Friday evening 10th, All day Sat, 11th, Sun, 12th and Mon 13th June

9.30 am – 5.30 pm

Join Maria in the idyllic surrounds of her urban retreat this Summer for a five day introduction to Embodied Bellydance™. Soak up the sun by the pool and sauna and treat yourself to some Heart Centred Massage. Bed and breakfast is available – enquire on registration.
Date: 26-30th January 2011 (day enrolments welcome, conditions apply)
Venue: Inner Movement Centre, 32 Lower Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe

Cost: $ 350  – Complete workshop – Early Bird, before May 1st 2011.  Installment plan available with $50 deposit.

$50 Friday evening

$125 per day * conditions apply

More information on content coming soon

People who have explored Embodied Bellydance™ say…
“Techniques like the Shimmy and the Egyptian walk have been the hardest for me to teach to my students, but since doing your workshop, I have utilised the way you break movements down, and my students and I are doing the best shimmies ever!”
Melissa Cristina, Oriental Dancer, Melbourne

“Maria’s style of teaching is unique, powerful and deep with major focus on body awareness, finding your centre and being in the moment when you dance.  She has an intuitive understanding of the music and guides dancers to explore and interpret it in an authentic manner.”
Madonna Teitzel, Tribal Dancer, Toowoomba

“Maria’s Embodiment work has opened up a whole new way of looking at Bellydance for me. Anatomy, body awareness and the embodiment of the dance takes it to a whole new level, beyond just the physical. I have learnt to be connected to myself fully and authentically. This creates such a freedom within the dance that you rarely find anywhere else.”
Cindy Hyde, Tribal Fusion Dancer, Melbourne

Begin on Tuesday 1st Feb – 10 weeks

Neo Traditional Egyptian Dance Level 1 -  6.30 – 8 pm    Cost $200 / $170 con /

Neo Traditional Egyptian Dance Level 2+ -  7.45  – 9.45  pm      Cost $230 / $200 con

Cost for both classes $350

Egyptian dance promotes, Strength, vitality, sensuality and grace.

Embodied Bellydance is a unique approach to teaching & learning this  wonderfully feminine & enchanting dance form.
Incorporating Anatomy, body awareness, creative visualisation & somatisisation. Working with the breath to facilitate a deeper connection to the inner and our movement of the body -
Improves posture, joint & bone movement, muscle tone & also helps with pain management. Promotes self esteem & celebrates womanhood.

Cassandra Longley -
Your classes had given me the foundation and grounding to be able to learn from other people. You style of teaching is like no one else

Since I began my teaching journey nearly 20 years ago I was always draw to the inner world of movement.
Embodied Bellydance brings together the knowledge drawn primarily from my innate deeply felt relationship that I have with the essence of Egyptian Dance. This dance and all genres of Bellydance/Raqs Sharqi draw from the connections to the primordial connection to the eternal spirals and circles of all of life and the movement of the Universe it self.

We begin in the womb connected to our mother from our navel via the Umbilical cord where we are fed nurtured. We form as a curve around this life force as our spine and skull form curl around this our life force. As we grow and out organs form the curve grows expanding and lengthening. When it is time we move through the birth canal and arrive in the world we take out first breath and the cord is cut.
As a well newborn baby we emanate a perfect lengthening expanding and deepening from the navel, when we breathe in we expand in all directions like a stat fish and when we breathe out we reconnect to the primordial curve. As we expand and compress bones muscles move in a spiralling manner.

Lauren Butler  -
I went along to another class this Saturday  for a little extra practice, & while it was a good class, it definitely gave me an appreciation of how great & unique our class is, & what a great teacher you are.

Though the aid of Anatomy, Visualizing, Imagining, Somatasizing and most importantly Breath Embodied Bellydance honours the connection to this primordial movement and bring it to life in exercises and movements that then inform and enhance the Dance. All is connected.
Embodied bellydance is just that, embodied.
If you are looking to deepening you experience in Bellydance or dance and movement in general then you will find Embodied bellydance very beneficial to you.
What I have just described is the foundation of Embodied Bellydance. As we embody the physical relationship to the dance we also embody the joy, feeling and expression of the dance. In the control of origin of all bellydance style dance is a part of a way of life it is not separate. Many of the moves come form day to day way of being.

Yoka Jones
You teach us in such a way that’s like magic  . . . the next thing I know I am in my body & dancing
The music played informs that type of dance/movement that will be explored.
In my Recreation Egyptian dance I use mostly modern Egyptian pop music (Modern Shaabi). In my Traditional Egyptian dance class I use is some time very ancient using very simple instruments to the more sophisticated urban folk that is called Baladi for the turn of the 20th century to the early 20th century, (Traditional Shaabi or Traditional Baladi)

Melissa Christina  -
I also especially love the way you really focus on the belly being our dance centre. I think for me this is what inspired me the most. It brought me back to my body and my feeling centre. I can quite easily lose my centre; a lot of stress from every day running of a business can be overwhelming