increible… lo has escrito tú sola? :O Yo si prepasración de ballet de pequeña, pero nunca entre en ballet como tal… una pena, parece bello, a ver cuando te vemos fusionar con ballet también ^^ un beso!