Bayou Belly is coming y'all..... and so am I!!!

Perhaps you've heard of me, been my student, maybe we know each other, or maybe you haven't even noticed the listing or know who I am. For this reason, I wanted to share a little more about my workshop, offering, and me!

This July, I have been honored as one of the featured instructors and performers at Bayou Belly Festivale in Lafayette. I am grateful for this opportunity to share a little bit about me and my dance and I want to tell you more about this workshop I have been working on, just for you....

WHY ANAHATA?

This workshop was designed as a starting point for re-connection. The heart chakra is one of those most misunderstood energy centers. Heart doesn't necessarily relate to love or romance or positive thinking. The heart chakra bares all and feels all. In my opinion, the heart chakra is about connection, about breath, about the pause. It can sometimes be “feel good stuff”, most of the time it lends itself to confusion, and sometimes “not-so-good feeling stuff” as well as loss.

• We will acknowledge our brokenness, our darkness, our struggle, and our fears so we can explore a new approach and learn techniques and practices that allow us to acknowledge those spaces and moments, release them, and use the power of this connection so we can truly express what the soul longs to share through our dance.

• Most of our deepest connections come from times of despair or times of great joy. This polarity provides an opportunity to connect and exist in the breath and pause in between. With the ability to tap into those spaces (as observers) without absorbing the energies from those moments and people, we are able to connect more fully and grow.

What does that mean for the class structure?

• We will begin with a brief discussion about the heart chakra and discuss practices and techniques to assess your energy centers to create openness and balance. Then, we will share in a short meditation and visualization exercise. We will spend the rest of our class using belly dance technique and oriental dance as a tool- using combinations and formations that encourage connection and learning about our body as a communicator.

Who would enjoy this workshop?

Here is one reflection.... If this is something that speaks to you, I think you would enjoy it:

Like me, many of you dance, teach, and/or perform. Many have several gigs/jobs, responsibilities, and relationships to manage in your daily life. How can we step out of duties and routines, challenges and struggles, the business side of this art form and effectively hop into a true soul space that is necessary for dancing with connection… dancing through our heart chakra?

How can we feel connected and expressive in a way that speaks to our heart, and when performing, to our audience? How can we peacefully move away from the burnout that comes from giving more and more and instead peacefully and more deeply connecting to our spirit so we are able to share rather than give of ourselves? How can we truly express, speak up, and be heard when we dance?

Who am i?

• So… I have been belly dancing for 12 years and have been teaching for 9. I have only been performing (quite infrequently) for the last six years. I have led a troupe of my students for a short amount of time… approximately 5 years. What could I possibly teach you or be thinking in offering a workshop at Bayou Belly Festivale to a group of incredible dancers and amazing beings?

It’s simple to me, because when it comes to your heart chakra, it’s not about the ego, it’s about vulnerability and offering. My personal life experience (in adulthood, starting at age 19 with my first child) propelled me into a whirlwind that shook me, tore me down, ripped me apart. In retrospect, perhaps it was just what this stubborn soul of mine needed to see things from a different perspective (that, along with some past Karma I had to work out, I’m sure). I learned to connect and invite light/peace into my being. In this process.... I discovered belly dance, yoga, meditation, Reiki, visualization.... Becoming a devoted student of all those practices. All the while, succeeding at a Communications and Business Development career, running three businesses as an entrepreneur, raising three boys (now 21, 14, and 5), and taking up a full time “hobby” of belly dance training all around the nation.

The combination of all of these elements and the struggles of everyday life, work, and parenting (first, as an unhappily married woman for the first 10 years of my adult life, then a single parent for the following 5 years, and now a blissfully partnered being for the past 7 years) have made me one fierce, take no shit, kinda dancer and individual.

No matter what happens in life, when I hit that stage, it's about me, it's about what I have to say, it's about what I am fighting for, and it's about being heard. And THIS, makes it about the audience- the vulnerability that comes from baring all allows the most powerful connection and THAT is what I want to share with you.

I am honored with the opportunity to guide others in that connection to their own spirit through the abilities of our Heart Chakra and the practices available to all of us. Yes, we can use it in dance… but more important, we can use it in life!

So.... if you're not bored yet, I hope you will join me. Sunday, July 16th at 9am

In ANAHATA: DANCING WITH YOUR HEART CHAKRA, I will teach you techniques and practices that will allow you to effectively balance and open your heart chakra for powerful and peaceful connection in your dance. (Bayou Belly Festivale- Lafayette, LA)

To purchase your Ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-bayou-belly-festivale-tickets-32988315941#tickets

Not to mention I have a VERY, VERY special gift for all attendees and I can't wait!!!