Heather (Henna) Louise is a performer, teacher, and life long student of Middle Eastern music and dance based in Portland, Oregon. After studying belly dance for five years, life took Heather to Asia where she began her performing career in the restaurant gig scene of Tokyo, Japan. Along with her dance partners, she worked with the live band Alladeen and co-founded the Tokyo International Bellydance Competition. Since returning to Portland in 2008, Heather has taught and performed at...

In order to find emotional connection with Baladi, you need to understand its cultural environment, and typical archetypes that are often associated with Baladi women. Let’s dive into this topic in this solo episode with Iana!

Randa Kamel is one of the most famous Egyptian dancers with her own unique style full of energy, as well as a teacher who has shared her knowledge with thousand of students all around the world. At the age of 15, she began studying folklore with the famous Reda group. After 7 years Randa transitioned into her solo career as a professional oriental dancer in Alexandria. Later moved on to Cairo, and quickly became a performer at the Meridien hotel, sharing the stage with legendary Fifi Abdou....

Sylvia Yssei began her dance training in 2000 with Jazz, and throughout the years she included Flamenco, Spanish, Classical and Contemporary dances in her training. Later she discovered bellydance, and eventually Tribal Fusion dance and Ori Tahiti (Tahitian dance). Both became a powerful means of expression for her in a complementary, but at the same time very different ways. Along with her dance explorations, she studied Psychology at the University of Barcelona, which has definitely helped...

Izel Kirana started her dance journey almost 15 years ago. Originally from Barcelona, she fell in love with belly dance, tribal fusion style, and eventually Indian culture and art. 5 years ago she embarked on multiple journeys to India in search of its classical dances and folklore, training in Rajasthani folklore dance, Kalbelia dance, Kathak dance and Indian fusion.

Amanda Rose is an internationally acclaimed instructor and performer based in Barcelona, Spain. In addition to over a decade of teaching experience, and almost 2 decades of experience with Raqs Sharqi, she also has a master's degree in Dance Movement Therapy from La Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Alongside her background in sociology and language studies, Amanda Rose’s academic experiences greatly shape her approach to dance, art, culture, and pedagogy. She has received wide recognition...

Raphael Cormack has a PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on Egyptian theatre from the University of Edinburgh. He is currently Assistant Professor in Arabic Studies at Durham University. An award-winning editor and translator, Cormack is the editor of The Book of Cairo and the co-editor of The Book of Khartoum. His writing on Arab culture has appeared in the London Review of Books, Prospect and TLS, among others. Raphael Cormack is the author of Midnight in Cairo: The...

Colleena Shakti is an artist of great subtlety and depth. Trained extensively in Odissi classical dance under Smt. Sujata Mohapatra and well-versed in many styles of dance from India and beyond, Colleena lives an artistic path steeped in rich tradition. Yoga, aesthetics and related philosophies are an integral part of her holistic vision of art inspiring her to bridge timeless values with modern expression. She has performed for former president of India (Pratibha Patil), royal families...

Julia Farid, a professional oriental dance artist, instructor, and choreographer originally from Ukraine, is renowned for her elegant and feminine dance style. Her contributions extend beyond the stage, as she has organized prestigious events like the Isadora Cup Festival, "Dream & Dance" Intensive Course, and founded Tips4hips online platform. With deep knowledge of oriental dance and captivating performances, she has become an internationally acclaimed artist, annually giving workshops...

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 Superstars” as a featured soloist. Through a professional dance career of 26 years, Boženka has been...

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 such as Bharatnatyam and Odissi. She has a keen interests in popping, waacking, yoga and she...

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!

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 collaborated and presented many multidisciplinary art pieces such as “FrauenGold'' Video Exhibition in...

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 for self-analysis. So, get ready to learn some tricks for refining your dance moves, enhancing...

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 in Cairo where she regularly performs. She also teaches at the largest festival in Egypt, "Raqs...

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 finalist on Egypt’s first bellydance competition TV show, “Al Rakessa” in 2014. Arielle returned to...

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, she believes that this style of dance changes a woman’s whole attitude towards herself and her...

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.

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 be transferred to the next year, and you continue pursuing your dance goals beyond January…

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 dance as part of the cast Ballet Internacional Munique Neith in Barcelona, Spain to perform at...

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 worked in Brazil, Portugal, New Zealand, Egypt, Italy, Germany, Spain and of course in France,...

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 charity shows for Syria. Delya is a mother of a 4-year old daughter, who inspired her to write 2...

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 dance group The Blue Dot Ensemble.

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.