Workshops vs Courses

Dancing in Aida Bogomolova’s workshop in Oriental Dance Weekend 2018 festival, in Lisbon.

A dancer is always in need of new learnings. It is of high importance to participate in workshops and courses no matter if you are a beginner or a professional, there are always new things we can learn.

Nowadays in the Oriental Dance world, the more advanced students and professionals participate in workshops mostly in a Festival context, in which we have the amazing opportunity to get to know several great professionals and learn different topics, ways of dancing and perspectives. It’s an intense weekend where we gather several new information so we can work at home and evolve. If you have been learning Oriental Dance for some years now, it is one of the best ways to get to know the big world of oriental dance and to understand what you like and to learn more. I have learnt so much through workshops, I have been on hundreds of them and enabled me to create my dance of today.

It’s not so common to see courses in Oriental Dance nowadays, but they are a terrific way to get deeper into a topic with a professional who you already know is worth the price. I feel courses are what you need if you have become a professional with a broad knowledge. Some time ago I started feeling that most workshops only go to a certain level of depth. Going for a course, on the opposite, gives you the opportunity to really go deep on a topic and become more involved with your fellow dancers and the professional in question, enabling more bonding.

TO SUM UP

Workshops are ideal if you:
- want to get in touch for the first time with a certain topic and/or professional
- you are a beginner student or a more advanced student who wants to discover different ways of dancing so to discover who you are and what you want to do in dance

Courses are ideal if you:
- want to go deep in a certain topic or really absorb as much as you can from a professional of your trust
- are an advanced student or a professional who has had a lot of contact with different topics and professionals and want to go the extra mile

What do you think? Do you agree?

A little of ‘Cologne Live’ course in Germany, organized by the musician Guy Schalom, in 2019.