NEW~ Dancing through the Ages! Healthy Habits for Healthy Dancing ~

Don’t you love to dance? Wouldn’t you like to dance as long as you can?  This workshop explores how to tune into your body as it changes to keep it healthy and injury-free so you may dance as long as you desire. 

Rita Simon, M.D., owner of Spirit Horse Dance Company, a Fat Chance Belly Dance® ATS® Sister Studio in Chippewa Falls, WI, will help you gain insight and learn ways to keep your dancing joy healthy and alive.  Rita’s experiences come from her intensive study of anatomy and physiology, insights gained from her own physical injuries and daily chronic disease management, as well as her personal yoga practice.

Topics:  

• Posture and how it relates to the fascial lines of the body; how to keep fascial lines strong and connected
• Using the breath to facilitate fluid and strong movement
• Moving from the ‘center’ to create strong, fluid flow with less stress and effort
• Techniques to keep those dancing feet pain free and healthy
• Shoulder health and biomechanics of shoulder movement
• Mind, body, spirit connection in dance

 Please wear comfortable exercise clothing and bring a yoga mat. 
Customized from 1.25   to 3 hours 

Music Mania and Zesty Zils! ~ In ATS, music and zils are seamlessly intertwined to create that magical performance that audiences love.  This workshop will explore some basic music theory, how to analyze the music you are performing  to and how make the most of your vocabulary and create a piece of ATS artistry.  We also explore how the dancer's creativity can be expressed within the boundaries set by the music's rhythm, tempo and embellishments. A zil refresher will also be included, so bring your zils! 2 hours




Principals of ATS Belly Dance ~ Ever wonder what makes ATS belly dance different from other belly dance styles?  This workshop is designed for ATS AND non-ATS belly dancers to learn about and experience the foundation of ATS, and for beginning ATS dancers to understand their heritage. Basic principals of ATS moves, formations and improvisation will be presented. 90 minutes

Proud and Powerful Women!  Maintain that ATS Posture AND Fluidity of Movement! ~ What is "posture?"  What is ATS dance posture? This workshop emphasizes the strong beauty of ATS dance posture, what it is, how to achieve it, how maintain it and how to allow for the fluidity necessary for  artistic beauty of movement.  Great for all levels of dancers! 1 hour

Gorgeous Spins ~  How do they DO that? ~ Nothing is more dramatic and beautiful than ATS calibrated spins with the skirts flying and swirling, pantaloons peaking out beneath, and all the dancers in sync with each other.  Learn the basics of calibrated spins and more!  Perfect your spin technique. 1 hour

Tantalizing SLOW Turns ~ Beauty in Motion! ~ ATS belly dance is known for the beauty of its tantalizing slow turns. This workshop teaches the gorgeous Reverse Turn, Barrel Turn, Wrap Around Turn, Sahra turn and several others.  We'll look at footwork mechanics of each turn and refinement to make each turn a beautiful work of beauty in motion.  90 minutes

BASKETS~  Folkloric All the Way! ~ Almost nothing says 'folkloric' more than seeing a group of women dance with beautiful baskets on their heads.  Rita, as a former co-founder of Sofia Tribal, has extensive experience in  dancing with baskets and developing moves for baskets in improv ATS format.  Learn both balanced and unbalanced basket vocabulary, how to cue and use modified ATS moves for basket repertoire, and how to fit basket vocabulary with the appropriate music to create folkloric basket ATS artistry. Fun for all ATS dancers! 2 Levels of basket workshops available.  Each one is 2 hours long.

ATS Vocabulary and Techniques ~ Rita is also available to teach any level of ATS vocabulary.  She likes to break these workshops into the vocabulary 'families,'  Shimmy, Arabic, Bump and Egyptian. Other options are Level 2 & 3 Complex Combos, Performance Techniques for group improv, which include fading and  circling up options, chorus, set-ups, entering and leaving the performance area, etc.  She is also available to give more advanced workshops in musicality.  Be creative!  Contact Rita and work with her to tailor a workshop for you and your students' needs.  

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