I was a jazz dancer as a child. I also took some ballet, tap, and gymnastics. At 12, my knee injuries and shin splints were so bad that I had to stop dancing. In 1998 I saw a belly dance show at a festival. I thought that would be something I could do without injury to my legs and started taking lessons with Nadirah Nasreen. Sure enough, my knee and shin problems actually improved instead of getting worse. I have rarely gone a day without dancing since I started.

            Music has been my number one influence. When I fell in love with Middle Eastern music, I fell in love with the dance. Before I fell in love with the music, the dance was interesting and fun. Now that I understand how the music moves me, it's part of my body, mind, and soul.

            Dancers who have been my biggest influence are Saphira, Nadirah Nasreen, Saqra, Sabura, Aziza, and Jillina. There are so many more who truly inspire me and I feel I should list them all, but it could take half a page! I have learned so much from each one of them in the time I spent learning from them, whether it was one workshop, several, a couple months of lessons, or a couple years of coaching, and just watching them dance. Each one has had a special influence on my dance.

            I am constantly in awe of other dancers' abilities to come up with choreographies and combinations I would have never thought of. Every chance I get, I go to a show, buy a new video, or just look at costuming on the internet. There are too many influences to list, but music is absolutely the essential influence for me.

            Those influences have helped me develop my own style that I call Egyptian cake with American icing. My main love is Egyptian dance, but I am not an authentic Egyptian dancer. My influences come from different sources I've had and watching other performers. Each workshop or class I take, I pick up at least one new thing that sticks, and after putting all that together, it's grown into my own style, which is Egyptian based with some other stuff that I've picked up thrown in.

          I have taught one class as a guest instructor, one private student, and one workshop. To be honest, I have a horrible fear of teaching, and am trying to jump over that hurdle, but I'm in no hurry. There are plenty of amazing instructors in Seattle already. When teaching, I focus heavily on maintaining good dance posture for the dancer's safety, and making sure the dancer understands the basics. I also stress breaking down music and rhythms, so they understand what they are dancing to. My goals as an instructor are to first learn more about the dance, travel the world picking up different styles, history, and culture, and eventually pass it on to my students.

          I belong to Saqra's troupe Raqs el Sehr Shamal here in the Seattle area. We perform mostly for festivals, conferences, parties, etc. Dancing with my troupe sisters makes it a lot of fun. We feed off each other's energy when we dance creating a relaxed atmosphere and we're known for being nice, fun people. When I solo, it is generally in a restaurant, for a party, or on stage. It's completely different energy. I almost feel like I have a different persona when I dance solo than in the troupe. I have more of a one-on-one relationship with each member of my audience, and being on a raised stage sometimes makes me feel unsettled because I can't see my audience, where with the troupe, if I can't see my audience, I feel fine because I can see the other troupe members.

          I am co-sponsoring my first workshop event in September with another dancer, Bastet. It's a weekend-long retreat with 11 workshops planned. I don't vend yet but hope it will be in my future. I find it difficult to do all the things I would like to having a 9-5 day job.

          My performance routine usually consists of a fast entrance piece, often with veil, slow taxim or veil routine, pop song where I often involve audience members or perform a stupid human trick like dancing with a glass on my head, drum solo and exit. Some routines are long, some short, but that's the basic routine. I have a couple regular restaurant gigs. I am also in a belly dance band that plays a monthly hafla. You could consider that a regular gig as well. I dance there pretty much bi-monthly as well as playing. I work with an agency who scheduled belly-grams. I do parties, workshops, haflas, shows. I have a routine to my preparation. Makeup first, then costuming and finishing touches, go down my checklist to be sure I have everything I need, and triple check to make sure I have my backup music. Before the show, I do a little meditation to calm my nerves a little, then warm up to the other dancers' music.

          I competed once before in an intermediate category just because a couple friends were competing and I thought it would be fun. I won the intermediate category, although there were only 4 competitors. I decided then that competing wasn't for me. I saw a lot of cattiness there, and ill comments and feelings. I won but I didn't walk away feeling good about the experience. The two friends I went with were not happy about the results in their categories (they weren't in mine). A few years later, all my dancer friends are going to competitions and it's a normal part of their routine. I decided I should try competing professionally. Besides, it would be a good way for me to get back home to the east coast for a visit. The East Coast Classic was an entirely different experience. When I competed before, I hadn't been involved in dance community politics, I was more a student transitioning to semi-professional then. It was my first time seeing the dark side of the dance (name-calling, back-biting, etc...). I thought I would never ever do it again. I have since decided to ignore those bad incidences as much as possible and focus on the good. The East Coast Classic was one of the best experiences I've had with a group of other professional level dancers. Every single one of them was so genuine. We all wanted the other to win. I really felt like I made fast friends there. I felt my performance was less than perfect because of a zill mishap that blew itself way out of proportion in my overly paranoid mind, but that didn't matter in the end. I came away with a feeling of comaraderie that I never thought possible in a competition. I am competing at Double Crown in Oregon in September and hope to find a similar experience waiting for me. It isn't about winning, it isn't about being better than everyone, it's about meeting people, getting your face out there, and having fun! It hasn't changed me much. I am glad to have been able to see the judges comments, and actually they weren't nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. I am hoping that competing will help me to polish my performance while continuing to make new friends around the nation.

          I think that it is wonderful that we have this underground community of people with the same interests that half the world doesn't know exists. We are from different backgrounds, interested in different things, dress differently, and sometimes have nothing else in common but dance. Yet, we do have dance in common, and it seems that almost every dancer I meet has the same love of it that I do. I would say my biggest pet peeve is that this dance should be for more than one type of body type or dance style. I do love Egyptian most, but I think that venues tend to only want Egyptian dancers in Egyptian costuming, and the other styles get left out. Often, if a dancer isn't 5'8" and 100 pounds they can't get hired no matter how entertaining or skilled they are. I like variety and I really like seeing new, creative things from dancers. When venues only hire one style, it leaves all those other talented, creative people out of the running and I tend to not want to go anymore because I've seen it all too many times. What I love most is the feeling of sisterhood. The support we have in our dance community is sometimes astounding. As I said before, with our different lifestyles and backgrounds, it is amazing to me that this many of us can be so supportive of each others endeavors. I love that I have made some of my best friends through the dance, and some I can't believe I didn't know before. It's really a fantastic network of people.