What: Dark Luminosity with Aepril Shaile

When:  June 22nd & 23rd, 2013

Where: Bright Star World Dance, 496 Congress Street, 4th Floor, Portland, Maine

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Join us June 22 & 23 at Bright Star World Dance as we take a journey into the shadow side of  belly dance with Aepril Schaile.  Dark Luminosity is a weekend of  dark theatrical belly dance with three workshops taught by this spectacular dark dancer and a Saturday evening dark theatrical dance showcase featuring Aepril and dancers from around New England.

Anyone who takes a class or a workshop with Aepril quickly learns that she is teaching far more than just the technique and skill that are a part of belly dance.  It is Aepril’s gift that she not only has the ability to share her own vision of the dance, but through her style of teaching she gives her students the tools they need to find and communicate their own.  You don’t want to miss the chance to study with this visionary teacher and dancer.

Workshop registration information is below.  More information on the evening show to come soon!

Aepril Schaile:

Aepril Schaile is an American priestess of the Dark Goddess working through the ancient and ever-evolving arts of Belly Dance, Music, Ritual-Theatre, and Divination. She is founder of the Aepril Schaile Mysterie School of Dance, and is Artistic Director of Exquisite Corpse Dance Theatre in Salem, MA. An originator and innovator of darkly theatrical and shamanistic belly dance, Aepril performs and teaches at curated international belly dance events and throughout the U.S.

Aepril Schaile dances to make the archetypal Dark Feminine sacred again, and is recognized for her pioneering innovation in dark theatrical, ritual and shamanistic Belly dance  In performance, Aepril becomes Trickster, Warrior, Ghost, Storm, Grieving Mother, Killer, Snow Queen, Seductress… Her performances invoke the archetypal Feminine as a force of nature and magick.

First described as a “Gothic Belly Dancer  in 2001, Aepril has been a leader in the development of Theatrical and Gothic Belly Dance for a decade. Her work has inspired, influenced and challenged Gothic and Theatrical Belly Dancers throughout the world.

Aepril teaches ongoing belly dance classes in the Boston area, and teaches traditional, Theatrical, Gothic and Shamanistic Belly Dance workshops internationally. Aepril is also a musician and composer, writer and mythologist, Astrologer, animal rights advocate and Witch.  Aepril is an AFAA certified Group Fitness Instructor and she holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art.

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Saturday Workshops

Eerie Serpents and Ethereal Grace 

11:00 – 12:30 – $50

Techniques for creating inhuman, ghostly appearance for belly dance  We will work to create liquid arms and body, the appearance of “floating” across the floor, otherworldly locks and isolations. We will explore how to use space and time – unusual level changes, theatrical blocking and staging, eerie traveling steps. In addition to form, the importance of dramatic technique is emphasized – facial communication, striking pauses and dynamics, energy and power direction and intention. All will be integrated at the end in a haunting choreography.

Creating Choreography for Theatrical Belly Dance 

1:00 – 3:30 – $60

Create a Theatrical Belly dance choreography from the ground up! Balancing theatre and dance technique, Aepril will guide you step-by-step to your very own choreography for comedic, dramatic or ritual-theatre belly dance  You will build your dramatic dance skills through the use of theatre exercises, moving meditation and improvisation, identifying rules and boundaries – and creatively crossing lines. Explore the possibilities!

We will cover:

-Costuming and make-up

-Story arc

-Staging, use of space, energy projection

-Creating a stronger and clearer “voice”: learn to release inhibitions and blocks

-Character development: work with“sub-personalities”, active archetypes, inner voices

Basic belly dance skills required.

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Sunday Workshop

Shamanic Belly Dance Intensive

11:00 – 3:30 – $90

Explore the tribal and theatrical roots of Shamanism through dance through Soul-work, deep moving meditation, totem identification techniques, a choreography, and more. The Shaman is a magickal being engaged with her tribe in the liminal role of the sacred trickster, shape shifter, prophetess, magician, and healer. In this workshop, we will work with metaphysical power and shamanic journeying to add spiritual, emotional and creative depth to our belly dance  and to also use belly dance as a healing medium. Through dance and ritual-theatre we will call upon the spirits of nature and divinity, journeying into the psychic Underworld to retrieve lost parts of the Self. Come away with a greater sense of power and authenticity in your belly dance.

Advanced registration is closed. Walk-ins are welcome.