WHAT: Deepen your connection to Arabic music and discover how a richer understanding of its structure, instruments, and emotional expression can transform your dancing. In this engaging workshop, Phaedra Darwish will guide dancers through the essential elements of Arabic music, helping you recognize common song forms, identify key instruments, understand musical phrasing, and interpret the mood and meaning behind what you hear.
Whether you're dancing to a classic orchestral composition, folkloric music, or a modern pop song, you'll leave with practical listening tools that will strengthen your musicality, inspire more authentic improvisation, and help you create performances that are deeply connected to the music.
Perfect for dancers, teachers, and performers of all levels who want to move beyond counting beats and truly dance the music.
This workshop is available à la carte as part of the 22nd Bellyqueen Teacher Training.
WHEN: Saturday August 15th, 4.30-6.30pm
WHERE: Rod Rodgers, 62 E 4th St, Studio A, New York, NY 10003
INVESTMENT: $49, $39 Unlimited Pass Members
WHO: Coming from a background in instrumental and vocal music and musical theatre, Phaedra Darwish was mesmerized by belly dance and Arabic music after studying different types of dance from around the world. She feels that dance and music are beautiful ways to share the culture of her heritage. She regularly performs and teaches workshops and classes in Chicago and throughout the US, hoping to spread enthusiasm and respect for Middle Eastern dance as more and more people get acquainted with its health benefits and enchanted by its beauty.
With its lively music and rich historic tradition, oriental dance, or raqs sharqi, brings with it more than just dance moves. By examining the music, regions, and cultural aspects behind the movement in her classes and performing Arabic dance at a professional level both inside and outside of its traditional environment, Phaedra seeks to fulfill her mission as an artist: to increase cultural awareness, appreciation, and understanding by sharing the dances of her heritage with as large a population as possible.