WildCard BellyDance

Dancers around the world have been asking for more online lessons so Seba has returned to the studio with a new set of Level-One videos.

This Level-One lesson is Taxeem (also known as Taqsim) and is the first move taught in the WildCard BellyDance format.
Follow along with this series that is great for beginners as well as those looking to refine their foundational ITS moves.

The next move in the Level One Series is the Body Wave or Undulation.

Something very special is about to happen.Something you don’t want to miss out on.

It’s one of those unique opportunities that you have to grab onto and it leaves you enriched for the rest of your life. I feel your minds turning, pondering what is this rare and special thing. It’s the opportunity to study with the living legend, Katarina Burda.

I first met Katarina Burda at the Mendocino Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp, in 2008. I came to camp a day late and asked all the dancers which teachers I should take classes from. Every dancer insisted that Katarina’s class was the best at camp. Later that day in her packed class, this older, soft spoken woman blew my mind with her amazing wealth of knowledge and her incredible dance skill.

I discovered that in her 40 year dance career she was one of the original members of Jamila Salimpour’s troupe, Bal Anat and had  trained many of the Bay Area’s top dancers such as Zoe Jakes, Mira Betz, Hannah Romansky and Elizabeth Strong (they were in her troupe Aywah).  I left her class knowing that I would seek out every opportunity to study with her again.

In July of 2013, a unique possibility presented itself and WildCard BellyDance was able to host Katarina Burda in a two day workshop. I was so happy to share this opportunity with my troupe, students and other local dancers. She left us inspired, dripping in sweat and with the promise that if she was in town again (as she was living in Mexico at that time)that she would be willing to continue teaching us.

January 4th of 2014, Katarina Burda is back!

We are lucky enough to get to spend the first Saturday of the first four months of the year with her. January 4th, February 1st, March 1st, and April 5th. Katarina loves to share her knowledge of dance, music and history. The first half of each workshop will focus on dance and the second half will focus on music and history.

January 4th
10-12 dance technique – 4/4 rhythms, : traveling steps, shimmies and combinations, spins, arms, ciftetelli/taqsim/undulations
12:30-2 music: understanding different rhythms (Baladi, Saiidi, Masmoudi, Maqsum, Malfouf/Cocek, Ciftetelli), bring your cymbals.

February 1st
10-12 how to dance to Romani 4/4 music – line dance and oriental steps
introduction to 9/8
12:30-2 Romani song

March 1st
10-12 Egyptian folk steps
12:30-2 Egyptian folk song

April 5th
10-12 introduction to Guedra – Moroccan trance blessing ceremony
dance movements, cultural significance, history, past and present
12:30-2 chants with percussive clapping

If you pre register for all 4 classes it’s only $160.

Pre register for individual classes for only $50 per class. Or register at the door for $60.
Make sure that you don’t miss this rare and affordable opportunity to study with a living legend. It’s one of the the best things you can do for yourself all year.

The workshop will be held at the Rohnert Park Community Center Room #3, 5401 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park, CA.

Workshop dates and times are…

January 4th, February 1st, March 1st, and April 5th from 10-2pm.

To register mail a check to
Sherry Blanchard, P O Box 87, Rio Nido, CA 95471
or Paypal ( email seba@wilcardbellydance.com and she will send you an invoice).
Call Seba at 707-869-3469 for any other info.

See you at the Hawaii BellyDance Convention October 11th to the 13th!

For more info check their website http://www.hawaiibellydanceconvention.com/

or like them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiBellyDanceConvention

Seba, Reyna and Christmas are heading to the islands!

We’ll be teaching, performing and hanging out in paradise!

Join Seba and Reyna in this mini WildCard BellyDance intensive and show happening at the beautiful Plaza de Anaya on August 31st, 2013.

The day starts off at 10am with Tribal Combos and at 1pm Tribal Spins. The workshops showcase WildCard moves that are ATS® friendly. Evening Show starts at 7pm.  Workshops are available a la carte or as a package deal.

There are only a couple of spots left so register today!

Tribal Puro y duro Litha 2013

After over a year of planning the WildCard BellyDance Intensive in Mexico City has come to its end.  There was an earthquake and a volcano erupted, the earth was just as excited as all of the dancers that participated in the event.  Reyna, Robin and I showed up sleep deprived and a little jet lagged on Thursday afternoon, June 13^th into the bustling airport of Mexico City.

We were welcomed by the zaghareets of Walky and Kika and we knew that we were going to have a great time. Walkyria Ardaat was our workshop host and coordinator and she was amazing!  I cannot give enough thanks to Walky, her husband Oso and her tribe of Ghytias as we were welcomed and cared for our entire stay in Mexico City.

We stayed in Coyoacan, a beautiful part of Mexico City. Friday morning we took a stroll down to the Frida Kahalo museum.  The museum is the house that she lived in and it was fascinating to walk around and see where her inspirations came from.  There is even a photo of Frida doing Basic Egytptain!  As we were very interested in trying Pulque, a beverage that is not available in the US, for lunch we were whisked away to a restaurant that specialized in the indigenous foods. We feasted on a variety of foods, but enjoyed the ant eggs, pulque and mescal.

Then it was time to get ready for the evening show.  The Friday night gala show was held at a beautiful theater.  The house was packed with a very enthusiastic crowd.  Walky had hand picked the performers to showcase Improvisational Tribal Style troupes throughout Mexico.  I was happily surprised at the diversity of ITS troupes in Mexico.  The quality of the dancers throughout the whole show was superb.

The next day, Saturday started the WildCard BellyDance Intensive.  The intensive was held in a large, well lit, sunny room that had wooden floors, and much to my delight had mirrors!  A great place to teach for  10 hours.  Almost 30 dancers attend the intensive and they were incredible.  Never have I taught a more talented group of women.  They were all thirsty for the knowledge of the dance and were incredibly quick to learn the moves and concepts that we had to offer.

A special thanks to our translator Xiaron Kerr.  Not only is she an amazing dancer and ITS inspiration for all of Mexico but her own knowledge of the dance and language helped make sharing our ITS format with the dancers present all that much easier.

Saturday night was the Hafla.  Sooo much fun!!!!! The word Hafla means party and the Ghytias Tribe did just that.  Everyone dressed up in skirts and choli’s brought tequila, snacks and finger cymbals.  Music played all night long and whenever the mood struck ( which was often) dancers would hit the floor and start dancing ITS.  It was beautiful to be a part of and I felt so honored when the new moves that we had taught that day flowed into the vocabulary of the dancers.

That night while we were tucked into our beds  a 5.8 earthquake happened.  We awoke to the shaking of our beds  and an immediate check in from our host Walky making sure everyone was okay.  We joked that the earth was shimmying from all the dancing. The next day Sunday brought about the end of our intensive.  All the dancers loved the scimitar and floor-work workshop and my thighs were burning by the end of the day from all of the laybacks.

Sunday night we were whisked off to a beautiful resort in Tepoztlan. Where we drank tequila into the wee hours of the morning talking about troupes and tribal and the in and outs of the business of belly dance. Monday was all about the pool and hot tub  and drinking micheladas bought to us by our cabana boy.  I so miss micheladas! I have been trying to make them at home and its just not the same.

Tuesday we were off to Teotihuacan, the pyramids.  Lots of sunscreen, plenty of water and an epic hat and I was ready to go.  The pyramids are amazing and you can actually walk up to the top of the sun pyramid and  part of the way up the moon pyramid.

Walky had the great idea of dancing ITS on the pyramids….check out the YouTube video.  It only captures a little bit of the joy we were all feeling while dancing together on top of these ancient and powerful creations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWal_LQjZG8&feature=share

After walking for so long we were all so hungry and went to eat lunch in a beautiful restaurant that is in a cave.  Once we discovered that another indigenous food …worms aka grubs …was on the menu we had to try it! The chef came out to our table and prepared the worms right in front of us. Sautéing them in butter, with onions and peppers.  When I say it was a once in a life time experience, that is exactly what I mean.

That night Walky had us scheduled to do an interview with Kika so that we could share WildCard BellyDance with all of Mexico and the surrounding Latin countries. The interview was fun  and I am looking forward to seeing it on YouTube.  That was also the night the volcano erupted.  Not that we even noticed.  It happened about 40 miles away and we didn’t even see any ash in the night sky.  The only reason I knew it had happened was because of the frantic texts from my husband Dan.  Wednesday was a last mad dash for shopping before we packed and rushed off to catch our flight back home.

There is so much beauty in Mexico.  So many people to miss.  Thank you so much to Walky Ardaat of Tribe Ghytias for having such a strong vision to bring WildCard BellyDance to Mexico City.  She is an amazing organizer and we felt cared for the entire time we were there.  Thank you to her husband Oso, for being an amazing belly dance husband. Thank you to our marvelous translators Xiaron Kerr and Kika Villagra for helping us to communicate. A special thanks to the Ghytias Tribe, Dafne, Velkana, Adriana, Indriuxx and Miriam, for laughing with us, drinking much tequila, pulque, mescal and micheladas, dancing with us and opening your hearts and allowing us to join you in this incredible journey of dance and sisterhood.

We hope you enjoy this sampling of belly dance classes from Seba of WildCard BellyDance. Your responses have been great and we look forward to adding to this series of online lessons over the 2012-2013 holiday break.

TRIBAL BELLYDANCE DRILLS

1. Tribal Belly Dance Practice Drills
   5:14
2. Tribal Belly Dance Shimmy Drills
   2:12
3. Tribal Belly Dance Turkish Drills
   2:23

(continue reading…)

MEDGE presents it’s ninth annual Fall Festival, featuring Seba and WildCard BellyDance!

Workshops, festival dancing, vending and live music, followed by an evening Gala Show!

Doors for the Fall Festival open at 12:00 p.m. at Cozmic, 8th & Charnelton, Eugene.  Festival dancing begins at 12:30 and continues until 8:00 p.m.  Live music hour – 7:00-8:00 p.m.  Gala Show starts at 8:30 p.m. featuring WildCard BellyDance!  All of this wonderfulness for only $8, ALL DAY!  (No separate fee for Gala Show).

Workshops with WildCard BellyDance

11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. – Tribal Combinations and Transitions:

2:00-4:00 p.m. - Tribal Spins: Love to Spin? We do too!

Read More at MEDGE.org….

Reyna, Seba and Kristen danced as a trio in the Las Vegas BellyDance Intensive Festival Show.  Vegas was a blast as always.

Dancing at the 2012 Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive

Running into friends and fellow dancers… one of the best parts of any festival!

WildCards with Andalee

WildCards and Troupe Hipnotica

 Seba Reyna and Kristen had a great time teaching at the event despite the 8:30am Sunday morning schedule.

Seba’s teaching WildCard’s Scimitar workshop – Dancing on the Edge

From Hagalla Magazine:

Kristen and Reyna of WildCard BellyDance (photo: Dano Blanchard)

“WildCard Bellydance are one of the wildest and freshest tribes you will ever see on stage. And if you see them you imagine that “Neas Tribal” is not far, which is no coincidende. Both tribes exchange ideas, moves and literally everything else. In fall two of the members – Reyna & Robin – will come to us to the 3rd Black Forest Festival in Offenburg. In the following interview Seba, the artistic director, tells us how the “WildCard Bellydance” came into life and what makes it unique.”

Read the whole article (in English)

http://www.hagalla.de/hagalla%20com/Texts/E%20Interview%20Texts/engl%20WildCard%20Interview.html

For the original (auf Deutsch):

http://www.hagalla.de/Texte/Interviewtexte/WildCard%20Interview.html

That’s right baby! WildCard BellyDance is going back to the desert again this year for The Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive & Festival! We will be teaching a scimitar workshop there, and performing as well. Looking forward to a little bit of dance and deviance in the City of Sin!

See the LVBDI registration page for more info on our “Dancing on the Edge” scimitar workshop that’s happening Sunday Sept. 9th at  8:30am ( that’s right just stay up all night and greet the dawn with something sharp).

We are performing at the festival at 2:30 later on that day.  Come and see all the cool stuff you learned at the workshop in action!

Here is a taste of last year’s festival performance.