I truly feel like I have come back from a discovery getaway after my week in Melbourne at Maria Sangiorgi’s Embodied Bellydance Intensive January 2014 I have been a workshop attendee of Maria’s for over 10 years and have seen her teaching style grow and develop into a whole body and mind method of teaching Egyptian dance. Every couple years I feel I need to return to the foundations of Egyptian dance and immerse myself in her work to reinvigorate my own Bellydance practice. Egyptian dance and music was my first love in the Bellydance world and I still consider it fundamental to my own teaching style even though I am predominantly an ATS® and Tribal Style Bellydance teacher and performer.
Embodied Bellydance Intensive runs for 5 days from 10am-5pm – this sounds daunting and potentially physically and mentally exhausting I knew it would mean stepping out of my comfort zone and opening myself up to allow authentic dance to find its way to me if it was going to at all!
Maria and her assistant were meticulous with creating a nurturing, safe, peaceful space to enable us to be free in our own bodies in our own time. Starting each day with a catch up over a cup of herbal tea and then time on our mats to contemplate our mental and physical state with meditation and the breath. Then Maria leads us into releasing bodywork to help stretch, find flexibility, focus and centre us for the dance. Maria takes time to discuss and explore the mechanics of movement including relevant anatomy and its relationship to dance. Her depth of understanding of the foundations of Egyptian dance and authentic movement is profound and I felt as if the dance itself was a natural extension of the emotional release I experienced each day.
Loads of great music to enjoy and interpret and a lot of content to absorb.Maria’s work is most definitely a process and not an overnight achievement. The participants were friendly and most importantly positive and ready to experiment and let go of inhibitions. I would recommend Maria’s Embodied Bellydance to any style of dancer i.e. not only Bellydancers. Most liberating and rejuvenating! Thank you Maria and Jude for offering this workshop x
Maddona – DrumDance Bellydance and Pilates Toowoomba QLD, Australia