top of page

Teachers

Ari Levitt (USA)

 

Ari is well-known for his fun, energetic, and delightful classes that can't help but inspire students with a love and passion for dance.  He has been teaching and performing nationally and internationally for over 30 years; is the co-founder and director of “Heart Sound fusion”, “Waltz Week in Vienna", "Mexico Dance Week", “New Zealand Dance Adventure”, & “Waltz Fest NW”, among others. As a teacher whose specialty is non-competitive social partner dancing and fusion, Ari brings to the floor an intimate knowledge of a very wide range of dance styles and how they all connect; a deep understanding of energy and effortless flow; and a fabulous way to teach lead, follow, and conversational dance that makes it easy for anyone to understand!  He is one of the country's leading innovators and instructors in the areas of effortless dance, fusion, fusion-waltz, fusion-swing, & night club 2-step.

 

When not dancing, Ari is a physician on faculty with Singularity University's Exponential Medicine program, and is a pioneer in the burgeoning field of "Experiential Wellness" which, among other things, uses dance movement, technique, & connection as a modality for diagnosing and treating patients.

Workshop themes  over the 2 days:

"Fusion & The Playful Art of Conversational Dance"    

In this class you will learn the simple rules for creating playful conversations through your body on the dance floor, including how to listen as well as how to give your partner a voice.  As in all of Ari's classes, emphasis will be placed on understanding the "language" of partnered dance (not just steps), emphasizing those valuable lead and follow skills that can be applied to virtually any solo or partner dance.

 

All Axis Power and Rotational Momentum" (Technical class)

In this class we delve deeply into those techniques that  center around axis control allowing you to learn how to execute single and shared axis turns and achieve off-axis hang & spin time. These are some fabulous flash moves that will definitely inspire a "wow" from those watching, not to mention make it that much more fun for you to play with your partner!  

"The Art of Musicality, Solo'd & Partnered"

Whether you like to dance solo or with a partner, learning how to syncopate, to style, and to apply musicality to your steps and movement is the best way to add your unique flavor to your partnership and to spice up your dance.  Syncopation and styling are elements that you can do independently from your partner.  Musicality is awareness of how your movements & energy reflect the energy, rhythm, and arc of the music you're listening to. The secret is in learning how to garnish your dance with this kind of pizazz, but not take anything away from your partnership. This amazing class takes you to that next level

“Dance Magic - The Art of "Hidden Hand Changes”, “Illusions”, & “Casting Spells” on the dance floor!”  (Technical class)

In this class, we’ll embellish our ability to play and improvise by learning to use “hidden hand changes”, “illusions”, and “upper extremity sorcery”, which can be applied to almost any partnered movement, and can take you places you never dreamed of going.  It’s definitely the kind of thing that can both dramatically elevate the level of fun & play with your partner, and make people watching go “wow!”

Ari Levitt, MD, cover shot (1).jpg

Frankie Porter (UK)

 

Frankie gave up dancing at the age of four, when she was cast as the Ugly Duckling for a ballet recital and was so offended she quit on the spot. She was lured back in 2011 when she began a heated affair with Argentine tango, and has since fallen for a variety of styles from blues and reggaeton to popping and west coast swing (she still hasn’t been back to ballet). On the fusion floor she blends grounded funk and attitude with tight isolations and a LOT of smiling. She now teaches across the UK and internationally, focusing on developing both creativity and control, and values building concepts in an accessible way to provide an expanded palette of musicality.​

 

Workshop themes:

-Thursday

In this class we’ll look at tresillo and son clave rhythms, where to find them in fusion music (spoiler: EVERYWHERE), and how to level up your musicality by responding to syncopation in artists from Doja Cat and Snoop Dogg to TroyBoi and Awkwafina. Plus: bonus rhythmic footwork patterns to add interest and texture to your dance! Friday class:

-Friday

In this class we deconstruct the basic box step and build something beautiful from it, incorporating rhythmic structures we looked at on Thursday and taking the movement into travel across the floor, then adding a turning step sequence inspired by tango for extra swoopy magic !

frankie3.jpeg

Eila Galan  (SP-Catalunya-Barcelona)

Eila has always danced since she was child. She has a great passion for dance and she is a music lover, which has made her move through styles such as hip hop, belly dance, contemporary dance, Afro-contemporary . She is also a fan of all swing culture dances; Lindy hop, blues and jazz steps, and of course the fusion scene because we share movements and music coming from different communities and background.

She fell in love with the creativity, improvisation and the connection that these couple dances offer, as a natural complement of her solo dance extensive knowledge

She likes the constant search for body knowledge and movement and dialogue with the other dancers on the floor. She has been fortunate to meet very good teachers with good pedagogy that she also tries to transmit in her classes.  She is part of Alina Sokulska's company Giant steps among other projects. She teaches regularly in different schools in Barcelona and is an organizer of some of the Barcelona scene's events.

Workshop themes:

-Friday#1

Ground and center. We are going to appreciate how we connect with the floor and how it can impact the feeling of our dance and into the partner. Also have more consciousness of our body center and how we transfer our weight.

-Friday#2

Rolls, waves and isolations. We are going to work on different types of waves and how to put them into partner's dance  affecting or not the partner's connection

Thierry & Isabelle (FRA)

Thierry and isabelle dance Tango for more than 10 years as well as other dances ranging from swing dances (lindy hop, Blues, Balboa...) and latin dances. In their quest to fusing dances together for maximum pleasure , they naturally started dancing Tango on non Tango music (Neo tango) and found using tango connection in fusion dance was so powerful to connect with your partner and enrich your musicality. As vibrant promoters of Tango for fusion , they organize Neo tango events as well as the Toulouse Fusion week-end for their own pleasure and the pleasure of many dancers

 

Workshop themes: Tango elements for fusion

- Thursday

Tango connection elements

Recognize it and answer appropriately

Increase your musicality with tango feeling, where does it fit in Fusion and micro fusion

- Friday

Explore rotationnal movements around the axe. We'll cover 2 different ways to do the moves with and without applying tango connection elements

This is more challenging class built to benefit both dancers with no Tango experience (better having done thursday class in this case) , and dancers already dancing tango 

Isa_et_Thierry-site-2.jpg

Fusion workshops Schedule

  • Thursday at Studio Hop (4avenue de Rangueil, Toulouse)

    • 1:00 - 2pm : reception for passes and worshops

    • 2:00 - 3:15pm  : Frankie Porter

    • 3:30 - 4:45pm :Ari Levitt

    • 5:00 - 6:15pm : 

      • Room#1 Ari Levitt

      • Room#2 Thierry& Isabelle

 ​​

  • Friday, at Studio Hop (4avenue de Rangueil, Toulouse)

    • 1:30 - 2pm : reception for passes and worshops

    • 2:00 - 3:15 p.m :

      • Room#1 Ari Levitt​

      • Room#2 Frankie Porter

    • 3:30 - 4:45pm​

      • Room#1 Ari Levitt​

      • Room#2 Eila Galan

    • 5:00 - 6:15pm

      • Room#1 Eila Galan

      • Room#2 Thierry& Isabelle

bottom of page