Oriental dance classes and shows in Tampere
Dance classes in Fall 2024
This Fall I am teaching oriental dance classes for beginners and advanced level students. I am organizing the beginners class myself but the advanced class is organized by The Adult Education Centre of the Tampere Region. To sign up for the beginners class, contact me and for the advanced level class, sign up in the Education Center's page.
Beginners course
- On Mondays 18.30-19.45
- At Baletti ja Tanssistudio Teija Suova, Yliopistonkatu 58, 33100 Tampere
- 12 x 75min
- 19.8.-4.11.
- 195€
To sign up, please contact me with the contact form below or via email at sjylhanlahti@gmail.com. In your message add your name, email address, phone number and home address for billing purposes. Please contact me for more information about the classes.
Advanced course
Find all information about the class and registration here.
- On Wednesdays 19.10-20.40
- At Sampola, Sammonkatu 2
- 13 classes starting on September 4
Private classes
You can also book me for private classes either for yourself or for an event that you are organizing. If this sounds interesting to you, contact me so we can design a class according to your wishes!
About Sanni Jylhänlahti
I first went to oriental dance classes when I was 7 years old after my mother had started dancing. I found my happiness in the classes at Yasmine ry and I danced there happily through adolescence and emerging adulthood. Yasmine became my dance home and I was sad to leave it when I had to move out of my home town Oulu to Tampere for studies. Here in Tampere I luckily found a couple of dance groups which I was able to join and continued dancing here.
There are many reasons why oriental dance has kept me in its grip all these years. It has brought so many positive things in my life which I am grateful for. Dance has taught me confidence and bravery among other things. Dance forces us to try new thing and sometimes look stupid while doing it but this what builds confidence. This way you learn that you can be in a new situation and know that you will be fine and it's okay not to be perfect. Dance has taught me to appreciate my body for all the things it can do instead of how it looks. Oriental dance is in my opinion specially equipped for this since I think by its nature it very inherently promotes body positivity.
However, I don't dance just to accomplish things outside of dance like confidence, mobility, fitness and so on. I dance because when I do, I am free and I can just be and let my guard down. Through oriental dance I am able to express all my moods and feelings. When I am down, dance makes me feel relieved. When I am happy, dance makes me exhilarated.
So as you can probably tell, dance is very important to me and I consider it a huge source of strength that also enriches my life. As a teacher, my main goal is to offer this same experience to others and show that dance is so much more than just getting some movement in while listening to music. Instead dance can be a source of strength and happiness for your life also. And I suspect most of us could use more of those in our lives.
About oriental dance
Oriental dance, which is also known as belly dance, is a dance style from the Middle East. Often this term is used as a catch-all term for the variety of dance styles that are found in the Middle East. Most commonly it refers to a style of dance that originates from Egypt and incorporates both fluid movements of the torso and hips and also accents and shimmies. Even though the importance of torso and hips is often highlighted (as the name belly dance suggests) the whole body is used in oriental dance.
Raqs sharqi is the Arabic name for oriental dance and it refers to the performance oriented version of oriental dance, which is what is taught in oriental dance classes. Raqs sharqi originates from a social dance version of oriental dance (raqs baladi) which has been a part of Egyptian culture for centuries and still is today. Raqs sharqi as we know it today cannot however be traced back thousands of years unlike many people believe. It first emerged in the turn of the 19th century, when in Egypt dance performances started appearing in entertainments halls for the first time. As dance moved from social events to also stages, the nature of dance started to shift to performing and the social and performing version of the dance started to differentiate. During the next few decades after this shift, raqs sharqi continued to take shape to the style that we recognize today.
In raqs sharqi expressions, feelings and interpretation of music when dancing is essential and many consider this to be more important than technical skills. Especially in the more traditional or authentic versions of dance being present and authentic without trying to do too much is of the essence. This makes a lot of sense when considering the history of raqs sharqi as connecting with others and having fun is the core of social dance. Nowadays there are also many fusion styles of oriental dance where technique, atmosphere and music from different genres are combined with oriental dance.
Book a show
Want to add some sprakle, vibrancy or mystique to your event? Oriental dance can bring you all that and more! Contact me about your wishes and let's plan a show you won't forget.