Also a massage therapist and personal trainer, Darshan's teaching style is informed with a sense of caring for the dancer's body, even in the most extreme movements. She is always researching the way the body works and taking the newest information and intuition into classes. Dancing should feel like a pleasure in the body. Darshan believes in conditioning at the edge of what is possible, physically and mentally, in order to expand one's personal dance. 

Her classes are generally designed to be approachable but challenge dancers at every level, and to that end she uses principles from classes of other dance and movement styles, from yoga to fitness to ethnic and contemporary dances and martial arts.

For some recent workshops click here. 

With years of experience in several dance styles, most notably bellydance and tribal/tribal fusion bellydance, she is able to tailor her classes to suit dancers with different individual styles, offering subtle shifts in expression for people with differing aesthetics. She has been traveling extensively to teach of late, so hasn't a regular class in NYC, but stay tuned for local workshops, and feel free to email requests. Her gratitude goes out to all those who have studied with her, and those who are asking for classes, because she always learns so much from them and is inspired to deepen her practice and her offerings in dance for them.

Current workshop offerings include:

Contemporary Tribal Fusion:

There are several approaches that can be taken to this topic, depending on  demographic and experience of participants. For those experienced in Tribal Fusion technique, she can design a choreography with new angles and accents with an eye for sacred ancient and modern urban line, integrating other fusions into this new aesthetic and using interesting new music. She can also teach and drill precision isolations for tribal fusion, useful for even the most experienced fusion dancers, but also for dancers of other styles and new dancers. In one excellent workshop Darshan teams up with Dalia Carella to bring different aspects of line, strength, image, involvement, and expression into the dance, expanding the potential for dance evolution in the individual.

Body Awareness for Dancers:

This class is specially designed to bring in awareness of parts of the body being used during different types of dance movements, as well as to address common and individual points of jeopardy in the bodies of dancers, how to prevent injury and tightness, how to best use and be aware of the physics of the body in the dance, and how to create a practice in dance that will keep the body healthy longer rather than using up its resources. The class is conceptual, but there is still plenty of original dancing useful to dancers of any style.

Fusion Integration:

Taking into account the dancer demographic attending, Darshan will present aspects from different kinds of dance (i.e. Flamenco, Salsa, Samba, Afro-Latin, Roma, Kathak, Bhangra, even Capoeira), including authentic feeling, and create combinations to reference these styles in one's own style of fusion, whether clearly or subtly. Sometimes the focus is on working between Tribal and Cabaret styles of bellydance, and how to take one's training in one style and adjust it to express maximally in the other.

Rhythm Experience:

Exploring rhythms other than those commonly used in bellydance can open up new pathways of possibility in the mind and body, facilitating the release of perceived limitations in one's dance whether or not those rhythms will ultimately be used in one's routine. Used in performance, esoteric rhythms can inform the dance with a deeper intrigue and smart sense of control, that discerning audiences can appreciate. Rhythms and moves often included are

5/8 shimmy, Afro-Latin/Samba Combo, 3-way shimmy step to 18, 15/8, 9/8, Moroccan 6/8, Drum & Bass, and Chaotic.

Urban & Ancient:

New ideas for combining ancient sacred images with a modern urban aesthetic for an ultra-current theatric fusion that works great with today's music.

Power Hips: Work with combinations and drills for greater control in the hips and torso. Where is power found? In dynamic-big and small, in different planes of control, in command of the weight transfer and footwork, in muscular and postural awareness, in level change and angle variation, in rhythm syncopation, fast and slow, when to hold back, using simplicity, staging, etc.

Public Urban Ritual Experiment:   www.puredance.org

PURE is an international dance activism network, a global collective of dancers and musicians who take dance into public places worldwide to promote peace and healing and support worthy causes and organizations.

The first workshop, Foundation 1, generally 4 1/2 hours long, presents a performable portion of the choreography shared by PURE branches worldwide, with flavors of ancient sacred circle dances, formation play, and a core bellydance element embracing cabaret and tribal styles. Also included in this workshop are discussions and exercises to facilitate chemistry building, intention setting and energy raising, spatial awareness, archetypal imagery, and more.

Along with Foundation 1, we recommend a 1 1/2-2 hour Rhythms for PURE workshop, if there are musicians available to work with the dancers, and for dancers who want to be more familiar with the rhythms, and certainly for potential PURE facilitators to become familiar with how to communicate with the drummers during the PURE procession and choreography. The drummers can then join for part of the dance workshop.

In Foundation 2, (3-4 hours) amid a few more discussions and spatial and experiential exercises, we work through the last half of the choreography, which includes strong Asian imagery and energy balancing, and review the first half, and put it all together. For those who attend F2 without F1, we will present formation options to join for the part they know. Ideally by the end of this workshop, someone will be ready to facilitate a PURE event in their area.

The Zill Meditation, (4 hours) is a special choreography and series of rhythms designed for PURE. It contains several different rhythms and challenging formation changes to create a dynamic dance experience, taught with a strong focus on intention and meaning in the movements.

darshandances@hotmail.com