Yallah Raqs

Sheyla is a dancer from the Czech Republic who fell in love with Egypt and especially the folklore of the country. Funoon Shaabeya, her latest documentary film focuses on Egyptian traditional artists and folklore, which she’ll be discussing with us today She’ll explore the significance of folklore, the importance of studying with people from the cultures, and how we can approach this heritage with...

Today? Zara Dance joins us to talk about the concept of Tarab. These are some of my favorite words. Words that simply don’t have a translation in other languages. Every language has a word or phrase or saying that just doesn’t have a direct translation. And while that’s beautiful, it can also cause some misconceptions. Join Zara as she talks about what Tarab is and answers a oft-asked question. Ca...

Today Francesca is going to take us on a little journey, using a song. Francesca has her degree in Oriental Languages and Literature for Arabic, and is using her knowledge to bring us how Arabic poetry has had, and continues to have a lasting influence on the lyrics of modern arabic songs. Knowing some of this background helps us to better understand the emotional impact of these songs and appreci...

Today we have Dawn Devine with and awesome Q &A .  Dawn is a costumer and historian well known for some of her books, including The Cloth of Egypt, All about Assuit,  and Zills, Music on your Fingertips.  If you’ve followed Dawn for a while you may be part of her group on Facebook, which she polled for some Must Answer questions, and today she’s giving you the answers. Does Dawn dance? Is she...

Today we have Melbourne, Australian based creator of The Dance Safe Project, Prue, joining us to chat all about warmups and cooldowns. Sometimes the practices that will keep us dancing the longest are the easiest to implement, and the easiest to skip when you’re on a tight schedule. Prue goes into why warm ups and cool downs are so important, and talks a bit about how we can make these practices m...

Today we have Lisa-Jean here to talk to us about creating a practice. A busy mom of three, Lisa-Jean realized that very few dancers actually TEACH us how to practice, or how to fit time into our busy schedules to dance.  And I’m so on board, it’s one of the reasons we’ve created so many of the resources we have around here at the Bellydance Bundle! Lisa chats with you today about getting specific...

April Rose will be sharing a portion of her Bold Bellydancer Shift Workshop.   If you haven’t followed her before April is an Austin-based interdisciplinary artist, teacher, and performer of bellydance, transcultural dance, frame drum, and finger cymbals. She’s absolutely wonderful and her approach to dance and art and life are truly inspirational.   In this portion of her Bold Bellydancer Shift W...

Today is a MUST listen if you have any kind of bellydance business. And like our guest says, if you’re getting paid at all? Then you have a business And she couldn’t be more right Join Oreet for a fantastic episode where you are going to be taking some SERIOUS action steps. Oreet is the creator of Sharqui and offers coaching and mentorship as part of her Teacher training. Today she's going to get...

Today we have Minda Mae joining us from Minneapolis! She is the founder of the DisabiliTease Academy, the first virtual school specifically geared towards performers with disabilites and their allies. She’s also the first wheelchair-using burlesque performer in Minnesota. Through her work she helps students advocate for themselves and teachers show up more inclusively for their students. Here in o...

Today you’ll be spending some time with Drake, an interdisciplinary bellydance researcher and performer based in the Chicago area. He joins us today to chat a little bit about Multi tonal cymbals and how to integrate them into your dance. He’ll go over what Multi-tonal playing is, how to play zills even if you’re not dancing to middle eastern music, and a way that you can scale any multi-tonal pla...

While Rahel specializes in Raqs Sharqi, Today she’ll be joining us to talk about her work in trauma-informed, mindfulness-based somatic practices and how she’s brought that to the table to support both dancers and non-dancers alike And she has so much great info to share. She’ll go through what somatics is, and some of the history of it, as well as diving into what it means to be embodied. We’ll s...

Today we have the founder of Greenstone Dance Arts, Siobhan Camille.  If you’ve heard her on the podcast before, or you follow her you’ll already know, but for anyone just meeting Siobhan for the first time, she’s got an extensive background in exercise science with postgrad degrees in both Exercise Prescription and Rehabilitation Science. And while this creates her unique approach to teaching, to...

Today we have Sahira here to chat all about adding emotion and some theatricality to your dance. Sahira is a dancer in Houston who teaches both locally and has a fantastic online dance school. She’s known for her finger cymbals, her fantastic personality, and of course for being able to absolutely draw you in while she’s dancing. And the key to that? Bringing that emotion to your dance! How many t...

Today we have the wonderful Athena Howe and Adam Rivière to chat allllll about live music with ya’ll! Athena is a Columbus, Ohio-based dancer who just like many of us, fell in love with the costuming and glamour of belly dance, and then fell head over heals for the music and culture. Especially live music!! Adam is a  world percussionist, audio engineer and composer with almost 40 years of experie...

Today we welcome Debpariya Das to the podcast. Joining us from Bangalore, India, she’s here to share a little bit about her journey as an Oriental Bellydancer and her philosophies around fusing Indian Dance and Bellydance together.    She’ll share with us her views on how culture plays into the fusion of the dances, the importance of solid foundations in each style, and some of what she’ll be brin...

Welcome to this mini-episode of Yallah Raqs! Today Ashley Rhianne is going to tell us a bit about her journey to becoming a dancer and a pilates instructor.    She’ll be sharing what set her on her path, the benefits she’s seen in her own dance through the addition of cross-training in pilates and hows she’s seen pilates change her students dances as well. Links to follow Ashley online at both her...

This season is gonna be a bit different, so here's a little into to this Bundle Season!

Ebony and Tiffany sit down with brilliant dancers Raqs Razi, Lara Adrienne, Donna Mejia, Lotus Niraja and Nefertiti for an inspiring conversation about, and celebration of, their opportunities, learnings and stories of travel as Black artists.   Enjoy musings on favorite travel destinations and some wild excursion tales. They discuss working in a country of origin of this dance, exotisism and so m...

Ebony and Tiffany get together with incredible dancers Sadira LadyLiquid, Chudney, Nefertiti and Omoladun for a chat about what’s different about being Black in the bellydance world.   They muse about Black hair, being one of the only Black dancers in classes and competitions and finally having the feeling of belonging. Listen in as they talk about unique costuming concerns and touch upon differen...

Ebony and Tiffany sit down with brilliant dancers Danielle Hutton, Lara Adriene, Raqs Razi, Nefertiti and Iona for a lively conversation about, and CELEBRATION of, seeing ourselves, Black dancers, in the spotlight. Listen in as they relate about their first time seeing a pro Black bellydancer and what that meant for them. They discuss imposter syndrome, encouraging one another and so much more. We...

Badriyah is well known for her work putting together the Golden Era Museum and I’m super excited to have her on today’s podcast speaking more about the Museum and her obsession with the Golden Era. From the first piece of her collection to the dance characteristics of the Golden Era itself we get into the Golden Era through the decades in today’s episode. Talking to someone who is clearly so passi...

Part 2 of 2 How do you express the music? For Mercedes Nieto, expression and musicality are at the heart of her style, and she joins us today to give us a peak into her process and how she works with her students to grow their ability to express through their dance. What is the music telling you? How do you feel about it? And how can you build that into your dance? Mercedes dives into how you can...

Part 1 of 2 How do you express the music? For Mercedes Nieto, expression and musicality are at the heart of her style, and she joins us today to give us a peak into her process and how she works with her students to grow their ability to express through their dance. What is the music telling you? How do you feel about it? And how can you build that into your dance? Mercedes dives into how you can...

Finding our own unique voice within this dance form is something that a LOT of us struggle with, but it comes down to one thing. How we hear and interpret the music.   And to do that? It’s super helpful to have a basis of knowledge about the music to draw from!   Today Katayoun is hanging out with us to discuss the beauty and richness of Arabic music and gives us some tips that we can use to reall...

Today we have a special treat! Nawarra of Morocco joins us to talk about the different dances of Morocco, specifically today the Shikkat and the Chaabi! Much like any country Morocco is a diverse nation with many many different styles of dance, and, hoping to learn more about the North African part of MENAHT, we’re super excited to bring you this resource for learning more specifically about these...