Learn the Art Of Middle Eastern Style & Interpretive Dance
Mary Bodnar – Dance Instructor, Director, Choreographer & Founder of Vibrant Wind Dancers
In teaching Middle Eastern Style and interpretative dance, I include a wide variety of music, featuring cultures from all over the world. Types of music include traditional Middle Eastern, Celtic, New Age, South American, Classical, Baroque medieval, Spanish, folk, pop, rock, rhythm & blues, soul and children’s music. Beginner's classes are for all ages and body types. My classes include breathing, poetry meditation, gentle warm-ups, and exercises similar to Yoga while learning the basic dance steps. We wear a variety of decorative (& sound making!) beautiful hip scarves while having fun and learning about the history of dance and the meaning behind the hand, feet and hip movements.
In advanced classes, we work with beautiful hand-dyed nine-foot silk veils in our dances, which make the dances serene and enchanting. Dancing with the Veil is a spiritual and a magical experience! Your Veil becomes an extension of your body as it whirls about you while you dance, giving you gentle hugs. I truly believe each Veil has a living breathing spirit – its own unique personality, if you will. You and your Veil become one.
Where did dancing with the veil originate from? Traditionally, veils were used by women for discretion while out in public. Dancing with a Veil symbolizes flowing femininity and creates a wonderful exotic mystery surrounding the dancer. The viewer’s experience is enhanced by feelings of calmness and tranquility. Leah & Rachel were certainly dancing in the Red tent in Old Testament biblical times and the tradition of veil dancing continued in the Middle East. Some veil dancing in oriental dance occurred only within the last century and was strongly influenced by dancers from the West. (Other effects of Western influence brought Egyptian dance to movies and caused dancers to wear high-heeled shoes!) We dance barefoot, however, to be grounded with the earth.
What should a veil be made from? Silk! It is the best. It is made for this purpose as it catches the air, lofts into the sky, floats serenely as it settles back down to the earth, gently blanketing the ground around the dancer’s feet. Silk is poetic – a living breathing natural material light weight and created from the silken strands of the silk worm. I teach using beginner veils as well as full sized veils, which as an Artist, I also make, with the requirement that they be 9 feet long-- quite a lot of fabric when you are first starting out! While it may seem contrary to our colorful costuming standards, your silk veil shouldn’t have any sequins or beads attached. The hand-dyed silk veil is already beautiful enough and doesn’t require such embellishments and the weight of these things interfere with the loft. The veil is made to frame your body as well as provide gentle caresses. Vibrant Wind Dancers have often brought audience members to tears when we interact w/our audiences by dancing around them with the veil in butterfly position and gently blessing them with the veil by swirling it above their heads. The power of the veil to bless and affirm is amazing – bringing healing and grace to people of all walks of life. When dancing for children, they sit enraptured by the veil and their faces light up with joy – a wonderful thing to experience for my dancers!
Standing statuesquely, with the veil high above your head empowers the dancer with all the positive energy from the veil. There are many different veil positions I teach which have names that describe the moves like Bridal Veil, Mystery Shroud, Retreating Mystery etc. I teach veil moves which the dancer performs independently from other dancers. Equally important are beautiful methods I teach that connect the dancers in a cohesive group. The colors of the veil then collect and intermingle in a rainbow of beauty.
Mary Bodnar – Dance Instructor, Director, Choreographer & Founder of Vibrant Wind Dancers teaches every Wednesday evening 7 p.m. at Lakewood United Methodist Church 15700 Detroit Ave Lakewood. Call Mary for info 216/392-4944!
Mary Bodnar
Mary Bodnar is Marketing Manager as well as Licensed Property & Casualty Insurance Agent for Gordon Tower Insurance Agency at 14701 Detroit Ave, Suite # 362 Lakewood 216/663-7777. She is also professional freelance writer who has been published in a wide range of newspapers and magazines – Great Lakes Mariner Magazine, Your Boat Connection, Cleveland/Akron Family Magazine, Lake Erie Living Magazine, CBC (Cleveland Business Connect) Magazine, Cleveland Jewish News and many other newsletters and publications over the years. She is also Editor and Press Agent for the book “Music of Our Spheres: A Collection of Ruminations” by Dillon Bodnar available on Amazon.com. She is co-host of Word Lovers Writers Retreats in Lakeside, OH w/writer friend Claudia Taller. In addition she was the Theater Critic for the Lakewood Observer Newspaper as well as being a regular contributing writer covering human interest stories for the Lakewood Observer. Mary also conducted all the extensive interviews with five ordained women that formed the core of the multi-media production “Making Waves” play. She is also an established workshop presenter and has shared her love of poetry, not only through her dance performance programs but as a poetry writing educator with a variety of groups. Her Odes Writing Poetry Workshop has received accolades from attendees. As a volunteer, she also writes and is the copy editor for her church website and other church publications.