went by, my mostly American Cabaret style was becoming
heavily peppered with the Egyptian style by teachers like
Raqia Hassan, Aida Nour, Mahmoud Reda, Sahra Saeeda,
and Dina. The Argentinian style led by Amir Thaleb and
Saida had a major impact on my dancing, too. I also took
classes with several musicians such as Issam Houshan, Naser
Musa, Georges Lammam, and Soheil Kasper. Learning from
musicians really changed and improved the way that I listened
to and interpreted Middle Eastern music.
In 2003, I ventured out of Texas and tried my luck at
competing. I attended the Belly Dancer of the Year
Competition in Northern California and, to my surprise,
won first place! This changed everything. I viewed my
dancing and the possibilities it held for me completely
differently. Winning a competition right away is both good
and bad. One side effect from winning was me thinking I
was better than I was, which is a phase that many dancers
go through. The next time I competed, I totally expected
to win first place, but I didn’t win, and it threw me for a
loop. It forced me to start thinking about my dance in a
way that has since benefited me throughout the years. Since
then I have been able to look at my dancing as objectively
as possible. I went on to win over twenty awards in national
and international belly dance competitions. Some of my
additional titles include “Bellydance Superstars Star Search
Champion 2004”, “Heart of Texas Improvisational Belly
Dance Champion 2007”, “Belly Dancer of the Universe
2011” and “Bellydance Evolution Competition 2012.” The
last competition I entered
and won was “Project Belly
Dance, Season 2” in 2012.
Project Belly Dance was
an online reality-series
format competition that
led to a lot of exposure
since viewers from all
over the world could
watch and participate by
voting for the winner.
Photo by Dan Parr
I really, really loved to compete.
It made me work hard, I always learned so much, and I
usually had really positive experiences, including meeting
so many wonderful people. But after winning Project Belly
Dance I decided it was time to retire from competing and
to further my dance career as a serious professional. Over
the years, these titles I was awarded drew the attention of
video producers. I have appeared on many performance and
instructional DVDs produced by Cheeky Girls Productions, The
International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance, and Bahaia
Productions. The combination of winning competitions and
being seen on belly dance DVDs also drew the attention
of workshop sponsors and I started to get requests to teach
belly dance workshops all around the country.
In 2004, I was promoted to the position of Assistant Artistic
Director of The Wings of Isis, the professional belly dance
Student Troupe Strictly Bellydance -
Photo by Chris Brown