KARIM NAGI : www.karimnagi.com

Karim Nagi is a native Egyptian drummer, DJ, and folk dancer. He is the creator of Turbo Tabla, and has released 4 internationally distributed CDs of this unique brand of Arab House/Electronica using acoustic instruments. Karim has authored instructional DVDs for the Tabla/Doumbek, Riqq tambourine, Maqam/Taqsim for Dancers, as well as two rhythm compilation CDs. He is also well versed in the ultra-traditional styles of music and dance as the leader of the Sharq Arabic Music Ensemble, and the Arab Dance Seminar. Karim performs and teaches Tahteeb Cane Dance, Dabka Line Dance, and Zikr Sufi Dance. He taught at the New England Conservatory of Music for 5 years, and has lectured and presented at Harvard, MIT, Yale, Bowdoin, Princeton, Stanford, NYU, William & Mary, and several Community Colleges. He has recorded music for Bellydance Superstars, Bellyqueen, and the Bellytwins, as well as mainstream artists like Alicia Keys, and The Urban Griot Project. His performances boast a dynamic concoction of live drumming and dance, done in unison. Because of his proficiency in both music and dance, his workshops deliver students to a new physical understanding of the connection between these two disciplines. As a dance and drum teacher, Karim has taught in nearly all major bellydance festivals in the United States and Cairo, as well as all major Arab Culture festivals in the USA. Karim Nagi is a true crossover artist, uniting the Cabaret and Tribal, Traditional and the Modern, the Ethnic and the Urban.

AISHA ALI : www.aishaali.com

Aisha Ali has contributed to the field of dance as a performer, teacher, filmmaker, choreographer and producer of audio recordings. Born in the United States of EgyptianÐItalian heritage, Ali spent many years doing independent research in Egypt and North Africa, collecting folkloric traditions that were fast disappearing. Six CD's and five DVDs have been released from her collection, which includes two award-winning documentaries. She plans to release her latest documentary, "A Wedding in Luxor" which features Nawar musicians later this year, and will publish additional recordings of Egyptian folk music from Upper Egypt that span 40 years and will illustrate the ongoing stability of the genre. For many years, Aisha wrote articles for Arabesque magazine about her experiences in the Middle East Ñ and for Habibi Magazine until 2005. At present she contributes to Belly Dance Ð A Raqs Sharqi Magazine. She has written text for the JVC/Smithsonian Anthology of World Music and Dance, and the Oxford University Press published her articles and photographs about Algerian dance and the Ouled Na•l in the International Encyclopedia of Dance. In 1993 Aisha was the Middle Eastern soloist at the opening of the Los Angeles Festival, at which time impresario, Peter Sellers, announced her as "a national treasure". Over the years she has served as a panelist for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival auditions, and in1997 was honored at an International Conference on Middle Eastern Dance. Dr. A.J. Racy nominated her for the Dance Heritage Coalition list of "America's Irreplaceable Dance TreasuresÓ. She continues to conduct workshops and seminars throughout the world and teaches ongoing classes in Los Angeles. When she is not dancing, she is an Orientalist painter. .

HALA FAUZI : www.haladance.com

Hala grew up in Alexandria, Egypt to the rhythms and melodies of the Middle East. She has been dancing since she was a child and brings her own graceful, elegant and authentic style to the dance. Hala exposes the cultural, historical and native dimensions of the dance as it's done in the East. Her dance style is heavily influenced by the folkloric Egyptian traditions that are less known in the West. Hala studies regularly with many Egyptian Master teachers and brings the latest dance styles, music, fashion and trends from Egypt every year. She organizes and leads annual music and dance tours to Egypt. Her teachers include Master Egyptian stars like Mahmoud Reda, Farida Fahmy, Raqia Hassan, Aida Nour, Dina, Tito, Badia'a, Mervat Mongy, Nagwa Fuad, Zizi Mostafa, Hamada Hosam El Din, Hassan Afifi and many others. Hala also studies and performs with American and Canadian stars including Hadia, Sahra Kent, Alexandra King, Morocco, Ansuya, Jillina, Amar Gamal, Dondi Dahlin, Lorna Zilba and many others. Praised not only for the authenticity of form and style but also for the immaculate rhythm of her choreographies, Hala, a native of Egypt, has risen to be one of the most authentic dancers today. Her performances are captivating with a lot of passion and energy. She has been performing in the bay area since 1997. In 2006, Hala was elected Vice President of the San Francisco bay area chapter of MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture and Dance Association). The Hala Dance Company offers solo & group performances. They were among the few selected from over 115 dance companies to perform at the presitgious San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival in June 2004. In 2005, Hala performed with master percussionist Hossam Ramzy in London, England and presented her native art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts in celebration of the King Tut exhibit. In 2006, she and her friend Amanda, opened Halanda Studio, a dance & fitness studio in San Jose, CA. They offer classes and workshops in many international dance styles. In 2007, Hala taught Middle Eastern dance through the Dance Dept at Stanford University. It was the first time a major Western University endorses Middle Eastern dance as part of their curriculum.

DEBBIE SMITH : www.gildedserpent.com

Debbie Smith is a dancer, cultural manager, consultant and writer based in Cairo, Egypt. Currently she is the Program Manager at Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (Culture Resource), an independent cultural organization that serves artists and the independent cultural sector in Egypt and the Arab region through artists support programs for production and travel, professional development and training workshops in cultural management, and cultural policy research, in addition to operating El Genaina Theater in Al-Azhar Park and producing the biannual Spring Festival in Cairo and Beirut. She also works as a freelance consultant, grant writer and production manager for numerous other artists and organizations in Cairo. She has studied and performed Middle Eastern dance since 1990, exploring regional dance styles from North African to Persian, and eventually specializing in Egyptian raqs sharqi and folkloric styles. She has performed at numerous theatrical venues and at seminar shows throughout the country, and has conducted workshops on Egyptian dance, Shaabi music/culture, and interpretation of Egyptian song and music for dancers. Her teachers, influences and role models include master teachers such as Shareen el Safy of Santa Barbara, Elena Lentini of New York, Karen Barbee of San Antonio, and Amina Goodyear of San Francisco and many notable dance artists from Egypt such as Mona Said, Raqia Hassan, Magda Ibrahim, and others. From 2005-2009 she was a member of Al-Juthoor Palestinian dabkeh company of San Francisco. Before moving to Egypt at the end of 2009, she worked as Cultural Program Manager for the Arab Cultural and Community Center in San Francisco, California, and was responsible for cultural program development, event management, grant writing, and publicity and marketing, working with Arab and Arab-American performing and visual artists of all genres. Prior to this, she was the Program Manager for Dance Brigade's Dance Mission Theater, a multicultural dance school and theater in San FranciscoÕs Mission district, and she oversaw daily operations of the school and theater, as well as programming the theaterÕs spring and fall seasons and coordinating all aspects of production and publicity, serving dancers, choreographers, technicians and other artists from a wide range of dance styles and backgrounds. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. As an active member of the arts and culture community, she has participated in a number of panels and committees relating to dance, arts funding and advocacy, and other related subjects, in addition to volunteer stage management, production assistance and consultation for a number of artists and venues in the United States and Egypt.

AMINA GOODYEAR : www.aswandancers.org

Amina's performance career began at San Francisco's famous Bagdad Cabaret in 1966, and over the years she has performed in countless venues from nightclubs and theaters to museums, festivals and fairs. In 1976 she founded the Aswan Dancers, her Egyptian dance company now celebrating more than 30 years of performance. AminaÕs work as a choreographer and performer is loved for its uniquely Egyptian aesthetic sensibility and sense of humor. As a life-long student and performer of Arabic music, Amina has played percussion on the nightclub and theater stage with a number of San Francisco's best-known Arabic musicians such as Reda Darwish, the Georges Lammam ensemble, Susu Pampanin, and more. In 1986 she founded the musical ensemble The Cairo Cats, followed by the Arabian Knights 1n 1996, and her latest project is the Layalli al-Sharq band, founded in 2007. She was a founding member of Aswat, the Bay Area's only Arabic choir, in 1999 and continues to rehearse and perform with them. A master teacher for over three decades, Amina combines dance technique, musical interpretation, and cultural and linguistic information about the Arab world so that movement and musical information is learned against the background of its cultural context. In addition to seven regular weekly classes at her studio, she also teaches a weekly Arabic drumming for dancers class and has a full schedule of private classes, focusing on training dancers for professional performance. She has taught classes and done lecture/demonstrations for organizations and schools such as the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts , City College of SF, University High School, and many schools in the area. She also travels throughout the Bay Area and nationally to teach workshops on all types of Egyptian oriental, shaabi and folkloric dance. (Producer)In 1991, Amina created the Giza Club, a cultural organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of the music and dance of the Arab world, through cultural lectures, panel discussions, movie screenings and performances, as well as sponsoring visiting dancers and musicians in workshops From 1997 to the present the Giza Club has also produced the annual Giza Awards, which recognize excellence in instructional, performance, and documentary tapes and DVDs about Middle Eastern dance and the Giza Club also hosts twice yearly Arabic film festivals focusing on the culture, music or dance. She has produced two videos, the documentary "Hizz ya Wiz," and "Nadia in America," starring the legendary Egyptian dancer Nadia Hamdi. Over the years she has produced numerous full-length evenings of music and dance at ODC Theater, Noe Valley Ministry, Dance Mission Theater, and other theatrical venues. Most recently is Tarabiya, an Egyptian Music and Dance performance co-produced with The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts featuring the classic music and poetry of Mohamed Abdel Wehab and Om Kalsoum. In 1994 Amina was inducted into AAMED's Middle Eastern Dance Hall of Fame in New York, and received both the Lifetime Achievement and the Contribution to the Dance awards from the national organization MECDA (Middle Eastern Dance and Culture) in 2002 and 2006. She has served as a judge, panelist and committee member numerous times in the Bay Area and nationally. She is also a staff writer and member of the editorial board of the on-line Middle Eastern dance journal Gilded Serpent.

SAUSAN : www.sausanacademy.com

Sausan began her studies in belly dance at Jodette's Belly Dance School located in Sacramento, California in 1974 after two years of private research. While continuing to master the dance, Sausan devoted herself to establishing belly dance in San Francisco after moving there in 1977. She sponsored numerous belly dance workshops with well-known belly dance instructors, produced several named belly dance functions, catered numerous events, and published and distributed a belly dance quarterly as well as an annual belly dance guide, both of which were distributed to over 2,000 Bay Area belly dance residents and over 25,000 belly dance residents worldwide. In early 1999, Sausan acquired the Grapeleaf and after almost a year of renovation, Sausan opened A-Masri Egyptian Restaurant (The Egyptian) in December 17, 1999, which makes Sausan the only belly dancer to own an Egyptian restaurant. Numerous distinguished and honored guests attended this event, including Her Excellency, Hagar Islambouly, the Consul General of Egypt. Within the first six months, Al-Masri was written up in numerous well-known magazines, periodicals, and featured on radio and television programs. After studying, dancing, and performing all over the world for 28 years, in 2000, Sausan once again took step into the demanding world of dance as an instructor. She began coaching private students in Egyptian dance technique using the Egyptian film industry's famous dancers of the early Twentieth Century as the backbone of her curriculum. Since that year, Sausan's students include dancers that have gone on to perform professionally at Al-Masri, representing the high standards of Sausan Academy of Egyptian Dance, which in 2003, she officially opened. She has been seen lecturing and demonstrating the dance with her students at Stanford University, Palo Alto as well as the International House and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum at U.C. Berkeley. Her dance ensemble was chosen to perform at the King Tut exhibit Grand Opening in 2009 and Grand Finale in 2010 at the de Young Museum. She is also the producer of numerous prior events including performances at the de Young Museum Eternal Egypt Exhibit in 2001 as well as the de Young Museum Grand Opening in 2005, the "Natural World Museum Opening Gala Celebration" at the Presidio in 2004, "Dancing on the Nile: A Story of the Raqs Sharki" at the de Young Museum in 2006, and the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival VIP Gala in 2006.