FreedomDance’s website: http://freedom-dance.com
my website (I’ll add a dance section soon): http://www.voiceofshade.net

I’m very happy to say that after a long break while I didn’t have a space to give classes in, I’m beginning to give FreedomDance classes again in Istanbul. In the meantime I’m proud to have become a certified FreedomDance teacher (and I’ve also danced quite a lot, and listened to a lot of music I’m dying to include in my playlists).

there will be a series of 8 classes to begin with; I’m unable to give them every week because of various travels but will try to give weekly classes as much as possible

the classes will be in English (sorry), but if anyone wishes to help with translations from time to time during the classes, they will be rewarded with many thanks

prices (cash only please): 220TL if you pay for all 8 classes at once

120TL if you pay per set of 4 classes

40TL if you pay per single class (drop-in)

(if you’re not sure whether these classes are for you or not, you’re welcome to pay for a single class as a trial and then upgrade afterwards if you’d like, and only pay the difference between the single class and package price)

the classes will be about 2 hours 15 minutes long, and the arrival music will begin earlier than the class start time if possible (time you can use to warm-up as you like)

the first set of 4 classes will start at 7:30pm at Danshane (arrival music will begin from 7pm I hope)

  
dates: Wednesday August 19th
Wednesday September 2nd
Wednesday September 9th
Wednesday October 7th

Danshane
http://danshane.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Danshane/193692224007482?fref=ts
Uğur Han
Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No:22
Tophane, Beyoğlu
İstanbul
(it’s very close to Çatı Dans – tram stops Tophane or Karaköy, metro Şişhane, boat station Karaköy)

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the second set of 4 classes will start at 8pm at Cıplak Ayaklar

dates: Monday October 12th
Monday October 19th
Monday October 26th
Monday November 2nd

Cıplak Ayaklar

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ciplak-Ayaklar-Kumpanyasi/119713241470468
Çukurcuma cad. No: 6/3
Firuzağa mah.
Çukurcuma, Beyoğlu
İstanbul
(it’s very close to the Museum of Innocence – tram stop Tophane, metro Şişhane)

in the first set of 4 classes, we will look at rhythm from some different perspectives:
slow dancing
fast dancing
dancing to fuzzy rhythms
dancing with silence

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more about the themes:

slow dancing – it’s summer, it’s too hot to let our hair down… we’ll explore intensity and being internally connected in the flow through slow (well, slower…) movement; dance which also can connect to yoga and tai chi; other notions which might come up are poise, balance, soft power, working with rather than against gravity…

fast dancing – there are some words related to speed which can help widen our understanding of what it is to move fast, of how being fast doesn’t have to be exhausting and consuming; words like fleetness, quickness, mercuriality, dartingness, vitality and momentum; or put another way, we’ll explore dancing with natural speed, light speed, sustainable speed, no artificial intoxicants…

dancing to fuzzy rhythms – pretty much everyone who dances loves dancing to music with clear rhythms; they feed our feet and make it a delight to launch ourselves into movement, but it’s also possible to find all kinds of movement when the soundtrack is not so clear rhythmically, when the music is fuzzy, when there are no clear beats to latch onto; and there’s a particular freedom in this, it can lead us into shaking and vibration, into moving from the inner pulses of the body for example; and maybe there’s a metaphor in this, clarity is great, but maybe unclarity can also be a valuable state, maybe confusion and unknowing can be states which help change…

dancing with silence – this might not be an easy class to sustain for a couple of hours; it’ll be an experiment for everyone; but I can say that the most freedom in movement can happen when there’s no soundtrack at all, though then it’s also difficult to sustain engagement, and requires us to be inventive and resourceful, and to feed and feed off each other in our movement; it’s also about moving in nature where usually there is sound but no music, the sound of silence we can say…

in the second set of 4 classes, we’ll explore some themes which are related to notions of sacred dancing:
dancing from the heart
dancing from the breath
dance and ecstasy
dance and meditation

dancing from the heart – the word heart can be easily overused I think, it implies all kinds of beautiful things – love, generosity, passion, openness, expression, communication, sociality… I would like to try to bring the metaphoric heart closer to the physical heart, to root our heartwork in the body, and especially in our movement and dance; so perhaps more than exuberance, this will be a subtle class involving close listening to ourselves, of honing and fine tuning…

dancing from the breath – in many forms of movement & meditation connecting to the breath is underlined, as it is in yoga and tai chi; and this physical connection to the breath has a profound mystical aspect – etymologically spirit = breath, and it’s embedded in notions of inspiration and expiration, and all the notions – like aspiration and spiritually – derived from ‘spirit’; in dance, it’s perhaps harder to keep part of our attention on our breath than it is in say yoga, but through that attention on our breath we can become more connected in our movement and also more connected to our spirit; a class then in which to explore the relationship between breath and spirit, and where another spirit word – perspiration – might take on a new shade of meaning

dance and ecstasy – ecstatic dance, shamanic movement, losing control, shaking, spinning, letting go of our minds… but how to get there, and how to come back, how to access ecstasy more easily, how to slip freely in and out of it; how to arrive at ecstasy through dance which can be effortless, unforced, where letting go is perhaps the key rather than pushing ourselves higher; how to cruise, how to sustain our energy…

dance and meditation – FreedomDance is part of a group of improvising dance forms (formless forms…) which can be loosely grouped under the notion of ‘dance & meditation’, where the aspiration is to bring meditation into activity, to help us connect meditation and simply being alive rather than meditation being a contemplative state apart; it’s a tremendously profound and revolutionary notion and one which is far from easy (for most of us) to realise in the midst of our frenetic lives; in this class we’ll explore moving in meditation, touching upon meditation; music can help us, movement can help us, and we can help each other to open this deepest of connections between our bodies and our minds

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general info:

These classes will be about 2 & a quarter hours long and open to anyone who wishes to dance, and people new to dance (or who think they can’t dance) are just as welcome as experienced dancers. We will explore free-dance through musical cycles of energies, elements and spirits, and each of the classes will have a different theme. There will be little choreographic or technical work, rather the focus will be on letting go of preconceptions about movement and letting the body move freely with the mind fully present.

FreedomDance is part of a larger group of Meditation in Movement and Ecstatic Dance free-dance schools. My teachers are Alex Nikiforov who is the co-founder with Sue Rickards of FreedomDance as well as being a 5Rhythms teacher; Sue Rickards who is a founder member of Open Floor and who has long experience in teaching 5Rhythms, and Lori Salzman who is a founder member of Open Floor and worked with Gabrielle Roth to train many 5Rhythms teachers.

There will be a FreedomDance workshop ‘Comfort Islands’ on Paros island in Greece with Alex in September (14-19.9). Info:
http://freedom-dance.com/dance/?5Rhythms-workshops#Santa Maria-Comfort-Islands.

And next year Alex and Alexa Schmid will run for the 4th year their retreat ‘Moving Bodies Open Hearts’ at Sundance (near Antalya) May 3-8. Info:
https://www.facebook.com/dancingretreat

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Charmenko : charm@charmenko.org