MEET THE
SPEAKERS 2027

Amanda Rose

Spain/USA

Amanda Rose is an internationally recognized instructor, performer, educator, and Dance Movement Therapist based in Barcelona, Spain. With more than two decades of experience in Middle Eastern dance, her work sits at the intersection of performance, pedagogy, creativity, embodiment, and therapeutic movement practice.

Her approach is shaped by an academic background in sociology and a master’s degree in Dance Movement Therapy. Her graduate thesis explored the therapeutic capacities of Middle Eastern dance within a Western context, reflecting a long-standing interest in how these forms can support embodiment, expression, identity, connection, and personal exploration beyond the stage.

Alongside her work as a performer and teacher, Amanda facilitates Dance Movement Therapy groups and individual sessions, both online and in person. She also works extensively with dancers around creative and artistic development, movement exploration, feedback, and the process of developing a more intentional relationship with their own movement and artistic voice.

For more than 10 years, she has also developed and taught through her online platform, Amanda Rose Online, offering classes, long-distance training projects, coaching, creative development, and personalized feedback to dancers internationally. Her teaching is informed by her experience as both a professional dancer and therapist, with a strong emphasis on helping dancers deepen their understanding of movement, creativity, embodiment, and Middle Eastern dance practice.

Arielle of Cairo

USA/Egypt

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 Cairo in December of 2019 and has been gracing the stage all around Egypt ever since! Online live and recorded classes are available every Sunday.

Anny al Anyqa

Germany/Switzerland

I am a professional Dancer (Egyptian Dance Styles), licensed Psychologist and Psychotherapist. I have been dancing Egyptian dances for over 19 years now, with 15 years of performance experience. I have been teaching classes, workshops and privates since 2011 with international Gigs in Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and Nepal. Currently offering workshops online several times a year, as well as online private coaching.
As a psychologist I discovered dance as an effective tool for emotional transformation and self-expression as well as self-discovery. In my teaching I combine Egyptian dance technique with psychological and somatopsychological mechanisms to help dancers find and develop their own, unique dance personality and help them to find ways of emotional self-expression that are both authentic and culturally adequate.

Drake von Trapp

USA

Drake von Trapp is a fusion belly dance historian, researcher, teacher, and performer, recognized for his pioneering research on male belly dancers in the U.S. He holds a BA and MA in Dance, a post-master’s in Multicultural Women’s and Gender Studies from Texas Woman’s University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Performance Studies at UT Austin. His biographical and analytical work on male belly dancers and fusion belly dance history has sparked generative discussions about fusion belly dance lineage, gender, and masculinity.

Fernanda 

Australia

Fernanda is an internationally recognised Raqs Sharqi teacher, dancer and mentor with more than three decades of experience in the field. Her relationship with the art form spans most of her life and has developed across professional performance, teaching, mentorship, research and ongoing professional study.

Originally from Brazil, Fernanda’s career has taken her across the world. She lived and worked professionally as a dancer in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) and has travelled extensively throughout the region, particularly Egypt, to train, research and learn from dancers, musicians and teachers. These experiences have been fundamental to the artist, educator and mentor she is today.

Now based in Australia, Fernanda is known for an approach that combines strong technical foundations with musicality, improvisation, cultural understanding and individual artistic development. She is less interested in teaching dancers to reproduce movement than in developing their capacity to understand what they are dancing, respond to music with sensitivity and confidence, and develop an artistic voice of their own.

Alongside her career in dance, Fernanda is a PACFA-accredited psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing® practitioner. Her professional understanding of embodiment, the nervous system, relationships and emotional processes brings a distinctive depth to her work as a teacher and mentor.

Her work extends beyond dance technique into the psychological and relational realities of being a dancer: creativity and self-doubt, performance anxiety, comparison, changing bodies, professional identity, longevity, artistic transitions and the complexities of navigating dance communities and careers.

Her teaching is warm, direct, creative and trauma-informed. She creates spaces that are rigorous without being intimidating, supportive without removing challenge, and deeply committed to the art while preserving the pleasure, curiosity and humanity of learning.

Fernanda continues to travel, study, research and evolve her practice. Her work reflects the depth of a life spent not only dancing, but thinking deeply about how dancers learn, create, relate, develop and sustain themselves within an art form.

George Sawa

Canada/Egypt

Qanun performer and theorist and historian of Arabic music.

Chrystelle

Spain

Chrystelle is an art historian specializing in Cinema. She currently works in the Art Department for films, TV series, and documentaries, contributing to set creation and props management. She has also directed and choreographed various audiovisual dance pieces, exploring the relationship between these two disciplines. In parallel, she has always been connected to Oriental dance. After discovering and studying various styles with both, Spanish and international instructors, she found her ideal place in Egyptian Raqs Sharqi from the Golden Era. This period of Egyptian dance, allows her to combine her two passions: dance and cinema. She continues to train and specialize in these decades, delivering both practical and theoretical workshops.

Jéssica Prestes

Brasil

Jessica Prestes is a Romani Dance performer, historian, and is currently pursuing academic studies in Psychology. She is a leading reference in this modality in Brazil, particularly for connecting historical research to the development and understanding of Romani dances around the world.

Juniper Nichols

USA/New Zealand

I’m a fourth generation dancer and educator, originally from rural Northern California. Studying American cultural history is not only satisfying for my curiosity, but is also a way of understanding my family’s roots in various arts and social justice movements. I grew up marching with them, and hanging out in many classes, rehearsals, and green rooms before I was old enough to be in shows myself. I am the first in my family to specialize in raqs sharqi, although I’ve had many other creative endeavors as well. I have always been fascinated with visual art, dance, music, and perhaps above all – books. 

After obtaining my degree in Art, Spanish, and Creative Writing, I began studying “bellydance” in 2003. I was fortunate to have early exposure to live music and many different world-class teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area. My omnivorous diet of dance instruction gave me a breadth of perspective, which would later become the foundation of my own classes, themed on dance history modules.

After moving to New Zealand in 2018, I began teaching yearly themes based on certain periods and styles, such as Egyptian Golden Era, vintage cabaret, a jazz fusion review of the last 100 years, Egyptian pop, saidi assaya, and ghawazee sagat. I also developed my own fusion tool set called Progressive Raqs, focused on prog rock music and a different approach to group improv. 

Research mode is arguably my favorite part of the creative process, following various rabbit holes and connecting the dots. This has led me to many books and old film clips which are not generally circulated in our dance industry. These are relevant not only to my dance, but also my evolving understanding of feminism, equity, and inclusion. I hope that my “aha” moments resonate with you and inspire further research of your own.

Luna Poumian

Mexico

I am a Mexican belly dancer, choreographer, educator, creative director, and the founder of Casa Luna Dance Studio. For over a decade, I have dedicated my career to performance, choreography, education, production, and the development of artistic communities.

Throughout my career, I have collaborated with international dance companies, including more than ten years with Bellydance Evolution, and participated in large-scale artistic productions in a variety of creative, educational, and leadership roles. These experiences, together with leading my own school and artistic projects, have shaped my perspective on collaboration, communication, and the work that transforms vision into reality.

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and a Master’s degree in Mass Communication and Art Direction. I am passionate about building meaningful artistic experiences, empowering dancers through education, and helping creative communities grow through purpose, connection, and collaboration.

MAMDOUH ELKADY

Egypt

Mamdouh Elkady graduated from the Faculty of Commerce at Ain Shams University in 2000 and has been active in the field of culture and arts since 2001. He has attended numerous cultural workshops, including production management, project writing, and cultural management. Mamdouh co-founded the performing arts network “Tamasi”, which brings together 11 cultural institutions from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. He has contributed to the production of over 15 lyrical music albums for traditional folk bands, preserving Egypt’s musical identity. As an editor, he has worked on many documentaries with a focus on folklore, as well as some fiction films, including “The Siren”, “El Tanbura – Capturing a Vanishing Spirit”, “On the Margin”, “The Lion”, and “Shafika”. He also directed the film “South Trip” (2015) and co-directed the documentary “The Zar in Egypt” (2023), highlighting his deep commitment to documenting and celebrating Egyptian cultural heritage.

Dr. Meg Morley

USA

Dr. Meg Morley started taking classes in Middle Eastern dance in 2003 and it slowly took over her life. She has an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS, University of London, for which she researched why dancers in Egypt are stigmatized but beloved, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University. Supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, Meg spent a year living in Cairo to do her dissertation research on the rise of foreign dancers in the Egyptian dance industry. Feel free to contact her to read her dissertation or published articles (and a co-authored book with Zara is in the works!). Now working as an anthropology professor at Appalachian State University, Dr. Morley aims to educate both college students and the international belly dance community about the peoples, cultures, and politics of the Middle East and North Africa.

LENKA BADRIYAH

Czechia/Belgium

Internationally acclaimed Raqs Sharqi dancer, teacher, and founder of The Raqs Sharqi Museum. With over 20 years of experience, Lenka Badriyah specializes in Golden Era Raqs Sharqi, bringing the elegance of 1930s–1960s Egyptian cinema dance back to life. She performed for 10 years with bellydance-theatre production Bellydance Evolution (USA), rising from troupe dancer to lead roles in shows across Japan, the USA, Morocco, Australia, and Europe. Organizer of Leylet Raqs, Belgium’s biggest bellydance festival. She teaches worldwide and creates exhibitions of the Raqs Sharqi Museum. Beyond bellydance, she is also a Bachata Moderna dancer and teacher, and a certified Mat Pilates instructor. By day, she is a space weather scientist at Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy in Brussels, Belgium.

Majda Anwar

USA

Majda Anwar is a versatile dancer, musician, and marketing executive based in Atlanta, GA, with nearly 30 years of experience in Middle Eastern dance and music. Raised in a Jordanian family, she was immersed in Arabic music and dance from a young age, later expanding her studies to include Egyptian, transnational fusion, and classical styles. As a musician, she has studied Arabic violin, performing both traditional and world fusion music for dancers. In her professional life, Majda is a seasoned marketing executive who brings her expertise in audience engagement and storytelling to her work as a dance educator and performer. She is the Director of the Awalim Dance Company and the editor of RaqsNews, an online publication dedicated to the art, culture, and industry of belly dance. Whether teaching, performing, or curating cultural content, Majda is committed to preserving and evolving the art of Middle Eastern dance while creating meaningful experiences that connect and inspire.

NADA AL BASHA

Egypt/Italy

Nada Al Basha is an Egyptian-Italian dancer, choreographer, teacher, researcher, and festival director specialising in Egyptian dance and its cultural contexts. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Meya Meya Raqs Festival in Livorno, Italy, a festival dedicated to SWANA dance, artistic practice, cultural exchange, and critical dialogue.

Alongside her international work as a teacher and choreographer, Nada’s main focus is the creation and curation of dance spaces. As the director of Meya Meya, she is directly involved in programming artists, designing educational and cultural content, developing collaborations, managing ethical and professional relationships, and creating an environment in which artistic practice and cultural responsibility can coexist.

Her perspective is therefore shaped not only by her experience as a performer and educator, but also by the practical realities of organizing, curating, and building a dance community. Through her work, she explores Egyptian dance beyond simplified representations, with particular attention to cultural context, ethics, research, and artistic integrity.

NISAA (Heather D. Ward)

USA

SADIE

USA

Sadie’s unique style, knowledge, experience and relatable nature has made her one of the most sought after artists in her field. With a background in sports and athletics and her continued education, Sadie has a depth of understanding in dance that shines in her classes and on the stage! Coming up in the early 2000’s, true to GenX, Sadie has one foot firmly planted in tradition and another in the ever-evolving trends of her industry. She has shared her talent with dancers in over 55 countries. She was featured on America’s Got Talent and is the most viewed Bellydancer on YouTube with hundreds of millions of views. Teaching is Sadie’s passion, as one of the most prolific belly dancers of all time, producing over 20 instructional DVD’s, reaching over a million students worldwide. She now runs the biggest online school for Raqs Sharqi www.RaqsOnline.com. Sadie is also a farmer, currently pursuing her master’s in psychology and is a devoted loving mother to her 13 year old son!

SETSUNA

Portugal/New Zealand/US

Setsuna is a dancer/researcher with dual backgrounds in dance and visual art. She holds an MA in art history, MA in dance, and a PhD focused in dance, culture, and sustainability. She balances her work between writing/lecturing and teaching/performing (or well, tries to).

SHEYLA

Czech republic

Sheyla devoted her dance path in connecting and educating the community in her homeland, the Czech Republic. She is one of the pioneers in bringing Egyptian folklore to the knowledge of dancers and teachers in the country, and abroad. Falling in love with Egypt in 2004 brought her to oriental dance and soon Egyptian folklore studies. Her teachers were also a legends such as Kharia Mazin, Mahmoud Reda, Nesma, Mohamed Shellaby, Fifi el Saed, Kamal Naim, Sahra Saeeda and many more. Thanks to her work and research she could be part of cultural projects organized by EU, Ministry of Interior and Center for foreigners with aim to educate youth about cultural differences, doing lectures and exhibitions for public and activities for foreigners. Sheyla founded and directed an international festival called Tales of Sahara for 8 years with aim to create a safe space for dancers to connect, create together, perform and learn.

Sheyla performed and taught classes in many countries such as India, South Africa, Greece, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Korea etc. She founded a folklore group Al Fayyum Dancers with whom she got honoured by many awards, Awaleem Performing Arts group with whom she focused on vintage or golden era dance style. Currently she is working with group Aphrodisia Dance Company on cabaret and public shows.

Sheyla is continuously awarded not always with prizes but with passionate students and audience she love to perform for.

Shruti Narayanan

India

Shruti Narayanan is an artist with 15 years of Bellydance experience and 31 years of Bharatnatyam experience. She is a teacher, and researcher known for her work at the intersection of historical context, embodied practice, and expressive performance. Through Samai Oriental Dance Company (SODC), her school in Bengaluru, India, she focuses on cultivating thoughtful, informed dancers who engage with movement beyond aesthetics; paying attention to cultural nuance, musicality, and meaning. Her work often bridges dance with lived experience, using the body as a site of inquiry rather than imitation. With a teaching style that is grounded, inclusive, and deeply observant, Shruti encourages dancers to move with awareness, integrity, and curiosity! Dance aside, Shruti is also a Tarot card reader, Reiki healer and a student of Psychology.

Soraya

France / Tunisia

Soraya holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Strasbourg and is a dance artist. Her expertise, grounded in socio-historical and postcolonial perspectives, focuses on the social and cultural history of dances from North Africa to Southwest Asia and their Hybridisations (NASWAH), their representations and circulations, and the processes through which they seek and gain legitimacy in France. She also conducts research into the transformations of traditional dance practices in Tunisia.

As a dancer, choreographer and dance educator, she develops artistic projects (Lella Skila, 2017; Insoumise∙s, 2018; Des∙orientalisme∙s, 2022), as well as initiatives centred on the transmission of these practices. She is the founder of Jawna Academy (2025) and co-founder of the Centre Artistique et de Recherche des Arts Maghrébo-Orientaux (CARAMO, 2017), which brings together research, artistic creation and the transmission of dance practices.