She teaches the vocabulary, all the way to Level III.

A couple of things to keep in mind, in my opinion, are that you want to be sure the basic vocabulary and movements are taught in your classes in the same way, and to the same standard, that they are taught in all ATS classes. The reason is simple. So that any of your students can dance with any student from any other class.

Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have your own specialize movements and new additions to the ATS vocabulary. My understanding is that such things are encouraged. For example, my wife has created new movements, shared them with Carolena, and had them brought into the overall ATS vocabulary.

I think that the overall ATS community, and Carolena, are more worried about people teaching variations (or even worse, incorrect movements, vocabulary and posture) and passing it off as ATS to kind of cash in on what is becoming a very global dance form.

This would lead to confusion among students, frustration and annoyance. No one wants to see two students (or teachers!) arguing over who has the “correct” form.

Add to the vocabulary, but make sure the basics are there.

And, above all, have fun!

http://threewinds.wordpress.com/

Most of the dancers we play for are also fusion, but a couple of groups are purely ATS. So far the most fun we have had was playing for an ATS Hafla, where there were 60 or so dancers. It was pretty awesome.

I would love to find some non-drummer musicians, but out here everyone seems to be strictly professional, or very shy.

Talk to you soon I am sure, and I hope that you and yours find my blog interesting and useful.

Thanks!
-Threewinds

There’s a couple longer videos in my video widget in my sidebar. We also have a few clips up on youtube. You can find some here or if you search for Lumani (the name of our troupe), you might find a couple more. We’re not an all ATS troupe. It’s really just a smaller group of us within the troupe who do a lot of it. We generally describe ourselves as a “World Fusion” troupe, doing a bit of everything. There are some ATS clips up, though.

I’m definitely going to make an effort to post more. I can’t promise anything, but I’m hoping to post regularly. Where is your blog located?

We are looking for oud, mizmar, and nar players here in our area to join us. So far it seems like there are either studio level professionals, or nothing.

Your musicians sounded great. Do you have any longer clips on another site?

At any rate, if you think you will be posting more regularly I am happy to add you into my blogroll. Let me know, and thanks again.

Are you dancing to a CD, or did you actually find a good mizmar player there?

Well done, you all looked great.