News & Updates

July 2011

Dear friends in art,

June was a month full of rewarding work here in Seattle. My ANAR DANA training project had it's final recitals...which were really really lovely. I'm including some photos in this newsletter. To see more of Chris Yetter's beautiful photos of the show click here. We also did performances at the Seattle Iranian Fest and you can see Al Garman's great photos of that community event here.

Coming very soon, at the end of July I will be teaching a workshop on Folkdances of the Middle East in Butte, Montana. This will be my third year in a row there and I'm very happy to be going back. More info here.

Then, mid August I will be in Bayreuth, Germany at the Wagner Festival and the associated Young Artists Bayreuth. In addition to teaching a workshop for the Young Artists Festival on courtly dances of the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, I will be collaborating with Ensemble Sarband under the direction of Vladimir Ivanoff as principal dancer and choreographer for the new music production "Odin's Tochter." We will be performing this August 23rd in Bayreuth and August 24th in Bonn. More information on the workshop here and on the performances here. Find out about Ensemble Sarband at www.sarband.de

In my last newsletter I told you that I would be teaching two training projects starting in the fall. But the really exciting news is that I will actually be three intensive training programs in Seattle, in the Bay Area and in Lyon, France.

The Seattle ANAR DANA project starts with an introductory weekend workshop on September 16-17, 2011 at our beautiful new studio m'illumino on Roosevelt. Read about the ANAR DANA project here: http://www.helene-eriksen.de/anar.html. I'm taking reservations now for the new project. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

The Bay Area project will start with an introductory weekend October 22-23, 2011. (I will also be teaching some master classes for Ballet Afsaneh in Berkeley the following week.) The project itself will then start in early 2012. For more information please contact Amanda: amandadancer@earthlink.net

The project in LYON, FRANCE introductory weekend has been postponed to March 23-25, 2012 and the project will then take place in condensed form in the Fall of 2012. This is an intensive project focusing on the dances and music of the Silk Road. Most exciting is that I will be working with an old dear friend and colleague Louis Soret, who will be conducting the musical part of the project and Keyvan Chemirani will be joining us for master classes in Iranian percussion...yes, you can join the dance section or the music section!!! Find out more about the project here: http://www.compagniedelasirene.fr/route_de_la_soie.html

As always please check my Webcalendar and my Facebook Dance Fan Page for the most recent updates to my schedule. Also, check out my hats on my Facebook Textile Arts Page or in my Etsy Shop.

Please contact me if you would like to organize a workshop or performance!!!

To find out more about the individual dance styles listed below, please visit the "Workshop Catalog" on my website.

Warm summer wishes!

Helene