Comprehensive Instructor Training Course:
Module 1 Available Now
Course Details & What's Inside
Module 1 is a self-paced online course that teaches the craft of dance instruction — how to analyze and explain movement, teach safely, build progressive curriculum, structure different kinds of classes, and grow into the thoughtful, adaptable instructor your students deserve.
It’s built for belly dance, fusion, and folkloric dance artists who already have a foundation in the dance and are ready to build the teaching skill to go with it.
Ready to start?
Module 1 is available now for $99 inside the Ahlam Academy Skool community.
Skool is free to join. Once you’re inside, head to the Classroom to purchase and access the course.
HOW TO GET MODULE 1
1. Join Ahlam Academy on Skool
It’s free to join.
2. Go to the Classroom
You’ll find Comprehensive Instructor Training Course: Module 1 there.
3. Enroll for $99
Purchase Module 1 and start learning.
What You'll Learn
Teaching begins with the person standing in front of the room — that’s you. Through the Belly Dance Teaching Competency Audit, you’ll take honest stock of your current skills and identify exactly what you’re ready to teach now — plus what to develop next as you grow toward more advanced classes. No guessing at your own readiness. You’ll know.
You can’t teach the body well if you don’t understand how it works. This section builds your foundation in movement science and safety — how the body learns, moves, and sometimes struggles — so every cue you give comes from real understanding, not guesswork. We’re not turning you into a medical professional — we’re helping you become a more informed, more responsible movement instructor.
A weekly class, a workshop, and a private lesson each ask something different of you. You’ll learn to recognize those differences and structure classes — for any format, any room, any level — that actually build toward something.
Take honest inventory of everything you already know — your movements, choreography, musicality, and experience — and start shaping it into a real curriculum. Because a curriculum isn’t just a list of things you happen to know. It’s a path another person can follow.
Sometimes a student needs to see it. Sometimes they need it explained differently than you just explained it. You’ll build a genuine toolbox of teaching approaches, plus a simple, repeatable way to break down and communicate any movement — so you’re never stuck with just one explanation.
Teaching a dancer to execute choreography is one skill. Teaching them to make their own choices within the dance is another. You’ll learn approaches to both — plus how to help students actually listen to music, not just move to it.
The little things matter more than people think — how you prep, how you pace, how you correct without deflating someone, how you hold a room with mixed skill levels. This section covers the practical, on-the-ground side of running a classroom well. It’s everything happening around the movement, too.
Learn to truly observe — not just glancing to see if a student “looks right,” but seeing what their body is actually doing, and recognizing where understanding is breaking down. Your teaching gets better the moment you learn to see more.
Who Is This Course For?
- An aspiring instructor — you’ve danced long enough to have a real foundation, and you’re starting to think seriously about sharing what you know.
- A newer instructor — you’ve already started teaching and found out, fast, that teaching is more complicated than it looks.
- An experienced instructor — you want to sharpen your curriculum, your movement explanations, your classroom management, or how you support student growth.
- A teacher who wants creative freedom — you don’t want to become a clone of anyone else. You want the tools to build a curriculum that reflects your own knowledge and vision.
Module 1 works across many approaches to belly dance, including Egyptian Raqs Sharqi and related regional folkloric styles, fusion, and dance fitness.
Who This Course Is Not For
- Complete beginners to the dance itself. Module 1 teaches you how to teach — it assumes you already have a real foundation in belly dance, fusion, or folkloric movement. If you’re still building your own dance skills, start there first.
- Dancers looking for choreography or combos to learn. This isn’t a class where you follow along and learn new movement. It’s a course in how to explain and structure movement for someone else.
- Anyone looking for a quick certificate with no real work. You’ll complete real assignments and build a real teaching portfolio. If you’re hoping to skim through and get a credential, this isn’t that.
- Dancers who want to be told exactly what to teach, word for word. Ahlam Academy doesn’t hand you a script to recite. If you’re looking for a rigid, done-for-you curriculum rather than the tools to build your own, a different program may be a better fit.
We're Not Training Copies of One Teacher
Some instructor programs are built around one particular style or methodology — a valid choice for some dancers.
Ahlam Academy takes a broader approach. Module 1 focuses on the underlying skills of instruction: analyzing and adapting movement explanations, structuring progression, giving feedback that actually helps, and honestly evaluating your own teaching.
The goal was never an instructor who teaches exactly like Anna. It’s an instructor who has the tools to build their own teaching practice — style-agnostic, student-centered, and completely their own.
What You'll Actually Complete
Written lessons across all eight topics, six assignments that ask you to apply the material to your own teaching, reference guides you’ll keep coming back to, hands-on practice exercises to sharpen your teacher’s eye, and a teaching portfolio that becomes real evidence of what you’ve built.Â
You’ll also learn the 10 Movement Teaching Methods, the 5-Question Teaching Formula, a posture and alignment checklist, and how to adapt instruction for different student needs.
Finish the required coursework and submit your portfolio, and you’ll receive your official Module 1 Certificate of Course Completion.
The Certification Pathway (Optional)
Module 1 stands on its own as a complete instructor course. It’s also the first step toward becoming an Ahlam Academy Certified Instructor.
| Module | Focus | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Module 1 | Teaching Foundations & Curriculum Development | Available now |
| Module 2 | Business, Promotion & Student Management | Coming Soon |
| Module 3 | Practical Teaching Examination | Coming Soon |
Completing Module 1 on its own does not make you a fully certified Ahlam Academy Instructor — full certification means finishing all three modules successfully.
Meet Your Instructor
Anna has spent over 20 years teaching belly dance in numerous gyms and studios. In 2014, she opened her own studio “Oriental Phoenix Arts,” and in 2016, she released her first teacher training program, built to train Ahlam Academy’s in-studio instructors.Â
Since then, a number of her graduates have gone on to become Ahlam Academy instructors themselves, while others have taken what they learned and built their own classes elsewhere.
Comprehensive Instructor Training is a redesign of that original, exclusive in-studio program — rebuilt to make it available to anyone, anywhere, not just dancers who could train with Anna in person.
She’s also a NASM-certified personal trainer, group fitness instructor, functional flexibility coach, and fitness nutrition consultant — training that shapes how she thinks about movement, conditioning, and responsible instruction across everything she teaches.
Anna Schkade-Siytangco
Creator of Ahlam Academy | Dance Educator | Performer | Instructor
Some of the Instructors This Program Has Trained
The Comprehensive Instructor Training Course is the same program Anna has used to train Ahlam Academy’s own instructors since 2016. Here are a few of the dancers who’ve gone through it — all of them have taught for Ahlam Academy, and many teach their own classes and workshops elsewhere.
Module 1 is hosted inside our free Skool community. Join the community, head to the Classroom, and enroll for $99.
FAQs
The Module 1 course is a $99 USD one-time investment. A payment plan is not available.
All Skool course sales are final — The Comprehensive Instructor Training Course is a digital course, and because of how the platform delivers content, there’s no way to verify how much of the material a student has accessed once enrolled. Once you enroll, you have full access to Module 1, so we ask that you review the course details and make sure it’s the right fit before purchasing.
If you have questions about whether this course is right for you before you buy, reach out — we’re happy to help you figure that out first.
No. Module 1 is built for dancers at every stage — whether you’ve never taught a class, you’ve already started and want to build a stronger foundation under what you’re doing, or you’re experienced and want to sharpen your craft.
Yes. This course assumes you already have a real foundation in belly dance, fusion, or folkloric movement. It will not teach you how to dance. This course teaches you how to teach.
That’s part of the course. Early on, you’ll complete a Teaching Competency Audit that maps your current skills honestly — so you know what you’re ready to teach right now, and what to build next as your own skills, and your students’ needs, grow.
Module 1 works across many approaches, including Egyptian Raqs Sharqi and related regional folkloric styles, fusion, and dance fitness. You’re not trained to copy one style or method — you build the tools to teach in your own style and your own material.
Self-paced. You work through the material on your own time, at your own speed.  It’s everything happening around the movement, too.
That is entirely up to you. The course is at your own pace.
Not on its own. While Module 1 is a complete, stand-alone instructor training course, it is only the first step in the Ahlam Academy certification pathway. Full certification will require successfully completing two more modules. Modules 2 and 3 are coming soon.
Yes — a Certificate of Course Completion, once you’ve finished the required coursework and submitted your teaching portfolio.
Submit all the required course assignments.Â
This course is only available in our online Skool community. You’ll join Ahlam Academy’s free Skool community, and once approved, you’ll have access to the Classroom, where the Module 1 course is located.
You can message Anna directly in Skool or send her an email
While you can access Skool from any internet-capable device, we recommend using a device with a larger screen, like a laptop or desktop. Â
Start Your Instructor Training
Module 1 is available now for $99.
Join the free Ahlam Academy Skool community to access the Classroom, where you’ll find Module 1 and can enroll.