Biographies
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Members Biographies
Members | Associate Members
Anne Benveniste (HSc)
Anne Benveniste was born in France, to a family of Egyptian Jewish origin. Her childhood was immersed in the sounds and flavours of the Mediterranean and its cultures. She has a true passion for Raqs Sharqi, which forms a link between her and the ‘unknown’ Egypt of her forbears.
She has taught Raqs Sharqi for 13 years in Paris and other countries and acquired the Hilal School of Raqs Sharqi teaching certificate in 1998. For the last 11 years, she has trained intensively with the Tunisian teacher Hassan Bengharbia; a contemporary dancer who has effectively integrated Middle Eastern influences into his movement. His method makes use of in depth body-work as a preparation for dance. Anne is aware that the fluidity of the dance comes through the transformation of the body. She integrates a specific technique adapted to Raqs Sharqi based on floor work, which enables the structure of the back to be reinforced to gain flexibility and power. Her work is now well known in France and abroad and many people come to her for this work which assures inner strengh, therefore allowing more freedom in the movements. For Anne it is important not to impose a fixed style, but to let it evolve from the creativity and inspiration of the body, always coming from and going back to the traditional forms of Egyptian dance.
The fruits of many years of work researching the Middle Eastern vocabulary of the dance, have resulted in a variety of possibilities for improvisation. Anne has been performing for many years and choreographs her own shows. In 2007 she performed "Terres Mélées de l'Andalousie à l'Egypte" at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, working with the producer Bernard Abitbol to create a meeting of Raqs Sharqi and Flamenco with live music.
En Français
D'une famille d'origine juive égyptienne, Anne Benveniste est née en France. Les accents de la méditerranée bercent son enfance. Elle se découvre une véritable passion pour le raqs sharqi qui la ramène sans cesse à cette Egypte qu'elle n'a pas connue. Elle enseigne la danse depuis 1992 et obtient le diplôme de la Hilal school of Raq Sharqi en 1998.
Depuis 11 ans elle suit une formation intensive à Paris avec un danseur, Hassan Bengharbia, dont elle retransmet la méthode. Sa technique exigeante et de haut niveau est basée sur un travail du corps en profondeur qui mène à la danse. Anne prend conscience que la fluidité dans la danse passe par une transformation du corps. Elle intègre une technique spécifique adaptée au Raqs Sharqi, basée sur un travail au sol qui permet de sculpter le dos tout en le renforçant et de gagner ainsi en souplesse.
Son travail est maintenant reconnu en France et à l'étranger et beaucoup de personnes viennent la voir pour sa spécificité qui assure au corps une excellente tenue donc plus de puissance et d’aisance dans le mouvement. Il est important pour Anne de ne pas figer la danse égyptienne dans une forme imposée, de la laisser évoluer au gré de l'inspiration et de la créativité, tout en partant et en revenant à la source même de la tradition. Puiser dans le mouvement oriental en variant ses possibilités d'improvisation sont le fruit de ses nombreuses années de travail.
Anne se produit aussi en spectacle depuis plusieurs années. Sa dernière création "Terres Mélées" a pour influences musicales l'Andalousie et l'Egypte. Le prochain spectacle aura lieu à l'institut du Monde Arabe les 2 et 3 novembre 2007 avec 8 musiciens et aura pour thème la rencontre complice du Raqs Sharqi et du Flamenco.
Juliana Brustik (HSc)
Juliana’s interest in dance and the visual arts began at an early age. She started formal training in dance as a student in Germany and continued these studies while living in the USA and Amsterdam. Settled in Britain from 1980, Juliana attended classes taught by Suraya Hilal. She studied and later worked with Suraya, also co-managing the Hilal School of Raqs Sharqi with other senior teachers until the mid-1990s. Alongside her studies of Raqs Sharqi she took a 3 year degree course in Contemporary Dance, Performance Skills, Choreography and the Visual Arts.
Since 1988 Juliana has worked full time as a professional dance teacher, performer and choreographer and since 1997 she has co-managed the Raqs Sharqi Society. She was one of the co-ordinators and teachers of the Society’s Teacher Training Foundation course and has initiated and/or co-organised many other study and performance events for the Society.
Juliana’s teaching and performance work has taken her all over the UK and to other European countries. Over the years she has directed many performance groups, dance events and created a variety of pieces for groups of dancers. Her strong interest in choreography has led her to develop an acclaimed choreography course for advanced dancers for the Society’s Summer School 2003.
Her wide knowledge of other dance forms and body awareness methods informs Juliana’s teaching. Her aim is to give her students a thorough technical grounding, confidence in musical interpretation, a basic understanding of choreography and body awareness. Over the years many of her students have gained independence and developed into teachers and performers in their own right.
With Judy Hammond Juliana has developed Performance Skills courses for advanced dancers. These courses have given dancers a space in which to push boundaries and delve more deeply into the physical, emotional and aesthetic possibilities of the dance.
At present Juliana is concentrating on her own performance work. In 2006 she invited Nensi Bego, a dancer of Albanian origin, to form a dance company with her. The aim of Neju Dance Company is to create both traditional and innovative work for stage settings as well as informal events, working across disciplines and with live music. Juliana’s creative work is inspired by her interest in exploring the aesthetic and emotional qualities inherent in Egyptian dance, pushing its boundaries and finding its connections with other dance forms, and thus its place in the wider dance world.
Sylvianne Capell (RSS)
Sylvianne fell in love with Raqs Sharqi in 1993. From there on she studied the dance with Suraya Hilal and other teachers of the Hilal School of Raqs Sharqi. In 2000 she graduated from the Raqs Sharqi Society Teacher Training Course.
She has a degree in East European history and Russian literature, but having finished her studies in 1998 she decided to follow her love for the dance and started giving classes in Freiburg.
Since 2000 Sylvianne has been living in Hamburg, where she regularly gives classes and workshops in Raqs Sharqi and Pilates. Since 2004 she has her own dance studio "Ala Nar", which means "close to fire".
A wide knowledge in disciplines like Pilates, Alexander Technique, Bioenergetics, Yoga, Body Awareness and other dance forms such as Modern and New Dance gave her a good understanding of the deep connection of body and soul in Raqs Sharqi. She integrates this understanding in her dancing and in her teaching. Since 2006 she gives also workshops for women's inner development together with the dance therapist Betuel Licht.
Sylvianne performes in several programmes with arab musiciens and other dancers from different cultures.
Deutsch
Sylvianne Capell ist ausgebildete Lehrerin der Raqs Sharqi Society in London und langjährige Schülerin von Suraya Hilal, Liza Wedgwood und anderen Lehrerinnen der ehemaligen Hilal School of Raqs Sharqi. Weiterbildungen in Alexandertechnik, New Dance, Yoga und Pilates sowie Erfahrungen mit Core Energetics gaben ihr ein tiefes Verständnis für die Verbindung von Körper und Seele. Sylvianne entwickelte einen eigenen Unterrichtsstil, der jede Schülerin dazu ermutigt, die kraftvollen und anmutigen Bewegungen des Raqs Sharqi aus ihrer eigenen Mitte heraus zu tanzen. Seit Juni 2004 leitet sie das Tanzstudio Ala Nar (arab. "am Feuer") in Hamburg Eimsbüttel/ Eppendorf. Aufritte in Hamburg mit der Musiker-Gruppe "Al Samar" und europaweit in verschiedenen Tanz- und Theater-Programmen.
Aurora Gercke (RSS)
Aurora Gercke has a unique combination of Pilates expertise, dance and writing skills. Born in Italy and educated at Rome, Paris and Cambridge Universities she has behind her many years of work as a professional linguist, and has written articles on the correlation between Pilates and Raqs Sharqi.
Aurora first came across Arabic dance and music in 1975 when she was studying in Rome. Later an opportunity to travel to the Middle East increased her interest and deepened her understanding of Arabic cultures.
Aurora has lived in Great Britain since 1985 and graduated from the Raqs Sharqi Society Teacher Training Foundation course in 2000-2001. Having developed an interest in Pilates bodywork, Aurora decided to pursue it as a career, qualifying as Pilates matwork teacher with the Body Control Pilates Association in 2001. Aurora is now a movement specialist, listed in the Register of Exercise Professionals 'Level 3', and divides her time between Pilates and Raqs Sharqi classes in Cambridge and her many writing interests. Aurora has been performing Raqs Sharqi since 1995, and has developed an understanding of choreography and group directing, although her speciality is the solo Baladi performance. In recent years she has been organising live music events, working with musicians such as Ibrahim and Ali El Miniawy, Sheikh Taha, Tim Garside and Guy Schalom.
Aurora is now a Specialist Instructor for Lower Back Pain Management and for Older Adults. She has been chosen by Cambridge City Council to be part of the ‘Chance to Dance’ scheme providing dance and physical activity opportunities in the city.
Béatrice Grognard (HSc)
Béatrice divides her time between Europe, Egypt and Brussels where, in 1998, she founded ‘Tarab, School of Theatrical Dances of Egypt’.
After a period working as an archaeologist, Béatrice’s quest today is directly linked to this original interest: to bring to the present the Egyptian dance and music of the past, redefine their boundaries and revivify them through the application of theatre arts, so ensuring them a new life and future.
During frequent trips to Egypt, Béatrice travels to many towns and villages in search of traditional music and movements. A long collaboration with exceptional groups of musicians such as the classical musicians of the Cairo Opera and sha'abi musicians including the world-renowned Musicians of the Nile and Sheikh Ahmed Al Tuni, is leading to a new artistic language, the theatrical dance of Egypt, and Béatrice has organised several shows, including ‘Tarab’ (1998), ‘Nesmet Hob’ (2001), ‘Mousaferoun’ (2002, re-invented in 2006 and 2007),‘Zaman el fan el gamil’ (2005 and 2006), “Al wegdann” (2008) and “Songe d’une nuit d’Egypte” (2010).
Béatrice’s weekly classes and event-based workshops allow participants to meet remarkable Egyptian musicians, and thematic evenings with a teaching method where attentive tuition and gradual learning - respect for the pace of the individual - go hand in hand.
Béatrice also organises innovative trips: to Cairo in June 2000, Luxor in May 2002, Cairo-Alexandria-Fayoum Oasis in March 2004, Aswan in May 2005, Luxor in May 2007 and Luxor and Kharga Oasis in May 2010. These enable participants from all over Europe to discover an otherwise often inaccessible Egypt through original excursions, workshops accompanied by exceptional musical ensembles such as “Les Musiciens du Nil” – baladi, classical, sufi, saïdi and ghawazy - and cultural evenings with talented artists such as Sheikh Tuni and Sheikh Barrayn - true representatives of the Egyptian traditional artistic world.
Whether on the stage or through her teaching, Béatrice’s work can be compared with that in flamenco several decades ago: breathing life back into a universe of dance which has been forgotten and misinterpreted, finding ways to preserve the quintessential nature of the dances of Egypt whilst infusing them with a rich and refreshing modernity.
This is Béatrice’s ambition: with joy, humour and passion, she develops a new and rich language of expressions which subtly translate the music, whilst staying faithful to its traditional roots. In this way, she presents a personal vision of the dances of Egypt, achieving a fluid interaction between tradition and modernity.
Français
Béatrice Grognard partage son temps entre l'Europe, l’Egypte et Bruxelles où elle fonde en 1998 son école "TARAB, école de danses théâtrales d’Egypte".
Archéologue de formation, elle s'est toujours passionnée pour les arts et la danse. Depuis 1991, elle se consacre exclusivement à la danse et à la chorégraphie et ne cesse, grâce à un tempérament ardent, de défendre la beauté et l'authenticité des danses d'Egypte. Au cours de ses multiples séjours en Egypte, Béatrice parcourt villes et campagnes à la recherche des mouvements et des musiques anciennes, de ces témoins rares et précieux d’une tradition orale parfois si fragile.
Sa quête d'aujourd'hui est étroitement liée à sa première inclination pour l'archéologie: faire émerger du passé les danses et musiques d’Egypte, en redéfinir les contours afin qu’elles s’épanouissent et s’ouvrent à une modernité qui ne trahit pas leur essence, leur offrant une nouveau souffle grâce à la théâtralité d’une scène et leur assurant ainsi un essor et un avenir.
Discipline artistique complète, exigeante par la technique et le travail corporel qu'elle impose, la danse théâtrale d'Egypte est un art raffiné et complexe, qui se démarque des déviations « orientalisantes » de ces dernières décennies. Que ce soit sur scène ou dans l’enseignement, la démarche de Béatrice est comparable à celle entreprise autour du flamenco : comment faire revivre un univers de danse oublié et dénaturé, comment préserver la quintessence des danses d’Egypte tout en leur apportant une modernité riche et rafraîchissante? Ainsi, les danses issues de la tradition égyptienne ayant traversé le temps peuvent redevenir vivaces dans leur beauté, leur grâce et leur dignité.
Grâce à des cours hebdomadaires, stages et conférences, Béatrice dispense un enseignement rigoureux mais joyeux, synonyme d'une pédagogie attentive et d'un apprentissage progressif où, néanmoins, l'émulation a sa place dans le respect du rythme de chacune.
Des stages événementiels sont également organisés et permettent aux participantes d'aller à la rencontre de remarquables musiciens venus d'Egypte.
Béatrice organise aussi des voyages d'un haut niveau culturel : Le Caire en juin 2000, Louxor en mai 2002, Le Caire-Alexandrie-Oasis de Fayoum en mars 2004, Assouan en mai 2005, Louxor en mai 2007 et Louxor- Oasis de Kharga – Désert occidental en mai 2010. Ces séjours offrent l'opportunité aux participantes venues de toute l'Europe de découvrir une Egypte souvent inaccessible : visites inédites, stages accompagnés par d'exceptionnels ensembles musicaux, - baladi, classique, sufi, saïdi et ghawazy -, dont les fameux « Musiciens du Nil » et la troupe du chanteur Sufi, Sheikh Ahmed Al Tuni, ainsi que des soirées culturelles avec de talentueux artistes, véritables représentants de l'univers artistique traditionnel égyptien.
Enfin, Béatrice a créé plusieurs spectacles, vibrants hommages à la beauté des danses et musiques d'Egypte. Les derniers, présentés au Caire, à Bruxelles, Florence, Genève et Tours sont : « Tarab » (1998 et 2001), « Nesmet hob » (2000), « Zaman el fan el gamil » (2005 et 2006) et « Mousaferoun » (2002, et dans une version revisitée, 2006 et 2007), « Al wegdann » (2008) et « Songe d’une nuit d’Egypte » (2010). Tous ces événements ont été pour Béatrice l'occasion de partager sa sensibilité et sa connaissance de l'Egypte.
Judy Hammond (HSc)
Judy completed Raqs Sharqi teacher training with Suraya Hilal in 1990, having begun dancing Raqs Sharqi in 1984 with Anne Ashcroft in London and later with Liza Wedgwood in Hertfordshire. She danced Suraya's choreographies in performances at Theatro Technis and the Lillian Bayliss Theatre, and directed many Winchester and London student performances for the Hilal School of Raqs Sharqi.
Following Suraya's move to Italy Judy was one of the team that founded and managed the Raqs Sharqi Society, and helped to create and deliver the Society's first teacher training course, where staff included nationally and internationally renowned teachers of Raqs Sharqi, Alexander Technique, Pilates and anatomy.
For many years Judy taught several weekly classes in Hertfordshire plus weekend workshops and longer residential courses in the UK, Italy and Greece. She produced and/or directed many community performances, and danced in a professional performance which appeared in four UK cities including London.
As well as holding a deep and ever growing love for Egyptian music and dance, Judy is a lifelong dancer and mover, beginning with ballet in childhood and moving on to contemporary dance in early adulthood, studying with several internationally recognised teachers and performers. In the early 1980s she gained a ballet teaching qualification and a Cert. Ed and then a B.Ed (English and psychology), and began to study T'ai Chi and Pilates - both ongoing passions, as is yoga –Judy is intending to do a yoga teacher training course when time permits!
In 1986 Judy qualified as a teacher of Alexander Technique after training for five years at ATA, an exciting and eclectic training school where the staff included representatives from all three major lineages of AT (Carrington, Barlow and McDonald), and as well as the standard AT syllabus there was a strong performance aspect with movement and voice. Subsequently Judy taught regularly for some years as a guest teacher at Fellside Alexander School in Kendal, helping to train several generations of teachers under the guidance of the extraordinarily gifted director Don Burton.
Over the past ten years Judy has been developing Moving Mindfully, an inclusive approach to the teaching of movement based on the principles of Alexander Technique, T’ai Chi and Pilates and including movement material from those disciplines plus yoga and dance. She currently teaches four weekly classes in Alexander Technique and Moving Mindfully at the Letchworth Centre for Healthy Living (recently awarded Best UK Complementary Health Centre www.letchworthcentre.com) where she has been on the teaching staff for twenty years. Her Raqs Sharqi teaching is now focused on workshops and residential courses in the UK, Italy and the beautiful Greek island of Skyros (www.skyros.com). One of Judy's particular interests is in finding anatomically sound and emotionally comfortable ways to facilitate the learning of the movement language of Raqs Sharqi, and then creating a learning environment in which dancers can feel, engage with and embody the layers of mood and emotion in the music, in ways that foster joy and satisfaction, authenticity and confidence.
Sara Kahan (HSc)
Sara’s involvement with dance dates from childhood, starting with ballet, and an innovative form of expressionist improvised dance, which she studied with Lilian Harmel well into adolescence.
In her late twenties, Sara came across Suraya Hilal’s classes quite by chance in London and was completely captivated by her dance style. She subsequently became a member of Suraya’s company The Dance Theatre of Egypt and performed with them at the WOMAD Festival (World Music and Dance) with Les Musiciens du Nil, at The Almeida Theatre and The Purcell Room. Sara was a founder member of the Hilal School of Raqs Sharqi and started the Raqs Sharqi Summer School in the late 1980’s.
She has been teaching in Britain and Europe for twenty years, including a summer school which she taught in Utrecht, Holland for a number of years and now teaches regular classes in London as well as workshops in Britain and abroad.
Music is an important inspiration for many of Sara’s projects. She is a pianist, with an earlier career as a singer/songwriter that culminated in a tour supporting Steeleye Span. Maddy Prior recorded one of Sara’s songs and she has composed musical scores for drama.
In 2005, with Guy Schalom and Chrystelle Benkhelil, Sara founded Raqs Wa Musica Al Masraya (RWM), a company devoted to producing performances of Egyptian dance with live music. In 2006 RWM produced 'Bint Al Balad' at Jackson's Lane Theatre: five dancers and five musicians performed 'Baladi' the ‘urban blues' of Egypt. The company has also produced workshops and performances for university dance and music departments and various community and arts projects and has new performance projects planned for 2008.
“As a teacher I’m interested in developing individual creativity and ease in improvising and working with live music. As a performer I’m interested in working with musicians and developing Raqs Sharqi music and dance in a theatrical context.”
Lillian Malki (HSc)
Lillian Malki was born in the United States to Middle Eastern parents (Assyrians from Lebanon and Jordan) and spent part of her childhood in Lebanon – years which were to have a profound influence on her. When Lillian started learning Middle Eastern dance in 1986, it was like coming home to her roots, to something that resonated deep within her.
After studying oriental dance with several teachers in Paris, Lillian discovered Raqs Sharqi in 1992. Three years later she began teacher training with Suraya Hilal and completed her training in 1997. Lillian began performing professionally in 1998, beginning with the former Awalem troupe. She has also danced with Anne Benveniste and others in the show “Terre Melee”. For 11 years she directed and choreographed an annual theatre performance with her students, and is now working on a larger production.
Lillian lives in Paris where, along with a job as a broadcast journalist, she teaches Raqs Sharqi classes and gives workshops in France and abroad. She has a fine knowledge of Arabic and a deep understanding of Middle Eastern culture, customs and expression ingrained in her from her family heritage and her early years spent in Lebanon.
In her teaching methods, Lillian tries to impart her fine musical sensitivity and her knowledge of Arabic culture to her students. She enjoys teaching in a way that brings out both the theatrical aspect of the dance, as well as the fun and lightheartedness. Her love and devotion to the dance have led Lillian to explore such disciplines as yoga, Feldenkrais and Pilates. She has also been training for several years in body alignment and oriental movement with the Tunisian-born dancer Hassan Ben-Gharbia. This work has helped her acquire a greater comprehension of the concept of fluidity, and enabled her to expand her repertoire.
Katrina Robinson (HSc)
Katrina is a co-founder, senior teacher and co-manager of the Raqs Sharqi Society (1997-) and graduate of the former Hilal School (1993). She has taught in community and professional contexts and written about Egyptian dance and culture since 1990 and is a member of Oxford Dance Forum.
Katrina’s lifelong interest in dance has taken two directions. First, continuing study of Egyptian and other dance forms includes Sociedad Baile Espagnol Spanish Dance/Flamenco, a return to classical ballet in 2004 and recent experience of contact improvisation. T’ai Chi and Pilates also inform her personal practice and teaching.
“I gain many insights from different forms of dance and movement. For me they are about movement coming from inside and can help us make the dances of Egypt feel really part of us. This is important when working with a movement language and music completely different from our own. The aim is authenticity - natural, joyful, individual expression that comes from inside, with grounded ease and confidence.”
Her teaching emphasises awareness of the body and individual creative potential in a supportive environment as a foundation for developing sound technique, musical interpretation and the basic principles of making dance.
Two placements in particular have furthered Katrina’s interests in the cross-cultural aspects of dance and in making personal connections with movement. An observer placement with Shobana Jeyasingh Education Department in 1997-8 looked at integrating western contemporary and classical Indian elements in a performance context. In 2007 she observed choreographer Gill Clarke creating a contemporary work commissioned for Oxford Dance Festival in which movement had layered meaning for its performers.
Secondly, Katrina’s earlier work as editor of academic texts on African, Pacific and indigenous cultures, plus her anthropology studies, contribute to her articles on Egyptian history and dance (see ‘Information’: ‘Reviews’ and ‘Dance History’).
Katrina has been centrally involved in developing Society training and performance projects. She developed the History of Egyptian Music and Dance modules for the Society’s Teacher Training Foundation course, aspects of the choreography course for the 2003 Summer Residential and was originator/artistic director of the Society’s Showcase Performances in 2002 and 2003.
Recent performance work: in ‘Daffodils’ and ‘Taal Charka’ in Anuradha Chaturvedi’s programme ‘Utsav’ of Kathak Classical North Indian dance, Oxford, October 2009. Her current interests are the music, movement language and aesthetics of rural, urban and classical Egyptian dance and the interface between these fine ‘traditional’ arts and modern elements that will contribute to their quality and potential.
Lise Szwann (RSS)
Lise has been teaching Raqs Sharqi since 1997, and graduated from the Raqs Sharqi Society Teacher Training Course in December 2000. Her teaching uses the principles of Alexander Technique and Pilates to assist students develop the good postural habits which will enable them to dance with ease and fluency.
Lise teaches regular themed workshops, frequently accompanied by live music, where students can explore specific aspects of the dance in more depth.
“In my role as a dance teacher I work to cultivate students’ enthusiasm for the dance and develop their confidence as performers in a supportive atmosphere.”
Lise has been interested in Middle Eastern culture for many years. She has travelled extensively in the Middle East and visited Egypt many times. Drawn to the dance by her love of Arabic music she originally began learning Egyptian bellydance but, inspired by Suraya Hilal at Sadler’s Wells that November, began studying Raqs Sharqi with the Hilal School (now the Raqs Sharqi Society).
A year later she began performing at community dance events and festivals including Hackney Show, Chat’s Palace, Stoke Newington Festival and the Chisenhale World Dance Festival followed by theatrical performances including Hilal School Showcases and performing with the wonderful and inspiring Sara Kahan in her Raqs Sharqi Show at Steiner House.
More recently, Lise has focussed on her solo career dancing at cultural events, arts launches and private parties. She is a regular performer at the Planet Egypt Dance Showcases hosted by Anne White. Lise enjoys performing in an intimate setting which allows the dancer to build a rapport with the audience and frees her to communicate the whole range of colours that are the subtle and expressive art of Raqs Sharqi.
“I believe a dancer’s style evolves constantly. It is important to draw on diverse influences to develop technically and artistically. In 2002 I visited Cairo to gain an insight into the dance as it is taught and performed today, observing cabaret performances and attending classes in the modern Cairo style of Egyptian dance with prominent dancers and teachers including Aida Noor, Randa Kamel and Dandash. My most recent dancing visit to Egypt was as part of the Tarab group led by Beatrice Grognard. The cultural evenings on this trip gave a glimpse into the complexity and contradiction of authentic Egyptian culture. Beatrice is a highly accomplished dancer whose spellbinding improvisation with live music conveys the powerful femininity of this dance.”
Lise is currently on sabbatical.
Anne White (HSc)
Anne has wide experience as a teacher and performer. She qualified as a Hilal School teacher in 1990 and obtained a City and Guilds 7303 certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector in 2007.
She has taught since 1992, privately and in Adult Education and has been funded by numerous bodies including The Arts Council, Millenium Fund and the Big Lottery. She also works in schools with a National Dance Agency.
In 2006 Anne began working with Health Professionals, sponsored by The Big Lottery, on a project to quantify the health benefits of exercise. She has also worked with Television Production companies, Sports and Development Teams and fitness centres. She has taught men, children and women of different ages and cultural backgrounds and always enjoys teaching students with special needs.
Anne has over 15 years experience as a performer, some of this at major London venues such as The Hackney Empire, The Bloomsbury Theatre and Alexandra Palace, and has toured East Anglian theatres as part of her Arts Council funding. Other performances, with Planet Egypt - include Egyptian Dance Parties with singers and live music, and she also performs at Arab weddings and parties. Anne visits Arabic nightclubs regularly:
I have been privileged to witness, experience and accompany the best Arab singers and musicians that the UK has to offer.
Anne has organised, choreographed, directed and produced a number of Raqs Sharqi theatre performances from 1992 to 2006.
Recently she has taken part in major dance events: Brighton Orient 2006, and in 2007 Majma, Raqs Brittania and an International Festival in Hungary. In 2005 she hosted the Egyptian pop singer Hakim in London in recognition of her skills as a presenter and community builder. Her aim is to build a dance community that is diverse, independent and welcoming.
Anne is also involved in Oriental dance and established Planet Egypt in 2002 to promote popular Arabic music, dance and culture and work closely with dancers from other Oriental disciplines - sometimes with singers and live music.
We have monthly events and are supported by celebrities and leading exponents from the wider dance community.These events aim topromote awareness and understanding of different dance disciplines and elevate the artistic side of our dancing. More importantly they have built a dance community where all are welcomed and accepted and are completely non-political.
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Associate Members Biographies
Ellie Atkinson
Ellie has been dancing for 11 years. First she studied with Aliya Burch, who introduced her to the wider dance community and has subsequently studied the dance with respected teachers of many different styles. Collaboration and study with teachers and musicians in both Europe and Egypt has informed her dance as well as giving her cultural insights. She enjoys visiting Egypt, learning more about the country and culture with each visit. Ellie beganperfoming with Aliya, culminating in 'Dances of the Nile 2002/2003'. She has also appeared in the Raqs Sharqi Society Showcases 2003 and 2008. Recently she has worked with Diane Petty, as 'Raqs Sharqi Dorset' on a number of fundraising performance events, 'Leyla Kebyra' 2006, 'Ayoum Saeeda' 2008 and 'The Characters of the Moulid!' 2010, which to date have raised over £3000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and other charities.
During the last five years Ellie and Diane have continued to promote Raqs Sharqi and the Society in the Dorset area. Their parties and workshops now draw large numbers of local dancers, from all different styles of Middle Eastern Dance. They are also often invited to appear at local events and performances, organised by teachers of other styles, which continues to promote Raqs Sharqi to new audiences as well as fostering good relations with other dance professionals. During their work together, Ellie and Diane have taken responsibility for all the creative and organisational work, learning enormously together whilst remaining firm friends. Ellie enjoys creating events, because it gives enormous satisfaction to put her creative ideas into reality and working with Diane is incredibly rewarding.
Currently, Ellie is working with Diane on yet another show and is also working with other dance professionals. She enjoys performing because she is being an inspiration to other dancers, particularly in respect of body confidence. It is through Raqs Sharqi that Ellie gained an enormous sense of empowerment as a woman and became confident in her own body. In her dance, Ellie’s interests are how to unite contemporary and traditional forms, and she enjoys experimenting with dance. She is also interested in the mind-body connection, and how this affects our lives and our dance.
Anita Epstein
Anita was born in South Africa and lives in the UK. She is based in West Hertfordshire and London.
Anita discovered Raqs Sharqi Society Egyptian Dance in 2002 and was inspired to study its rich language to achieve her own authentic expression in movement. She has trained regularly with senior teachers and strives to progress and develop her dance training with regular practice of yoga, Pilates, Alexander Technique, swimming and country walks. She also trains weekly in Hilal Dance, a richly holistic and integrated contemporary dance form. She is interested in the historical, social, musical and cultural contexts of Egyptian dance, and has made a number of study-trips to Egypt and other countries with strong traditional and Arabic dance traditions. These have been invaluable in her learning and provided immensely enjoyable experience in working with musicians.
Anita’s dance has a warm strong expressive energy and she aims to integrate her intensive training and experience in her performance and teaching work.
In addition to her performance work whether solo, with her student performance group Mizmara or with the Tabeeya Dance Company, Anita runs weekly classes, holds workshops and regularly presents demonstrations and short lectures for local groups. Her focus as a teacher is to provide a thorough grounding in technique, guidance on musicality and self-expression so students develop themselves as dancers and performers. As the Egyptian Dance Instructor at Champneys (Tring) Health Resort for eight years, her strong and elegant style and clear teaching skills earned the admiration and respect of the many Middle Eastern residents and guests. She continues to run special workshops there from time to time.
You can find out more about Anita’s classes in West Hertfordshire at www.yalladance.com
Susanna Braham - Habiba Dance
Susanna is a performer, teacher and choreographer of Egyptian Dance and founder of Habiba Dance.
Susanna first started to learn Egyptian Dance in 1996, after moving to Edinburgh to study, where she discovered classes taught by Lorne McCall, who was then at the beginning of her teaching career. Inspired by her beautiful dance style and natural teaching ability, Susanna went on to follow several years of study with Lorne, who went on to complete the Raqs Sharqi Society teacher training. Since 2003, Susanna specialised almost exclusively in traditional and contemporary forms of the Raqs Sharqi style. Key influencers in the direction of Susanna’s training and artistic development are Juliana Brustik, Béatrice Grognard and Anne Ashcroft whose classes and workshops she has followed for a number of years across the UK, Belgium and Egypt.
Susanna also draws inspiration from many years study of a diversity of dance and movement forms including Scottish Country Dance, Ballet, Jazz and Cabaret, Pilates and Yoga.
Susanna is known for her exuberance, energy, humour and musicality in performance, her connection to the audience, and for soulful interpretation of the different forms of Egyptian Dance. She is also a patient and giving teacher who combines a strong grounding in technique with musical expression, and she always brings a sense of fun to her classes and workshops.
Susanna founded the dance company Habiba Dance to promote performance and teaching in traditional, expressive and theatrical forms of Egyptian Dance and make these forms accessible to new audiences. Under the Habiba Dance banner, she performs, teaches community classes and workshops, and organises other workshops and events.
Susanna is based in Scotland, she is a member of Northern Arabic Dance Association and supporter of Edinburgh Egyptian Dancers who organise local events and workshops.
Beatrice Dobre
Area: Overseas (Germany)
Contact: Tel: +49 71 123 12740
email: egyptian-dance@web.de
www.egyptian-dance.com
Biography: Sorry not available
Pat Egan
Pat began dancing Raqs Sharqi in 1986 with Suraya Hilal, attending regular classes and workshops as well as Spring and Summer Schools when these were held in Winchester University College. She became an Associate of the Raqs Sharqi Society in 1993 and has taught in various parts of Norfolk ever since.
Pat has always been involved with dance and has a diverse background in other dance forms, performing at numerous festivals and theatres. Her aim as a teacher is to offer as much encouragement and inspiration as possible to help strengthen the link between teacher and student and to ensure that the traditional dance and costume are understood, respected and passed on to subsequent generations of dancers.
Erna Frohlich
Erna Fröhlich has a long background in dance. She trained in Gymnastics as well as in Expressive and Contemporary Dance in Cologne and Munich, before she began to study Oriental Dance in 1986.
Attracted by the beauty of that dance and music, she specialised in Raqs Sharqi as taught by the teachers of the former Suraya Hilal School and particularly by Liza Wedgwood.
In 1992 she founded her studio “Taqsim” in Munich teaching regularly classes and workshops for many years now. Since then she works together with Liza Wedgwood performing several programmes on stage as well as teaching residential courses and dance holidays in Germany and Austria.
Being fascinated by the subtle bodylanguage and the soulful expression of Raqs Sharqi it is one of Ernas main interests to explore the dramatical potential of this beautiful dance on stage.
She created the programme “...while my soul was travelling elsewhere”, using motifs of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Other programmes followed using various possibilities of interaction between lyrics, poetry, music and dance.
Kim Hall
Kim began her dancing career as a child studying ballet but then quickly became heavily involved in a gymnastics career spanning 10 years. During this time she was a National squad member for artistic gymnastics, became British Champion in Sports Acrobatics as a mixed pair and was a Great Britain squad member performing at the Royal Albert Hall. In the latter stages of her gymnastics career, she competed as a Rhythmic gymnast and eventually ran her own club and choreographed for many youngsters. She then qualified as a Chartered Physiotherapist and became the National Gymnastics coach for the British men’s disabilities team.
In 2000, Kim began yearning to perform again and accidently stumbled upon a belly dance summer school. Two years later she saw the work of Suraya Hilal and was completely bowled over by at last finding a great and challenging new pathway to pursue! Kim has since studied with Anji Jackson-Main, Aurora Gercke, Barbara York, Lisa Wedgwood, Suraya Hilal and Beatrice Grognard. She has also worked with the Musicians of the Nile in Belgium and Luxor, which then inspired her passion to create traditional Egyptian percussion and music with youngsters in the UK. She is the newest member of the dance company Tabeeya which she joined 3 years ago.
She currently runs her own dance, percussion and Baladi band and performance group for children ranging from 5 to 16, known as Rhythms of Egypt Drum and Dance. This group comprises 30 plus dancers and 25 young musicians. For the past two years the group has entered the Music for Youth World Music Awards and this year the dancers will perform live with tabla, dhola and the Baladi band. Especially exciting are the young group of Male Tahtib dancers who perform regularly with the group both in dance festivals and professional dance shows. Kim has also combined her teaching of Raqs Sharqi with her physiotherapy background by enabling adults with a learning disability to enjoy this fantasic way of expressing themselves often in a performance situation.
Kim is more usually known as” the double stick dancer,” where her gymnastics background enables her to perform an exciting Ghawazee style of the dance, mostly performed whilst improvising to live music from Sheikh Taha, Tim Garside, Ibrahim and Ali El Minyawi, Guy Schalom, El Gamal Accordi and Emile Bassili (and more recently by a young talented 13 year old tabla player Miss Poppy Hall, her own resident drummer!)
Diane Petty
I have been studying Eyptian dance since 1994. I started by enrolling on a 'Bellydance' night school here in Weymouth and found I really enjoyed both the music and dance. It was here I met Margaret Marsh, who introduced me to to the more earthy and grounded form of Raqs Sharqi. She took me under her wing and encouraged me to attend workshops. I regularly went to workshops with Hilal School teachers including Anne Ashcroft and later Juliana Brustik at Portsmouth. Whenever possible I attended workshops with Katrina Robinson, Terri Hardy, Judy Hammond and also went on residential weekend workshops. I also attended Aliya Burch's (another knowledgeable and encouraging teacher) workshops in Glastonbury and Taunton.
I have visited Egypt and loved the culture and music and had lessons with well-known Cairo dancers. In 2002 I was asked to perform with Tamarisk (Aliya's dance company) and danced in the show 'Dances of the Nile' both in 2002 and 2003.
I have performed numerous charity events throughout the years, which has sometimes included teaching a short workshop.
In 2006, Ellie Atkinson and I formed a partnership to further our creative skills and ideas. Our aims are to raise the profile of Egyptian dance in Dorset, foster good relations with other styles of Middle Eastern dance and bring Guest Raqs Sharqi style teachers to Dorset.
We have our own website: www.raqssharqidorset.co.uk which we use to advertise and promote our work. We also have a You Tube channel: www.youtube.com/user/raqsdorset
We have performed at many local events and arranged Haflas and workshops in the area. Our biggest achievements to date have been our very successful 'Evenings of Egyptian Dance' that we co-produced and directed. These were in 2007-LEYLA KEBYRA and 2008-AYOUM SAEEDA which together (with the DVDs that we produced for each show) raised over £2000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. The AYOUM SAEEDA show was also perforemd in the Portsmouth area.
We are currently busy with our third production, scheduled for February 2010.
Stefania Sappupo
I started my dance jouney in 1999 in Milan, trying different schools of middle eastern dance until I found Mediterranea in 2000 where I started to learn to dance the way I thought this dance should be danced. In 2001, I started attending RSS workshops, intensive Spring and Summer schools in the UK and all the workshops I could get to in Italy and Switzerland too.
From 2002, my teacher asked me to start teaching beginners at Mediterranea and the following year I started teaching more weekly classes and eventually teaching became my job. I had from 4-6 classes a week in Milan, Lodi and other cities near Milan. From 2003, I started attending Suraya Hilal workshops and intensive weeks in Italy, Germany and Switzerland. From 2004, I started studying with Liza Wedgwood in Italy and Germany (weekends and intensive weeks of course). I also took tabla and zagat lessons. In 2005, I met Erna Froelich and started attending her workshops. In 2008, I started attending Anne Ashcroft's intensive workshops. During those years I also attended workshops with Lita Petrou, Beatrice Grognard, Laura de Gaspari and other Raqs Sharqi teachers at every opportunity. In 2007, I held my first weekend workshop with Tim Garside in Milan and since then I hold one every year. I also give regular workshops during the year. In 2008 I gave my first workshop in the UK experimenting with how 25 English people can be definitely quieter than 12 of my Italian students!
Last year I founded a small group with some of my students to bring the dance to hospitals and homes for the elderly to offer the joy of dance to other people. I also perform at private parties such as weddings and birthdays. During the year I organize parties for the students too (one a year again with Tim Garside, when he comes for the workshop) when improvising and performing is a natural way of sharing our dancing.
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