Directory
Dancers
The professional people layer of Raqs Atlas — performers, instructors, choreographers, schools and the legends who shaped the art form.
153 profiles · showing 25–48
Choreographers
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…
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…
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…
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…
Legend · United States
Elena Lentini
Elena Lentini began studying with Ibrahim Farrah in New York in 1968 and became one of the most distinctive artists to emerge from his circle. During the 1970s she performed both in Middle Eastern nightclubs and in prestigious theatrical venues. Her work…
California · United States
Elizabeth Strong
Elizabeth Strong is a San Francisco Bay Area dancer, choreographer and educator whose work frequently centres traditional movement within contemporary performance. She toured with Bellydance Superstars and became a founding member of Bellydance Evolution…
São Paulo · Brazil
Esmeralda Colabone
Esmeralda Colabone is a Brazilian dancer whose professional Oriental career began in the Arab world. In 2002, at nineteen, she joined the Lebanese entertainment company La Maison de L'Artiste and began working professionally in the Middle East. She spent…
Dancer · Lebanon
Estelle Zaghloul Ramia
Estelle Zaghloul Ramia is a Lebanese-born dancer whose international career became particularly significant in Latin America. She lived in Lebanon until her teenage years and carried direct cultural knowledge of Lebanese music and movement into her later…
Cairo · Egypt
Farida Fahmy
Farida Fahmy was the principal female dancer and co-founder of the Reda Troupe, one of the most influential companies in Egyptian dance history. Her performances helped establish a sophisticated theatrical vocabulary inspired by Egyptian regional and social…
Legend · Canada
Hadia — Jocelyn Chouinard
Hadia, born Jocelyn Chouinard, was a Canadian performer and educator whose career spanned almost four decades. She began dancing as a teenager and eventually entered professional nightclub performance in Vancouver before expanding her studies internationally…