You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘classes’ tag.
Hello lovely readers,
I have now done a big update of the Edinburgh Bellydance Calendar with all of the Autumn belly dance classes that I know about! If you know of any classes that I’ve missed please let me know – shelley.dancing@gmail.com – and I’ll see about getting them added.
Broken down by style we have:
- American Cabaret with Tamsyn on Wednesdays (an Edinburgh first for that style I believe)
- American Tribal Style with Susan Tonner on Wednesdays
- Classic Egyptian with Hilary Thacker on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays
- East Coast Tribal with Tamsyn on Mondays (another Edinburgh first!)
- Modern Egyptian with Caroline Rose on Tuesdays, Fereshteh on Wednesdays and with Elspeth SwishandHips on Thursdays and Fridays
- Raqs Sharki with Habiba Dance on Thursdays
- Raqs Sharki and MORE with Lorne on Wednesdays.
EDIT: I’ve since been told about Egyptian style bellydance classes being held at the St Bride’s Community Centre on Monday evenings taught by Lara Yadgarian, though I’m not sure what type of Egyptian that is (modern or classic). More info here.
EDIT: I’ve since been told about bellydance classes offered by Constantina at Leith Academy on Thursday evenings. I’m not sure how she classifies her style so have not added it to the above list. More info here.
Enjoy!
Oh, and if you want to join me in hosting the calendar do get in touch. It’s a straightforward bit of code I can give you to cut and paste into your website.
PS – I almost called this the “Fall” Term – being here in America makes their expressions very infectious!
As many of you know I have now stopped my regular classes to allow me to concentrate on my on Counselling training. The wonderful Tamsyn (pictured above) is taking over my Wednesday evening classes at The Yoga Room. The new 8-week term starts on September 15th and you can book your places here. Have fun!
To brighten up this rainy summer day, allow me to introduce you to Tamsyn:
I first met Tamsyn at a tribal fusion workshop where I couldn’t help but notice that she had a scar that was almost identical to my own. We were scar buddies! So we got talking. Over time I’ve learned that, as well as being an enthusiastic bellydance aficionado and a great dancer she’s a very knowledgeable (and thoughtful) teacher. We share a love of tribal fusion, but also both have broad tastes in bellydance and appreciate lots of different styles. I feel lucky to have her as my dance buddy and friend.
Which is all lovely, but why am I telling you about Tamsyn? Well… she’ll be taking over my classes at The Yoga Room from September onwards! She’ll be coming along to a class or two in my next term so if you’re thinking about continuing you’ll get the opportunity to meet her then.
And to finish off this post, here’s another gorgeous picture of her from a recent performance in her newest outfit (made by her own fair hand – where do her talents end? 
).
As some of you might have noticed I was in the paper this weekend, this time in the Scotsman Magazine on Saturday. I only found out about it when a friend told me! I had been asked for a picture a while ago by the lovely people at Out of the Blue for something that might appear in the Scotsman, but that was the last I’d heard about it. I gave them one of the fantastic pictures Kaleidoscope Studios took of me and it ended up being used in an article about interesting fitness classes at the newly renovated Out of the Blue. The ironic thing about this is, of course, that I’ve now taken a break from teaching at that venue!
That said, even though the info isn’t quite right, I am at least still teaching some bellydance classes. The current term at the Yoga Room finishes on June 9th (next Wed) and the next term (and my last term teaching for a while!) begins June 30th, preceded by a beginner’s workshop on Sunday June 20th. Online booking is open! (I’ve just realised my new term starts the day before the Musselburgh Hafla – which I’ll be dancing at! See the Facebook event page for more information on this charity hafla.)
This happens to be the second time I’ve been in a paper doing bellydance stuff. This time, although I wasn’t attributed, I like the picture much better
Hello lovely readers,
Over the summer I will be continuing my Wednesday evening classes at The Yoga Room (beginners from 7.30pm, intermediates from 8.30pm). Both sets of classes cost £40 (£36 concession) for an 8 week block (June 30th – Aug 25th, not Aug 4th).
As usual I’ve got paypal set up so you can go to my site http://www.shelleyskipper.com/classes.html to book classes and/or workshops there. And if you don’t fancy paypal cheques, bank transfer and cash are all fine. There’s more details about payment on the website.
And just so you’re aware this will be the last term of regular classes that I’ll be teaching for a while. My counselling training will be stepping up it’s intensity in September and I’ve had the increased time commitment required highlighted to me on a number of occasions, as well as the emotional drain it will be. So I’ve decided to take a step back from teaching bellydance once Uni starts back. Some of my current students suggested a night out to mark the end this era and I think that’s a smashing idea!
I don’t plan on dropping out of the community, I will still be at haflas, hopefully attending workshops as a student and maybe running one or two myself as time permits. And the classes at the Yoga Room should continue – I’ll put up more information about that as I have it.
My weekly public and private classes started back last week and it felt goooood. I love being around my students, “my ladies”. In among the hard work and concentration is always a fair amount of chat and laughter. This term some of my familiar faces aren’t there, for a variety of reasons – uni & work pressures, moving city, having babies! You guys are missed! But we also have new faces (who will soon becoming familiar faces), all bringing their own personality and energy to class. The diversity is fabulous!
It’s a nice, positive experience of community for me, and (I hope) others – even though it might only be a fleeting community of people brought together for one hour a week. Hafla’s can offer more opportunity for socialising in a bellydance context outside of class, and I’m hoping to have more of an idea of when the next Edinburgh hafla is after this coming weekend.
Watch this space!
Given the responses I received to the idea I floated of putting together an online calendar of events for the bellydance community in Edinburgh, I’ve gone ahead with it. You’ll see a shiny new link at the top of this blog called “Edinburgh Bellydance Calendar“. If you click on it the link takes you to the calendar, which is hosted on my own website.
I currently have classes, workshops, etc run by myself, Habiba Dance, Edinburgh University, Hilary Thacker and Caroline Evans. If you would like your event(s) included please send me the details.
Also, if you want to embed this calendar on your site as well please let me know and I’ll send you the little bit of html you need to do so. As it’s a Google calendar I’m using you don’t need to do any maintenance on this, it’ll all be maintained by me updating the Google calendar.
Well, despite have the dreaded lurgy (aka the common cold) I managed to teach all three sets of classes this week… and enjoy myself… and not die! (Apologies, being sick tends to make me a little over-dramatic ). It’s been absolutely lovely to see the familiar faces of my old students and to meet the delightful new students who have come along for the first time.
I’m not sure where I found the energy to teach; perhaps it was the chicken noodle soup, some have suggested it’s the magic of dance. I think a lot of it is to do with the energy I get back from my students, the buzz and adrenaline rush that comes with teaching. I am reminded that it is privilege to be able to share the knowledge and skills I have about something that I have a passion for.
I am gutted that I had to pass on the Edinburgh University Hafla that’s on tonight because of how poorly I feel, and I really hope that the good folks in attendance get some videos of it up on youtube shortly. I’ll post up links if they do.
Good night folks x
When I started looking for bellydance classes in Edinburgh years ago I found it difficult to get accurate, up-to-date information about what classes where on, when & where they were and how much they cost. I remember that I found it quite frustrating trying to “break in”. Several years later I’m now on mailing lists, connected to bellydance friends on facebook and, in general, know the scene a bit better – so now I find out things a bit more easily. That said there have still been things going on I haven’t heard about until either right before the event or sometimes afterwards.
So to this end I’ve been playing around with creating an online calendar to list ALL the bellydance events, workshops, classes, hafla’s etc that are going on and planned for in and around Edinburgh. I’m thinking of embedding it here, on my website and anywhere else that would be willing to have it.
It’s a resource I would have been very grateful for when I was first starting out, and so I believe that it would add value to the bellydance community locally – both the current community and those thinking of, or trying to, join it.
But… I don’t want to tread on any toes. So I’m wondering… is this a cunning plan? I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.
Edinburgh has an impressive array of bellydance teachers and performers. We’ve got less than half the population of Glasgow yet manage to support at least twice as many classes (probably more from what I can gather) and our own high street bellydance shop (Hilary’s Bazaar, see my previous post for more info). We can claim a former teacher, Lorna Gow, who now makes her living in Cairo working as a bellydancer (if you’re interested, her blog gives an fascinating insight into her life and experiences over there). We have an annual bellydance competition, the Pyramid Awards, that draws challengers from far and wide. I think it’s fair to say we’re punching above our weight.
I’m gonna take a moment here to run through the teachers & classes I know about (and if I miss you out please let me know and I’ll happily add you in!).
- Caroline Evans – Beginners, Improvers & Intermediates at Dancebase
- Fereshteh – Classes to start in Jan 2010 but as yet no details.
- Fiona Grossart – “Mature Movers” bellydance classes, also at Dancebase
- Susanna aka Habiba Dance – Traditional Egyptian Dance, periodic classes and workshops at the Salisbury Centre
- Lorne McCall – Intermediates & Advanced classes. Raqs Sharki style at Dance for All.
- Lesley Skeates/Susan Tonner – Beginners and Intermediate American Tribal Style classes at Drummond High School. You can find class details is in the pdf booklet here, but not on the website for some reason (thanks to Jane for this info!).
- Hilary Thacker – Beginners & Intermediates classes . Classic Egyptian style in the Forest Cafe, South Leith Parish Church & the Glasite Meeting house. She also teaches frame drumming workshops.
- University of Edinburgh African & Arabic Society – the teachers change from year to year but they offer Beginners & Improvers classes as well as various workshops.
- There are some bellydance classes on the City of Edinburgh Council ‘Adult Education’ programme for 2010, as well as a couple of workshops, though I don’t know who the teachers are.
- And, of course, yours truly
I have and do wonder why bellydance is so much more popular here than in Glasgow. There are socio-economic differences between Glasgow and Edinburgh – Edinburgh has more wealth, less crime and longer average life expectancy than Glasgow, while Glasgow is more “trendy” (more shops, clubs etc). Maybe it’s just as simple as you need money to pay for classes… maybe it’s to do with mindsets, with folk in Edinburgh being more willing to get into the holistic/wellness activities that bellydance falls under, maybe there’s something else I’m missing.
Whatever it is, I’m glad to be a part of the rich scene that we have here in Edinburgh.
http://www.drummond.edin.sch.uk/
Recent Comments