Upcoming NYC Workshops

Complete info here.

Natural Beauty

From the Irish Examiner:

As 51-year-old mother-of-two, Molly Barker, and her 27-year-old friend and colleague, Caitlin Boyle, met for a coffee in their home town of Charlotte, North Carolina, they stumbled upon a question neither of them could answer.

"Molly is the founder of a self-esteem-boosting programme for elementary school girls, called ‘girls on the run,’ and I’m the founder of a site called OperationBeautiful.com," says Caitlin.

"One day, we were having coffee when I asked Molly, ‘what do you say to the girls when they ask you, "Molly, you say inner beauty is the most important thing, but you wear make-up and wear high heels and dye your hair. What does this mean"?’

"Both of us were stumped for a truly authentic answer, because we had always engaged in those habits and didn’t really know why we did them."

By the end of their discussion, the pair had decided that the best way to find out about those habits and their motivations was to desist from doing them.

Full story.

Upcoming Performance: May 31

Mark your calendar. I'll be performing alongside several other wonderful dancers in a showcase presentation. Full info.

Body Image Backfire

From an article-length post on BoingBoing today, "Modernizing Modesty:  The Hijab and Body Image"

In an ironic twist, Hijab-wearing Muslim women are falling prey to the same thing their choice of garb ostensibly protects them from: a relentless bombar [sic] of distorted female body images.

 Read more.

This Saturday, May 12: Egyptian Alignment and Hipwork Technique Intensive

On the agenda for this Saturday, in the third of five sessions in my "Oriental Dance Deconstructed" workshop series:

We’ll begin with a comprehensive overview of the kinesthetic anatomy of the core, individually locating the psoas, quadratus, oblique abdominal, rectus abdominal, and transverse abdominal muscles, then recruit these muscles into action to initiate Egyptian isolations:

•    Up-and-down hips (in the manner of Soheir Zaki) with travel variations
•    Lumbar contract-and-release accents with weighted, unweighted, and travel variations
•    Weighted down "internal" styling for small hip circles
•    Weighted hip articulations to the front, with Fellahi, Oriental, and Social dance variations
•    Weighted and unweighted twists
•    Several step-touch variations
•    3 Egyptian Double Drop variations
•    Egyptian styling for horizontal-plane figures of 8
•    Several "jewel" movements (compound twisting-and-shifting vocabulary), travel and pivot variations, and jewel transitions
•    Large hip circles
•    Hagallah shimmy
•    Straight-leg Egyptian shimmy

If time permits, we'll also revisit some of last session's undulation vocabulary, and look at compound Egyptian movements with undulation elements.

Depending on the headcount, I'm considering a venue change, so if you're coming please either pay in advance to confirm your spot, or contact me personally with a definite commitment to pay at the door.

The prepay discount is officially gone, but if you're able to pay in advance this week for the last three sessions of the series (Egyptian hipwork this Saturday;  Arms, Shoulders, Hands, and Head Isolations on 5/19; and Footwork and Turns on June 16), I can offer you a slightly reduced rate.  (Single sessions are $30 each).  Call or email.

Paypal link:
http://naturalbeautybellydance.blogspot.com/p/pay-for-class-in-advance-to-confirm.html

Contact me at:  AutumnWard@gmail.com, 917-686-1622, or if we're "friends" you may send me a message via Facebook.