AMANDA PITTORESKA
dance | movement | physio instructor
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Amanda Pittoreska from Switzerland dances and trains Fusion Bellydance passionately since 2006. Her development as a dancer has taken her across Europe and the US to study with the most prestigious representatives of the scene – her main influences include Rachel Brice, Samantha Emanuel, Kami Liddle, Zoe Jakes and Ashley Lopez.
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In addition, she has pursued other health-promoting concepts and areas, in particular Pilates, Spiraldynamik® (a recognised movement and therapy concept), fascia training, mobility training, fitness and nutrition. She has always been particularly interested in anatomy and biomechanics, which she studies intensively.
All these backgrounds and methods merge in her characteristic teaching style.
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By now, Amanda works internationally as an instructor and performer. She has performed at events like the Tribal Fest in California, the Massive Spectacular in Las Vegas or the Theatrical Bellydance Conference NY as well as various events all over Europe. She taught workshops in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy and the US. In 2014, she opened the Studio Pittoreska in St. Gallen, Switzerland where she teaches regularly, hosts guest instructors and events.​
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Through continuous education and training, she strives to ensure quality and professionalism in the field of movement, including belly dance, as well as promote health and well-being through profound instruction and coaching.
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Amanda is certified as:
- 8 Elements™ Datura Style Teacher
- POLESTAR Pilates Trainer Mat
- Dipl. Spiraldynamik® Fachkraft Intermediate
- Group Fitness instructor
- Fitness & nutrition coach
- Functional Range Conditioning® Mobility Specialit (FRCms)
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Amanda is an active member of the Berufsverband für Gesundheit und Bewegung Schweiz (BGB Schweiz), she is also certified as a course instructor and Studio Pittoreska as a course provider by the quality label Fitness-Guide. Her classes are therefore recognized by health insurances.
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STUDIO PITTORESKA
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Studio Pittoreska gives dance & movement a special place in the heart of St. Gallen in Eastern Switzerland – with its unique flair it is more than a plain training space. Studio Pittoreska offers a versatile, innovative and inspiring space for dance & movement, health promotion and creativity, community and exchange.
Dedicated to Fusion Bellydance in particular, the promotion and recognition of this young, multi-faceted dance style as a performing art form and qualitative training is sought. Emphasis is put on professionalism and competent and well-founded instruction, as well as on creativity, individuality and a respectful sense of community.
Accordingly, the Studio Pittoreska also sees itself as a meeting place for exchange, inspiration and creative work in the fields of dance & movement.
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The studio has an entrance area, resp. the tearoom with changing space and a small boutique, a separate, bright, approximately 40m² dance space with a mirrored wall and music system, a garden and a toilet. It is equipped with yoga and Pilates mats, hip scarfs, Pilates balls and rolls, balance balls, weights therabands and more.
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FUSION BELLYDANCE
In short, Fusion Bellydance is a slightly different belly dance style from the USA. This modern form of belly dance was created by the fusion of American Tribal Style® Belly Dance (ATS®) with American Cabaret Belly Dance (in our country the classical oriental dance) and other dance styles. Characteristically, movements of Oriental dance are fused with elements from various contemporary, classical and folkloric styles to create a modern, energetic dance. This mix of influences is also apparent in the varied choice of music and costuming.
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It has its roots in the American Tribal Style® (ATS®) by Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman. This group-improvisational dance developed in the 1980s from a mixture of different movement influences from North India, the Middle East, Spain and North Africa. Its development followed a return, beginning in the 1960s in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, to a perceived authenticity in contrast to Cabaret Belly Dance as a show dance - both in the movement and costuming of the dance and in its presentation and group feel. Carolena's precedessors and teachers Jamila Salimpour and the Bal-Anat ensemble, as well as Masha Archer, were particularly influential.
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From the early 1990s – with Carolena's student Jill Parker as a pioneer – this dance continued to developed in various directions, drawing inspirations from all sorts of sources, placing more emphasis on the solo dancer again and refining technique and stage presence accordingly – the Tribal Fusion movement took off. From 2001, the dance ensemble The Bellydance Superstars starring Tribal dancers like Rachel Brice, Mardi Love and Zoe Jakes (later as the legendary The Indigo), Kami Liddle, Sharon Kihara, Moria Chapelle or Samantha Emanuel triggered the worldwide Tribal Fusion Bellydance boom, which continues ever since.
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DATURA STYLE™â€‹
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Datura Style™ Belly Dance is the dance format by Rachel Brice, known worldwide as one of the pioneers of Fusion Bellydance. Datura Style™ is the result of Rachel Brice's influences that have particularly shaped her life and work as a dancer.
The format encompasses a specific training approach for Rachel's signature dance technique, as well as a dance vocabulary that also integrates with free improvisation and the vocabulary of the group-improvisational dance ATS® (American Tribal Style®). Both, technique and vocabulary work well for improvisation as well as choreography.
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The aesthetics of Datura Style™ vocabulary and its artistic presentation are influenced by Rachel's own teachers and role models. She names Jamila and Suhaila Salimpour, Masha Archer, Carolena Nericcio, Jill Parker, John Compton and Mardi Love as her main inspirations.
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With Datura Style™, Rachel Brice provides a structured all-around training that can help any dancer to find and develop their own style based on a strong technical foundation, as well as a healthy and sustained dance practice.
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SPIRALDYNAMIK®
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Spiraldynamik® is a movement and therapy concept based on evolutionary and anatomical-functional principles, from which the coordinated use of the body can be derived. Simply put: Spiraldynamik® offers a learnable «user’s guide» to the human body from head to toe.
The goal of Spiraldynamik® is to move in an anatomically healthy way in everyday life in order to avoid incorrect loading, pain, wear and tear.
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The basic repertoire of human movement patterns, such as running, walking, throwing or grasping, consists three-dimensional movement sequences. When performing these activities, individual parts of the human body intelligently screw and unscrew. Derived from the natural design of the spiral principle, it is then possible to formulate the ultimate «user’s guide». Healthy movement thus becomes understandable and learnable.
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In Spiraldynamik® the source of pain and incorrect loading is precisely analysed and new movement qualities are taught, as well as integrated in daily life.
Spiraldynamik® is suitable for almost all complaints of the musculoskeletal system – pain, tension, premature wear and tear. With the help of Spiraldynamik® therapy, movement classes or individual coachings, movement patterns and posture can be significantly and sustainably optimized.
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