Thread: Hadia's Professional Course

Planning to take it this summer, assuming I pass the audition.

Anybody else take it (Adishakti, Salome )?

I'm excited...

Azhia, I haven't seen you dance yet, but based upon your past experience I'm sure you'll get in!

I took it last summer and really enjoyed it. Particularly the weekend we spent improvising with a live orchestra (did it the previous year too)! The rest of the week was spent learning a choreography. Normally, I don't like that, but the choreography had a good variety of rhythms to work with, and she spent a LOT of time on technique so I really enjoyed it.

She spent a lot of time talking about professionalism and also helped us pick apart our own choreographies. It was really useful because we all helped one another out and were able to see the improvements in one another's pieces.

My only disappointment was that the days were shorter than I would have liked (about 4hrs each day, it varied). But I think that works for most people - I'm just happy to work longer hours because I'm nutty that way.

I'm not sure yet about this summer, I may do this one again, or Yasmina Ramzy's.

Go for it girl, don't worry you'll do fine. :thumbs_up: :Awink:

I was tempted to try, but it is a little to much expensive for me since I'll be unemployed in 2 weeks and I will be going on a thight budget.

But I really want to go to Caroline Labrie's saïdi cane workshop in May, and I'll start working private classes with my mentor Khadija on a folkloric choreography. And, be looking for a new (and hopefully less stressing) job also, so I'll will keep myself busy.

See you next weekend at Samantha's bazaar. :be:

Hugs!

Qamar

Originally Posted by Qamar60

G

But I really want to go to Caroline Labrie's saïdi cane workshop in May

Caroline Labrie....

Originally Posted by Adishakti

Caroline Labrie....

Oh H*** yes.

Spreading the LOVE

Ohh for sure I'll be attending!! If not the pro course, I'll be at the technique week!

You can never go wrong doing that ProCourse! 3 of us did it last year (Maha, Any and I) and we all won at the AQDO's competitions!

GOOOOOOOO HADIA!

Hadia will be in San Francisco for a week in the summer during her West Coast Tour. Not sure what the course will be but I am hoping it will be a pro course or Technique class. It will not be to live music because she said our resources here are not like that of Montreal (now I want to become a Montreal citizen), so imagine it will just be a Technique class. Nonetheless, I will have a week to work with Hadia. Yeay!

Originally Posted by jasani

Hadia will be in San Francisco for a week in the summer during her West Coast Tour. Not sure what the course will be but I am hoping it will be a pro course or Technique class. It will not be to live music because she said our resources here are not like that of Montreal (now I want to become a Montreal citizen), so imagine it will just be a Technique class. Nonetheless, I will have a week to work with Hadia. Yeay!

Do you know any more, like where/when/who's putting it on? Thank you! :)

You make me shy girls...

As for Hadia's pro course... I'm very likely doing it. I want to soak up as much of her as I can before she leaves us. ..cr.:

Originally Posted by carolabrie

You make me shy girls...

Carole, you are just plain yummy!

Originally Posted by joanneraks

Do you know any more, like where/when/who's putting it on? Thank you! :)

Hi Joanne! You came back to the SF area. What happened to the Dentist you were working for up in, what Montana? Dakota's? Sorry, the boonies?
This is all I know so far. I contacted Hadia about five months back and she said she was going to do a West Coast tour and she said she would be here but there is nothing on her site yet. See you there?

Welcome to DanceMasters - Bellydance!

Originally Posted by jasani

Hi Joanne! You came back to the SF area. What happened to the Dentist you were working for up in, what Montana? Dakota's? Sorry, the boonies?
This is all I know so far. I contacted Hadia about five months back and she said she was going to do a West Coast tour and she said she would be here but there is nothing on her site yet. See you there?

Welcome to DanceMasters - Bellydance!

Hi Jasani - the Hadia courses sound both interesting and intimidating. It's funny, I finally get to move back to Cal - and now I've got no money to attend all of these amazing events going on. In the next 2 months there's about 5 major workshops I'd like to be a part of, but at about $100-200 a pop, I don't think it'll be happening. Ridiculous I tell ya.

I'm not sure what has happened with Dr. Negligent. I haven't heard back since I sent my report and have been too scared to check on it myself. Actually, I've been glad I haven't been pressed for any further info!

/threadjack

For those who have taken both, and you had to choose only one, would you take Hadia's Technique Week or the Pro Course?

Tech or Pro? Tech or Pro?

Originally Posted by Azhia

Tech or Pro? Tech or Pro?

Go for Pro, Azh. It will most likely challenge you more than the tech week. And you'll get to be in the show afterwards with the other participants. I'll be doing the tech again this year. :) The 2 do have one week-end that overlaps (if it's anything like last year). A workshop with live music.

I wish I could do this !!!
I've heard the best about Hadia, and seems she do a very serious job with all her heart also for oriental dance.
Have the great time and benefit from it, whoever goes.

Maria Aya ..g.:

Originally Posted by Azhia

Tech or Pro? Tech or Pro?

I agree with Mireille. Last year when I saw some of the dancers on the overlapping weekend, I noticed that there were many levels of dancers. If you're a more advanced dancer, as I suspect you are - you'd probably gain more advantage from the pro course. She worked with us technique with us like crazy, plus the class size is smaller and is tailored to advanced/professional level dancers specifically. So you can learn more in a shorter period of time.

As a side note - Mireille... why aren't you doing the pro course? You totally should!

I want to hijack this thread for a second and ask what your experiences are with Hadia's teaching personality. I had a really negative experience in a workshop with her where I felt singled out in a bad way. I don't mind being corrected - heck, I want to be corrected - but she did it in front of the whole class (about 15 total people) while she was on the teaching "stage/platform", and in a way that made me feel patronized. And this was a mixed group where I'd say I wasn't the worst in the room and wasn't the best. It just put a bad taste in my mouth and reading all of these positive comments makes me want to give it another try...I was very close to walking out of the workshop

Hadia is a very "strong" personality. When it comes to MED she knows her stuff and she is quite opinionated on what she does and doesn't like. That includes what she feels is "correct" and "incorrect."

She's very good but I do think you have to have a bit of a thick skin when taking classes or workshops.

Just my 2 cents.

Originally Posted by Safiyah

I want to hijack this thread for a second and ask what your experiences are with Hadia's teaching personality. I had a really negative experience in a workshop with her where I felt singled out in a bad way. I don't mind being corrected - heck, I want to be corrected - but she did it in front of the whole class (about 15 total people) while she was on the teaching "stage/platform", and in a way that made me feel patronized. And this was a mixed group where I'd say I wasn't the worst in the room and wasn't the best. It just put a bad taste in my mouth and reading all of these positive comments makes me want to give it another try...I was very close to walking out of the workshop

When she stayed on topic I learned a lot from her and "got" why folks love her. When she started to stray, sang to herself, described things with sound effects instead of words (sound effects are not universals )made sweeping generalizations about Japan/Asians, interrupted her translator who was doing and AMAZING job to "make sure" things got translated (they had been) and taught the same choreos I could get from the dvd (large class, so we weren't going to get much one-on-one thus it wasn't more helpful than the DVD) I was unhappy. I also wish she had not loudly badmouthed well known dancers.

If my unpleasant experience was about any of us being challenged I could have dealt with it. I felt underchallenged, underwhelmed, and that made the slagging about other dancers more noticable and tacky.

I think she sort of slacked off in Japan and I have always hoped it was just us/an off weekend for her.

I am debating if I'll pay for her workshops this year, it will really depend on what she's teaching.

Ozma, I'm sorry you had a bad experience with that workshop. It's NOT ok to badmouth any other dancers like that during a workshop and it's DEFINITELY not OK to make generalizations about Asians or interrupt a translator. Honestly I didn't feel fully pushed in my workshop either; it was a pretty basic choreo

...and I'm totally fine with Hadia having an opinion on what she does/doesn't like but I made the decision to spend my money on other instructors. I don't want to pay to feel uncomfortable when there are other instructors out there who work well with me. It's not that I don't want correction, it's HOW I want correction. Everybody's different, I guess.

I'm sorry any of you had bad experiences with her. Hadia is a very passionate person, has a good heart and is very giving. I can't begin to count up all the time she's graciously spent with me on email and telephone answering my questions and giving me advice. I'm indebted to her for taking the time and energy to do so.

Personality clashes are inevitable in dance. While I wouldn't excuse any bad-mouthing, we're all human and have let our passions carry us away at times.

As for the workshop content? She has a list of available topics and the workshop sponsor is the one who makes their selections upon hiring her, so that is an issue best raised with the sponsor to keep in mind for future workshops. If she did not challenge you, I would tend to think it was because the general skill level of the class made it difficult to do so.

Anyhow, I wasn't at either of the workshops in question, but I've spent quite a bit of time with her at this point, and felt it only fair to express how highly I think of her as both a teacher and a person.

Adi, where is Hadia going?

Originally Posted by sumayasaahir

Adi, where is Hadia going?

She's semi-retiring from dance and moving to Nova Scotia late summer. ,f::

(She'll still be teaching dance. She just wants to focus more on massage therapy and dance less).

ah. bummer!

I went to a workshop with her in the fall as well, I think it might have been the one the day before safiyah's experience.
I enjoyed it a lot and really loved her. She had great advice about dancing and keeping your body healthy without hurting your joints, etc.
The only thing I can say is that I really didn't like doing improv in a workshop. Sure its fun...and improv is great and I know we all can grow with it, but to have us do it at a workshop? I guess it wouldn't be so bad if she were to give you personal attention...but with tons of people in one room? I can do that at home when I'm not paying lots of money for it! and that way I can actually see myself in the mirror. I would have really liked to take more exercises/combinations/muscle contractions, etc from the workshop.
I will conclude by saying that I respect her as a dancer and a teacher and think she has an immense amount of knowledge to share with the dancing world. I think the workshop experience I had was a result of the way the many dancers in the room reacted to her teaching. I think a lot of the people attending were not up to a challenge and it required her to step it down a notch.

If I was interested in taking a professional course, it would be hers!

Hi Jen, I didn't get to go to the workshop when she was in town, this was actually at a weeklong conference. It was also the 3rd consecutive workshop I had taken that day, so I was getting tired. I hadn't even signed up for the workshop (this was the Vegas IBDC, and b/c Amani couldn't come they let me sit in on a class for free.)

We all have different goals during workshops; I actually prefer to not do full-on choreo - although, with how large our annual "gala" workshop/show is, I bet doing improv would be more difficult to pull off. Plus the crowd is very mixed with regards to ability...

I hope I'm not viewed as "bashing" Hadia - I greatly respect her achievements. I just didn't care for her personality that day and always wondered if I had an off day with her or if others felt the same way.

Originally Posted by jenlindseys

I went to a workshop with her in the fall as well, I think it might have been the one the day before safiyah's experience.
I enjoyed it a lot and really loved her. She had great advice about dancing and keeping your body healthy without hurting your joints, etc.
The only thing I can say is that I really didn't like doing improv in a workshop. Sure its fun...and improv is great and I know we all can grow with it, but to have us do it at a workshop? I guess it wouldn't be so bad if she were to give you personal attention...but with tons of people in one room? I can do that at home when I'm not paying lots of money for it! and that way I can actually see myself in the mirror. I would have really liked to take more exercises/combinations/muscle contractions, etc from the workshop.
I will conclude by saying that I respect her as a dancer and a teacher and think she has an immense amount of knowledge to share with the dancing world. I think the workshop experience I had was a result of the way the many dancers in the room reacted to her teaching. I think a lot of the people attending were not up to a challenge and it required her to step it down a notch.

If I was interested in taking a professional course, it would be hers!

Hey Jenn!

Being at the same workshop that you were at I have to say that her impov part was my favorite. At that workshop she really helped me to gain a better understanding of "feeling" the music and interpreting the music/instruments with your body. "Whooo Weeee" goes through my head a lot (and I mean in a good way ;-). And I agree that she also had some great advice on keeping your body safe before, during and after dancing. I guess no matter who takes a workshop everyone is going to get something different out of it and someones favorite part will be others least.

Safiyah- I would definately give it another chance. Perhaps looking at her criticism in a different way, she saw you and thought you were "worth" her individual attention? I would rather be corrected and singled out than be ingored and over looked, left wondering if I am getting it or doing it right. Maybe next time she might correct you in a way that you feel is more appropriate or you are more comfortable with (sorry, for lack of better words).

I know if I ever get the chance I would take a workshop from her again for sure!

LOL-back to topic-Azhia-no matter what you choose, you are very lucky and probably can't go wrong with either choice!

:) Heather

Azhia, I am likely to go for both, that is if I pass the audition ..g.: Then I can get to see Adishakti. Oh Hadia semi retiring?

I've only heard good things about Hadia. Sorry to hear about your bad experience Safiyah.

I actually enjoy when a teacher singles me out about my dancing. It means she might be paying more attention to me. I guess perhaps i'm used to being criticised during my training years.