This summer, Island Pilates and Fitness in Courtenay and local dancer Cathy Stoyko are teaming up to bring Indian dance diva Amrita Choudhury to the Comox Valley.
Choudhury is a world-renowned dancer, choreographer and movement therapist based in Montreal.
During the weekend of Aug. 27 and 28, she will be sharing two intensive workshops: Nritya Yoga Aug. 27 from 1-5 p.m., and Gypsy/Bollywood dance Aug. 28 from 1-5 p.m.
Nritya Yoga, or the Yoga of Dance, explores the siva-shakti energies within all of us, bringing the ancient philosophies to a more contemporary setting and practice through postures, movement, dance and meditation.
Choudhury's holistic practice goes beyond technique and structure and emphasizes the whole being as a continuous form in joyful motion.
This workshop is for men and women, and no experience is necessary.
The following day, experience the lively and pulsating folk, gypsy and tribal dance traditions of India and be transported to the wondrous world of Bollywood. This incredibly fun workshop concentrates on the various Bollywood dance styles that exist in India, combining technique and grace, folk, gypsy and contemporary/modern Indian dance.
Choudhury is a gifted teacher with more than 29 years experience. Her grandfather was a yogi and Shaivite priest, and her mother was her first dance teacher at the age of four.
She was educated in India at Santiniketan — Abode of Peace, founded by the Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, where the relationship between nature, spirituality and the arts was part of everyday life.
She has specialized the art of Indian Classical/Sacred Dance, Yoga and therapeutic Mudras (symbolic hand gestures) and various Dance-Yoga techniques and practices from the Tantric and Vedic traditions and continued her studies in Yoga-Dance in Bengal, Orissa and Delhi.
Choudhury also performs anthropological research in the field of "Dance and Anthropology" related to the yoginis/yogis of the ancient temples of India dating back to the Tantric tradition of Yoga and Classical/Sacred Dance. She carries a degree in anthropology and is a respected dance researcher and choreographer. Her work has been featured on CBC, Radio Canada, the History Channel, Canadian Television Network, European television and radio stations and at various other venues.
Choudhury teaches and performs globally and has made her home in Montreal.
She rarely teaches on the West Coast, and this is her only workshop in B.C. this summer, so don't miss this amazing opportunity.
Each workshop is $89 plus HST, or pay $159 plus HST for both days. For more information, visit www.islandpilates.ca and/or www.ananda-amrita.com. To register and/or for more information, contact Leanne at Island Pilates and Fitness at 250-703-CORE or call Cathy at 250-335-1964.
— Island Pilates and Fitness