Music | Movement | Culture | Joy
I am a dancer, percussionist, artist, educator, and writer. As a dancer, I specialize in cultural dance — specifically رقص بلدي and danza popolare — and offer weekly classes, social dance events, workshops, lectures, and occasional performances. As a guest in both cultures (even as a diasporic member of each), I remain a lifelong learner, as well.
More about my Egyptian dance story
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More about my Italian dance story
Born in New York, then raised bi-coastally between NY and LA, I've been living and working in Oakland and San Francisco since my teens. I hold a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from University of California at Berkeley, and an MA in TESOL with a focus on Applied Linguistics and Adult Education Theory from San Francisco State University, and work in education.
Dance and music have much of my time and attention. I research dance and music independently and a bit obsessively, and am inspired by my own varied roots, specifically the linguistic, artistic, musical, movement, and cultural traditions that were maintained, morphed, reimagined, and lost when my varied peoples were colonized, forced to leave, and "chose" to assimilate.
Abruzzese, Sicilian, Ticinese, Tunisian, Polish, & Ukrainian (Hutsul/Galician) spit out via 80s Americana and punk rock = io
I live and work on unceded Ohlone Ramaytush land. Respect to elders, ancestors, and traditional caretakers of this land—past, present, emerging, and future.
Photo is from my ongoing Accidental Altars series
I have taken many, many (many!) dance workshops and classes regularly since I was 17. This is not a complete list of my instructors. I'm sad to say there are many I may have even forgotten, but that does not negate their importance on my development as a mover. I've also been a performer since my teens and worked with many bands and fellow artists in the days when we learned 'on the job', as well as doing a lot of social dancing in Cairo kitchens and at Arab and Arab-American weddings!
+ lots of southern Italian and Italian-American social dances at weddings!
+ lots of Polish social dances at weddings!
+ I also grew up with regional Italian languages, not to mention hearing Polish and Ukrainian regularly
+
To separate these teachings and teachers and courses out from one another is a fools errand, but is how we do it today. These areas of study have all informed one another historically, culturally, politically, and for me, personally, as has my 'day job' and education work. Please see all of my studies, and any work that evolves out of them, as intertwined.
Photo by Najib Joe Hakim
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