From her decades of professional performance experience,  Suhaila Salimpour’s developed methodologies guide dancers in presenting their authentic selves in performance.

For choreography and improvisation, dancers learn technique, phrases, formulas, and sequencing.  Crafting takes the work to a whole other level using breath, intention, energy dynamics, and personal expression.  Suhaila crafts the dancer (or group of dancers) specifically, focusing on the unique characters and qualities of that dancer.

“Everything reads. Everything you do on stage is seen and interpreted by the audience.”   Suhaila Salimpour

In the Institute Courses, Suhaila provides crafting feedback on selected required choreographies.  The required choreography is used as a base from which Suhaila then provides the student performance feedback specific to that individual student.

For the 400 level recital course, Suhaila crafts the soloist on selected pieces, guiding that student to present their authentic self while responsibly representing the choreographer intent as well as the music and culture from where this dance originated.

During her decade of performing as a professional belly dancer in Middle Eastern and U.S. nightclubs, Suhaila developed a grid for her own use.  Her grid  represents both the stage and audience, and Suhaila uses it as a means to masterly utilize the stage while projecting and connecting with the audience.  Using this proven tool, Suhaila guides students in understanding how their stage placement and audience interaction matters and how to apply gridwork to performance.  Every dancer is unique; personalization of gridwork is also explored as certain gridwork elements may be more effective than another on a particular dancer.