August Group Dance Classes and Workshops!
Updated: Mar 9
Company dancers Dee, Samantha, and Giselle are taking over classes in August!
If you love Charis' samba class, you will also love these one-time chances to learn some other dances! Samba teaches us self love, musical creativity, and provides us with raw vitality. Dee's Afro Latin Heels class has all the confidence and self love of samba. Samantha's Afro Latin Contemporary class will have ALL the musicality and expression. Giselle's Afro Colombian class will bring us energy and vitality!
Check out the more detailed class descriptions here:
Afro Latin Heels with Dee
August 3
"Heels" dancing taught in studios as a unique genre emerged in the early 2010s. It is characterized by a sensual and hyper-feminine affect and of course, wearing high heeled shoes (usually stilettos). Dee teaches a "Bedroom Baddie" heels class focused on confidence and self love. She will be fusing her style with flavor of the dances we do in the company!
Bring comfortable, sturdy heels to dance in or wear whatever shoes make you feel comfortable!
Afro Latin Contemporary with Samantha
August 10
"Contemporary" in the United States has come to imply ballet-based movement with some floorwork and contractions. We at Amara Arts challenge
that limited perspective.
The word "contemporary" literally means of the current moment! Dances of Black and Indigenous cultures are often characterized as solely "folk" or "traditional" when in fact these dances are living, breathing, changing practices! The mambo, bachata, reggaetón, and samba you see in competitions, music videos, and congresses today don't look like they did in 1888. Samantha will give a fusion class that brings in the hottest moves of today plus the influences from ballet and jazz (like long lines and turns) that have been incorporated into Afro Latin performance dance over the years!
Afro Colombian with Giselle
August 17
This will be a great class for lovers of West African dance! Colombia's Mapalé is one of the dances Giselle will teach and it is a perfect example of Africanist aesthetics in movement. Robert Farris Thompson and other dance researchers have theorized several concepts that tie together "African" arts as a category. When it comes to dances that come
from Afro descendants in the Americas, it's all about
polyrhythm (multiple rhythmic patterns at once)
polycentricism (multiple areas of movement initiation at once)
call and response (conversation between dancers or between musician and dancer)
It is often said that Mapalé is named after a fish, due to the "frenetic" motions. Those movements are also "survivals" - practices continued from the cultures of enslaved Africans of various ethnicities brought to Colombia. It's a super energetic and fun class!