Friday, March 07, 2008

Sufi Dance workshop in Fez?


Amel Tafsout is coming to Fez and interested in holding a Sufi Dance workshop in conjunction with The View from Fez. We need an expression of interest from anyone who might like to take part. We are looking at May/June and if you are interested email us with your contact details. Email: fes.riad@gmail.com

Amel Tafsout, meaning 'Hope of Spring', is among the most charismatic and acclaimed International Choreographer, performer and master dance instructor of North African Maghreb Dance of our time. She has mesmerized audiences in the Middle East and North Africa as well as in Europe, theU.S.A and New Zealand with her expressive and stunning stage presence.

With an M.A. degree in sociolinguistics (she speaks fluently 4 languages), and a research in dance anthropology Tafsout is always aware of the impact that culture has in art and how that can be expressed in the dance. She has been distinguished by the International Dance Council CID as one of the leading dance professionals from around the world.

Brought up in Algeria, Tafsout was fascinated by dance and music since childhood and grew up among the finest traditional dancers and musicians of her native country. She also studied European Folk dance in Algeria, dances of her neighbor Maghreb countries and the Middle East, African Dance in Europe and Afro-Cuban dance in Cuba. She is currently using her expertise to lead highly successful master classes in dance, drumming and singing for students from various countries, with different backgrounds, such as professional dancers, actors, music and dance students, women, elderly people, children and disabled children. She has developed a new experience in teaching, which combines Dance, Singing and Drumming. This creativity has enhanced the spontaneous fusion of Dance and Music - Sound and Vision.

Her research focuses on ritual dances of the Maghreb (reflecting the dual Amazigh-Berber-Arabic identity of Algeria), the Middle East, West Africa and Cuba. She looks at the ways in which spirituality is part of a daily life and sees the dance as a search for harmony between Body, Mind and Spirit.


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