Belly Dance Life

Some of the best moments from our previous episodes! Every medal has two sides. Get inspiration from our incredible guests and their experience of dealing with physical and emotional load of a professional belly dance career. Today you will hear from Amar Lammar, Mercedes Nieto, Julia Farid and Idil. Show Notes to this episode: Ep 18. Amar Lammar: Twelve Years of Performing Every Night in the Arab...

Aubre Hill has been a professional dance artist for over twenty years including touring and assistant-directing large ensembles across the United States, Europe, China, Taiwan, and Japan. She has been on faculty at California State University, Los Angeles teaching credited courses in pilates, fitness, and dance for over 10 years. She owned and directed Movement Art Space, a dance and fitness studi...

Aziza is one of the brightest, most in demand stars of bellydance in the world today. She is recognized across the globe for her unparalleled ability to express the unique synergy of movement and sound that is the hallmark of this ancient art form. An intuitive, concise and generous instructor, Aziza excels at inspiring dancers to reach the next level. A lifelong bellydance student herself, she co...

Fadima Jones began dancing as a child in a Turkish folk dance troupe. At the age of 9 she added jazz dance, hip hop, and Bollywood to her repertoire, although bellydance was always a part of her life since the childhood. After performing at countless stage shows at cultural events until she was 14, she started making choreographies. Her career took her on big international stages with big artists...

Soraia Zaied is an established star of Cairo's current belly dance scene. Her style is very Egyptian with a little Latin influence. Soraia is popular with Egyptians and loved by the international belly dance community. She has been active as a dancers at the upscale InterContinental Citystars hotel in Heliopolis, had the contract for years as the primary dancer at the Sheraton Hotel in Dokki and a...

It’s a mini-episode with Esmeralda Colabone! If you ever hit a professional dance depression, or stopped feeling emotions from your dance, there is a solution. In this mini-episode Esmeralda shares her own experience of going through such a common stage in the career, and hopefully her story will help you to overcome it too! Show Notes to this episode: Thank you for your support via Iana Dance Clu...

Estelle Zaghloul was born in Lebanon, lands of Cedars. She moved to Costa Rica with her whole family, whose members are all artists, and together she undertook an incredible career in Dances and Arab Arts from the age of 16. This is why though she retains her love for oriental music from her native country, her identity also embraces that of Costa Rica which she loves so, including its musical rhy...

Artemis Mourat has been dancing, teaching and researching dance history in the United States and abroad for over 40 years. Artemis is of Greek and Turkish descent, and she has an M.A. in psychology, an M.S.W. in social work and has done postgraduate work in dance movement therapy. She was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Her research is used by Egyptian universities, the Middle East Institu...

Natalie Becker is a world-know teacher, choreographer, judge, event organizer and costume designer, and she started her dance and artistic journey at the age of 5. She is a professional choreographer with multiple achievements in the genre of world dance (traditional dances from all around the world). In 2005 Natalie received a prestigious national award ‘’The Perfection’’ as a ‘’The Choreographer...

Some of the best moments from our previous episodes! These quiet and uncertain times encourage all of us to question and rethink our lifestyle, goals and dance dreams. Get inspiration from our incredible guests and their life changing stories. Today you will hear from Luna of Cairo, Oscar Flores, Zaina Brown and Joana Saahirah. Show Notes to this episode: Ep 17. Luna of Cairo: Is Belly Dance Life...

Eyad Malaeb was born and lived in the Lebanese mountain village of Bayssour till he was 20 years of age. He grew up during the Lebanese war in the late 70s and had a very rough childhood. After moving to Beirut, he was discovered by the founder of one of the most famous Lebanese dance groups, RIMAH, and started to dance with them, appearing in many video clips, musicals and commercials and as a ba...

Vadim Kolpakov is one of the most prominent and renowned Russian Roma 7-string guitarists in the world. He was a lead musician of the Moscow Roma (Gypsy) Theatre Romen, where he performed as a guitarist, composer, vocalist, dancer and dramatic actor. Vadim graduated from the Roma performing arts school Gilori and studied guitar with his uncle Alexander Kolpakov who served as the musical director o...

It’s a mini-episode with Iana! Let’s talk about dance improvisation, and a top secret of how to avoid panic attack while improvising for the audience. :) Show Notes to this episode: Check My Inner Dancer, online store for belly dancers: www.myinnerdancer.com . Find Iana on Instagram , FB , Youtube . Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Alex Marković holds a Ph. D. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He spent 17 months conducting ethnographic field work on Romani ethnic identity and musical performance in Vranje, Serbia, for his doctoral dissertation. His general research interests involve music, dance, and ritual in the Balkans, ethnic identity and nationalism, the anthropology of performance, and ethnomusic...

Rabia found her love of music and dance at a young age in Turkey where she started dancing, drumming, and performing at traditional celebrations and social gatherings. Growing up listening and dancing to the complex rhythms of Turkey’s beautiful Aegean region was to her benefit during her formal dance education. Her unique dancing and teaching style is rooted in Turkish culture and tradition. She...

It’s a mini-episode with Valerick Molinary! We are going though some challenging times right now. Many artists struggle because of their lost jobs, frustration and stress of uncertainty. And if most of us aren’t very excited about putting together the business side of their dance activities even during the calm times, then now it’s even more crucial to remember that self-promotion is a must have f...

Originally from Argentina, master teacher, artistic director and dancer Oscar Flores began his artistic career very early. His training is very varied, including ballet, flamenco, oriental dance, theater and musical studies. From 1995 till today, he has been working in the world of theater, dance and fashion. In 2001, he founded his first dance school, where he worked for 3 years before moving to...

Mohanned Hawaz is a dancer from Iraq currently living in Sweden. He has trained both ballet and Iraqi folklore since childhood and was a member of the Iraqi International Dance Company. Mohanned has played an excellent role in bringing Iraqi folkloric arts and dance to European and international audiences. He is determined to bring Iraqi style dances and culture to the international dance communit...

It’s a mini-episode with Iana! Today the world is changing so rapidly. Let’s talk about the current events and their impact (immediate and in a long term) on belly dance industry. Show Notes to this episode: Thank you for your support via Iana Dance Club: www.ianadanceCLUB.com . Find Iana on Instagram , FB , Youtube . Podcast: www.ianadance.com/podcast

Jessaiah Zure began bellydancing in 1997, studying primarily with Katarina Burda, and later with Jamila Salimpour. In 2004 she began her 10-year journey of living and studying on and off in Istanbul, where she studied Turkish Roman Dance primarily with Reyhan Tusuz. Jessaiah was Reyhan’s second ever “student”. As the years progressed, she met more people and danced and studied with many more dance...

Pedro Bonatto is an internationally acclaimed photographer and drummer. Born in Brazil, Pedro works in fine art and fashion photography, with works published in Elle Arabia, Fashion Canada and a number of magazines and books. His fine art project, The Orientalist, features dancers and musicians in scenes inspired by Orientalist paintings, photographed in 6 countries in 3 continents. Pedro's unique...

Some of the best moments from our previous episodes! Today we are talking about such an important topic as health: health and dance in general, and health as a dancer’s health specifically. Learn from Cassandra Fox, Jillina Carlano, Alla Kushnir and Aradia of Las Vegas. Show Notes to this episode: Ep 15. Cassandra Fox: Healthy Does Not Have a Face Ep 31. Jillina Carlano: How Food Can Influence You...

After extensive training in gymnastics and ballet, at age 19 Eva Cernik was first introduced to belly dance by Anahid Sofian in New York. Eva worked as an Oriental dancer in London, Paris, Istanbul, and Cairo, and in-troupe in Baghdad and Spain. She also traveled in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Morocco and 14 other countries. Returning to Egypt 26 times, Eva developed a friendship with families in Up...

Having performed in over 21 countries, Amaya was the first to introduce the passion of Flamenco with the sensuality of Arabic Dance through her interpretation of the song "Amayagueña", composed especially for her by top composer Ibrahim El Samahy. Her fusion work in the early 1990s sparked many dancers to follow on her path. She credits her mentor and dance partner, the late Roman Balladine, for o...

After relocating from the UK to the USA, Sara Al-Hadithi got involved in the Middle-Eastern dance world and discovered an interest in Iraqi dance that has swept through the bellydance community. As an Iraqi, this area of performance was very surprising and personal to her, not just as a performer, but also as the daughter of one of Iraq's most well-known and respected vocalist and authority on Ira...