Oriental dance classes: the daring bet of a dance academy in Arrecife

The school 'Estudios de Danza by Alesa Cabrera' teaches this artistic style, in addition to Ballet and baby ballet, Zumba, Samba, Cuban Salsa and Bachata classes, among other styles.

Eider Pascual

Journalist

January 13 2024 (19:47 WET)
Updated in January 16 2024 (13:16 WET)
The teachers in their oriental dance class (José Luis Carrasco)
The teachers in their oriental dance class (José Luis Carrasco)

Entrepreneur, dancer and student. This is the young Alesa Cabrera, owner of a dance studio in Arrecife since last September. Oriental dance, popularly known as belly dance, is her specialty.

An expert in oriental dance since the age of 13. A long time that she has dedicated to dancing in shows, academies, touring, and training professionally and in which she has won awards in Spain and abroad. Such as the one she received at festivals in Egypt and second place in various oriental awards in the professional category. In the Canary Islands, she has also been fortunate and won the award for best interpretation of oriental dance and professional category, in December in Tenerife.

A few years ago, she lived for eight years in Madrid, a city where she trained for five of them in the dance company 'Nahyd'. Despite taking a break of two years, from the age of 17 to 19, she returned to it and decided to venture out to dance and learn new techniques in Cairo as a freelance dancer, along with a group of dancers and teachers there. "I contacted them and went to the academies to continue training for seasons," Cabrera tells La Voz.

"The most important thing when dedicating yourself and being able to succeed in Oriental Dance is to exploit the preparation and stage presence that each one has on stage," she revealed. What she recognizes is quite scarce in Lanzarote, since "there is a lack of training." Something that abounds more in Gran Canaria, Madrid or Barcelona. "In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria there are more outstanding and well-known teachers," Cabrera added.

She recognizes that it is difficult to "run your own business." "It's difficult and every day at some point you feel like giving up, every day is a surprise and a problem." But that "with the help of her colleagues, everything becomes more bearable," she says proudly. "The teachers I have are very responsible and give me a hand in everything." Which leaves her much more time to dedicate to another business that she shares with her partner and another partner since 2019: a wedding catering company, which offers service mainly in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and that now, she wants to bring to Lanzarote.

Her main objective for the upcoming 2024 is to "focus on the classes and create a group to attend festivals and for the students to enter the world and meet people," she adds. In addition, achieving her dream of becoming a journalist is what she wants most. She is pursuing it and finishing the studies she began in 2020, in which she only lacks one subject: the Final Degree Project, a process that she has already started with the European University Miguel de Cervantes of Valladolid.

Her dance academy 'Estudios de Danza by Alesa Cabrera', specialized in various styles

She manages the academy, but she is also a teacher in it. Accompanied by eight teachers and around 50 students who make up the dance center, where different styles are taught: Zumba, Samba, Ballet (initiation, intermediate and advanced) and Baby Ballet (for children from three to five years old), Cuban Salsa and Bachata, and even hypopressive classes.

The oriental dance classes, which she teaches together with another teacher, are based on two parts, one of relaxation and more therapeutic and the other, based on choreography and musical style, Cabrera told the newspaper. A dance training in which, for the moment, they only have the basic level. "I am very happy with the oriental dance classes and with the community that we have created with the students," she revealed. "We are thinking of expanding the groups," she pointed out.

An academy that opens its doors all week, from Monday to Friday (morning and afternoon), and even also offers training on weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, depending on the "demand and the workshops" that come out, the young businesswoman highlighted. They teach different Hip-Hop and Burlesque workshops during those days. A schedule that will be complemented in the future with the "expansion of the offer" of the classes, for which they will "carry out a study to check its viability," she advanced.

Students of all ages come to the artistic center, both children, young people and adults. Most are between 14 years old and 45 years old, and they also have alternatives for young people in vulnerable situations such as the four girls from a juvenile center who come to learn oriental dance.

In addition to the various activities they have within the academy, Alesa Cabrera plans to organize a trip with her students to dance in Morocco in 2024.

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