Today I was awarded certification to teach Shemiran Ibrahim's "Belly Dancing frim the Heart" method to beginner and continuing beginner students. As mentioned in a previous post, I attended the course in January which was held at Amera's Palace in Newtown. It was a weekend intensive course with prior studying of the handbook and two DVDs. There was myself and three other aspiring belly dance teachers - a good number for such an intensive course. We had lots of discussion and a bit of dancing. After the course, we then had our assignment to do for our assessment.

The method is quite a structured approach to technique and the movements of belly dance with an emphasis on improvisation and personal expression through the dance. I have been teaching the curriculum this term and it seems to be going well. The main bennefit to beginners that I can see, is the retention of information and the ability to access (and perform) all the movements they have learned. It creates quite a good filing system...

Of course, I still teach it my own way - it is the basic structure that underlies the class and term that I am using. There is plenty of room for making this teaching method your own...

So all is going well and I am still loving the teaching.