Performance Skills Intensive
From Dance Enthusiast to Stage Star
A 2-month dance journey that ends with a live performance with House of Tarab.
🗓️ Saturdays, May 10 - June 28
🕐 1:15–2:45 PM
📍 La Vida Dance Studio, Kirkland
💲 $280 early bird | $300 regular after April 15th
You'll get:
✅5 expert-led, in depth classes to refine your performance skills
✅A group chat for ongoing support & motivation
✅A final showcase with live music open to the public so you can invite family and friends!
No more blending in. No more hesitating. This is your time to take the stage.
What You’ll Master:
🔥Live Music Improvisation – Learn how to truly hear the music, so every song feels like second nature.
💄Costume & Makeup Magic – Elevate your stage presence without looking overdone (or underwhelming).
🎭Performance Persona – No cookie-cutter dancers here—find your unique style and own it.
Sign me up I’m ready!
If you need a payment plan or want to use a different payment method contact me at bellydancermichelle@gmail.com and I will send you the link.
Spots are limited to 10 students
Bonus: The first 5 sign-ups get a free 30-minute Zoom session with Michelle to refine your performance goals.
Program Dates: Saturdays, May 10 - June 28
💃 May 10, 17, 31 & June 7 — 1:15-3:45 PM
💡 No class Memorial Day weekend (go enjoy Folklife!)
💡 No formal class during BDUSA, but we’ll have an optional live music watch party!
🎭 June 21: Tech rehearsal with House of Tarab
💃 June 28: Live performance!
What You'll Learn
This intensive is designed to walk you through every step of preparing for a live music performance — from song selection and musical analysis, to movement choices, transitions, and working directly with a band. You’ll also dive into stage presence, costume selection, and makeup details, so you feel fully prepared from rehearsal to showtime.
You’ll develop real-world skills you can use for any performance situation — whether you’re improvising, choreographing, or stepping on stage with live musicians for the very first time.
Performance Skills Intensive — Class Topics
Class 1: Welcome & Song Selection
— Intro to music analysis + understanding Middle Eastern rhythms
Class 2: The Need for Speed
— Traveling steps & turn techniques for high-energy music
Class 3: Slowing It Down
— Slower rhythms, controlled movement, and embracing the "weird"
Class 4: Bringing It All Together
— Transitions, musical phrasing & building full-performance flow
Class 5: Tech Rehearsal with House of Tarab
— Live run-through + real-time feedback from the band
Class 6: Showtime!
— Final performance with live music
Register today
Meet Your Instructor
Michelle is a Feldenkrais® Movement Practitioner, costume designer, and performer with over 15 years of experience. She’s danced with House of Tarab, MB Orchestra, Taki’s Mad Greeks, and more. Most recently, she won Bellydancer of the Year 2023 with Panjia.
Michelle knows how to command a stage, and she’ll teach you how to do the same.
Meet the band
House of Tarab, Arabic Music Ensemble, is based in Seattle and performs classic & traditional music of the Golden Era of Egyptian music and film, music of the Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine), and the greater Middle East. “Tarab” is an Arabic word not found in the English language that describes a state of emotional transformation and bliss when one is wholly absorbed in music. House of Tarab (A.K.A. H.O.T.) was formed in 2005 though some of the band members have been playing together since 1999.
House of Tarab has played at numerous cultural events, music festivals, parties, belly dance cabarets, belly dance retreats and competitions. We are looking forward to performing live shows again when the pandemic is over and sharing the wonderful music of greats like Oum Kalthoum, Farid El Atrash, Muhammed Abdel Wahab, Abdel Halim Hafez, folk music, and others as well as original compositions!
💖In addition to providing the music House of Tarab will offer feedback to the dancers at the tech rehearsal.
I’m ready to dance -Sign Up Today
If you need a payment plan or want to use a different payment method contact me at bellydancermichelle@gmail.com and I will send you the link.
Student Testimonial
I highly recommend Michelle if you want to create something that brings forth the best of what you can do as an artist and allows that “best” to be fully accessible to, loved by, and happy-making for the audience. I recently achieved this by working with Michelle to create an act for the October 2023 show Circus Serpentine in Seattle. Over Zoom, Michelle herded my various wild and unwieldy ideas, referred me to a wonderful expert who could help with one element of the performance, and used her creativity and sense of what works for the audience, performer, and the art form to help me create something that I am deeply proud of. She even gave my act its perfect name: Stick Them With the Pointy End. You can enjoy the results of our collaboration here!