Mareeba Grassroots bellydance - 8th March 2012

Great news - Tribal Bellydance is coming to Mareeba!

Tell your friends and spread the news, it would be great to see lots of women to enjoy this wonderful free event supported by Qld Health, Tablelands Regional Council and Qld Sports and Recreation.

Better still it is happening on International Women's Day - how perfect!

Hope to see lots of familiar faces there, with lots of new tribal sisters to be...

Dancing makes you smarter.

I just noticed on the Ausdance website a recent study that shows dancing improves your cognitive capacity.  Benefits include; stress reduction, increased seratonin levels (happy hormones) and increased sense of well being.   Furthermore, the study goes on to say that regular dancing can reduce your chances of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.  How many more reasons do we need to get along to class!

How wonderful to see the benefits of dance captured and confirmed by in an academic study by Richard Powers of Stanford University.
The link to the report summary is below:
http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.htm 

ps. the article refers to being able to make "split second raid fire decisions" as being particularly beneficial.  The improvisational nature of tribal style bellydance fills this role very capably as we lead and follow with no set choreography and adapt to the music instantaneously.

Kuranda Dance classes resume Tuesday 7th February

OK girls, we have had a good break over the summer heat, but now its time to get moving again!
Class on Tuesday night at the Kuranda Recreation Centre 6-7pm.  Beginner and beyond beginner students all welcome, i will have moves to meet both student levels and will bring to class the energy of Paulette's workshop this weekend.
Unfortunately, i am unable to offer the binta bellies (prep girls) class, as i have a school commitment on Wednesday afternoons.  I am sorry.
Any queries about class, please call me on 0409 367 967.
Look forward to seeing new faces and welcoming back familiar ones too.

Cairns Workshop with Paulette

What an amazing weekend it has been.

This morning I awoke to the familiar Paulette workout feeling, muscles that haven’t been worked for a while.  The feeling that tells me I am alive and a dancer who has worked hard!  I tried to go back to sleep, but was still buzzing from yesterday so decided to write instead.

Yesterdays workshops were a blast.  We started with the “funky moves” and it was great to work on some favourites and refine the technique, then try and fit some new ones into muscle memory.  For the beyond beginner girls in Kuranda, you will be pleased to know I have taken notes and we will have a go with them in class over the next few weeks.  We then moved onto “the art of improvisation”.  A fantastic workshop that really put me outside my comfort zone, to move beyond the steps and really find the “present moment in dance” in such an intense way.  Fabulous!

Then the icing on the cake was last nights hafla at Tribal Zest’s studio in Cairns.  It was fantastic to share this space with so many women who have dotted my journey and added so much to what we call Tribal Dance in our region.   Magnolia and I performed as Kuranda Dance for the first time. It was awesome to share what we have been building in Kuranda and is certainly the start of a lot more promotion this year.

Magnolia and Lisa from Kuranda Dance

Today it felt lovely to ooze into “slow moves” and build on our partner work from yesterday with some partner changing transitions and important technique details.  Lastly, we finished with Tribal grooves and learnt some hot and funky new moves, some of which I am sure will become my new favourites.  We closed with a full circle open chorus, such an amazing effort with twenty dancers and an awesome “stay on the moment and love it” feeling.  The closing moving meditation was really something amazing to experience.  Thanks to all the dancers from all over Australia and especially thank you Paulette. 

Cairns workshop participants