I always danced, starting from womb-time. My family would have me enrolled in some type of movement program: ballet, jazz, martial arts, gymnastics. Early in 1991 I experienced some difficult times of the heart, on the way to discovering my spiritual path… In a dream of that time, I saw myself seated atop a great cliff, under an old gnarly tree, playing a drum; the vision was accompanied by a deep sense of peace. So pretty soon I was enrolled in a drumming class series—the first one was African—and began to find myself involved in musical projects with people. The first times I remember seeing bellydance in Portland, Oregon, had been in the year or two prior to this creative awakening, and by the time I had been drumming for a half year, the seed had ripened and I found my first teacher, Aurelia. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Watching the movements of bellydance and then practicing them in class, they felt so natural, as though they were made for my body.

My first teacher, Aurelia, was an excellent teacher for me. She enjoyed the feeling of dance in the body, and was in tune with her own body. She had studied with Badawia, a prominent dancer in Portland’s early bellydance scene, from Jordan—and she had a nice jaunty feel for the dance, plus her own easy sense of glamour and down-to-earth presence. After a year with Aurelia, practicing intensively with my workout partner Joe, I began to perform in Portland clubs, often late night weekends, with live Greek bands.
It was around that time that I was turned on to the Gypsy Caravan and began studying tribal style with Paulette Rees-Denis. Paulette’s mysterious vision for the dance and the allure of the chemistry between the dancers and musicians of the Caravan swept me up in the current of the world of Gypsy Caravan. I began to perform with the troupe after some time, and my solo work and the evolving tribal style interwove and took turns at the center of my world. While Aurelia’s work taught me how to use what I have available and dance with sincerity and precision, Paulette helped me to find other sources from which to draw for the mystique and power of the dance. She helped me discover my fire.

My third main teacher has been Dalia Carella, whom I discovered oh, about 7 years ago at workshops in Portland and Mendocino. I found Dalia’s passion, vision, and staging quite compelling and began to study with her whenever I got the chance. Finally she made the invitation to come to New York and dance in her company off-Broadway at the Duke Theatre, for In Search of a Goddess: Inspirations of the Divine Enchantress Ruth St. Denis. Working intensively with Dalia in production has proven to be both sincerely challenging and truly rewarding.

I have learned (and continue to learn) from many others, in class and workshop, in Raks Sharki, folklore, and fusion: Artemis and Tayyar, Yousry Sharif, Elena Lentini, Sahra, Suhaila, Amel Tafsout, Amaya, Alexandra King, Laurel Victoria Gray, Jill Parker, Rachel Brice, Rossah, Kajira, Khadija & Mustapha, Hassan Harfouche and Yasser Darwish on Dabke; Carlota, Fali, Jose Molina and Victorio in Flamenco, Mariecella Devine in hip hop; Lampreia, Pedro Cruz, and Nicolo in Capoeira, Donna Oefinger and Michelle in Samba and AfroBrazilian, Angel Burgos and my dad in Salsa, Najmah for Kathak, Nada for sacred circle dances, plus various instructors in aerial dance, ritual trance, yoga, jazz, modern, ballet, martial arts, and theatre. I continue to study and cross-train as much as possible, and I usually take three to five classes a week in various dances and yoga, plus I work out and run at intervals.

How would you describe yourself as a dancer?

I am versatile and dynamic, strong, generous, genuine. I am extremely musical and spiritual in my approach to dance. I am theatrical and expressive. I try to be very creative and bring new elements to the dance each time I perform. I hope that my shows are exciting, beautiful, deep, empowering, enriching. I believe in the power of the connections between divine force, music, dancer, and viewer, and in the uniqueness of each moment spent in such connection.

Do you prefer to choreograph or improvise?

I prefer the feeling of improvisation, creating the dance in the moment from the elements therein; but I do believe there is value in choreographing for stage work and group dynamic. A nice compromise is the practice of landmarking and pre-staging a piece and leaving the in-between up to chance (magic).

People sometimes refer to you as an American Cabaret style dancer; do you agree with this description?

I’d say that was my initial order of the study of bellydance. The kind that was being performed in the clubs of this country as I was coming into existence, that sprung mainly from Turkish, Arabic, and Greek roots, and expressed with an American sensibility. But I like to think I have more than one trick up my sleeve. I have enjoyed working in tribal troupes, working on Egyptian choreographies, developing Nouveau Tribal Fusion, and working on ethnic contemporary dance theatre (especially in the Dalia Collective). I really like to try to immerse myself in different things.

Which props do you prefer?

Oh, I love the veil and the sword. Veil is like dancing with the wind, the breath. With sword I like using combat techniques as well as balancing. I have received coaching in Kung Fu, Philippine stick fighting, and Ninja for this, but I still have plenty of work to do. Lately Dalia has been making me fall in love with the Spanish fan too. Then there are my Moroccan qarqaba, more of an instrument than prop, but have an interesting visual impact as well. Dalia has asked me to play them for her dances on a couple of occasions, and sometimes I will incorporate them into my dances for an instant trancey feel. They really take you somewhere.

What music do you prefer?

Oh my goodness. There is so much to choose from in this vast genre. I really do like some of the modern ethnotechno music, with acoustic instruments played and club dance beats mixed in—that’s especially nice for some of the tribal theatric. I do enjoy a good driving rhythm; a fat Saiidi has a way of moving one. And some of the Arabic classics, especially when they wind things up and then drop back down into a munchin Saiidi or deep Beledi… ooooh yeah. Arabic music is just so moving. Particularly when played by a nice big band. I like dancing to Arabic pop now and again; people are so comfortable listening to it. I love many types of Trance music, notably the Gnawa, and percussions of the world. I’m a percussion freak. I recently discovered a band called Stereognosis that does a really nice fusion of Spanish guitar styles, Arabic & Indian tabla, modern beats/drum&bass, plus a twist of the jazzy. I’ve got wide tastes, but I’m also finicky. Music is very important to me.

What is your greatest source of inspiration?

The music is such an inspiration. So is the audience, the watchers of the dance. That connection you feel like an arc of electricity cycling through dancer, music(ians), viewers, infused with energy. I am inspired by the beautiful dancers around me and the beauty of the world’s cultures and lands. Nature has many gifts for the dancer: wind, fire, water, trees, a bird, a snake… The breath, love, loss, experience… Life is an inspiration to dance. We have no choice but to dance.

What is the most fulfilling part of being a dancer?

When people approach you and thank you for your dance or teaching, clearly moved or lifted by an experience of it. Connecting with some of the really amazingly dynamic and intelligent people who gravitate towards the circle of these dances. Being able to travel and share dance. Discovering ways that we can use our dance in service to the world, and finding ourselves involved in global collaboration.

Do you have another career, or is it 100% dance?
I am grateful for my career in the healing arts that helps me support my passion for dance, and which helps me stay in tune with my body. I have been a massage therapist for 8 years, specializing in deep tissue and the dancer’s body. It’s almost just another branch of dance—it uses some of the same energy flow. I am often working to expand my career further in complementary ways. Just now I am finishing up the program to become a personal trainer. I like helping people find the physical element of their practice that will make them feel most alive and best suit their lives. This study will help me with that goal.

Do you teach? Have a troupe? Put on productions?

I really enjoy teaching. It always challenges me to develop exciting techniques to practice what can always use strengthening. It draws from a different place for new material and new concepts. With beginners, you find ways of clarifying the foundation, new ways of sensing familiar things. Just as there are thousands of ways to kneel and kiss the ground, there are thousands of ways to sense the execution of a proper hip drop. I like helping people find and connect with the sensation of dance in the body. The possible nuances available in the music. The strength and the subtlety. It’s an exciting challenge when you find yourself in a position of teaching performers, professionals, or your peers and even mentors. Then you really need to dig deep for your current best material, and be prepared to give it up, and clearly, and beautifully.

Lately I’ve been traveling a lot, between NY and Portland and elsewhere, so I’ve been teaching specific workshops, like single day or 4 week programs, rather than regular classes. That works nicely. In January I will head for Texas for the 3rd Coast Tribal   Jan 6-9 (www.urbangypsy.cc), to teach and perform with Urban Gypsy, Tribal Feat, and Sharon Kihara, exploring the expansiveness of Tribal bellydance. I’ll be in San Diego teaching the weekend of the 20th, for Jim Boz’s big fancy hafla www.jimboz.com. They’re developing drink specials just for this event by the way. These people don’t mess around. 

Troupes… well, I had to leave the Gypsy Caravan to do my work in New York, alas—that’s a fun company to be in! But I’m really enjoying working in the Dalia Carella Dance Collective. It’s kind of on a per-project basis, but when we have a project, we rehearse really hard. Dalia thinks of it as a collective because she really tries to use the various strengths and talents of the dancers, and we all help to design some of the choreographies. I also have another project slowly forming, exploring theatrical ideas in modern and ancient bellydance. For now it’s called Spiral. I’m working with dancers in different locations, and this will also manifest on a per project basis.

I love doing productions from time to time. Back in April I brought the Spark tour to New York for workshops and threw a show called the Cirque du Chat Noir with them. It was an exploration of the edges of modern bellydance fusion: we brought in circus arts and hip hop, theatrics and ritual, Flamenco and Tango, extreme yoga and sword wielding; then we threw in a touch of high-quality modern Egyptian and tribal. People loved it. Back in Portland in September I got some folks together for a Katrina benefit. It was called Lamentation and Celebration for New Orleans. We had Capoeira and Salsa as well as a nice representation of the dynamic Portland bellydance scene. It’s meaningful to see the amazing community of artists gather for a cause. People are so good at what they do. 

We raised almost $2000, and it was disbursed between MercyCorps, Habitat for Humanity, American Wetlands, preservation Hall Musicians Fund, and special scholarships for New Orleans dancers. It felt so good, and again people loved the show. I’m very proud of another project in NY and now beyond that I co founded: Public Urban Ritual Experiment, PURE. I and my friend the amazing Kaeshi Chai started thinking of a dance project to sanctify the lines and shadows of the city along with ways of pulling together community and being of service in the world. A year and a half later, we have @ 7 branches throughout the US and a few seeds internationally, and we are collaborating with amazing dance-minded individuals and organizations on ways of facilitating these issues. www.puredance.org has more info and videos and such.

What do you see as far as trends for the future of this dance?

I like to think that the future of this dance includes service in its complete vision; the dance community as a forum to explore natural ways of being of service, taking our place in global community. I see deepening of cultural understanding and knowledge of traditional dances, but also I see a reaching beyond what has been done, incorporating theatrics, edginess, yoga, circus, shamanism, sacred dance, and fusion-with-integrity of an expanding list of world dances and personal and divine expressions. Things seem to get more extreme and more pure at the same time, stretching, reaching out in opposite directions.