Mira Betz (CA)

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The multi-faceted career of Mira Betz is a testament to her passionate artistry and desire for continual growth. Active in theater, dance and the performing arts for 20 years, Mira Betz has become a sought after dancer, choreographer, costumer, and teacher. Nominated "Instructor of the year" by Zaghareet Magazine, Mira is a valued instuctor at prestigeous festivals and camps across the nation, as well as at the Malonga Arts Collective in Oakland California. Mira is currently facilitating the Barbary Coast Shakedown, a collaboration of Middle Eastern dance professionals pairing performance with intensive dance instruction.

Mira began her training in Middle Eastern dance as a young teen studying with some of the most respected and knowledgeable teachers of our time, such as Katarina Burda, Jamila Salimpour, and Suhaila Salimpour. As a founding member, choreographer, and solo performer of Aywah! Ethnic Dance Company for 10 years, she developed a solid foundation of contemporary, traditional, as well as ritualistic dance forms. Aywah!, under the direction of Katarina Burda, flourished to become one of the San Francisco Bay Area's most respected ethnic dance companies. In 1998 Mira went abroad to live and study the native dances of Morocco.

In spring 2006 she was a guest choreographer for Jill Parker and her company Ultra Gypsy. In 2004-2005 Mira toured nationally with renowned drummer Tobias Roberson and was the artistic director of the ECHOS Project; a collaboration of choreographers in the San Francisco Bay Area supporting the exploration of traditional and experimental music and dance fusion. Mira was a featured dancer at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire from1994-2002. She has performed on such infamous stages as the Fillmore in San Francisco, the Hollywood Bowl in LA, Humphrey's in San Diego, the Knitting Factory in NYC and night clubs and restaurants across the US. She has had the pleasure of working with incredible talent such as David Byrne, Rachel Brice, Jill Parker, Zoe Jakes, Elizabeth Strong, Heather Stants, Amy Sigil and many more. Mira Betz received her B.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts. Her dance background includes training in Salsa, Modern, Jazz, and Flamenco.
Mira continues to spread her experience, knowledge and love for dance through her captivating performance and engaging teaching style.

Donna Mejia (CA)

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Donna Mejia is a choreographer, lecturer, teacher, administrator, and performer specializing in contemporary dance, traditions of the African Diaspora, and new fusion traditions in world electronica. She taught at Colorado College for 10 years and was Director of the Colorado College International Summer Dance Festival for the last half of her term.

For twelve years she served as managing director of the award-winning Harambee African Dance Ensemble of CU-Boulder. She continues to teach, choreograph and perform Modern dance, Improvisiation, Hip Hop, Jazz, Arabic Tribal Fusion and traditional dances of the African Diaspora for Colorado College as well as colleges and dance festivals internationally. Donna is an authorized instructor of Brazilian Silvestre Modern Dance Technique.

Beginning September 2006, Donna will be in Massachusetts for a two-year assignment as Guest Artist in Residence with the Smith College Dance Department and the Five College Dance Department.

Donna shares her life with husband, Shatta (educator and musician); and daughter, Ajah (born 2001).

Ariellah (CA)

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Ariellah studied classical ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance of London for twelve years, beginning at age three. After a four-year break from dance that included two years in the Peace Corps on Africa's Ivory Coast, she returned to the United States eager to learn the dance of her Moroccan ancestry.

Ariellah performs tribal and dark fusion belly dance worldwide. She has studied and performed belly dance for the past seven years, both with Janine Ryle of Danse Mahgreb and as a founding member of The Indigo with Rachel Brice. Her style infuses many genres of belly dance, all with a modern dark flavour that is uniquely her own. She is featured on many DVDs, including the first of its kind "Gothic BellyDance" DVD and her first instructional DVD, "Contemporary BellyDance and Yoga Conditioning" and she also won first place in Siren's Insanity belly dance competition in 2004. She is considered a leader in the innovative new genre of Gothic Belly Dance and is known for her strong technique and precision of movements. www.ariellah.com

Asharah (Washington, DC)

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Asharah has been performing since the age of six as a dancer, figure skater, and singer. As a bellydancer, she is best known for her dramatic fusion of tribal and cabaret styles, but also has extensive experience in Turkish, Egyptian and American bellydance. She recently earned her Level 2 certification in the Suhaila Salimpour format, and aims to blend this format with American Tribal Style bellydance. Her technique, musicality, and finger cymbal playing skills have been noted and admired across the country. She is deeply grateful to Alexia (Kim Leary), Artemis Mourat, Suhaila Salimpour, and others who have guided her along the way.

In addition to traveling around the country to teach sold-out workshops, she teaches regular tribal belly dance classes at two of the Washington, DC, area's finest dance studios, Joy of Motion and Saffron Dance. She currently performs around the country and periodically at the Shisha Lounge in Sterling, Virginia. She will be releasing her first instructional DVD Modern Tribal Bellydance, produced by WorldDanceNewYork, in January 2008, and she is featured on the groundbreaking DVD Gothic Bellydance: The Darker Side of Fusion, produced by World Dance l;New York. From 2003-2005 she performed with the avant-garde troupe Martiya Possession and before that was a two year member of Raks Odalisque, Princeton University's Middle Eastern dance troupe. She also provided live percussion and graphic design for Maduro's debut release Shimmer Sustain.
Asharah is not only an accomplished dancer but also has a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. Ever since her childhood, Asharah has been deeply interested in Middle Eastern arts and culture. She believes that every belly dancer must know the history and culture of this dance, whether she is performing it in its traditional forms or fusing it with others.

Denys Proteau (PA, SC)

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Denys plays Kaval, that is the Bulgarian flute, cumbus, that is a Turkish fretless banjo, various reed instruments, and spoons. He plays with the Pittsburgh Bulgarian Women's Ensemble, now called Zvesda, and with Turku, a Turkish and Eurasian music band.

Denys has also played Bulgarian and International music at various festivals and theatrical productions with the Bulgarian-Macedonian Educational and Cultural Center dancers and with the Pittsburgh International Folk Theatre.

Jas of Khafif (PA)

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Jas, the lead drummer for Khafif, has been drumming for Middle Eastern dancers for more than a decade. He learned to play the darabuka (a Middle Eastern hand drum) in the traditional style of folk percussionists the world over (i.e. by hanging around people who are better than you, listening, and asking questions).

As well as drumming for Khafif, he also drums for a Balkan singing group, maintains these web pages and a set of web pages on Middle Eastern drum rhythms, dabbles in building traditional musical instruments (various drums, hurdygurdy and rebec in progress), is restoring his 85 year-old Arts&Crafts style house, and tries desperately to have enough time in the day to ponder the wonders of the universe.

Jennifer Speiden (VA)

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Creative movement has always been an integral part of Jennifer's personal and professional life. As a physical therapist, yoga teacher, Pilates instructor and belly dance teacher and performer, she enjoys integrating movement arts and healing arts into her work and play for overall health, well being and enjoyment. She loves that this dance form can encourage people of all ages and ability levels to become more aware of their bodies and themselves.

Jennifer is a licensed physical therapist graduating in 1998 with a Master of Science in Physical Therapy. Her yoga training is as a Certified Integrative Yoga Therapy Teacher, and she has completed a Hatha Yoga teacher training with Anna Pittman. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance and is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Jennifer is a Polestar® Certified Pilates Instructor with specialization in using Pilates techniques for rehabilitation as well as for wellness. She has also completed PhysicalMind Institute's Pilates Mat Program training.

Jennifer is a co-director and founding member of Mandara, a belly dance ensemble based in Blacksburg, VA with whom she is honored to dance. She has been a contributing writer for Zaghareet! magazine since 2003 sharing articles about stretching and conditioning for belly dancers so that they may continue to safely, pain-free and joyously dance for many years to come. She is also a Jefferson Center INSPIRE artist (www.jeffcenter.org/inspire) who shares dances from North Africa and the Middle East in the school systems throughout southwest Virginia.

In addition to belly dance, she enjoys and explores other ethnic dances such as West African and folkloric Indian. When she is not being an overachieving geek, Jennifer enjoys hiking, swing dancing, contra-dancing and drumming with her complementary half, her husband Rob. For more information about her work, you can visit www.innerawareness.net. For more information about her troupe, please visit www.mandaradance.com.

Nevik (OH)

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Kevin "Nevik" Hartnell comes from a family of percussionists. His good fortune has provided opportunities to study and perform with many great drummers and share that wealth of knowledge by teaching. With a lifetime of drumming experience that includes thousands of performances in the United States as well as various other countries, studio session work since the age of 15, contributions to music for films, commercials, and many recordings, he travels regularly, performing and teaching workshops from his darbuka handbook, the "Tekronomicon ." Check the schedule to see when and where he'll be next.

When not teaching or performing, Kevin is usually involved in photography, travel, curry, learning how-to, graphic design, and running.

Onca and August of the Mezmer Society (NC)

Baraka Mundi Website August Website The Mezmer Society Myspace August Myspace Video 1 (medley with The Mezmer Society) Video 2 Video 3 (balkan/tango fusion with Ashes in Order)

Onça O'Leary, Bandit Queen
A director, event producer, and full-throttle entertainer, Onça's touring project for 2008-2009 is "The Mezmer Society", a collaboration with Balkan accordionist August Hoerr and their musical ensemble. The Society presents a delicious melange of Eastern European music, powerful bellydance technique, goodwill, bad behavior, and sultry oddements. The year 2008 saw The Mezmer Society as featured instructors at TribalCon & Southern Fried Tribal in Atlanta, TribalFest in California, Tribal Revolution in Chicago and TribOriginal in North Carolina.

Director of Baraka Mundi Live Music & Dance Ensemble since 1999, Onça has long been known for her evocative stage presence. Baraka Mundi pioneered tribal bellydance in the Carolinas and was nominated for 'Best Kept Secret'. Onça was the first in the world to be Certified in General Skills by Carolena Nericcio, founder of American Tribal Bellydance. Her annual dance camp, TribOriginal, was nominated in 2008 as 'Best Event' in the national Golden Belly Awards. She is also an internationally published author and illustrator under her given name, Lauren O'Leary.

For more info on Onça, visit The Mezmer Society: Luscious Cabaret & Balkan Ruckus & Baraka Mundi at www.barakamundi.com/mezmer TribOriginal: Tribal Dance, Music & Culture Camp at www.triboriginal.org.

August
August taught himself to play accordion as angsty teenager, and after discovering Middle Eastern music, began working with Tribal dancers in 1999. Discovering a mutual interest in Balkan music and quirky party songs, he formed The Mezmer Society with Onça (Baraka Mundi) in the Autumn of 2007. They have taught and performed at events including Tribal Fest, TribalCon, and Tribal Revolution, and they are scheduled to continue touring throughout the United States. The Mezmer Society is fully committed to spreading the aesthetic of hafla joy as quickly and loudly as possible.

In addition to to The Mezmer Society, August is a member of the quartet Ashes in Order, and maintains a career as an internationally represented figurative painter. He is the president of the Institute for the Advancement of Occultism and Aerophonics (previously Asheville Accordion Club), and he has released albums with the cinematic trio Soora Gameela, and Greek fusion band Makari. August lives in Asheville, North Carolina and is currently working on material for his first solo album.

Awalim Tribal Dance Co.(GA)

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Awalim was formed in 1999 under the Direction of Ziah Ali McKinney-Taylor as a group to bring World Fusion Tribal Bellydance to the stages of Atlanta and the Southest US. Awalim's particular flavor of Tribal is decidedly upbeat and earthy while being sophisticated and urban, bringing what we feel are Atlanta's strongest characteristics to the Tribal genre.

What does Awalim mean?
Awalim is plural for Almeh. An Almeh was an educated entertainer that was very highly thought of in Egypt during the 1800's. She was educated in music, poetry, song, dance, history, religion and politics. All of these things were considered interconnected and important knowledge for any real artist. The Awalim were very well respected and left Cairo when Napoleon's invading army treated them as "common" entertainers. We call ourselves Awalim because education is very important to us. We all study at least one musical instrument along with the finger cymbals (zils). I also stress the history and sociology of the wide spread area that is called the Middle East which brings us (and our audience) closer to an understanding of the culture we are emulating.

Megha of Devyani (AL)

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Megha began performing very early in life. She took her first dance classes at about the age of 4 and has been creating and performing ever since. Theatre soon caught her attention and that was her passion throughout her schooling years. It was in 1996 that she discovered American Tribal Style Bellydance and immediately shifted her focus to this art form.

In San Francisco, Megha studied ATS with the originator of the style from 1996 - 1998. Upon returning to the Southeast, she began teaching ATS classes in order to create a community of people to dance with. She was the first to offer these classes in this region and has continued teaching pure ATS for the last 10 years. She continues to teach and perform at sold out workshops across the country and around the world both individually and on the Tribal Pura tour with her teacher/partner, Carolena Nericcio.

In 2003 Megha completed teacher certification with Carolena Nericcio (creator of ATS and founder of FatChance BellyDance) and entered into an exclusive partnership with her. They now take their love and appreciation of this elegant dance style in its original form on the road to co-teach the technique and artistic vision created by Carolena over the last 20 years.

Megha directs the Birmingham, AL based Devyani Dance Company and runs Devyani Dance Center, home of her dance company and a hub of international and ethnic dance styles in Birmingham. Under her direction, Devyani has performed at countless festivals, weddings, corporate events and private parties over the last 9 years and has been nominated for multiple cultural and artistic awards.