Ruric-Amari Home Page » Delsarte with Joe Williams April 2008

Samovar Dance LLC presents:

Joe Williams
teaches the Delsarte System of
Expression for Dancers

Mon, April 14, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
at Ruric-Amari's Samovar Dance Studio
$25.00

Delsarte gesture & movement principles
...add emotional depth to your technique & improvisation,
...improve communication with your audience,
...identify movement patterns that are limiting the expressive use of your body.

Dancers and choreographers of all genres, persuasions and skill levels will enjoy this seminar. $25 tuition includes refreshments and a meet-and-greet with Joe after the event. Joe's Delsarte Practice Guide will be available for purchase at the workshop.

    For more information:
  • Directions to Ruric's studio;
  • Joe William's website (which includes his impressive bio as a teacher of dance, voice and yoga, and an explanation of Delsarte).
  • Event Poster, landscape orientation.
Class size is limited; pay with PayPal by clicking on the yellow button.

This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for Kentuckiana dancers of all disciplines and skill levels to come to grips with the challenge of dancing what they feel and feeling what they dance.

Teachers will benefit as well; Ruric has attended three of Joe William' seminars in NYC and finds Delsarte principles helpful to her when improvising, choreographing and designing class curriculum.

Ruric's short workshop on improvisation last December got enthusiastic feedback from the attendees, and significant portions of that workshop incorporated Delsarte principles. If improvisation is one of your passions (or on your to-do list) then skip the carry-out pizza that night and come instead to this unique and effective workshop!

Joe Williams, Delsarte instructor!

Joe Williams, Delsarte instructor and whirling dervish!

What do Morocco of NYC (noted authority on Middle Eastern dance) and the Juillard School in NYC have in common? Both have Joe Williams on their faculty teaching the Delsarte system!

"Joe Williams has single-handedly brought the wonderful principles and authentic teachings of real Delsarte back to life and to us. It's a necessary addition that improves any performing Art and Joe's clear, loving and gentle explanations make it so much easier for any student to grasp and employ for their betterment. He is simply inspiring." -- Morocco

The workshop will be a hybrid of two of Joe's most popular seminars for dancers. 'Body Language and the Dance' introduces the basics of body language as revealed by Delsarte. 'Expressive Zones of the Body' is filled with A-Ha! moments as students recognize how changing the height of a gesture by a few inches or changing the finger used to initiate a touch can powerfully alter the meaning of that gesture.

Joe Williams has been successfully reviving interest in the Delsarte acting method with his workshops and seminars since 1997. Joe says:    The Three Pillars approach teaches how body, mind, and spirit are not abstract principles but show themselves in every part of your body and every movement you make. Whether your style is Tribal, Fusion, Cabaret or Folkloric, you will see that all dance steps and gestures are various words from the alphabet of those three principals. Delsarte's principles of gesture are a powerful tool for developing body awareness for any number of ends.

The Delsarte method is the historically acknowledged source of the inspirations of Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Dennis, and the entire Dennishawn School (including students Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey). Delsarte's work was praised by some of the greatest minds of the day, from scientists to religious scholars, musicians, and artists. Even renowned yogis mentioned it with the greatest respect. His system is a thorough examination of voice, breath, movement dynamics, line and form in their roles as expressive agents. Contemporary thought might recognize that he had uncovered the world of archetypes and universal symbolism. Unfortunately, the Delsarte system's popularity was its undoing in America. Within the span of twenty years it became a fad and then a frenzy, degenerated into a culture of studied posing, fell into disrepute, and disappeared... ...until Joe Williams decided to revive Delsarte's original system, that is. In the field of Delsarte for Middle Eastern Dance, he is now on the faculty of Morocco and the Casbah Dance Experience and has taught seminars and performed for BellyJam, Stars of the East, and Shakira in Columbus, Ohio. In 2005 he became a member of the faculty of the Dalcroze Institute at the Juilliard School in New York City, marking the first time in recent history that Delsarte has been taught as a valid and practical training method at a major school of fine arts.

Joe Williams, a resident of NYC, has been creating workshops and seminars on Delsarte since 1997. He is on the movement faculty for the Dalcroze Institute at Juilliard, and has been a guest teacher and Artist in Residence for Lori Belilove's Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation in New York. Williams has taught Master Classes for the Dance Department at Iowa State University, Wright State University, Ocean County Performing Arts Academy in NJ, Corporeal arts Inc. and at the Omaha Healing Arts Center. He has taken Delsarte to the Star Island Retreat Center for a week of dance, and used Delsarte to teach body language as a guest lecturer for communication classes at Mercy College, Bronx Community College and the School for Visual Art in Manhattan. A article in Mime Journal's 2005 special edition on Delsarte has brought him international recognition for his work in Delsarte and he has been consultant and teacher for the first scholarly thesis on the subject to be written in France, Francois Delsarte's homeland.

In the field of Middle Eastern Dance (MED) , he is on the faculty of Morocco and the Casbah Dance Experience, and has taught seminars and performed for Bellyjam, Stars of the East, Shakira in Columbus, Ohio, and special appearances with Su'ad and Farasha, in Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey. Joe's work with Delsarte has been featured in articles in the MED publications WAMEDA (July-August 2000) and Zaghareet! (Sept - Oct 2000). His involvement in MED began in 1985 when Joe joined the Dayton Ethnic Dance Ensemble, which studied historically accurate Middle Eastern dance. In 1986 he began to work on the dance of the Whirling Dervish, which he has been performing consistently since 1994, most notably for the Institute of Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience at Rutgers Universtity and the New School University Diversity Initiative in New York.

A teacher of dance, voice and yoga, Joe has a BA in organizational and interpersonal communications and a minor in theater from Wright State University, where he was the artistic director for the "Rolling Stock" theater group, helping to write and produce touring shows that presented the talents of differently-abled students. He was a scholarship student in ballet at the Dayton Ballet and Dayton Contemporary Dance schools (becoming assistant business manager of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company for one year), and taught communication workshops for the Wright State School of Medicine for 6 years. His performing credentials include dinner theaters in the Midwest, where he danced and sang his way in numerous musicals including "George M", "Fiddler on the Roof," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Phantom," "Annie,"and several holiday reviews. He has also appeared as vocal soloist in oratorios with regional orchestras and with the Upper West Side Opera Association in Manhattan.