Berkeley Moving Arts

At Berkeley Moving Arts, we offer our students a warm, welcoming atmosphere, where they can build an awareness of their bodies. This allows us to dance with ease and grace, find flow, musicality and ease of movement in a supportive community conducive to learning.

Our belly dance classes are a contemporary body-mind approach to an ancient dance form. Our “inside out” method – which incorporates imagery, body alignment techniques, and energy awareness – encourages the free flow of energy throughout the body, so that it is both released and integrated. Belly dancing is a soft-edged form of movement that is good for people of all ages.

One-on-one instruction may include form correction, push-hands, and/or advanced work.

Tai Chi is a form of exercise characterized by slow moving forms varying in sequence and postures, performed in a relaxed and conscious manner, creating vitality with calmness, release of accumulated stress and tension, balanced strength with flexibility, and controlled energy with awareness. Traditionally, Tai Chi is considered a complete physical conditioner, a health and regenerative exercise, a way to longevity, a moving meditation, a self-defense art, and a philosophical way of life that brings harmony and balance through developed consciousness and awareness of one’s body, emotions, mind, and the spirit. In today’s world, Tai Chi as an exercise offers something unique to almost everyone. As an exercise it demands no physical strength to begin with, therefore the weak as well as the strong, the young as well as the old, and men as well as women all have the opportunity to participate equally. The practice of Tai Chi eliminates certain limiting considerations, such as traveling to distant locations, availability of exercise space (3 square yards is more than sufficient), weather conditions, practice equipment and dress, and exorbitant fees for classes. These conditions provide for a very important factor of success to exist: the opportunity to practice “consistently.” Tai Chi as a tool for development represents many dynamic uses and possibilities. Practiced daily, Tai Chi will facilitate good health and promote longevity. As a daily meditation it provides the opportunity to relax away stress and accumulated tension, revitalizing and nurturing. Also Tai Chi provides a training process in which self-discipline and perseverance are cultivated.

At Berkeley Moving Arts, we offer our students a warm, welcoming atmosphere, where they can build an awareness of their bodies. This allows us to dance with ease and grace, find flow, musicality and ease of movement in a supportive community conducive to learning. Our modern dance classes are based on the Erick Hawkins approach to modern dance technique, a unique approach that encourages efficient use of the body’s structure to prevent pain and injury. The Erick Hawkins technique teaches us to allow movement to flow through the limbs by developing a strong center. It is sensitive to the needs of the body and allows the release of unnecessary tension for fluid movement that is energetic yet effortless. Hawkins’ approach to dance technique emerged from an intense examination of the principles of dance, which he embarked on after having been the lead male dancer in Martha Graham’s company. Hawkins felt that the quality of dance must be effortless in order to achieve a oneness of body, mind and spirit. He searched for new ways to train the body, synthesizing the values of Zen philosophy with an idea of a harmonious relationship to nature and art. We teach dance for beginners and advanced students from the inside out, helping them understand not only the outer shapes they are creating but also the deep underpinnings of their movement. Classes are ongoing and dancers can join anytime.

This class is ideal for those with a background in dance looking to perfect and deepen their practice.

This course focuses on increasing awareness and depth of the postures learned in the beginning course, as well as strengthening and increasing Chi (internal energy) flow and development.

These ongoing classes significantly deepen the form work, with more focus on conscious details, working to embody the five Basic Principles, and setting a foundation for a continuously expanding developmental process to unfold.

Through the cooperative-competition of push-hands, we explore and work with issues such as reactive resistance, activity without aggression, receptivity without weakness, and how to neutralize and not be impacted or imbalanced by an incoming attacking force.

This class is appropriate for students with some movement background looking to improve their technique and deepen their practice. Beginners are welcome as well.

The first class in the twelve week session introduces Tai Chi and its various ideas and benefits.

This twelve-week course adds more advanced form postures to those learned in the Level I course and refined in Level II.