I have been dancing since I was small, always taking ballet and modern dance classes until I was a teenager and began studying piano. One day when I was in high school I was wearing an anklet with little bindi bells and one of the hall monitors stopped me and I asked if I was a belly dancer. I was floored! ME? A belly dancer?? Was she kidding??? Like the exotic beauties in old Sinbad movies and antique postcards? Did people still do that? ON LONG ISLAND????

As soon as I walked into that studio, I heard the mesmerizing Arabic music playing and a group of a bout a dozen ladies dancing with brightly colored veils (dressed in full costume, mind you! I don't know why, but I thought it was the norm). We did mostly choreography, and the atmosphere was more about having fun than technique, but how I loved it. I fell in love with the voice and music of George Abdo and bought a couple of his albums. I spent hour after hour after hour listening to his lilting and ecstatic voice and dreamed of becoming a real professional dancer.

After 2 years I went away to college and then moved to Northern Vermont where I could not find a teacher or any other dancers for 8 lonely years. As soon as I knew I was moving to the Boston area I began searching online for a teacher and received a reply by e-mail from Amira Jamal. The following fall I started taking advanced beginner lessons and quickly got my schooling on just how much work and knowledge and love we pour into this dance to make it truly great. I was very lucky and thankful to have found a teacher who would focus on technique and style and I was quickly absorbed into what has become nothing less than complete obsession. Amina Delal was part of our class then, and every week she would drive me home and I would absolutely pump her for information about everything from music to club-scene-politics to bellygrams to costumes and everything in between. How lucky was I???

It has been 2 1/2 years now and I have been loving every single day that I get to be a part of this incredible art. I have met and befriended the most amazing people and had the most fun of my entire life through belly dancing. I have performed at both the Middle East and The Athenian Corner as well as group shows with Amira Jamal's students and The Goddess Dancing. I also do bellygrams and teach an advanced beginner class at Wellesley College for the Wellesley Belly Dancing Society.