Belly Dance with Stefanie
Have you ever danced when no one was around and felt an inner joy that was indescribable? Are you looking for a unique way to move your body? Do you want to become part of a community that not only celebrates all body types, but also our individual uniqueness? Then Stefanie’s classes are for you!
Stefanie teaches two different styles of Belly Dance. The first is her own DFTS (Dance for the Soul) Solo Improvisational style, with a unique blend of American Cabaret and Turkish inspired Belly Dance, and the second is TE (Tribal Expressions), a blend of Synchronized Group Improvisation, rooted in Kajira’s format, along with techniques and concepts from other fusion Belly Dance styles.
Dance for the Soul and Tribal Expressions Belly Dance
Dance for the Soul - Solo Improvisational Belly Dance
Level 1 - Isolations, Textures, and Flow
Level 2 - Combinations, Music, and Props
Level 3 - Strength, Floorwork, and the Drum Solo
Level 4 - Artistry, Stage, and Performance
Tribal Expressions - Group Improvisational Belly Dance
Level 1 - Foundations
Level 2 - Connections
Level 3 - Emergence
Level 4 - Artistry
Read more about your TE Student Journey, what you’ll learn, and Stefanie’s unique teaching approach!
Stefanie offers in person classes in Grafton, Germantown, and Jackson. More coming soon, stay tuned!
As an added bonus all students currently enrolled in classes get FREE access to her Practice Time videos and tutorials! Click the button above to access your members only dance portal.
Looking for a class, workshop, or private lesson near you? Click below for descriptions!
Browse by Location
Browse by Type
Grafton Classes and Workshops
1665 7th Ave. Grafton, WI
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Level 1: Tribal Expressions - Foundations
Grafton Senior Center - Lower Level
6 Week Sessions: $90
SEPT 13TH - OCT 18TH
NOV 1ST - DEC 13TH
JAN 10TH - FEB 14TH
FEB 28TH - APR 11TH
6PM - 7PM
Your Belly Dance journey starts here! Built on community, connection, and self-expression, this class is where it all begins.
Students learn a set vocabulary of Belly Dance combinations, group games that introduce formations, and cues used to dance improvisationally together as a group, opening up endless possibilities for creative expression.
In Level 1, you’ll build the footwork, arm styling, and hip isolations that make it all possible, until it feels natural in your body.
It's the foundation everything else builds on, and even our most experienced dancers keep coming back to refine their skills.
Come find your roots, meet your fellow dancers, and get ready to learn an exciting new way to move your body, with some serious hip-shaking fun along the way!
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Level 2: Tribal Expressions - Connections
Grafton Senior Center - Lower Level
6 Week Sessions: $90
SEPT 13TH - OCT 18TH
NOV 1ST - DEC 13TH
JAN 10TH - FEB 14TH
FEB 28TH - APR 11TH
7:10PM - 8:10PM
Your Belly Dance journey continues! Students will learn more challenging combinations, along with group dynamics. You already know how to move, now you'll learn to move with others. This is where dance stops being something you practice by yourself and becomes something you share.
In Level 2, you’ll start reading cues from each other, forming shapes together, understanding lead changing, and picking up finger cymbals and the basics of music theory along the way.
This is where the social, playful heart of group Belly Dance truly comes alive!
Level 2 has four sessions, and you can join any session once you’re comfortable with Level 1 - Foundations.
Come find your rhythm, connect with your fellow dancers, and get ready to shake things up together!
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Pop, Lock, and Shimmy - Intro to the Drum Solo
ONE DAY WORKSHOP
Grafton Senior Center - Lower Level
$50
DEC 9TH
6PM - 8:30PM
Drum solos are an exciting part of a Belly Dance performance!
In this workshop, Stefanie will break down the components, basic techniques, and textures that go into creating a drum solo, along with music mapping, or phrasing.
Then put it all together to get you popping, locking, and shimmying into your first drum solo!
Please bring a hip belt or scarf.
Jackson Classes and Workshops
N165W20330 Hickory Lane, Jackson,WI
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Level 1: Tribal Expressions - Foundations
Jackson Park & Rec - Dance Studio
6 Week Sessions: $90
NOV 6TH - DEC 11TH
Your Belly Dance journey starts here! Built on community, connection, and self-expression, this class is where it all begins. Students learn a set vocabulary of Belly Dance combinations, group games that introduce formations, and cues used to dance improvisationally together as a group, opening up endless possibilities for creative expression.
In Level 1, you’ll build the footwork, arm styling, and hip isolations that make it all possible, until it feels natural in your body. It's the foundation everything else builds on, and even our most experienced dancers keep coming back to refine their skills.
Come find your roots, meet your fellow dancers, and get ready to learn an exciting new way to move your body, with some serious hip-shaking fun along the way!
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Level 1: DFTS - Isolations, Textures, and Flow
Location - TBD
6 Week Sessions: $ 90
Dates - TBD
Time - TBD
Belly Dance can feel a little intimidating, and you might think it will take years of training before you’re a “dancer,” but really, dance is simple, and you don't need to know fifty different techniques to move your body and find that place where you stop thinking and just dance!
All you need is one technique, a couple of textures, and a piece of music you love, and the magic happens!
The DFTS Belly Dance Program is built on this idea. No dance experience is required! Just the willingness to move your body through space, explore that space, and have fun doing it!
In Level One, you'll learn that breath isn't separate from the dance, breath is what moves the body into dance.
You'll learn isolations, posture, and textures that turn a single movement into infinite possibilities, and you'll leave your very first class, able to go home, put on music you love, and move into your own flow state, the place where you stop thinking and just dance!
This isn't about memorizing choreography. It's about learning to create your own moving meditation, or just a great excuse to shake your hips and have some fun, whatever you're here for, this level gives you the tools to do it!
Germantown Classes and Workshops
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Level 1: Tribal Expressions - Foundations
Location - TBD
6 Week Sessions: $90
Dates - TBD
Time - TBD
Your Belly Dance journey starts here! Built on community, connection, and self-expression, this class is where it all begins.
Students learn a set vocabulary of Belly Dance combinations, group games that introduce formations, and cues used to dance improvisationally together as a group, opening up endless possibilities for creative expression.
In Level 1, you’ll build the footwork, arm styling, and hip isolations that make it all possible, until it feels natural in your body.
It's the foundation everything else builds on, and even our most experienced dancers keep coming back to refine their skills.
Come find your roots, meet your fellow dancers, and get ready to learn an exciting new way to move your body, with some serious hip-shaking fun along the way!
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Level 1: DFTS - Isolations, Textures, and Flow
Location - TBD
6 Week Sessions: $90
Dates - TBD
Time - TBD
Belly Dance can feel a little intimidating, and you might think it will take years of training before you’re a “dancer,” but really, dance is simple, and you don't need to know fifty different techniques to move your body and find that place where you stop thinking and just dance!
All you need is one technique, a couple of textures, and a piece of music you love, and the magic happens!
The DFTS Belly Dance Program is built on this idea. No dance experience is required! Just the willingness to move your body through space, explore that space, and have fun doing it!
In Level 1, you'll learn that breath isn't separate from the dance, breath is what moves the body into dance.
You'll learn isolations, posture, and textures that turn a single movement into infinite possibilities, and you'll leave your very first class, able to go home, put on music you love, and move into your own flow state, the place where you stop thinking and just dance!
This isn't about memorizing choreography. It's about learning to create your own moving meditation, or just a great excuse to shake your hips and have some fun, whatever you're here for, this level gives you the tools to do it!
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Dance to Your Own Beat - A Finger Cymbal Workshop
Germantown - Stefanie’s Home Dance Studio
$50
Date - TBA
Time - TBA
In this workshop Stefanie will teach several different Tribal Expressions (group improvisation) combinations with a unique finger cymbal pattern assigned to each.
Throughout the workshop, participants will practice each combination alongside its matching cymbal pattern, gradually layering them together until movement and rhythm are one.
By the end of the workshop participants will dance improvisationally, moving through each combination and creating their own music with the different finger cymbals patterns learned.
Students will receive handouts with detailed finger cymbal pattern breakdowns and its corresponding combination, how it relates to music, and home practice tips.
Finger cymbals and Tribal Expressions format familiarity helpful but not necessary.
POP-UP CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Keep an eye out, Stefanie offers pop-up classes and workshops throughout the year at her home dance studio in Germantown, so check back often!
Workshops
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Dancing the Veil - An Introduction
ONE DAY WORKSHOP
Location - TBD
$50
Date - TBD
Time - TBD
Veil work in a Belly Dance performance is a beautiful way to own your space, sculpt shapes and movement through the air, and allow the veil to become an extension of your body!
Stefanie will break down the components of a typical veil piece, basic veil technique, spinning, and textures. Then put it all together improvisationally, allowing the veil to become your wings!
Please bring 3-5 yards of fabric.
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Pop, Lock, and Shimmy - Intro to the Drum Solo
ONE DAY WORKSHOP
Grafton Senior Center - Lower Level
$50
DEC 9TH
6PM - 8:30PM
Drum solos are an exciting part of a Belly Dance performance!
In this workshop, Stefanie will break down the components, basic techniques, and textures that go into creating a drum solo, along with music mapping, or phrasing.
Then put it all together to get you popping, locking, and shimmying into your first drum solo!
Please bring a hip belt or scarf.
-
Dance to Your Own Beat - A Finger Cymbal Journey
ONE DAY WORKSHOP
Germantown - Stefanie’s Home Dance Studio
$50
Date - TBA
Time - TBA
In this workshop Stefanie will teach several different Tribal Expressions (group improvisation) combinations with a unique finger cymbal pattern assigned to each.
Throughout the workshop, participants will practice each combination alongside its matching cymbal pattern, gradually layering them together until movement and rhythm are one.
By the end of the workshop participants will dance improvisationally, moving through each combination and creating their own music with the different finger cymbals patterns learned.
Students will receive handouts with detailed finger cymbal pattern breakdowns and its corresponding combination, how it relates to music, and home practice tips.
Finger cymbals and Tribal Expressions format familiarity helpful but not necessary.
Continue Your Training in DFTS
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Level 1: DFTS - Isolations, Textures, and Flow
ONE SESSION - SIX WEEKS
Belly Dance can feel a little intimidating, and you might think it will take years of training before you’re a “dancer,” but really, dance is simple, and you don't need to know fifty different techniques to move your body and find that place where you stop thinking and just dance!
All you need is one technique, a couple of textures, and a piece of music you love, and the magic happens!
The DFTS Belly Dance Program is built on this idea. No dance experience is required! Just the willingness to move your body through space, explore that space, and have fun doing it!
In Level 1, you'll learn that breath isn't separate from the dance, breath is what moves the body into dance.
You'll learn isolations, posture, and textures that turn a single movement into infinite possibilities, and you'll leave your very first class, able to go home, put on music you love, and move into your own flow state, the place where you stop thinking and just dance!
This isn't about memorizing choreography. It's about learning to create your own moving meditation, or just a great excuse to shake your hips and have some fun, whatever you're here for, this level gives you the tools to do it!
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Level 2: DFTS - Combinations, Music, and Props
FOUR SESSIONS - SIX WEEKS PER SESSION
By Level 2, you've got your foundation — now it's time to layer in some extra magic!
You'll start playing finger cymbals, adding your own rhythm to the music. You’ll also pick up the veil and learn to move with fabric, making every gesture bigger and bolder!
You'll also start stringing movements into real phrases that travel across the floor, and build onto your shimmy with new variations that add even more texture to your dancing.
Between the spins, the turns, and the rhythm in your hands, this level gets your heart rate up without ever feeling like a workout.
This is where the dance starts to sparkle, rhythm in your hands, the veil becoming your wings, and your whole body finding new ways to shine!
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Level 3: DFTS - Strength, Floorwork, and the Drum Solo
FOUR SESSIONS - SIX WEEKS PER SESSION
By Level 3, your body is ready for more, and so is your dancing. This is where you start building focused strength, creating the foundation to safely get up and down from the floor, and explore your first back bends, right where your body is today.
You'll learn the final textures that bring a drum solo to life, letting you hit the accents in the music with sharp, satisfying precision, truly representing what you hear.
And you'll learn something powerful: how to stop. How to hold a single moment of stillness on stage and let it carry its own weight, instead of rushing to fill every second with movement.
This is the level where strength, stillness, and sound all meet, and where your dancing starts to feel less like performing and more like pure presence!
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Level 4: DFTS - Artistry, Stage, and Performance
FOUR SESSIONS - SIX WEEKS PER SESSION
By Level 4, you've built the technique, the strength, and the stillness, now it's time to put it all on a stage!
You'll learn advanced textures that bring depth and nuance to every moment, and how to map your music, understanding its structure well enough to shape an entire performance from the first note to the last.
You’ll learn choreography, entrances and exits, and how to walk on and off stage with real intention, weaving everything you know into one complete piece.
You’ll learn the kind of stage presence that lets you build real energy and genuinely connect with the people watching you.
And because performing in public always carries a responsibility, you’ll learn the etiquette and ethics of the stage, along with insight into both Middle Eastern and American Belly Dance culture, so you carry this art form forward with the respect it deserves.
This is where you stop learning the dance, and you become the Dance!
Continue Your Training in Tribal Expressions
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Level 1: Tribal Expressions - Foundations
ONE SESSION - SIX WEEKS
Your Belly Dance journey starts here! Built on community, connection, and self-expression, this class is where it all begins. Students learn a set vocabulary of Belly Dance combinations, group games that introduce formations, and cues used to dance improvisationally together as a group, opening up endless possibilities for creative expression.
In Level 1, you’ll build the footwork, arm styling, and hip isolations that make it all possible, until it feels natural in your body. It's the foundation everything else builds on, and even our most experienced dancers keep coming back to refine their skills.
Come find your roots, meet your fellow dancers, and get ready to learn an exciting new way to move your body, with some serious hip-shaking fun along the way!
-
Level 2: Tribal Expressions - Connections
FOUR SESSIONS - SIX WEEKS PER SESSION
Your Belly Dance journey continues! Students will learn more challenging combinations, along with group dynamics. You already know how to move, now you'll learn to move with others.
This is where dance stops being something you practice by yourself and becomes something you share.
In Level 2, you’ll start reading cues from each other, forming shapes together, understanding lead changing, and picking up finger cymbals and the basics of music theory along the way.
This is where the social, playful heart of group Belly Dance truly comes alive! Level 2 has four sessions, and you can join any session once you’re comfortable with Level 1 - Foundations.
Come find your rhythm, connect with your fellow dancers, and get ready to shake things up together!
-
Level 3: Tribal Expressions - Emergence
FOUR SESSIONS - SIX WEEKS PER SESSION
Your dancing has a voice now, Level 3 is where you learn to really use it!
Here you'll master cue reading and timing, trading the lead fluidly with the dancers around you, and taking on more challenging combinations that push your skill and your confidence further than ever.
This is the level where you move from following the group into shaping it! You’ll start trusting your own skill to guide the group, not just respond to it.
If you've been dancing with us for a while, this is the level where things start to come together in a whole new way, not just in the steps, but in the confidence you can own the room!
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Level 4: Tribal Expressions - Artistry
FOUR SESSIONS - SIX WEEKS PER SESSION
This is where it all comes together. Level Four is the deep end, the technical foundation is behind you, you've learned all the rules, and now it's time to break them!
This is the level where technique becomes second nature and correct execution turns into art, solo interpretation, musicality, and connecting with your audience.
This is where your own creative flair and emotional depth get a chance to shine, where your break the rules on purpose to match the music and tell its story!
Schedule with Stefanie
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Book a Belly Dance Workshop
Pricing is dependent on travel time, length of workshop, and if you wish Stefanie to perform.
She is available for specialized workshops to include:
- Veil
- Finger Cymbals
- Drum Solo
- Floor Work
- TE (Tribal Expressions) Group Improvisational Belly Dance
- DFTS (Dance for the Soul) Solo Improvisational Belly Dance
- Choreography
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Reserve a Private or Group Belly Dance Lesson
Private $60 for 1 ½ hours
Group $35 per person (3 person minimum)
Available in Germantown at Stefanie’s home dance studio.
Wednesdays and Fridays only.
- Belly Dance technique (TE & DFTS)
- Veil
- Finger Cymbals
- Drum Solo
- Floor Work
- Creating choreography and music mapping
- Show preparation and final editing of choreography
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Hire Stefanie to Perform at Your Event
Pricing is dependent on travel time, length of performance requested, and if you need Stefanie to provide an MC.
Stefanie is available to perform for:
- Life Celebrations
- Benefits
- Weddings
- Corporate Events & Fundraisers
- Staged Performances
DFTS Teacher Training Program
Do you want to become an experienced leader and educator in the Belly Dance and fitness industry? A positive and powerful force in your community? A role model for others? The DFTS Teacher Training program encompasses the DFTS Method of Improvisation, and The Masters Method of Health, Healing and Living™ and teaches how dance and movement connects us to all things!
Dance helps to bring people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds together. Dance in itself is a holistic form of healing community. Bring people together for a common purpose and great things happen! Dance is a rewarding way to move the body, exercise the mind and free the spirit! As dance instructors, our common purpose is to teach others the joy of moving their bodies in space.
Feeling grounded and confident, belonging to something that promotes wellness from deep within. Exercising the body and mind to greater levels of awareness, invoking a feeling of overall peace and wellbeing that overflows to our families and our community! Teaching confidence and breeding success is what being a dance teacher is all about!
The DFTS Belly Dance teacher training program is a unique course, because you will focus on your own intense personal growth and healing from within. You will be working on all levels of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies, while using specific healing modalities, dance, and conscious thought to help facilitate your own personal growth.
The DFTS philosophy encompasses the belief that through breath, posture and movement we can eliminate negative behaviors and thought patterns. The philosophy is grounded in creating a sense of dignity in the body and mind leading to self-respect, self-love, confidence, acceptance, understanding your purpose, feeling connected to your family and community, and ultimately leading you to success in all things!
Being a teacher is so much more than understanding how to breakdown a movement or designing a class structure. A true teacher has the ability to inspire and motivate students to achieve their highest potential in life.
Training Program Curriculum
Introduction to The Masters Method for Health, Healing, & Living™ and the DFTS Format of Improvisational Belly Dance
DFTS Philosophy, Ethics, History, and Evolution of Dance
Beginning Belly Dance Technique and Building A Personal Practice
Middle Eastern Rhythms, Music Theory, Finger Cymbals, and Drums
Body-Mind Connection and Healing Through Dance
Intermediate Belly Dance Technique, Special Populations, and Modifications
Teaching Methodology, Class Design, Leadership, and Communication
Advanced Belly Dance Technique and Props
Anatomy, Physiology, and Fitness Basics For Dance Instructors
Business, Advertising, Review, Practical and Final Evaluation