Thread: Contemplative studio - thinking outside the box

I have been approached by the owner of a new yoga studio that will be opening soon about teaching there. She was referred to me by a mutual friend (my yoga teacher). The studio owner is a working licensed psychologist at a local "healing center" (place that offers massage, reiki, and other alternative healing options) which happens to be next door to her studio space. She has personally found great psychological benefit from yoga, and wants to create a space that focuses on "contemplative" movement that will help people nourish the mind/body/spirit.

I am very happy teaching my normal belly dancing classes in my existing studio, and I have no plans to be lured away. My existing studio treats me well and I have no reason to look elsewhere.

However...

I'm thinking it might be interesting to offer something different from regular dance instruction at the yoga studio. Ie, instead of offering something I would advertise as a "belly dancing" class, maybe offering a "nourish your spirit through dance" class that happens to use the belly dance movement vocabulary. I'd teach enough dance moves to give the students a vocabulary to use in expressing themselves, but instead of focusing on "dance instruction" focus on classroom exercises designed to draw the focus inward. Of course, I'd still correct any technique problems that could lead to injury such as swayback posture, but I wouldn't teach choreography or stage presence or other "dance skills" per se. An example of an exercise we might do after people have some basic movement vocabulary might be to put on a sensuous chiftetelli, and then have the students close their eyes and move to it with their eyes closed, immersing themselves in response to the music. Another idea might be Delilah's circle baladi.

Has anyone else done anything along these lines before? Am I nuts for considering it? Do you think the sort of student who would be attracted to such a studio would enjoy a class of this sort?

I'm thinking of calling this class "Spiritdance".

Sounds like fun to me. It would give you the opportunity to explore some less traditional areas of dance. I do think it would be attractive to the kind of person attracted to yoga and alternative healing.

I haven't done it, but it's intriguing. You might want to check out Shiva Rea's "Trance Dance" DVD for inspiration (I haven't seen it, but I like her)

No, but I like the idea!

A local teacher here offered some Chakra Dance sessions...I never made it to the classes and don't know what the turn-out was like, but I thought it was a great idea. And it ties into the yoga theme, sort of...

I would sign up for that kind of class if it were offered in my area! I like the idea. I feel like the "hard core" yoga students would be interested, too.

I think it's a great idea. People decide to take belly dance for a lot of different reasons. Having two types of classes might let you address the needs of the different groups separately. I think a standard class should always be fun, friendly, and empowering, but having a more spiritually/emotionally-focused class might let you present material that would be really valuable to the people into personal exploration and healing, but that would bore people looking for performance training or a work-out.


There's an entire dance school here, the goddess dancing (I think you reviewed their video), who have a similar focus. They do teach proper technique, and do turn out good performers, but the primary goal is personal growth, rather than professional training. I took a few classes with them, and they were very good. It wasn't the right class for me, since at that point, I knew I wanted to perform and needed to get my butt kicked in class. But a lot of people find exactly what they're looking for there.

And they've been teaching a lot of students for longer than I've been dancing, so there's definitely a market for that kind of class.

They also end each class with a circle dance (everybody takes a turn leading in the center of the circle, while everyone else follows along and cheers them on), and it's a really nice thing to be a part of.

If you're moving in that direction, you might want to contact them. They might be willing to share some tips or ideas with you.
The Goddess Dancing

I like it. I'd sign up.

I'm doing it.
I keep a class (1 hour 30 min) per week, calling it: Esoteric bellydance.
I have 12 students in the class, and they are all happy. Its a drop in class as there is no level, so I have regarding the day up to 20.
At my studio there is a teacher that rent one weekend per month the place for alternative workshops (Reiki, Chakras, etc) so they came from these workshops and they didnt wanted dance dance but something more relaxed, more esoteric more spiritual.
How I do it:
Relaxed music for warmup (up standing), eventualy what happens is that with slow arabic music, ney solo's, violin etc we work on 8 figures for all the body, i speak calm to them, we pass all the 8 figures from the chakras, same happens with the circles, small tiny ones, bigger, etc.
After I put on Cannoon solo's and we go shimmying almost all the body, slow.
We keep a moment of not moving anything in total silence, going inside the body, feeling every part of it.
Then Tabla and we do small hip accents or accents with other parts of the body.
then I use a baladi progression that leads to a zar rythm till we get out all the energy.
The class is Monday night 10 to 11, so we do it also with candles around, and aromatotherapy sticks etc.
Some of the drop in students (from normal classes that was curious) said that it was very relaxed, and refreshing in a way that changed the idea they had for being a silly class etc.
I would say go for it !!!
Its very relaxed for the teacher also, and same day before have 3 classes, kid egyptian folklore, egyptian folklore basic level and Raqs Sharqi Class advanced, and comes as a gift for me also.

Maria Aya

I teach regular classes at a regular studio, but once a month I teach a beginning level belly dance class at a local Pagan/Goddess/New Age type of shop after hours.

The women who generally come to that class are more artsy, and new agey types. In that class, I can get more new agey with them and they love it. Rather than focusing so much on ME tradition, the class is more focused on getting in tune with themselves through dance, etc.

Yes, I do think it's the kind of thing the studio owner is looking for. Is it a good idea? Er...I don't think it's a terrible idea, but I'd be really careful.

You're a pretty well known belly dancer, at least on the internet. So any class that you teach with belly dance movement is, to some people at least, going to be approached as a belly dance class. I wouldn't want students from a "nourish your spirit through dance" class going out and advertising what they had learned as belly dance, performing that "nourishing" dance in a restaurant. I'm sure you wouldn't encourage that and would warn students against it, but I think these crossover/half belly dance classes can get into confusing territory, especially for performance motivated beginners.

I also think when you work in healing arts such as yoga or any sort of psychologically healing classes, it's important to have a strong background in whatever you're fusing. So I would question if you feel you have a strong enough background in psychological therapy, yoga, dance therapy, whatever you intend on fusing into the class. Because just like belly dance requires training and expertise...so does therapy, even alternative therapy. I have no idea what your background is in this, of course.

Mostly I think it's important to be careful how you advertise the class, and to make sure you have adequate training in what you teach. But you know that. :) I wish you the best in whatever decision you make. Let us know!

Just thought I'd voice a slightly different opinion... I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this.

Originally Posted by arielarielariel

So any class that you teach with belly dance movement is, to some people at least, going to be approached as a belly dance class. I wouldn't want students from a "nourish your spirit through dance" class going out and advertising what they had learned as belly dance, performing that "nourishing" dance in a restaurant.

Yeah, this is one of my concerns. I'm thinking it might help if I avoid using the words "belly dance" in my promo, perhaps instead talking about "world dance". If I talk about "world dance", then I'm free to use dance vocabulary from disciplines other than belly dance, such as a Bulgarian slow pravo. (I'm considering doing this as the closing exercise for the class each week.) I think another thing I can do is teach this class under my real name instead of under the "Shira" name, which will further disassociate it from "belly dance" in particular.

I also think when you work in healing arts such as yoga or any sort of psychologically healing classes, it's important to have a strong background in whatever you're fusing. So I would question if you feel you have a strong enough background in psychological therapy, yoga, dance therapy, whatever you intend on fusing into the class.

Yeah, this is something I've been thinking about too. I agree with you. From a *movement* perspective, I'd stick with dance forms that I feel absolutely confident in my ability to teach effectively. As for the psychological aspect, I'm thinking about this one a lot. I know I would NOT want to promote this class as "therapy", for many reasons, starting with the fact that I am not a licensed therapist, nor do I aspire to become anyone's unofficial therapist. The studio owner is a licensed psychologist and working in that field as a day job as well as being a yoga teacher, so before proceeding I'd want to have some fairly direct conversations with her about the concept I have in mind, the nature of the training I have had in the past, the expectations I'd want to set in promotional materials for the class, the types of classroom exercises I'd offer, etc. If I can't do it "right", I'd rather not do it at all, and that's something I'll need to explore with her.

It sounds like you've already thought these things out. I think if you clarify the fact that you are not teaching "belly dance" to students, both in your advertising and in class, and you describe what the world dance forms you're teaching are when you teach them (and have adequate training in them), you have covered your bases. Good luck!