Amel Tafsout, was fascinated by traditional dancers and musicians in her culture since childhood. Her curiosity is still prominent today as she is always expanding her knowledge and sharing it with others. Amel wears many hats, she is a sociolinguist with anthropologist research, a scholar, language instructor, frame drummer, poet, published author, an energy worker, and an activist.

Tafsout has dedicated her life to raise awareness and knowledge about her dance culture and to facilitate a dialogue between Arab-North African and Western women. The new North African dancers look up to her.

Amel is fluent in five languages and has traveled, performed, lectured, researched, and taught in several different countries. She has been featured in various TV programs in Europe and North Africa. She has also published many articles related to dance and Maghreb women in academic and popular magazines.

The knowledge, wisdom, and care she shares is something that people from all over the world gravitate towards. When learning from Amel or watching her perform, not only does she take you on a cultural journey, but also on a spiritual journey.

In June 2018, Inanna Iraqi Dance Festival in Estonia gave Amel an Award of acknowledgment and appreciation for her longstanding contributions in Arabic dance and its heritage.

Lenka Badriyah, a Czech dancer, is an experienced teacher with over 15 years of teaching and performing in various dance troupes. She danced alongside Jillina in Bellydance Evolution for a decade, showcasing her skills in over 60 shows worldwide. As the organizer of Leylet Raqs festivals, she contributes to the local dance community in Belgium.

Passionate about Raqs Sharqi and its history, Badriyah specializes in Golden Era Bellydance and avidly studies legendary Egyptian dancers. Her extensive collection of over 400 vintage items, including postcards, vinyl records, posters, and rare signed photos, is shared through her online museum. Currently, she is working on establishing a physical Raqs Sharqi Museum in Belgium.

In addition to her dance career, Lenka works as a space weather application scientist, focusing on space safety initiatives by the European Space Agency. As a science communicator, she leads educational projects for blind and visually impaired children.

Dance Archivist is a half-European half-Lebanese woman who lives in Beirut. Obsessive and passionate by nature, she is often willing to abandon her current tasks to spend hours searching and unearthing forgotten dance scenes. Rather than being an expert or an academic, Dance Archivist belongs to the community of collectors, excavators, and homemade archivists: those who record TV and radio programs from their couch, diligently explore markets, delve into personal archives, and love sharing their rare finds.

Dhara is a belly dance artist, mental health clinician, yogi and artistic director of Aranya Belly Dance & Movement. Born and brought up in the colourful land of India, she has grown up with dance and yoga around her. She started her journey in the art of belly dancing more than 14 years ago.

Her belly dance journey took her around the world. She travelled to China to represent India in The Global Belly Dance Conference and has been invited as a Master Teacher in events and festivals internationally. In 2019, Dhara moved to Canada where she established Aranya Belly Dance and Movement, her own belly dance school.

Dhara’s work as a mental health clinician started in 2016 after graduating with a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. She has experience working in hospitals and schools and is now a Clinical Director. Her practice focuses on supporting modern, creative professionals and artists with mental health challenges through therapy and coaching.

Drake von Trapp is a multi-award-winning interdisciplinary belly dancer and emergent scholar based in North Texas and Chicago. His dynamic style is an interplay of raqs sharqi, West African vernacular dances, and classical training in contemporary modern dance and ballet. He also holds Stage 1 and 2 Trained Teacher status in April Rose’s “Dance Cohesion” raqs sharqi format, as well as a NASM personal trainer certification. 

Drake’s combined love of dance and research led him to study dance academically, earning a bachelor’s in contemporary modern dance. His groundbreaking undergraduate thesis, “Masculinity in American Belly Dance”, has been described as a “wonderful piece of dance scholarship” that has provided an “insightful and important” perspective on belly dance culture in North America, and was awarded the “Excellence in Undergraduate Writing” and “Outstanding Undergraduate Student” scholarships. His master’s thesis, an oral history of the late belly dancer John Compton, is set to be published in 2023. 

Presently, Drake stays busy with thesis revisions and PhD applications while managing a busy touring schedule with both Bellydance Evolution and The Radiant Tarot belly dance shows. He also gets into trouble with his dance partner Kamrah conceptualizing dance projects as “Raqs al Taneen” (the Dancing Dragons).

Christine (“Shiraz”) Şahin is a dance practitioner-scholar and ethnographer specializing in contemporary raqs sharqi and other Egyptian vernacular and performative dance genres. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Dance at the University of Washington in the USA. Her research focuses on interweaving critical dance, performance, and Middle Eastern corporeality studies through creative ethnography. Şahin has a Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Delaware. She has professionally performed and taught raqs sharqi and other Egyptian dances throughout the East and West coasts for over fifteen years.

Julia Farid – a professional oriental dance artist, instructor and choreographer from Ukraine. Organizer of Isadora Cup Festival, “Dream & Dance” Intensive Course, founder of Tips4hips online platform, Isadora Dance Academy based in Ukraine and Isadora design studio that creates unique costumes for dancers all over the world. 

By virtue of her excellent teachings skills, deep knowledge of oriental dance and bright performances Julia Farid has become an internationally renowned artist and has been invited to teach to more than 30 countries. Annually she gives workshops and performs at 20−30 bellydance events worldwide.Julia Farid is known for her elegant and feminine way of dancing as well as for introducing Golden Era style on stage mixed with modern oriental dance.

Kaidi Udris is an Estonian oriental dance teacher and choreographer with a Bachelor degree in choreorgraphy from Tallinn University. Before moving to Egypt, Kaidi worked as full-time dance teacher in Estonia and travelled to about 1001 bellydance festivals across Europe to learn, teach, perform and grow as an artist.

She moved to Egypt in 2011 and soon signed a contract with Cairo Opera House. She was a soloist dancer in the modern dance heritage company “Forsan El Sharq”. In addition to her work in Cairo Opera, she also danced for video clips, flash-mobs, TV-series and Egyptian movies.

Nowadays Kaidi is back in Estonia, a mother to a small prince and a princess, organizing annual student concerts and Tallinn Oriental Dance Festival. She has released 2 comedy short – films: “Bellydance Nightmares” (2022) and “Bellydance Addiction” (2023).

Teacher, dancer, ethnologist of African in origin dances and choreographer for 22 years. I am very thankful to be considered one of the most influential names in Arabic dance and folklore.

I am based in Denver, CO (USA), I am of Kenyan descent born in KSA. I am known for having unique didactics of Afro-Arabian Folklore, music and its cultural aspects. In fortunate addition to being highly sought after in the Denver community I can be seen performing live in Denver’s top establishments. I am thankful to have been invited in the past and current to teach and perform in various US states and abroad.

I continue to perfect my dance education by studying with great masters and composers of Afro-Arabian Dances worldwide. I constantly travel to improve my approach, stylization, technique and cultural aspects of the dances and the culture embedded deep within the foundations of the African diaspora.

I am the owner and creator of various online platforms that already have students, dancers and musicians from all over the world to enjoy.

Kamrah is Chicago’s first (but not only!) trans masculine belly dancer. He has been dancing since 2001, and has traveled all over the USA to teach and perform in multiple styles of belly dance. Kamrah is known for his killer isolations, creativity, and theatrical pieces, as well as his informed and compassionate teaching methods. As he was recently diagnosed with both autism and ADHD, Kamrah has started focusing on how to work with and use those “superpowers” in his practice, as well as advocate for neurodivergent performers.

Coach Katie (formerly known as Katie Sahar) is a vibrant and spirited individual originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, now calling Cairo, Egypt home. With her social media savvy, she has become a true maven in the online world. She’s the brain behind the #SocialShimmy challenge, dedicated to helping dancers level up their game both online and in their businesses. Through her courses and coaching, Katie guides artists and creatives in embracing personal branding, social media mastery, and essential business principles. Her mission? To free them from scarcity mindsets and empower them to transform their dreams into reality.

Laska performed in Bellydance Evolution’s Seattle Wizard of Oz in July 2022. She also earned her Bellyqueen Teacher Training Certificate from Bellyqueen NYC in 2022 and completed Journey through Egypt Levels 1 and 2. She produced a MENAHT Dance show in 2021 thanks to a grant from the Connecticut Dance Alliance. Laska trained primarily in raqs sharqi in New York, Boston, and Hartford and extensively online with master dancers around the globe. She spent five years dancing with the Fat Chance Belly Dance troupe, Lynchburg Tribal, in Virginia. She contributed a short video of her research on Little Egypt to the al Raqs Conference October 2022. She will give the full presentation this year. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her love of dance and art history converged in this topic. Her presentation stems from research on Little Egypt and the introduction of belly dance to the US, which she is currently revising to publish as an article.

Hailed as ‘queen of the qanun’, Maya Youssef is a globally renowned, and award-winning qanun player and composer from Syria. Born in Damascus, as a result of the war in her home country Maya arrived in the UK in 2012, under the UK Government’s Tier 1 visa scheme, endorsed by Arts CouncilEngland as an Exceptional Talent.

Since then, Maya has pushed the boundaries of the qanun (a 78-stringed plucked zither traditionally played by men) and has performed at the South Bank, BBCProms, Royal Albert Hall, The Barbican, Shakespeare’s Globe and WOMAD Festival. Maya has collaborated with Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz) and recorded for ‘The Beatles & India Documentary in Abbey Road Studios.

Her debut album, Syrian Dreams (a prayer for peace), was produced by Joe Boydand released by Harmonia Mundi. The album received critical acclaim from the media. “Exquisite…a powerful homage, twists Arabic musicclichés”, The Guardian. “An album of skill and power…a dizzying sweep of genres from flamenco to jazz. A transportive cinematic listen”The Musician Magazine (The MU). Syrian Dreams won the German Record Critics’ Award and Songlines Music Award. This led to many UK and international sold-out concerts.

Maya was awarded a PRS Women Make Music Grant and an Arts CouncilEngland Project Grant Towards recording her second album, ‘Finding Home’ which was released March 25th 2022. The album received 5-star reviews from international and UK press and was nominated to the prestigious German Record Critics’ Award. In September 2022 Finding Home was no.1 in the Transglobal World Music Chart; in December 2022 Songlines Magazine listed as one their 10 BestAlbums of the year. Alongside the composition and performance aspects of her career, Maya is also a consummate and skilled educator, leading her own online qanun academy with students all over the world, contributing to a wide variety of learning and participation opportunities through talks, lectures workshops and broadcasts. Maya’s compositions, recordings, performances, and her life story have been the subject of extensive reviews, and she is a frequent broadcaster. Her website, mayayoussef.com, provides a comprehensive archive, as well as more detailed biographical information, audio and video.

Melissa is an award-winning dancer based in Toronto, Canada. Her fluid movement style and refined musical interpretation have made her an internationally admired Raqs Sharqi (bellydance) artist.

Melissa has been invited to teach and perform across Canada, the USA, Europe and Egypt. As an experienced instructor, her classes and workshops are sought after for her attention to technique as well as her knowledge of historical and cultural contexts. Melissa also regularly travels to Egypt for her own training, in order to bring the most informed and up-to-date teachings to her local and international students

Melissa is known for her Golden Era dance styling, and her mastery of Sagat (finger cymbals), for which she was invited to play at the Cairo Opera House in 2021. She was also honoured to train Egyptian actress Nada Moussa for her role as the feisty Sha’abi singer/dancer Azza in the popular 2022 Ramadan series “El Meshwar.”

She is the Director of the Ya Amar School of Dance, with the goal of providing comprehensive training in various Egyptian dance styles. Melissa has also gained a reputation as a top-notch event producer for bringing rising stars, scholars and master instructors to the Canadian dance scene.

I’m a self-taught belly dancer, it started when I was 10 years young dancing in a family gathering. It only needed that one person to realize my talent for it to be unlocked! I embraced it ever since, watching myself in the mirror as I feel the music and follow the rhythm. The movement was translated through my body for me to enjoy every moment.

Growth and expansion are two of my core values, I always want to learn more. I take classes, courses, workshops mainly related to belly dancing Khaleeji styles. Also, I love discovering my own potential so I keep challenging myself by trying different forms of dance such as Ballet, Salsa, and Afro. 

I teach belly dancing for beginners in the UAE. I believe that dancing has a great healing aspect to us as human beings. That is why my methodology when teaching is creating a safe space for the person to feel comfortable to connect to their body and to allow them to feel. This generates a sense of awareness to the body and to the emotions being experienced.

I’m currently in my journey on being a professional dancer which boosts my knowledge, enhance my skills and support my clients in various ways possible.

Nisaa (Heather D. Ward) is a Middle Eastern dance instructor, performer, and researcher based in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.  As an instructor and performer, Nisaa specializes in Egyptian raqs sharqi (belly dance).  Her repertoire also includes Egyptian folkloric dance, including baladi, ghawazi, and sa’idi dance styles, as well as folkloric styles from the Levant and the Persian Gulf.  As a researcher, Nisaa focuses on the history of Egyptian dance and its professional practitioners.  Her investigations into the transition from awalim and ghawazi dance styles to classical raqs sharqi at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries led to the publication of her first book, Egyptian Belly Dance in Transition: The Raqs Sharqi Revolution, 1890-1930, in 2018.  Nisaa’s research has also been published in a variety of Middle Eastern dance related books and magazines, including The Gilded Serpent and The Belly Dance Chronicles.

​Nisaa began her studies of Middle Eastern dance with several well-known dancers in Missouri and Illinois, and over the course of her dance career, she has continued to attend master classes, seminars, and workshops with internationally-renowned dancers such as Aisha Ali, Farida Fahmy, Mahmoud Reda, Sahra Saeeda, and Yousry Sharif, among others.  She travels regularly to Egypt for research.  In addition to her dance training, Nisaa holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and history from Kent State University and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Nisaa’s academic background rounds out her dance training and provides the foundation for her meticulous approach to the study of Middle Eastern dance.

​Through excellent instruction, outstanding performances, and original research, Nisaa presents Middle Eastern dance as a living, dynamic folk art and a window into the rich heritage of the peoples and cultures of the Middle East.

Raphael Cormack is an Assistant Professor of Arabic at Durham University. His research focuses on modern Egyptian performance and popular culture. His latest book, Midnight in Cairo, is a history of Egypt’s early 20th century entertainment scene.

Sahra C Kent (aka Sahra Saeeda) is a Dance Ethnologist with decades of experience in performance and research, with Degrees in Dance, Cultural Anthropology, Archeology, and Dance Ethnology.  

Sahra’s performance background is in both Raqs Sharqi and Egyptian Folkloric stage. She danced nearly 6 years at the Meridian-Heliopolis, over 1600 hour-long shows with her live orchestra and often with her folkloric dancers. She then performed and taught across continents around the world. 

Sahra’s interest in, and her passion to share, the Dance Ethnology of the regions of Egypt led her to develop the “Journey through Egypt – JtE” Program of Classroom instruction and On-site Tours in Egypt.

Italy

Cairo, Egypt