By Ishtar Dance on Tuesday, March, 28th, 2023 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body 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 Thursday, January, 26th, 2023 in Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
Being active has long been recognised to lower stress levels, but did you know that dancing can be one of the most effective stress therapies? Alongside my dancing I also work as personal development and transitions coach, and the main reasons people come to me is stress related. When we get stressed we often disconnect […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, July, 18th, 2022 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body 2 Comments
Posture is the most important thing when dancing, yet many struggle to maintain it, not least when performing and the nerves or the pure joy of dancing starts kicking in! So how do you stay ‘zipped up’ as one dancer so appropriately called it. Well, it all starts with finding out and not least feeling […]
By Ishtar Dance on Monday, October, 18th, 2021 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
I often get asked how you best control a knee or Egyptian Shimmy – and being one of those moves that require strength as well as relaxation to work, the simple question is really: practise. But that doesn’t necessarily mean plough on and do lots of drills, as it’s also very important to take the […]
By Ishtar Dance on Friday, October, 1st, 2021 in Learning, Your Dance Body 2 Comments
Whether your hips are tight from a lot of dancing, other exercise or even just sitting down, stretching the outer hip can be tricky without adding to much strain on other joints especially the knee. So today I want to share one of my favourite gentle outer hip stretches, which can be a great alternative […]
By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, January, 27th, 2021 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
Every week in class I give my students the option of homework, but I know all to well that most won’t be able to set aside large chunks of time to work on their technique or polish their performance. So how do you manage to get your training fitted in between work, family, friends, housework […]
By Ishtar Dance on Tuesday, June, 16th, 2020 in In the Dance Kitchen, Your Dance Body No Comments
As a dancer I have from an early age been encouraged to eat foods that will support and nurture my body and I have previously written about a dancer’s diet. In the last few months I’ve rediscovered my passion for cooking, baking and not least finding healthy recipes for food I love. I hope some […]
By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, May, 13th, 2020 in Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
Here in the UK the Government has announced the the lockdown will continue for the foreseeable future, even if some restrictions, such as only being able to leave the house once a day to exercise locally, has been lifted [at time of writing this at least that was the case]. But even though we can […]
By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, April, 22nd, 2020 in Dance Inspiration, Your Dance Body No Comments
Expert advice on how best to cope with the lock-down as a result of the global Corona pandemic, has not been scarce, but most agree that keeping a healthy routine of exercise, something to help you destress and of course a good diet is essential. I have taken the last few weeks out to engross […]
By Ishtar Dance on Tuesday, March, 31st, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments
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 […]