I have put up this page to help answer some of your questions and to have a way to communicate with you.

WORKSHOPS:
Yasmin occasionally gives workshops.

 

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Individual class pages:

Class pages have a rough schedule of what we will cover during a semester and when. At the bottom of each page is the Joy of Motion sylabus for that level.

Beginning I
Low Intermediate - Please do not sign up for this class without my permission
Advanced - Please do not sign up for this class without my permission
I do not teach technique in this class. It is performance orientated and geared for professional dancers. It moves very quickly and assumes you have had at least 2 years of training WITH ME and have mastered ALL of the skills in the sylabus.

There was some question about zills and who needed to know how to play them. Please read this if you are in doubt.

Shimmies are also a hot topic. Please read this before we enter into the shimmy section of class.

For an understanding of the back muscles required to do many of the movements I cover in class click here.

Some general notes for class:

Class attire:

• NO SKIRTS
• NO GLASS BEADS ON SCARVES - coins are OK
• Clothes that allow me to see your ankles and stomach
• BRAS - underwire preferred

For more information about the dance - in general and in the Washington DC area - please check out the link section. If you want to know more about what's going on in our area, you should join WAMEDA - The Washington Area Middle Eastern Dance Association. They publish a newsletter that comes out every other month.

If you are serious about learning this dance form you should listen to Middle Eastern Music. In the link section are places where you can choose from a large assortment. You should also try to understand what the words of the songs mean! There are several very good places to go on the internet for translated lyrics. I do not make any money off of the sites that are listed - except Serpentine Video, which are mainly productions that Artemis and I have done over the years.

I have also tried to list places where you can get reasonable hip scarves and zills. I personally prefer Sorayan Professionals but you should start off with small learning zills first.

One of the most important things to learn is the history of the dance and its culture. There are many sites out there with information. These are just one or two that I found very informative.

This is my email address if you would like to contact me:

yasmin@serpentine.org