2011 has been a year of change and hard work for Dance from the Heart. One of our major growth points has been the offering of instruction by local Artists In Residence, consolidated under the DFTH organization. Anne (Ayana) Caruthers, DFTH's President and Principal Choreographer is offering classes in two locations. The newest instructor with the Artist In Residence distinction is Kimberly Piwetz, recently seen as a principal dancer in our fall concert, "Domari".
The classes each instructor provides have similar foundations with a slightly different focus. Kimberly's strength is Fusion Belly Dance, while Anne's primary study has been the more culturally traditional Raqs Sharqi and Raqs Shaabi of the Middle East, with a fair bit of ballet, modern and jazz thrown in to expand the movement vocabulary. Both teachers offer the foundational structure of classic belly dance in their instruction.
Following is more information about both instructors:
Anne (Ayana) Caruthers:
Anne's (Ayana's) performance experience encompasses 30 years and several venues, including: acting (stage and television), singing, dancing and music. Middle Eastern Dance served as her introduction to playing percussive instruments with finger cymbals (zills, or sagat), taught her a new way to listen to music... and gave her the ability to express what she heard.
Anne (Ayana) seriously began her dance education 22 years ago, starting with Middle Eastern Dance. In that time, she has also studied Ballet, Lyrical and Ballroom (primarily Latin) dance to round out her education and improve her skills. Her education in Middle Eastern dance has included instruction from world renowned teachers from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and the US. Since she began teaching 14 years ago, she has put a large number of original choreographies on stage. She has produced/directed three major concerts with Dance from the Heart, and managed or produced numerous smaller shows in Houston. She has danced in three concerts as a guest artist with the Bere'sheet Ballet Company and taught workshops for dancers focusing on musicality, performance skills, and theatrical presentation.
Anne is a native Houstonian, who has a strong desire to give back to the arts community that provided her with the tools she uses in her classes and performances. She currently lives in Spring with her partner, Paul, their 3 cats and a ridiculous number of books; the source of a friendly competition to see who can collect the most impressive volumes. They both believe they are winning.
Kimberly Piwetz:
Born in Houston and raised in a rather nomadic family, Kimberly began her exploration of formal dance training with ballroom while earning a double major in Music and History. She began studying cabaret-style belly dance in 2008 and was soon experimenting with a variety of fusion dance styles as well as study in various areas of Western dance.
Currently, Kimberly is an Artist-in-Residence for Dance from the Heart, a Houston-based non-profit organization that utilizes performing and visual arts events as a means to increase global cultural awareness with an emphasis in multi-cultural dance education.
She has had the great pleasure of studying at length with talented instructors Shakira Masood Ali, Silvia Salamanca, Nari, and Ayana and travels frequently in the interest of furthering her exposure to different approaches to performance and instruction. Recent destinations include Las Vegas, NV, New Orleans, LA, and Mallorca, Spain. She would rather act her shoe size than her age.
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