Belly dancing has wrapped the world in its mystical
warmth and is slowing turning into a new dance religion. Many dancers from
across the globe are learning this graceful dance style and are striving to
create a dance language that can be learnt and enjoyed by all.
Veve Dance has over the years collaborated with many
reputed international artists from diverse fields. To herald the new year 2014; we invited internationally acclaimed Master Instructor & Performer and Artistic
director of Bellydance Superstars, Moria Chappell, to conduct a ‘Tribal Fusion
Bellydance Intensive Workshop’ exclusively for Veve Dance at Mumbai, India from
the 2nd-7th of January, 2014.
Tribal Fusion Superstar Moria Chappell, has
travelled worldwide performing as well as teaching the art of tribal fusion
bellydance, specializing in Odissi Fusion. She is heralded as an innovator in
choreography, costume design and stage make-up.
Her style, both feminine and
fierce, commands an intensity and precision that epitomized tribal fusion
isolation and individualism. Dark, bohemian, primal, fresh, animalistic,
folkloric, sensuous, snake-like, earthy, eclectic are some
of the words that come to mind when one wants to describe her performances and
stage presence.
She is skilled in the science of Kinesiology which
helps her in understanding the scientific and artistic intricacies of human
body. And truly believes that it is important to understand and utilize the
muscles that cloak the bones.
Teaching from a place of body and spirit, Moria's
technique is entirely muscle-based; dedicating one muscle to one movement and
creating isolations and shapes that are clear and concise.
A passionate crowd of 45 women had gathered together
for this intensive; inclusive of various belly dancers and dance schools from
all across India like Meher Malik and her troupe representing the Banjara
School of dance from Delhi, Payal Gupta and her troupe representing the Payal’s
Dance Academy, Bindu Bolar of the Lights Camera Dance, Kavya Viswanathan from Sanaz
Dance Studio in Bangalore and many more.
Day 1 & 2 of the workshop:
Moria kick-started the workshop by elucidating upon
the concepts of intense muscular isolation and their conditioning. She led the
students through intense drills meant to exercise the muscles required for
the execution of crisp tribalesque movements.
She also explained how one can expand ones movement
vocabulary by using musicality in layering by marking different rhythms and
tempos within different sections of the body to create orchestrated movements.
She focused on many advance layerings, shimmy techniques, body extensions &
articulation used for tribal fusion bellydance.
Exhibiting a distinctive take on percussion and
rhythm, Moria also taught a tribal drum solo choreography where the key was to
mark the music through crisp muscle movement using signature
locks, breaks, fluid arms, shapes, combinations and muscular technique for
travelling, layering and transitioning.
Director Veronica and Students having funn during the workshop!!
Day 3 & 4 of the workshop:
After two days of intense drilling, Moria taught the
use of multiple fusion combinations to focus on steady and smooth transition
techniques for complete body fluidity.
She also emphasized the importance of maintaining
posture and isolation of movements whilst balancing a prop such as a Sword, a
candle and an Assaya on different parts of the body to add creative
interpretation and circus flair.
She focused on back bends, knee slides etc and also
gave tips for safe and smooth execution of floor work. To add some drama and
slinkiness to ones performance, she also taught some unique and unexpected
floor patterns.
After the group workshop on the 3rd day, the Veve Dance team was
highly privileged to have an exclusive workshop with Moria.
An experiential workshop by the name of 64 Yoginis, for which Moria has drawn the inspiration from the sixty-four yogini statues standing in niches encircled
by a mandala-shaped temple known as the Hirapur Chausat Yogini Shrine located
near Bhubaneswar, India.
After a brief introduction about the temple and the
different yogini statues in the temple, Moria guided the team to first visualize the
yoginis and their mounts and also learns their stances and gestures. Breathing
life into the goddesses, she taught many a beautiful and statuesque sequences, fusing
Odissi and Bellydancing.
Later that day Moria updated her FB status saying - "Today
was the first time I taught the 64 Yogini dance workshop and it was wonderful.
The ladies were so focused and looked beautiful dancing through each
combination. Thank you all for making the debut of this workshop such a joy for
me".
Thank you Moria!! Every minute of learning this exquisitely elegant fusion sequence was a wonderful experience.
Day 5 of the workshop:
Veve dance team had another exclusive workshop with
Moria, learning the folkloric form of Tunisian dance.
Fresh and unique, Tunisian
dance technique places heavy emphasis on twisting, unique posturing and
unexpected floor patters with many high energy combinations. It is an exciting
form of ethnic dance and the team learnt from Moria their combinations as they
apply to Tribal Fusion Bellydance.
Veve Dance Team with Moria Chappell posing with their 'Certificate of Participation', which was ingeniously designed by our Senior Instructor Dipika Vijay.
After receiving tremendous response for this
workshop with Moria, Veve dance is already working to rope in more
international artists for future collaborations.
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