The Belly Dance Guild

Don't let your favorite Golden Workshop at Gilded Raqs, September 12-13 in San Jose, CA, fill up without you! Sign up now at thebellydanceguild.com/gilded-raqs

We have:

With ✨DeVilla✨:

🌟Bring the Hollywood Show Girl to your Raqs Sharqi 🌟 - Step into the spotlight and let the magic of Hollywood set your Raqs Sharqi ablaze! This electrifying workshop blends classic showgirl glamour with belly dance elegance—think grace, mystery, power, and unforgettable pizzazz. You’ll learn how to craft a commanding stage piece from entrance to final pose. We’ll dive into staging secrets, points of power on stage, dynamic prop work, and the subtle details that make an audience unable to look away. This is about presence, confidence, and telling your story with every step. Enter like a queen—and they will never forget you.
and
🌟From Heart to Hips🌟🔥 - This expressive workshop focuses on fluid, continuous belly dance technique, teaching students how to bridge emotions (heart) with precise, expressive pelvic and hip movements (hips) to understand musicality and feeling in Middle Eastern Dance

With ✨Kami✨:

🔥Geometric Drills: Form, Flow & Fire🔥 - This workshop blends the artistry of shape-making with the physical intensity of nonstop drilling. We’ll move to a high-energy playlist, working hard and feeling energized as we drill isolations to build strength, precision, and endurance. From there, we’ll push those drills further by transforming them into dynamic phrases that explore symmetry, asymmetry, timing, and flow. Expect to sweat, move continuously, and challenge both your body and creativity. The class will culminate in a short choreography that integrates the drills and concepts explored, followed by a juicy stretch to restore balance after the work.
and
🔥Veiled Currents🔥 - Step into a world of swirling fabric, fluid transitions, and expressive storytelling through veil work. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to use the veil as both an extension of the body and a dynamic partner in motion. Through guided technique, we’ll refine pathways, entrances, directional changes, and sustained momentum that allow the veil to feel weightless and alive. You’ll learn how to generate power without tension, glide through turns, and create seamless wraps, releases, and dramatic reveals. As we move, we’ll experiment with musical interpretation, texture, and the emotional tone the veil can bring to your dance. The workshop will culminate in a short phrase that integrates the techniques and concepts explored, offering dancers practical tools for dancing with grace, confidence, and expressive depth.

With ✨Belladonna✨:

🗡️Shield Maidens 🗡️- Held Boho Blade sword-dancing technique and combinations, great for solo work and equipped with cues to plug into cued lead/follow systems. Emphasis on our premise of blade precision and Powerful Purposeful Presentation. Leaving dancers feeling badass and in control of their blade!
and
🗡️Finding Balance🗡️ - Boho Blade head and body balancing technique and combinations for developing skill, new ideas for how to use your arms and some fun balanced combinations, complete for cues to plug right into lead/follow systems, with a belly dance sword.

Bring your dancing to the next level with some of the Gilded Raqs workshops!

Our shorter "Glimmer" workshops include:

✨ Essential Middle Eastern Rhythms for Dance with Amir Etemazadeh ✨
✨ You Spin Me Right Round with WildCard ✨
✨ Stunning Double Veil with Hassan Yousef Diab ✨
✨ Vintage Moves and Flirty Fusion Fragments with Belladonna ✨
✨ WildCard Signature Combination and Transitions with WildCard ✨
✨ Zill Technique and Style with Ma*Shuqa ✨
✨Bambouty Folkloric Dance with Nelli al-Nil ✨
✨ Saidi Stick (Tahtib) with Jordan✨

Remember that if you buy the "Soheir" Festival Pass, you get two Glimmer Workshops as well as two Golden workshops and admission to both days of the festival!

Gilded Raqs is September 12-13 (the weekend after Labor Day!) in San Jose, CA.

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