Tribal Fusion Sunday

There are no tribal fusion teachers running regular classes in Edinburgh to the best of my knowledge.  Happily, though, Laura Monteith of Sarasvati Tribal runs tribal fusion workshops for the University of Edinburgh’s African & Arabic Dance Society.  Here’s a pic of Laura, and a pic of her troupe (which, incidentally, Tigerlily is a member of):

You can find the schedule of these workshops in the Edinburgh Bellydance Calendar.  They are split into a beginners session, 12noon til 1pm and then an intermediates session from 1-3pm. 

Level 2 fun at Zanzibar

I had a lot of fun at Lauryn’s Level 2 class at Zanzibar last night!  It is soooo awesome being a student, Lauryn is a lovely teacher and the other students were super friendly.

To start the class we all stood in a circle and introduced ourselves with a little bit of our dancing background – this was novel to me and was a really nice way to begin a session.  Group bonding can be such a huge part of a class – I know I enjoy and have enjoyed classes much more when I feel connected to the other people I’m learning alongside (as well as having a connection with the teacher).

Level 3 fun at Zanzibar

I had the great pleasure of being a student again at Zanzibar Studio, Chattanooga.  Lacy Dickerson took the Level 3 class which began with a little bit of pilates and some yoga mainly focused on our core and low belly, before we put the mats away and got our boogie on.  It was so different from the classes I’ve taken in the UK, both because of the yoga/pilates emphasis and also due to the movements that are considered ‘fundamental’ – the four points of the Umi/Omi/Oomi were our starting place, which we smoothed out into the full, tilted hip circle.  To this we added beautiful “floating arms”.  It was something else to see the studio jam-packed with ladies all circling their hips and gracefully moving their arms in unison.