I am a native of St. Louis, Missouri and graduated in 1993 from the University of Missouri in Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History, Anthropology, and Museum Studies.  Shortly after graduating college, I relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where I also studied Neuromuscular Massage Therapy and Paralegal.

 

In 2000, a few years after living in Atlanta, I ended an abusive relationship that was both physically and psychologically dangerous.  I believe that God saved my life from that experience.  Shortly afterward, in the midst of my recovery, I became attracted to bellydancing.  Unsure of its exact origin, where I would take classes, or any details, I looked up a bellydance school one day and started taking classes with Nazeem Allayl  dance studio.  Today,  Nazeem Allayl  is the largest bellydance-only studio chain in the country. 

 

It was exciting to begin to learn the movements and music, stretching and isolating the core muscles in the abdomen, fusing pretty accents and attitude with the choreography, and tinkering with finger cymbals.  Underneath it all, I was also hearing the call of a spiritual and ancestral dance form that had deep healing properties, and that I later learned was created by women and handed down through generations.

 

Bellydance is a haven for many women who have decided to pursue it as either a holistic fitness regimen, a cultural and spiritual practice, a hobby or full or part-time profession, and as a way to learn a world dance form that contains feminine properties without exploiting the female body.  Most women that practice it have found that bellydancing is a good way to join a community of other women, create friendships, enhance their self-esteem, learn the basis of other world music and dance forms, get in shape, and express themselves.

For me, I continue to pursue my studies because of the cultural value that I believe that the dance has.  In 2011, I moved to Newark, New Jersey, about a half-hour from New York City to fulfill my goals of studying with the world-reknown teachers and artists here.  The east coast has a bustling, progressive, and diverse Middle Eastern dance community.  I have studied Oriental technique with Egyptian dance trainer Nourhan Sharif, and taken classes with Andrea Beeman and Amira Mor. While I lived in Atlanta, I also took advantage of its rich offering of classes, seminars and shows.

 

Although some life challenges have steered me from pursuing bellydance to the fullest extent that I would like, I have learned that it has added too much to my life to stop practicing and participating in it.  Bellydance has enhanced my self-esteem, fitness level, and has been a great social outlet and inspiring artistic hobby.  In addition to taking classes in New Jersey and New York, I plan to attend graduate school and continue studies of cultural dance forms.