Directory
Dancers
The professional people layer of Raqs Atlas — performers, instructors, choreographers, schools and the legends who shaped the art form.
174 profiles · showing 25–48
Instructors
Montreal · Canada
Aziza of Montreal
Aziza began dance in early childhood and spent many years training in classical ballet before discovering Middle Eastern dance in 1988. She subsequently dedicated her professional life to Oriental dance and developed an international teaching and performing…
Legend · Egypt
Azza Sherif
Azza Sherif was an Egyptian dancer whose career became associated with the generation that followed the great stars of the Golden Era. She reportedly began dancing professionally around the age of eighteen and became visible in Egyptian entertainment during…
Dancer · Germany
Beata Cifuentes
Beata Cifuentes built a long professional partnership with Horacio Cifuentes after the two met in San Francisco. Together they developed the Oriental Fantasy concept, bringing Oriental dance into elaborate full-evening theatrical productions. Their shows used…
Legend · United States
Bert Balladine
Bert Balladine was one of the most influential male figures in the early development of belly dance in the United States. His background included circus, ballet and theatrical performance before he encountered Middle Eastern dance during travels that included…
Bangalore · India
Bindu Bolar
Bindu Bolar became one of the pioneering figures of Tribal Fusion belly dance in India. After training in Oriental belly dance, she pursued more specialised fusion education and developed a distinctive personal vocabulary. Her “Belly Animation” approach…
Crete · Cuba
Boženka
Boženka began serious Middle Eastern dance training in Miami in 1998 under the direction of Tamalyn Dallal. She developed into an award-winning performer and later joined the Bellydance Superstars as a featured soloist. Over more than two decades she has…
Dancer · Argentina
Brenda
Brenda is an Argentinian dancer who developed a major part of her professional identity through working in Egypt. She gained wider recognition after participating in the Egyptian television competition *Al Raqisa*. Following the programme, she established…
Cairo · Egypt
Camelia of Cairo
Camelia began her professional career as a folkloric dancer in the late 1990s before moving into Raqs Sharqi. She became a professional performer in Cairo's high-level hotel and entertainment circuit. Her movement style has been described as energetic…
San Francisco · United States
Carolena Nericcio
Carolena Nericcio created the group improvisational dance system now known as FatChanceBellyDance Style, or FCBD Style. She began studying belly dance in the 1970s and founded FatChanceBellyDance in San Francisco in 1987. The system uses a shared movement…
Ontario · Canada
Cassandra Fox
Cassandra Fox began belly dancing in 2008 and developed from a local Canadian dancer into an internationally recognised performer and online educator. Her performance style is known for powerful shimmies, expressive improvisation and an unusually relaxed…
Minneapolis · United States
Cassandra Shore
Cassandra Shore began performing Middle Eastern dance in 1975 after studying with Jamila Salimpour. She founded her own school in Minneapolis in 1978 and later established Jawaahir Dance Company in 1989. Shore travelled extensively to North Africa, Türkiye…
Seattle · United States
Christine “Shiraz” Şahin
Christine Şahin, also known professionally as Shiraz, is a dancer-scholar specialising in contemporary Egyptian Raqs Sharqi and dance traditions of the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye. Her background combines long-term embodied dance practice with…
Paris region · France
Ciya
Ciya developed an extensive movement background from childhood, including ballet, circus skills and contortion before discovering Oriental dance as a teenager. She subsequently built a professional performance career that included work for prestigious private…
Dancer · United States
Colleena Shakti
Colleena Shakti is an American-born dancer whose professional and artistic life became deeply connected with India after she relocated there in 2001. Rather than using Indian dance merely as a visual influence for fusion, she undertook long-term traditional…
New York · United States
Dalia Carella
Dalia Carella has spent more than four decades working in Middle Eastern dance and world fusion. She studied and performed a wide range of movement traditions from Türkiye, Egypt and other regions while developing her own theatrical fusion vocabulary. Carella…
Legend · Spain
Dalilah
Dalilah was a Spanish dancer who achieved an unusually successful professional career in Egypt during the 1950s. She arrived in Cairo in 1954 and initially worked in other dance forms before committing herself to Oriental dance around 1957. By the end of the…
Dancer · Egypt
Dandash
Dandash comes from an artistic family in Alexandria and began dancing from childhood. She developed professionally at a young age and became known as a distinctive Egyptian Raqs Sharqi performer. Her dancing combines strong musicality with playful personality…
Dancer · Ukraine
Dariya Mitskevich
Dariya Mitskevich began with ballroom dance as a teenager before dedicating herself to Oriental dance. She achieved an important competitive success while still only seventeen, which accelerated her professional development. Dariya subsequently became a…
Rosario · Argentina
David Abraham
David Abraham is an Argentinian Oriental dancer whose professional development is closely connected with the school of Amir Thaleb. He began his professional dance path in the mid-2000s and graduated from Amir Thaleb's Arabian Dance School in 2011. David…
Seattle · United States
Delilah Flynn
Delilah Flynn began studying belly dance in San Diego in 1972 and quickly entered the professional performance world. Her early career developed in an environment where dancers worked directly with Lebanese, Arab and other Middle Eastern musicians. She later…
Dancer · Ukraine
Diana Gnatchenko
Diana Gnatchenko is a Ukrainian professional Oriental dancer whose career developed within the highly competitive Eastern European dance environment. She achieved numerous competition results before becoming an internationally invited teacher and judge. Her…
Istanbul · Turkey
Didem Kınalı
Didem Kınalı became one of the most internationally recognisable Turkish Oriental dancers of the twenty-first century. She gained major public visibility through recurring appearances on İbrahim Tatlıses's television programme. Her style combines strong…
Cairo · Egypt
Dina Talaat
Dina Talaat is one of the most influential Egyptian dancers of the modern era. After training and performing with the Reda Troupe, she established a solo career and became especially prominent during the 1990s. Her emotional interpretation, unconventional…
Goa · India
Dipika Vijay
Dipika Vijay is an Indian movement artist whose work combines belly dance with a broad range of contemporary and Indian movement influences. Her background includes exposure to forms such as Bhangra, Garba, Bollywood, classical Indian dance, popping, waacking…