Oriental Dance Technique, Drum solo, Iris in Amsterdam

Intensive workshops 7 and 8 Mars

Performance
The red Tent
8 Mars

Drum solo
Drum solo is a rich and unique expression of Oriental Dance.
In the Oriental dance traditions, the dancer becomes the music. She is the material expression of the immaterial sound. So, all drum variations come out of one’s body, from the slightest detail to the strongest beat.
In this workshop we will learn about the different oriental instruments of percussion, their specific sounds and the way to dance to each of them. We will focus strongly on Shimis, correcting postures, developing the firmness of the centre of the body, working weight and balance, as well as strength and muscular relaxation in order to develop a stable, energetic and non-exhausting shimi technique.
We will see different forms of Shimi: whole body, right and left hips (combined and single), pelvic, abdominal, breast and shoulder. Combining shimis with undulations, drops and accentuations, separating and coordinating the inferior and superior parts of the body. Developing a strong technique based, simultaneously, on resistance, centre and mostly relaxation in order to keep a flowing, pleasant and natural movement.
Schedule:

Arabic flamenco
Flamenco is said to have been born in Andalucia, where Jewish, Arabic and gipsy people mixed with the Hispanic residents, and from their traditions Flamenco was born. Borrowing movements and musical features from all of them, mixing it into a unique style of emotional and artistical expression.
In this workshop we will seek the oriental similarities within flamenco, giving the subtle oriental movement the strong expression of flamenco postures. Fusing both languages into one, the soft becomes powerful, and the strong becomes dense. Working the center of the body, the root, the link to earth. Combining undulations, whirlings, suspensions, and open postures, as well as intense vibrations, wide arms and expressive hands moving as flames. Spicing it with creativity and the unique colours of each own feelings, allowing the deepest intensity, passion and authenticity to become dance. Schedule:

Required material: Comfortable and stretching clothing, cotton scarf for the head and hip, Yoga mat, note pad and crayons

The Red Tent
Performance 8 Mars
The red tent was the place where pre-Arabic women lived all their feminine cycles. This was an exclusively feminine tent, and here women would withdraw the outside world when they were menstruated (when the moon was in their blood), here they would give birth to their children and live their menopause, here they would prepare medicine for the tribe, here they would take care of each other, sharing beauty, hygiene, stories and experiences. Here they would discuss how to raise their children, here they would share rituals, joys, tears and prayers. Here they would transform, grow old, and have the experience of the sacred feminine.
Unlike the Greek genivceus this was not a tent made for men to exclude and enclose their women, this was a place women created for themselves, a sacred place to preserve a circle of feminine experiences. Eventually, the red tent transformed into the Hamam, where oriental women still share their lives and intimacy.

A performance of Oriental culture and it’s expression throughout different countries (Turquie, Egypt, Greece, Morocco, Spain (Andalucia) .From secular folklore to contemporary interpretations, from classical dance to creative fusions.

This performance is not a dance show, but an invitation inside the red tent, I’ve once read that inside the harem, dance was a form of prayer, that women performed to one another. So, here we will share through dance the continuous flow of live within us. From young maid and daughter to sister, from lover to mother, from warrior to crone. The ever changing experience of being a woman, of having the blood as changing as tides within us, uniting all cultures in the dance of women.
Program :- Salomé: Undressing the veils and the perpetual movement
Classic Oriental and whirling
- The Huntress : from darkness to light
Sword
- The water Dance
Classic Egyptian
- Alchemy : from destiny to freedom
Fado, Portuguese guitar in a free dance interpretation
- The Fire : flames of purity and desire
Arabic flamenco
- Do you know my power?
Interpretation of a Greek song to the wisdom Goddess Athena, with finger cymbals
- Desert and Infinity
Berbere folklore from the Moroccan Sahara

Information/ application/ tickets:
Sara 0031 643895306

Íris finds in Oriental Dance her organic form of expression. Having studied literature, theatre and contemporary dance, she studies Oriental Classical and traditional dances, as well as Sufi whirling with Shokry Mohamed, Myriam Szabo (with whom she also studies Gypsy fusion dances), and Farida Fahmy, amidst others. Besides a broad work in Classical Egyptian Dances, Traditional, folkloric and ritual middle eastern dances, gypsy and Greek dances, and creative fusion, Iris is formed in Hatha Yoga by the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, she studies Flamenco with Rosario Peinado and Sofia Abraços, Thai Yoga and Ayurvedic massage, natural nutrition and she is a Doula. She has performed with Jillina and Sharon Kihara (Belly dance Superstars), Hossam and Serena Ramzy , Myriam Szabo and the Salamantras, Paula Lena, amidst others, in Portugal, Spain and France.
She develops a personal work of movement research, based on the female body and bio-energy, and the integration of mythological archetypes in dance expression. Releasing the inner sacred space dance provides. A spiral force, whirling, inwards and outwards. Poetry of wind and skin, Moonlight inspiration…
www.myspace.com/lejardindiris