11 days and counting

I can't quite believe it, but it's true. There are only 11 days until the start of the 2007 Suhaila workshops!
I'm busy getting the last minute details ready as well as prepping myself with my calf raises, running and general technique tuning. I'm excited as there are many students from the studio joining in this year, as well as many from the Toronto area.

I've also just posted the Winter 2008 class schedule for The Dark Side Studio. There's a new class added to the schedule - The Art of Cabaret. It's a holistic approach to learning bellydance for those with some experience. We'll be working on technique, music theory, emotional expression and choreography all in one session! I'm looking forward to this!

Due to my training falling at the end of Feb as well as March break with the kiddos, I've shortened the Winter session to only 7 weeks, with 2 special sessions in March. There are intensives in which we'll work on technique and choreography over a 3 days, 9 hour period (similar to last year's successful Dark Summer sessions).

I hope to see you all at the Suhaila show! I can hardly wait for this - the show's going to be just fabulous!

Suhaila mania

It's coming quickly! In less than 4 weeks Suhaila will arrive and we'll be madly squeezing our glutes, contracting upper backs and obliques and generally working our butts off! I'm excited and pleased as the workshop is almost full and tickets to the show are selling well! This time around I'm also excited as 80% of the participants in the workshop are from the Toronto area (as opposed to about 40% last year). I believe in what Suhaila has to offer, in her technique, her format. I really do believe that it takes dancers to the next level, on their way to finding their potential as a dancer, and I'm so happy that dancers from the Toronto area are beginning to become interested and intrigued by the format.

So often I hear things like "I don't like the say she dances" and it saddens me. Not because I believe everyone should like her dance style, but because it is a dance style. If you don't like it, that's up to you. What I believe cannot be denied is the simple fact that technically Suhaila is the best that I've seen!

Anyway, enough of my ranting :)

I've decided to put all Suhaila dvds and cds on sale from now until Nov 12 - Fate, Rhythm ID with Ziad, Repercussion, Remix, Arabian Musicals, Dances for the Sultan, Unveiled, Suhaila Solo, Sheherezade, Choreography, Performance, Fitness Fusion... you name it, it's on sale!!

I'm off to the Heather Shoopman workshop this afternoon for some Indian and hip hop inspired combos and a little LA technique! The Student Salon was brilliant and I'll be posting some photos soon... Stay tuned.

Until next time, keep glute squeezing!

Audra

September comes to a close...

I can hardly believe it, but September is almost over...

Classes are just into their second week (newcomers welcome!) and I've completed the first weekend workshops for the fall. The new Suhaila 101 workshops with Audra was full and the Sunday workshops went well. I highly recommend signing up early for both these in the future as my guess is that by the end of the fall they will both be filling up!

Registration for Suhaila's November workshops is about half full already, and I'm so pleased that more and more people are becoming interested in checking out what my superb teacher has to offer. I really believe that all dancers should take at least one workshop to see what she has to offer.

The Suhaila Gala show tickets are now on sale and selling at a nice rate. The seats are pre-assigned but the theatre really doesn't have any bad seats. It's so lovely there, AND they've just had a large renovation so it should be even better this year! I'm excited that Fathi Al Jarrah, Suhaila's violin player, will be here for the show this year. The line up is set and it's going to be amazing!! I hope to see you there :)