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Lauren
Translating music into motion |
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Lauren started early, studying ballet, jazz and classical piano. As her talents developed, her interests expanded and Lauren quickly met and fell in love with percussion. Lucky for her, Lauren’s hometown of Duncanville, TX happens to have one of the country’s top school music programs. Lauren’s passion evolved with intense study in both classical and world percussion. In high school she was the principal and ensemble leader in the best percussion department in the state of Texas. She consistently placed in statewide competitions in drumline, classical solo and percussion ensemble, mastering a wide variety of instruments from timpani to tambourine to Trinidadian steel drums. Her next step in life was clear; this talented fish needed a bigger pond. Lauren successfully auditioned for a scholarship to the top contemporary music school in the world, Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Enrolled in Berklee, she quickly fell in love with world percussion and dance. While attaining her Bachelors degree in Percussion at Berklee, Lauren obsessively took as many dance classes as possible. Her two greatest loves were Bellydance (of course!) and West African Dance. As a percussionist and a dancer at Berklee she was an in-demand performer for many concert productions, including performances with Berklee’s famous West African Drum & Dance Ensemble and Berklee’s Middle Eastern Music Ensemble. Her studies in African Drumming and Dance took her all the way to Ghana, where she studied at the Dagbe Cultural Center under the strict instruction of Victor Agbeli. Lauren also invested 3 years of training with Bellydance Superstar Amar Gamal. As one of the top dancers in Boston, Lauren was a regular at premier live music venues and Arab nightclubs. Her natural musicality and knack for choreography led her to collaborating with Meiver, the definitive Boston bellydance celebrity, on many choreographies and performances, including regional performances with Turbo Tabla. Lauren’s love of performing bellydance quickly evolved into a love of teaching bellydance. In the summers of 2003 & 2004 Lauren taught Bellydance Fitness workshop for Healthy Kids Camps in North Carolina, a health and weight-loss camp for children, focusing on health and self-esteem. In 2006, Lauren followed her passion to Los Angeles, and began training with the one-and-only Jillina. Her unique talents were quickly recognized in L.A., and led to an early appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, performing with Chromeo; and in Ed Shul’zhevsky’s music video “My Baby”. When on tour, Lauren organizes intense and invigorating training sessions for the company’s dancers and management, focusing on injury prevention and overall fitness. Lauren's thorough teaching style has created high demand for her unique finger cymbal and percussion curriculum, making important and essential rhythmic concepts more accessible to dancers of all levels. Lauren is as committed to her dancing as she is to her drumming. Lauren appears in "Babelesque: Live from Tokyo", "The Art of Bellydance: Live from Shanghai", "3D Superstars: Volumes 1 and 2" DVDs, as well as the upcoming "Bombay Bellywood: Live from Los Angeles", set to be released in August 2011. Workshop descriptions: Body conditioning through Bellydance: Learn how to get the most out of your practice time by incorporating simple exercises to your routine. In this workshop you will get conditioning techniques to help you become a stronger bellydancer and dance techniques that will lead to a healthier physique. This workshop is perfect for those new to bellydance, experienced dancers looking for a new challenge and bellydance teachers looking for new and exciting ideas for their students. Learn from BDSS member Lauren, who has years experience teaching bellydance fitness classes in the nation's top fitness facilities and health/weight loss camps. Is it still considered 'working' out if you are having fun with bellydance? License to Zill: Students will earn a certificate or 'license' for each successfully completed level Level 1: Gain an understanding for the basic concepts of rhythmic theory, creating clear and articulate tones on your zills, and achieving simple movements with the basic zill rhythms. Licensed to Zill level one is appropriate for dancers completely new to zills or more experienced zillers that want to reinforce a proper foundation for their zill playing and dancing. Learn how to communicate with your musicians and audience with zills! Level 2: Take your zilling to the next level by learning musical variations and ornamentations on basic zill rhythms, adding more complex dance combinations to your zill playing and discovering the beautiful rhythms of classical Arab music. This workshop is perfect for dancers who have completed Licensed to Zill Level 1 or dancers who are comfortable with zills and looking to expand their repertoire. Level 3: Combined Tribal Fuision & Cabaret Zill Choreography: BDSS member Lauren is excited to be joining forces Tribal Fusion BDSS member Samantha to present the first combined zill choreography workshop. Dancers will have the option to learn the Tribal or Cabaret stylizations within the same folkloric/traditional choreography. Learn how to recognize rhythmic changes in music, accents and dynamics while putting your zill skills to use in an impressive performance. Level 3: Cabaret Zill Choreography: Put your license to use in an exciting and dynamic choreography featuring Zills. Learn how to recognize rhythmic changes in music, accents and dynamics while putting your zill skills to use in an impressive performance. Bellydance FUNdamentals: Learn the beautiful and feminine movements of bellydance and develop a strong foundation in this fun and exciting workshop. Lauren will teach you all the basic techniques and put them together in a fun and funky pop choreography. This workshop is great for students new to bellydance, or more experienced dancers that want to improve their technique, isolations and range of movement. Beledi Blowout! This choreography has a great veil intro that quickly takes you downtown with some heavy beledi. Learn and practice new layered hip movements and experience the wide range of emotions that this choreography has to offer. This workshop is great for all levels of dancers. Shabi Chiqe: Pop it up with this fun choreography to Ameini’s “Ala Meen”. This high energy workshop is jam packed with combos that work well with many songs and styles, and new techniques sure to turn heads. This workshop is great for dancers of all levels. |
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"Lauren" Aaron Stipkovich | Published: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 | |
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