Dance Lessons with Tegan

Introduction: I offer group and private lessons in various forms of belly dance, salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, club/social dancing, dance fitness, and world dance fusion. Belly dance: I was trained in belly dance through Jawaahir, an internationally renowned dance company and the only school in all the midwest that teaches Middle Eastern dance in it's entirety. Latin dances: I learned the Latin dance forms listed above while living in Central America. I continued to research various styles by region and the folkloric and colonial roots of such dances. It's important to understand that "Latin America" is a very big place, and while ballroom styles often group the forms together, in reality, there are many variations just as in language. If language can have accents, why wouldn't dance? I won't just teach you to cumbia, I'll make sure that you know the difference between Salvadorean, Mexican, and Colombian cumbia - I'll make sure you're prepared for any situation! Dance Fitness: I am a former zumba instructor, but have since dropped my certification and developed a world fusion dance fitness program that uses a much wider variety of world dances and focuses on not just fitness, but grounding, proprioception, flexibility, strength, balance, dancing abilities, and even relaxation skills. I am only teaching forms that I am knowledgeable in (you don't have to know anything about culture or even know how to dance to be a zumba instructor and my experience is that steps are frequently paired with the wrong time of music making for good fitness, but a poor educational program and one that you certainly cannot apply to the dance floor). I take an anthropological and educated approach to the program, applying dance forms authentically and using them as tools to target various areas of fitness and development.