Belly Dance Life

Bellydance Superstar Boženka is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed dancer performing and teaching worldwide. Boženka hosts The Mediterranean Dance Lab, a dance intensive and cultural retreat on the island of Crete, Greece, where she currently resides. She has recorded several best-selling instructional and performance DVDs and has toured extensively with the celebrated “Bellydance Superst...

Dipika Vijay is an academically trained designer, and a belly dance artist by passion. Her belly dance company is called Badass Belly Dance and her fitness classes fly under the name Firefly Aerial Fitness. She lives in Mumbai but grew up in multiple cities in India and as a result picked up folk dance forms like Bhangra, Garba, Bollywood apart from brief training in classical Indian dance styles...

As belly dancers we often use the term “Baladi” in reference to a particular dance style. Also, we sometimes call Masmudi Saghir rhythm as Baladi rhythm, which is common a mistake. But in Egyptian culture the word “Baladi” isn’t the name of a dance. So what is it? Discover in this episode! Show Notes to this episode: Follow Iana on Instagram , FB , and Youtube . Join the Iana Dance Club to partici...

Hend Elbalouty is a choreographer, performer and author. She holds a MA in Performing Arts from Kunsthochschule für Medien, a BA in Production Design from the Institute of Cinema Studies in Egypt and a 3-year degree in Contemporary Dance from Cairo Contemporary Dance Center. She works across mediums combining and mixing them in accordance to the project at hand. In the last few years, she collabor...

In today's episode, we're diving into a fascinating topic – using dance videos not just for social media posts, but as a powerful training tool. We'll explore why simply repeating choreography isn't enough and how to pinpoint and fix specific mistakes or weak spots in your dance. Plus, we'll chat about the importance of practicing without a mirror and how video recordings can be your secret weapon...

Sonya of Cairo is a professional dancer and choreographer. She has been immersed in oriental dance since childhood. Her mother, Marianne DS, founded The Sun Dance School 17 years ago in Paris, the largest association in the city. Sonya began her training with Marianne DS and has studied with some of the best Egyptian professionals. She stands out for her pure Egyptian style. Sonya currently lives...

Arielle is a passionately dedicated dancer from the USA who currently performs daily in Cairo, Egypt. She teaches and performs bellydance, samba, folklore, fusion, burlesque, hip hop and many other styles of dance full-time. Although Arielle is American, she grew up in Egypt and has been performing Middle Eastern Dance since the age of 10. Arielle is the winner of several competitions and was a fi...

A well-known choreographer and dancer, Alla Kushnir has won many prizes and awards. She was a finalist at the TV show “Ukraine has talent“, silver medalist of the Lebanese TV show “Hizzi Ya Nawaem”, winner of Egyptian TV show ” Al Rakesa”, among many other awards and achievements. For Alla Kushnir Oriental dancing has opened a lot of previously unknown sensations. As a dancer and choreographer, sh...

This is a best of episode! You will hear a collection of tips and practices from the belly dance stars. Find out how they approach their own training, and see what you can implement it in your life too. You will hear from Jasirah, Cassandra Fox, Victoria Teel, Aziza, Nabila, Hayal, Jillina Carlano and Amar Lammar. Discover what is blocking your dance progress right now, and which exact dance habit...

Improve those couple things in your dance habits, and unlock an amazing growth in your dance skills throughout 2024! January is time of planning and building hopes for the New Year. But often we make grand plans , and fail on showing up and performing them. Or sometimes we do show up but don't put 100% of our energy into the task. How to make sue that your list of New Year resolutions isn’t gonna...

Chudney is a professional oriental dance artist who has competed and danced around the world. She opened her own oriental dance school in 2017, to give students easier access to her weekly in person classes, and share her unique personal style and technique on demand. Chudney was selected in 2016 as part of the international cast of Virginia’s “Reflections”. She was hand picked by Munique Neith to...

Originally from Brazil, Hayal is a professional dancer who has been passionate about oriental dance since she was 17. She taught and danced all over the world, as a soloist and in collaboration with other dancers. She worked as a dancer and choreographer with the Portuguese company Mahtab and participated in several shows of the American troupe Bellydance Evolution with Jillina. Hayal has already...

Delya is a French belly dancer currently residing inn Switzerland. She has been involved in oriental dance for 20 years, and currently works as a full—time performer. She is the resident dancer at a 5 stars hotel in Zurich in collaboration with musicians. She does projects together with a Syrian musician Zaher Assaf who studied music at the conservatory of Damas, Syria. They regularly organize cha...

Pedro Bonatto is an internationally acclaimed photographer and drummer. Born in Brazil and based in Canada, Pedro works in fine art and fashion photography, with works published in Elle Arabia, Fashion Canada and a number of magazines and books. As a drummer, Pedro focuses on Middle Eastern music and its relationship to cultures from aroundd the world. He is also the creator of the world music and...

We fall in love with belly dance for many different reasons. One of those reasons is freedom, and vast opportunities for creativity. But we may get carry away with dance experiments. Let’s listen to the stories of Jillina Carlano, Meher Malik , Mohamed Shahin and Aubre Hill on why it is important to study the roots of this dance form. Show Notes to this episode: Full interviews with our guests: Ep...

Farah Nasri is a UK qualified teacher in dance and foreign languages. She began her belly dance career when she was a college student in London, and in 2014 she moved to Cairo. Today her Farah Nasri Dance Labs is the place to find the highest quality classes in Egyptian dance, theory, history, language, and culture! She is an active performer in Cairo, organizer of special course Belly Dance on Lo...

Tiffany started the Bellydance Bundle in 2017, bringing together dancers who had content online to create one massive showcase for what was available at the time. Now, year over year she brings together teachers and builds communities around the idea of an at-home practice. From lectures on language and culture to dances of all different MENAT & fusion styles, Tiffany brings together groups of...

Shining is a performer, instructor and researcher of Egyptian traditional dances, whose work emphasizes the cultural and historical influences on the medium of dance in and from Egypt. She is the founder of  http://www.banatmazin.com , a website dedicated to the legacy of the famous Luxor-based family, created in cooperation with Khyria Mazin to provide recorded lessons, interviews, song...

This episode includes Iana’s lecture that was recorded specifically for the upcoming intensive at the Iana Dance Club “Cairo Dance Guide”. You will hear about Iana’s experience of attending a bunch of dance festivals in Cairo during summer 2023, and her observations about current trends present in the Egyptian dance style. Check the entire collection of available intensives at www.ianadanceclub.co...

Charafe is not just a dancer, he is one of the few, if not the only, male belly dancer in Morocco. He tries to lead a life as normal as possible in Casablanca. He teaches dance, makes choreographies for belly dancers, and participates in modern dance performances of his friends Ahlam and Wajdi. Charafe managed to establish dance classes in Casablanca, spreading awareness and education of various d...

We all love belly dance. But there is so much beyond oriental, in the field of folklore dances. Let’s listen to the stories of Apsara Afsanesara, Nada El Masriya , Samantha Burnstein and Gigi Dilsah, who found joy in exploring various folklore dances of the Near East and North Africa. Show Notes to this episode: Full interviews with our guests: Ep 20. Apsara Afsanesara: What Do You Know About Pers...

Zara is an Egyptian dancer currently based in Cairo. She has worked professionally as a dancer for over 17 years, including last 6 years specifically in Egypt. Zara has stared in various music videos and Bollywood films. Most recently she was featured in a film together with famous shaabi singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim and in a Ramadan special TV drama featuring Dina and Haifa Web. Her dancing has tak...

Having a multidisciplinary background and an unending thirst for all things dance, Diana Soto has performed in belly dance companies as well as flamenco and modern dance companies. She believes that the best innovation is rooted in tradition, so she has travelled to Egypt, Turkey, Spain and lived for a while in Beirut to study in depth the roots of the dances. Originally from Puerto Rico...

Khaled Mahmoud is an Egyptian dancer from Cairo, currently based in London, UK. He specializes in oriental Raqs Sharki style, although his knowledge is also deeply routed in all kinds of Egyptian folklore. His style is very energetic and graceful at the same time. Khaled was a star at the International Bellydance Congress in the UK, and he is very much in demand teaching and performing in various...

This episode includes Iana’s lecture that was recorded specifically for the upcoming intensive at the Iana Dance Club “Cairo Dance Guide”. You will hear about Iana’s experience of attending a bunch of dance festivals in Cairo during summer 2023, and a collection of practical tips that would be useful for your future activities at festivals. Check the entire collection of available intensives at ww...