Finding Inspiration at Elis Pinheiro's Workshops
Last Saturday I was excited to be attending two workshops by the lovely Brazilian dancer, Elis Pinheiro (www.elispinheirobellydance.com). I have to admit I didn’t know much about her when I first found out about the workshops but after some research and watching her videos on YouTube I liked what I saw and knew I had to attend.
What interested me most about her while researching was her teaching style. There was a lot of praise for the way she teaches and as a teacher myself I am always looking for new ways to explain techniques and help my students.
I attended her ‘Baladi Hips’ and ‘Silk Veil’ workshops in Medway and I was particularly looking forward to the silk veil one as I love dancing with a veil (plus I am currently preparing for my next veil course). As for the ‘Baladi Hips’ workshop I have to admit I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was it going to be combinations for Baladi the rhythm (also known as the small masmoudi or masmoudi saghir)? Or was it going to be Baladi the style? Turns out it was the latter and I was glad. I am currently trying to learn all there is about this style so this was right up my street.
I will say that Elis’ teaching style is as fantastic as they say and I learnt a whole lot from her. She is the first teacher I have taken a workshop from who has asked questions to get the students thinking about what they are about to learn. For example she asked us what words could describe the Baladi which allowed us to use our own heads instead of being told.
I also noticed that both her workshops were more about quality rather than quantity. Instead of just throwing lots of moves and tricks at us to learn she picked about 6 or 7 different moves and worked on making them look good with clean technique and variations. I found that I came away from the workshops with some great tips that I will remember for a long time rather than trying to wrack my brain trying to think of everything we did.
I have spoken a lot about the workshops from a teacher’s perspective but how about from a dancer’s one? As a dancer I also loved them. Although many of the moves I knew very well I liked the variations such as the fast heel bounce, how to achieve a heavy feel to movements and keeping the connection between the arms, shoulders and ribcage when dancing with veil, to name a few.
Not only is Elis a wonderful dancer and teacher but she is also a lot of fun which was the cherry on an already wonderful cake. I will always remember her demonstrating how not to do the omi “nightclub style” which is something I see often and summed it up perfectly in such a funny way.
If she is ever around this area for more workshops I will certainly be there ready for more.
