As a dancer you need to work actively with your breathing on many different levels to add impact, power or to conduct certain moves best possible [belly flutters etc.]. But here I want to share a completely different exercise that you can use to quickly recenter yourself and stay calm in times of stress. I’m […]
By Ishtar Dance on Tuesday, March, 31st, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
With the international community going into lockdown to counteract the spread of the Corona virus it is more vital than ever to stick to a daily routine as well as enjoying daily exercise to keep yourself happy, motivated and not least sane. And there are many great ways that you can keep developing your dancing […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, March, 23rd, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
Middle Eastern music has plethora of wonderful rhythms that allows you to be really creative and expressive in your dancing – not to mention the many exciting ways you can approach this from a choreography point of view. As your knowledge of the music and dance expands you’ll become more familiar and comfortable maximising this […]
By Ishtar Dance on Tuesday, March, 17th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning No Comments
Do you ever wonder why we dance? How we communicate through dance and how it challenges our brains as well as our bodies? Having worked with dance on many different levels including performing, teaching and in a health setting, I find all these questions highly interesting and I was delighted when I discovered some talks […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, March, 2nd, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
Very few belly dancers have been elevated to national Egyptian treasures, but Samia Gamal, born Zaynab Khalil Ibrahim Mahfuz, was and probably still is one of Egypts most loved dancers. I’m sure you’ve already seen lots of video clips of her and if you’ve studied with me you’ll know that I adore her iconic moves and have […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, February, 17th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning No Comments
How can we all learn to be more confident in our own skin? And how can committing to our movements also help us to become betters dancers as well as happier human beings? Amerita, a dance activist sums it up beautifully in her Ted Talk which you can view on YouTube here. You’ll only need […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, February, 10th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Your Dance Body No Comments
January is resolution time – and even if you don’t believe in those – it tends to be a time of reflection for most following the festive season, family gatherings and the move to a brand new year. So if you were to change just one thing – what would it be? Here are three […]
By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, January, 8th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration, Your Dance Body No Comments
One of the key elements of achieving your goals and also enjoying doing so, is to stay motivated. This may seem easy when it’s something that you really enjoy doing, such as attending workshops or weekly classes. But it’s a lot harder to find that motivation for things that you maybe don’t enjoy that much, […]
By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, January, 1st, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration No Comments
Every year I aim to make it the best ever when it comes to dancing and 2019 was probably one of my favourite years in a while. I decide to take charge of my time and turn down jobs I no longer wanted to do and instead focus on what I really wanted and enjoyed. […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, December, 2nd, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration, Learning No Comments
The importance of understanding belly dance rhythms is not to be underestimated, yet it can be really hard – even for seasoned dancers to get their heads around how these work and not least remembering their names. Most dancers will know the rhythms perhaps intuitively and therefore improvising to them becomes fairly easy after a […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, November, 25th, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning 2 Comments
