BlackSheepBellyDance Classes

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- Private Lessons & Workshops

- About Classes with BSBD

- Class Details, Schedule, & More

PRIVATE LESSONS & WORKSHOP TOPICS
Private Lessons are available in any of the below subjects and more. Watch for my new location in Maui, HI here after September 2004. I am available for workshops worldwide. I suggest you telephone to schedule: 808.891.8891 and for further workshop information and fees, please see "Workshops."

- American Tribal Style (ATS) Bellydance
- American Classical Bellydance
- Turkish Romani Dance and Gesture
- Moroccan Guedra Blessing Ritual
- Prop work: veils, canes (assaya), swords and scimitars, baskets, trays, candles, etc.
- Coaching your existing performance piece or technique, special event preparation
- Choreography design for soloists or troupes, skeletal or full
- Improvisational tools for soloists and troupes of any genre
- Presentation / staging ideas and techniques, including work in the round (choreographed or improvisational, soloists or groups)
- Stage makeup for various types of performance venues, audience and dance style
- Tribal Headdress wrapping and alternative head decorations (many variations)
- Energy work as it relates to dance movement, technique, intention, flow and focus
- Development and adaptation of movements for structured group improvisation and ATS
- Work on specific movements or movement families
- and pretty much anything else you can think of!

Let me know what you'd like to work on. Private lessons are $50 per hour. Share a class with a friend and your semi-private lesson is $40. Are you a troupe? We can talk and arrange something everyone's happy with. Call me. Private lessons must be scheduled by telephone: 808.891.8891.

CLASSES with BlackSheep BellyDance!

Kajira Djoumahna is the founder of BlackSheep BellyDance (BSBD) and is each teacher's teacher in any state or country you see listed on this site. All classes in all locations offer the format she developed along with some members of her groups over the years, which is the Kajira Djoumahna/BlackSheep BellyDance format for American Tribal Style (ATS) BellyDance.

This format does not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, religion or lack thereof, race, age, weight, body shape or any other thing that adds variety to life. If you have a chronic physical concern, please tell your teacher before you start class so she can give you ideas for how to modify your movements if needed. BellyDance is one of the safest dance forms on earth and everyone should be able to enjoy it until they die. In fact, it is recommended by many health care practitioners world wide for gaining strength and flexibility at any stage of life.

Our classes are structured for people aged 12 and up. If you can walk into the room, you can dance! If you have a child under 12 who really wishes to attend, please call the teacher in the location near you to discuss the possibilities, as sometimes it depends on the child, or you may be asked to stay in the room with her or him while they learn. If you are a single mom and want to come, please feel free. Bring your child and something to keep them busy while you study. They can sit in a corner (bring blankets and coloring books, or other books or fun things that do not make noise) and if they become disruptive, you can take them outside to calm them down.

ATS BellyDance is characterized by SYNCRONIZED GROUP IMPROVISATION. It is the only dance form on earth that utilizes this feature. Kajira studied for eight years under Carolena Nericcio of SF's FatChanceBellyDance, who is the creatrix of the original form. Kajira then went on to innovate within the form, adding many new elements she felt were missing from the original style. So, all group classes you see listed below are in this style of belly dance, though Kajira offers other styles as well privately. (See her Bio below for more info on that.)

Please read and scroll to find the classes near you. Listed below are classes in Hawai'i and in California. In my Teacher Certification Section you can find classes led by Fee MacPherson in this format in Australia as well!

CLASSES

Kajira teaches private lessons on Maui and offers workshops internationally. Please feel free to telephone her at: 808.891.8891

Level One Class Description:
This is the place to start. Learn the basics of this art form and begin building your foundation for the dance. We work on all the following skills in Level 1: muscular isolations, basic shapes (a.k.a. "Sacred Geometry"), finger cymbals, traveling steps, turns, shimmies, slow and fast movements, cue identification for group improvisational choreography and more. Please wear comfortable clothing that allows for movement such as yoga wear, loose pants or skirts, shorts, tank tops or sports bras, etc. No baggy T-shirts, though, I need to see your posture. A strip of cloth or belly dance scarf is nice, as it helps me and you see the movement of your hips, but is not needed.

This class curriculum repeats itself approximately every 8 weeks. You may start at anytime during the cycle. Each week we review the slow and fast move from the previous week and then add new ones as the 8-week cycle progresses, so it is OK to start at any time during the cycle, as you will learn the new moves right along with everyone else. You will also be supported and encouraged by many "big sistahs" who have been studying for a while, to aid in your own learning process.

Level 2 Class Description:

Students who are ready for the next step will use the last hour of class for learning new movements and combinations, working in small groups, learning to cue other dancers while leading, sharpen following skills and further development of nuance and technique of moves previously learned. Some performance opportunities will develop for students of this skill level. Participants must have completed at least one 8-week Level 1 session cycle to qualify for Level 2 class or have prior permission from the instructor (such as if you are already accomplished in other dance forms and pick it up very quickly). Those students in Level 1 working on improving their own skills are encouraged to stay and observe.

KAJIRA DJOUMAHNA'S BIO
Kajira has devoted her career to the proliferation of American Tribal Style (ATS) BellyDance (BD). Though skilled in many other traditional dance forms, this specialty chose her due to its “no borders” sense of creativity, its modern approach to ancient ways, its inherent ability for developing one’s sense of community, the fact that this form builds self esteem not through competition, but through cooperation; and its capacity to bring dancers together nearly psychically through the use of structured group improvisational dancing.

Most of all, Kajira is the original Creator and “Chief Imagineer” of the KD/BSBD Format for ATS BD and the Founder and Teacher of BSBD and its earlier incarnations, as well as hundreds of other individuals and troupes around the world. Kajira and BlackSheep BD feel technique is necessary only to facilitate the experience of the loftier goal of complete and total JOY while in the moment with others! They feel this format and the way it is taught is a vehicle for healing on so many levels. It is much more than a series of steps...

Kajira has taught workshops, master classes, teacher certifications and several-days-long study programs in Germany, England, Austria, Taiwan, Canada and throughout the US so far. Other teaching highlights include teaching and performing onboard a cruise ship for 4 years and as a teacher, performer and judge at the Belly Dancer of the Universe Competition (BDUC) on 3 separate occasions, with a standing offer to return anytime. She holds an honorary award for “Lifetime Achievement in Middle Eastern Dance and the Arts” from the same.

She is author and purveyor of the famous Tribal Bible (currently sold out of its 3rd printing, more coming in 2009), which has become known as “a rich and incredibly well-researched and documented resource for dancers of all styles”. It never goes out of date due its chapters and interviews with the people who were there from inception, and features more than 300 photos to document this dance form’s history, textiles and jewelry ATS dancers love to incorporate into their costumes (where they’re from, how they’re traditionally worn and how we adapt them) as well as chapters on music, movements and Dance As Ritual and its inherent spirituality.

She is the featured Tribal-and-Alternative Q-n-A columnist for Zaghareet! Magazine for at more than 3 years and has numerous articles and interviews with your favorite dancers on her web site for all to read after publication.

Kajira has 2 DVDs produced by the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance / IAMED) (Vol. 1 having been honored as one of the “Top 25 DVDs for Belly Dancers” by Shira of shira.net and the *only Tribal one* to make the cut!), and recently filmed and self-produced 3 more in Dec. 2008, to be released no later than Tribal Fest, Number 9, Number 9 (3x3) in May, 2009.

Kajira is a performer and teacher of *many* dance styles (just ask!) and co-produces along with her husband, Chuck, the world’s first and still the largest 5-day event, Tribal Fest (a 4-time winner in Zaghareet! Magazine’s annual popular-vote Golden Belly Awards for Favorite Event). In 2008 we had attendees from more than 16 countries, and are grateful to the global dance community who help make it “the place to go” for anyone into Tribal, Fusion, Gothic and Alternative BellyDance styles as well as being “a last bastion” of traditional ethnic styles that inform ATS she makes sure to include. It is important to Kajira that dancers have a chance to “think outside their boxes” and learn the roots as well as the many possible future forms of this explosive style at her event.

Other awards for Kajira include the Instructor of the Year award from IAMED, and Favorite Instructor in Zag! Mag’s Golden Belly Awards!

Kajira’s most influential teachers in her dance life include Carolena Nericcio of FCBD, with whom she spent 8 years as a student and as a member of her various performance troupes, Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, Delilah, Suhaila & Jamila Salimpour, TerriAnne, Deanne Adams, Tempest, Rachel Brice, Laurel Victoria Gray, Morocco and Sarala Dandekar.

Kajira gained invaluable insights through fellow dancer and musician Staff for a decade at the prestigious Mendocino Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp in CA, on staff again in 2008, as well as from fellow Staff for 3 years at Folk Tours Camp in MD.

She’s pursued further training with many teachers in many styles of Middle Eastern, Rromany and Folkloric Dance, with current cross-training under master teacher Sarala Dandekar in Odissi, a devotional Classical Dance from the temples of East India.

She offers Teacher Training Courses in her specific format (The KD/BSBD Format for ATS BD) while encouraging her students to pursue even more training in any field, just like she does. Kajira feels that the measure of a great instructor is the students she leaves to continue their living legacy, and Kajira is grateful to have accomplished this. (She even has “grandchildren” now, around the world!) She has a new offering as well in her Teacher Training Courses: “Equivalency Certificates”. See her site for info. There is talk of upcoming “Satellite Schools” as well, so ask her or check back to her site frequently.

Because of her Teacher Training courses, Kajira was able to update the members of her troupe, BlackSheep BellyDance, at the end of 2008. The 3 DVDs made in Dec. 2008 include certified teachers and alumni from all over the U.S., and another BSBD member, Betty Lee of Taiwan's Shimmy Tribe, is the first Satellite School Instructor in Kajira's format for ATS.

Kajira is constantly grateful to have a full schedule year-round traveling to share her art with others, whenever possible accompanied by members of her troupe. The majority of Kajira’s workshops in 2009 are out of the country (Mexico, Austria, Germany, The UK, Taiwan and China). Book with me early (two years is not too soon) to get me exactly when you’d like!

For more information, please join our Tribe: http://bsbd.tribe.net or call 24/7: 808.891.8891, or email my husband: chuck@mauimobilemusic.com or mauimobilemusic@aol.com. Mahalo!

From this strong foundation we have added many ideas that set our style apart from other established Tribal formats. These new ideas include, but are not limited to:

- use of both rhythmic and arrhythmic slow movements
- new ideas for chorus work, creating greater interest and a flowing backdrop
- three basic leading positions instead of only one (multiple leaders)
- many new movements and variations, both slow and fast
- use of some different props
- different rhythms, including odd time signatures
- use of both hips equally
- a unique and useful format for cueing directional changes and movement variations

BlackSheep BellyDance and I are constantly working on new ideas to share with the dance community within the Tribal Bellydance framework.

As with the style developed by Carolena and FCBD, we also adhere to the premise that this style is built upon SYNCHRONIZED, SPONTANEOUS GROUP IMPROVISATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY. This is the main difference between Tribal and other Bellydance styles.

Other differences include demeanor, posture, costuming and musical choices. American Tribal Style (ATS) is less flirty and overtly sexy than Cabaret Style, and does not display vulnerability as found in nightclub solo styles of the Middle East. Instead, the Tribal Style favors joyous celebration of strength, mystery and power. Since we are always dancing with at least one other dancer, this style is also characterized by much more interaction between dancers than in other group styles that must rely on choreography, and less interaction with members of the audience than in traditional or solo forms.

Because of these fundamental differences, the Tribal Style excels in the development of self confidence, strength, camaraderie, awareness of self and others and being in the moment. We invite you to come to class and discover the joy of Tribal Bellydance for yourself. It is much more than a series of steps!

CLASS DETAILS

OPEN TO ALL
We do not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, religion, body shape, age, race, physical or mental "handicaps" or anything else. All sincere persons are welcome at our classes. Children may accompany adults who are enrolled in class. However, the adult must be prepared to take the child out of the classroom if they become loud or disruptive in any way. We suggest you bring homework, a snuggly blanket or a coloring book for your keiki if they need to come to class with you to keep them busy.

CLASS ATTIRE
You can wear any type of clothing that you have freedom of movement in, such as: leotards, tights, sport tops, choli tops, midriff tops, any form fitting top, sweatpants, pantaloons, skirts.... NO BAGGY T-SHIRTS! wemust be able to see your posture.

We have a new floor covering in our dance room, so bare feet are now fine in class and shoes or slippers optional. If you decide you'd like to wear something on your feet, please bear in mind you do not need expensive dance slippers or sandals, though certainly those are fine. Inexpensive options could be: tai chi shoes, house slippers or street shoes - as long as they stay on your feet and do NOT have too much traction. For that reason, most sports shoes do not work well because of the tread. Smooth-soled shoes will give you better results.

AGE GROUP
I welcome all people over age 12. There certainly is no age that is "too old!" Seniors are welcome. You may enjoy the gentle, non-impact workout this type of dance affords. Movements can be tailored to the specific personal needs of each student. This class is supportive and non-competitive. Everyone works at their own speed in Level 1. Repetition of Level 1 as often as desired is common and encouraged. Let me know your concerns if you have any previous injuries or illnesses. We can work around them.

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS

The material is the same in Level 1 on both nights of the week. Many students find taking class more than once a week greatly enhances their learning and retention of the form. These classes are designed for people who have never danced before, people who have danced but not explored this style, and for perfection and review of technique for dancers already familiar with Tribal Bellydance. Class content of Level 1 includes at least one slow and one fast new movement per class, and a review of the moves covered the week before. As the session progresses, we add all the moves covered up until that day in combinations during class, so students can learn how to transition and how the steps fit together. You will learn to recognize the cues used for our group improvisational style. You will learn a basic finger cymbal pattern to accompany the dance in Level One. We do supply some loaner zills (finger cymbals) in class and furnish them for sale as well. You'll learn isolation techniques, basic shimmies, turns, traveling steps and cues. Each class also includes stretching and strengthening sections. The same material in Level 1 is repeated every session.

Level 2 is the next step for dancers who are ready for a greater challenge, or for those aspiring to perform and excel. Here you'll begin partnering, working in small groups, learn leading and continue to perfect following skills, gain experience in chorus work and other manners of presentation, floorwork, use of props, more advanced finger cymbal patterns and improv, new movements, variations of existing moves, nuances of each move and repetition of all basic moves learned in Level 1. Material for this class requires more than one session to cover and can be considered ongoing. Simultaneous enrollment in Level 1 while moving up is strongly encouraged. Level 1 students are welcome to stay and observe this class anytime.

Level 3 is a high-level performance-oriented class for serious students wishing to become professional dancers and troupe members. This is also the place for experimentation within the genre, exploration of new ideas and lots of dancing together in order to develop that nearly psychic link needed for smooth Tribal presentations. We rehearse and develop new sets in this class. Attendance of this class is by my approval only. NO DROP-INs are allowed to Level 3. Troupe members and aspiring troupe members are required to be enrolled in Levels 2 and 3 simultaneously. I encourage you to continue attending Level 1 throughout your dance career. Once you become an official member of BlackSheep Bellydance, your Level 1 classes will be free of charge. You will be expected to help in classes and at events in exchange for this. Students enrolled in other classes but not yet in Level 3 may stay to observe this class anytime.