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Sonya Blacker founded Arabesque in 2004, herself an Award-Winning belly dancer, certified in Cairo Egypt 2006 (her 10th year of dedicated study), who was looking to offer the dance community a choice for open & honest sharing of this beautiful & sacred art through dance instruction for adults. She believes that dance lessons should offer quality instruction as well as fun. Sonya strives for good communication between instructor and student so that the student can be excited about their progress. Every single student is different & that is an important spice of life.
Choreography-The Discipline of Mind & Body. Arabesque classes focus on the individual, with technique over choreography in goal - Not just leaning a dance, but how-to dance. Classes begin with warm-up stretches & isolation training, instruction in the basic steps then move to more polished combinations followed by options for clean layering, in the more complex combination classes. Sonya begins by demonstrating the move or combination, then breaks it down into its parts. Students would then have the chance to practice the elements slowly without music or half-tempo, and finally up to speed with music. Individual attention is given to all students, with variations to accommodate differences in students if need be.
A lifetime student, Sonya is a firm believer in furthering her own education & experience by taking and teaching Seminars across the globe, believing we all have more to learn in this rich, cultured artform that brings expression, pride & dignity to hundreds of women each year.
For Sonya's Full Bio Click Here
Sonya on MySpace
Sonya on Tribe.net
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Eliza was first exposed to tribal bellydance when she attended a FatChanceBellyDance performance in San Francisco. Instantly drawn in by the mesmerizing and earthy movements, she began studying the dance form under the instruction and influence of Read My Hips' Artistic Director Stephanie Barto and Co-Founder Heather Stants (now director of Urban Tribal Dance Company in San Diego). Eliza was a principal dancer with Read My Hips from 1999-2004 and is one of the founders of the Chicago tribal bellydance troupe, Jezebelly.
2009 Maqam Bellydance Challenge 2nd Place 'Tribal Fusion' Award-Winner - Eliza's training in tribal bellydance began with American Tribal Style (ATS) and has evolved to the broader Improv Tribal Style (ITS) of group dancing that uses cues and other forms of communication between dancers to create fresh and spontaneous performances that are often peppered with spot choreography. Her intermediate tribal class at Arabesque focuses on the form and movements particular to ITS bellydance and emphasizes proper posture, fluidity, strength of movement, and technique. Eliza's class is for intermediate as well as for more advanced dancers who want to add tribal elements to their current repertoire.
www.ElizaBellyDance.com
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Although she’d been drawn to Bellydance for many years, Lisha didn’t begin dancing until 2003 when she took her first class with Sonya. Lisha found that Bellydance helped her develop more body awareness, grace and strength, and credits Sonya with being her most important influence and inspiration in her dance career. Lisha also greatly admires the work of Mahmoud Reda, Aziza, Shoshanna, and Yasmina Ramzy as dancers and teachers and has enjoyed multiple workshops with all of them.
Lisha began dancing with Troupe Ro-He in 2005 and has been performing as a soloist since 2006. Although she enjoys dancing to non-traditional music occasionally, she feels more inspired by the rich music of the Middle East. The music and the dance are made for each other and Lisha hopes to inspire her students to understand this.
2008’s Midwest Bellydance Challenge named Lisha 2nd Place 'Student Soloist' winner and Peoples Choice Award-Winner, she also received Hadia’s Level 1 Teacher Training Certificate in 2008, which has helped her gain more knowledge of the muscular system and how it works for us as dancers. Lisha wants her students to understand how their bodies work so they can create the movements correctly and safely at any age. She hopes to inspire her students to challenge themselves to learn the basic movements and simple combinations in a fun, non-competitive environment.
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Jessy has been studying dance her entire life, including the disciplines of ballet, modern, flamenco, and jazz. She first discovered American Tribal Style Bellydance (ATS) in 1997 when she mentored locally with Stephanie Barto of Read My Hips. Jessy was one of the founding members of this troupe, dancing with them for seven years. In 2004 Jezebelly was born, which is her current dance troupe, founded along with Eliza and others.
Jessy's favorite parts of the tribal style of bellydance are the non-verbal communication that happens between the dancers (que) along with the spontaneity of improvisational dance performance. Her class focuses on ITS (improvised tribal style) beginner level moves and has a strong emphasis on technique, or how-to. Jessy also has an extensive history in the art of massage therapy, so her classes also concentrate on body awareness.
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Mae the Bellydancer is a gothic and tribal fusion dancer in Chicago who has been dancing since 1991 and teaching since 2004. A creative soul, Mae began her belly dance interest studying under Amaya's protégé Karen Sharma in Midland, Texas, studying Arabic Cabaret Belly Dance, Mid-East folkloric dances and Polynesian dance. In 2005 she moved to Chicago and began her specific study and performance career of tribal fusion bellydance. Performing tribal fusion to gothic and hard rock music, Mae was quickly embraced by Chicago’s burlesque community & has performed with many pro Variety shows such as the Girlie Q Variety Hour, Fleshtones Burlesque, her own troupe Caoba & Varietease, and co-produces her own fantastical events such as The Glint & Knock Knock Hot Spot.
2008 Midwest Bellydance Challenge 2nd Place 'Tribal Fusion' Award-Winner, Mae is a popular performer in the Hafla circuit across the US. Talented seamstress, she is well known for her striking costuming ideas. As an instructor focusing on posture, strength, body awareness, and that special something found in born performers, Mae would like to share her art while guiding her students to develop an ethereal yet striking composure, while executing spooky combinations that will captivate and bewitch.
MaeTheBellyDancer.com
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Pauline is a certified aerobics, Zumba, yoga and mat-Pilates instructor as well as an accomplished Mid-East dance artist. Pauline started dancing at a young age, when at age 5 her mother enrolled her in ballet and jazz classes. It was the beginning of a love affair and Pauline has been dancing as well as exploring other movement modalities ever since. In 1999 she became a certified aerobics instructor and in the year 2000, following a family tradition, she got certified in yoga as well.
In 2002 Pauline added Middle Eastern dance to her repertoire. She started her study with Dawn Gundez of Imperial Jade Belly dance. She was quickly asked to join Dawn’s dance company and began to dance professionally in Palm Beach, Florida. In addition to being in a video with Imperial Jade she danced in many festivals, parties and restaurant shows. After moving to Chicago, Pauline found a home for her belly dance at Studio Arabesque where she enjoys many classes and performs in the Advanced Tribal troupe, Belly Ring. Pauline continues to study the art of movement by taking workshops and gaining certifications whenever she can and enjoys passing on her knowledge through the many weekly classes she teaches across the city.
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Shruti has been trained in classical Indian dance for eight years. Through this training, she has learned the art of non-verbal communication through postures, hand gestures, and facial expressions. Over the years, she has taken this training and applied it to Indian folk dance, Bhangra, and Bollywood dancing. Bhangra is a dance of the people from Punjab and is a story of their livelihood, while Bollywood is fast-paced and comes from popular movies like Slumdog Millionaire.
Shruti has always had a passion for teaching and has taught both types of dance for over 12 years. She has been a choreographer for various cultural shows and weddings, in addition to teaching both dance styles. Also the founder of Dance Fusion – a multi-cultural dance show featuring dances from around the world that raised money for charities, Shruti wants to share her love for dance. A believer that there is a lot to learn from all types of dance, and that everyone can enjoy while also learning about beautiful different art forms, she is excited to join Arabesque teaching a fusion of Bhangra and Bollywood.
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