|
|
|
Ansuya
________________________________________________________________ Ansuya is a dance hero of mine- I absolutely love the energy, focus and grace she brings into every
movement. I also admire her easy-to-understand teaching style and that even though she is a major star in the word of
bellydance, she strives to make herself accessible to the every-day dancer by regularly offering instructionl DVDs and creating
online classes.
I wanted my newer students to receive a bit of advice about what they are getting into with this whole world of bellydance thing, so I asked her a few questions, and she was kind enough to answer via an assistant, Inara. (Thank you both!) ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1) Your dance
is unique and ever-evolving. Do you believe new dancers should first become masters of technique and then focus on expression,
or should they start developing their own style and use their own emotions from day one? Bring your emotional expression to your first class Bellydance class! It will help you hone your technique. There is nothing like being motivated, inspired, and turned on to get your body to do techniques that you might not have thought you were capable of until your heart called you to do them! 2) Do you believe The Dance can have an effect on your mental/spiritual health? Bellydance is wonderful for enhancing your mind/ body/ spirit connection. It puts you in touch with your inner spiritual instincts, rests the mind, and unlocks healing energies in the body. 3) What do you believe is the greatest benefit of belly dancing? Does it change if you go from the casual dancer who takes classes just for fun to the more serious dancer, who studies from a variety of teachers? Perhaps the greatest benefit of Bellydance is to see women finding themselves by becoming in touch with their sensuality. The fact that the movements are so natural to the feminine form also allows women who are serious about their studies to excel quickly to a professional level. 4) Have you discovered different benefits to dancing for a public audience as opposed to dancing with just women? Girls – get out there and dance for the world! Every kind of audience has something to teach you about your power to lead women and men to empowerment and every show excels your performance capacity. 5) We've all heard of "The Sisterhood of the Dance?" Do you believe this is real, or have we become so competitive and commercialized that it's a lofty goal, rarely obtained? I believe in the sisterhood of Bellydance. I also believe that the best way to uphold an ideal is to embody it as true whether or not it is evident around you. Whatever you give your energy to will eventually show up in spades. 6) Being American, we tend to fuse styles together because we are surrounded by so many various groups of people in our real lives. How do you respond to criticism that it "muddies" the styles and is disrespectful to the cultures where they originated? I am a Fusion Bellydance artist, but I also love the Bellydance police. Both perspectives have their purpose. One feeds the other. We need dancers who document how things were and we need dancers to evolve the art form. That way you don’t lose precious gems of art and you don’t lose precious gems of inspiration. It is up to each new artist to shop from the original stuff, the new stuff, and to create new stuff of her own. 7) We'd love to know your first thought when the word BellyDance is spoken. What does it mean to you, and what do you think it can become for new dancers? Um, my first thought was naughty! I think Bellydance is the ultimate expression of elegant sensuality. It is an awesome representation of the power of the feminine force to connect to creative energy through sensual dance. It is sophisticated, technical, spiritual, instinctual, connective, and divine. |
|
|