Sunday, November 2, 2014, 1:30pm -5:00pm

Salsa Y Control Studio
161 Harvard Ave, Suite 13B, Allston, MA

Registration at 1pm

Tickets:

Ranya Renee Advance Tickets $81.50 USD Advance Tickets (when bought with master class) $76.50 USD Breathwork Master Class $36.50 USD Breathwork Master Class + 15 min Coaching $61.50 USD Breathwork Master Class + 30 min Coaching $96.50 USD

Morning Class $90 at the door
Breathwork Master Class $40.00 at the door
* Includes optional observation of others coaching sessions

Contact Johara with any questions.
[email protected] or 617-922-3676

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Organically Grown Egyptian Oriental
1:30pm-5:00pm
Salsa Y Control Studio, 161 Harvard Street 13b Allston, MA

Ranya will bring us back into a slightly retro vibe, one that never goes out of style, to mine the gold from a traditional approach to Egyptian rhythms and steps in Oriental dance. We'll start with a juicy old-school baladi-shaabi warmup, to get the body's internal relationships cooking between floor and hips, and work posturally for elegant support all the way up. Then we'll move into organic Oriental in-place and traveling combinations, working with different types of steps that are traditionally applied to specific rhythms, in the context of melodic phrasing... also how to travel without traveling far, and how to travel farther but still get back home in time. Many dancers stick with just the rhythmic cycles and the usual counts of 8, but focusing on the melody line brings out the romantic essence of the dance and allows for greater personal expression. Strong and graceful use of the hands and arms will aid physical phrasing of the melody and direct the audience's attention. Breathing along with the musical phrases will bring out the overarching melody line, helping to avoid a choppy look and smoothing transitions between phrases and sections. We'll address how to count so that it doesn't look "count-y," and also how to stop counting to focus on the feeling and directionality of the music. In terms of music selections, we'll dance to a variety of classy, tasteful pieces...plus a few raunchy numbers to spice things up for ya. J Exercises will include technique drills workout, guided combination and evolution of key steps within and between different rhythms, musicality practice, and improvisation work.

Some history on this topic:
Ranya had a mind-blowing 8-hour-long private-lesson marathon with the legendary Mona el Saeed in Egypt several years ago. As they worked on baladi material, Mona noted several steps that were tied to different rhythms in the music, and this was something of a revelation. For traditionally trained Oriental dancers in Egypt (like Mona), certain steps go well with certain rhythms, while others just don't work as well-and this is a bit different from the typical approach to the dance seen in the US, and even in some cases, in Westernized Egyptian folklore, where movements may be mixed-and-matched. The "organic" approach is typically seen in Egyptian Oriental dancers who don't come from a folklore background. Since many top teachers today did come from folkloric companies, it is harder to find trained teachers that focus strongly on the more (ironically) "native" approach to interpreting Oriental dance music. This is the approach we'll work with today, building confidence on how to choose authentic tried-and-true movements on the spot, and how to make these movement choices look crisp and comfortable even when they are improvised.

Breathwork For Performance - Class and Coaching
5:45pm Sunday
Salsa Y Control Studio, 161 Harvard Street 13b Allston, MA

This will be a focused master class for -all levels- of dancers and other performers, leading into individual short coaching sessions in a supportive group environment. We'll begin with an hourlong practical introduction to Ranya's signature "Breathwork for Performance" method for the group. Then, dancers may stay after to receive coaching (in 15-minute and 30-minute slots) and watch others get coached, for a complete learning experience. In these sessions, Ranya helps dancers identify what is happening in their minds when they lose focus, to try to maintain connection in a flowing way; she offers practical tools for freeing up energy and releasing technical and mental blocks, along with appropriate advice about dance form and musical interpretation. Dancers who'd like to receive personalized coaching should bring a short piece of music (we'll use about 2 minutes of it; bring it on iPod or mp3 player) that they are working with, or be open to improvising; it does not need to be choreography, but it can be. Ranya packs a lot of feedback into the coaching sessions, so bring a pen and paper to take notes! Ranya began developing her breathwork method in 1996 as a way to maintain upper back posture for Egyptian dance, discovered its potential for connection with audiences, and has been performing with it and teaching it to dancers and other artists around the world ever since. Breathwork for Performance draws on energizing and calming uses of the breath from body-mind practices and theater, and applies them to an in-the-moment way of dancing, moving and being present. This method creates a heightened sense of awareness on the part of both the performer and the audience, creating a bridge of energy between them.

If you want to increase your onstage charisma, develop more spontaneity and openness in your dance, or if you have ever struggled with stage fright or nervousness, feeling disconnected with an audience, difficulty relaxing into your dance, or feeling like your energy wasn't filling the room, this workshop is for you. You'll learn tools of how to reach out to an audience while relaxing yourself at the same time, and how to incorporate the physical techniques of breathwork and pelvic floor energy work into your own technique. This work is appropriate for dancers and performers of all genres.

For more information visit http://ranya.net/breathwork.

RANYA REN�E began her career more than thirty years ago as a theater actress and comedienne, and has been bellydancing since 1990. One of New York City's leading Egyptian- style instructors, Ranya specializes in juicy, holistic technique, theatrical performance skills and coaching centered around her Breathwork for Performance method. She presents live Arabic music and dance events and workshop series in New York, and tours internationally. Ranya's instructional DVDs (The Baladi, Modern Oriental, and Bellydance Taqasim) have earned rave reviews from dancers worldwide. Ranya is also the co-founder and co-director of the Theatrical Bellydance Project and the New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference (next to be held in 2016). Concurrent with her dance life, Ranya is pursuing a master's degree in psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York, focusing on embodied cognition and affect, mulling over the neuroscience of consciousness in between relished moments of booty-shaking.

www.ranya.net
www.theatricalbellydance.com
On Facebook: Ranya Renee

Send all inquiries and your areas of interests to:

[email protected]
617-922-3676
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