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Welcome to our May issue! And it's a great one!
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Our special guest is Sara Shrapnell a British bellydancer, currently in Australia, who has made a successful career as a bellydance teacher. She talks about her experiences and her new book, 'Teaching Bellydance' which we have an EXCLUSIVE offer on that you can't miss!
We hope you enjoy - Love Zara and Sandra xx
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Teaching Bellydance
To teach bellydance is to know bellydance! By Sara Shrapnell
I love teaching belly dance. I REALLY love teaching belly dance! I love the anticipation of a new term; watching the sign up numbers on line slowly click up; the expectant faces in lesson one; the end of term party where they nervously show off their new found skills to each other; the planning; the practice; the light bulb moments; and I still love breaking down a hip drop and making the tiny corrections that can make it perfect.
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Over the last fourteen years I have taught over four thousand belly dance classes both in the UK and USA. At one point I was teaching twelve each week (when I was younger and fitter!). What I have learnt through all those classes is how individual not only each student is, but also how each class group works in its own magical way. I have had focused classes, where everyone arrives ready to kick bottom. And just an hour later I have taught a chatty class, where the giggles are more important than the technique.
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I have worked with dancers of all ages, all sizes and all abilities. I still get emotional when I see my students dance, knowing that I planted a seed that they made blossom.
Focusing on improving my own dancing, I was becoming tired of attending workshops with amazing dancers, but who couldn't teach their skills to others. Being a great dancer and a great teacher are widely different skills, and I think belly dance has yet to embrace that concept.
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We see a fantastic video on line, or an amazing live performance and expect that dancer to be able to teach and share her secrets and yet too often I was finding myself in, 'follow my bum' type workshops or learning from, 'it is because I say it is' type teachers. On moving to a new country I was complimented on my ability to get the best out of each individual student and it was then that I realized the level of teaching of belly dance was not a problem I alone was experiencing.
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In 2011, not long after I moved to San Francisco, I had an email from a UK friend who was about to set up her first class, asking for a few hints. Knowing I didn't have much time that afternoon, I set about writing a few ideas of what I would like to tell her. I wanted to help her to set up her classes, pick a good venue, get the timing right and set her class fees to encourage full classes.
Next, I wanted to break down how best to teach, the learning styles, and how to get the most out of praise and critique.
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Of course planning is a whole skill set. How to balance out a term or to keep continuous classes moving forward. How to pick out good music and how to get the hard work done while keeping the class fun.
Finally, I noted down my thoughts on finding great performance opportunities for students, picking out costumes, keeping the dancers safe and organizing events.
Those notes turned into the 80 plus chapter headings for my book, Teaching Belly Dance.
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It took me a while to accept that by writing up my notes I was actually writing a book. As I started to tell people, so I began to receive emails and messages from dancers and teachers I had worked with:
“Don’t forget to tell them this…â€
“The best piece of advice you ever gave me was…â€,
“I really wish someone had stopped me from….â€.
And of course the book grew, and grew. Each time that I felt like I had shared everything I know about teaching belly dance a new topic would appear, or someone would ask for more details in something I felt every dance teacher should know.
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photos by Alisha Westerfeld
I know that Teaching Belly Dance is everything a new teacher needs, and is a great asset to even established dancer teachers. This book aims not just to help you on you journey of becoming bellydance teacher but to really fall in LOVE with teaching it.
more students who are being well trained and given every opportunity to grow and blossom. Being able to teach belly dance has been a wonderful blessing in my life, and I want to share that blessing with others.
Sara Shrapnell taught for 12 years in the Reading and Basingstoke area before moving to the San Francisco Bay area. She now teaches in Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin. To learn more about Sara visit her web site at www.LetsBellyDanceUSA.com or the Teaching Belly Dance web site : www.TeachingBellyDance.com
Teaching Belly Dance is now available through Zara’s Zouk
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An offer you just can't miss out on!!
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WANT TO START TEACHING?
IMPROVE YOUR CLASS NUMBERS?
GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR CLASSES?
Then this is the deal for you: we are giving you an exclusive Zameena offer on Sara's Book
Teaching Belly Dance
Get a SIGNED COPY
for ONLY £15.99 !!!
(RRP £17.99 )
And to make it extra special we will add
AN EGYPTIAN BOOK MARK
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For this amazing offer just purchase the book from Zara's Zouk and type in the promotion code:
"BOOK_MAD"
just follow this link: |
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Bra & Belt Sets (Bedlahs) From Only £59.99
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A bra and belt set (bedlah) is a fantastic asset to add to your bellydance wardrobe!
They are affordable and you get lots of outfits for your money! How? Just by changing what you wear with your bedlah gives you a completely different look and outfit each time. Team your set with
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Aladdin - the classic tale told through
Oriental - Tribal - Folkloric - and Fusion
BELLYDANCE
is coming to a town near you soon and I would like to personally recommend you come and see this original Performance Mastery production. It will not fail to entertain you with an amazing variety of dance and music styles and a fun story we all love!
I have choreographed three of the group dances and been acting as assistant director and would so love you to be there !
For more details and to book tickets check out the website here
Kent 24th May - Oxford 25th May - Manchester 31st May - London 1st June
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Share the bellydance LOVE!
Did you enjoy this edition of ZAMEENA?
At Zara's Zouk we (Zara and Sandra) make this newsletter each month from our love of bellydance. We are lucky to have so many wonderful dancers contributing. We hope you enjoy it every month and find it informative - Please share and encourage your friends to sign up too.
Would you like to write for Zameena? Or, is there anything special you would like to see in it? Then we would love to hear from you. Please don't be shy drop us an email or message us.
In between editions of Zameena we invite you to keep up to date with what's going on by following and liking us on our social media pages (links below).
Thank you to everyone who already likes, comments on and shares our Facebook posts and Tweets Your interaction really means a lot to us as a small business.
With love and shimmies, Zara and Sandra xx
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