Natasha, a master teacher of Middle Eastern dance, moved to Boulder County Colorado in 1997 from Chicago. Natasha teaches Middle Eastern Dance in the Boulder and Longmont area and is the artistic director for The Silk Road Middle Eastern Dance Theater.
Highlights of Natasha's career have included 23 years as the artistic director and choreographer for the Chicago based Near East Heritage Dance Theater, performing for 20 years in Chicago cabarets, theaters and folk festivals, touring as a master teacher on the national seminar circuit in the 1980s, and writing for Middle Eastern Dance magazines. She currently is the artistic director for the Silk Road Middle Eastern Dance Theater in Boulder.
Because of the authenticity of her work, Natasha's Chicago dance company, The Near East Heritage Dance Theater, was chosen to represent every Arab organization in Chicago at their cultural events. These groups included The Arab World Organization, The Egyptian Club of America, Our Lady of Lebanon Church, and The National Council for Arab-American Relations; who later awarded her a grant to produce the dance documentary video "The Song of Isis." Natasha's Near East Heritage Dance Theater was the first and only Middle Eastern dance company to be selected to be in Chicago's prestigious dance festival "Dance Chicago" at the Athenaeum Theater, playing alongside Chicago's finest dance companies.
Natasha was chosen by Persian film director Mernaz Said Vafa to appear in the art film "Ruins Within." Vafa selected Natasha after auditioning numerous dancers ."Natasha's deeply soulful and authentic connection to the dance and music," stated Vafa, made her the only dancer she would consider.
Natasha founded The Silk Road Middle Eastern Dance Theater in 1998. They have performed annually for the Boulder Creek Festival, have performed for the Applewood Renaissance Fair, the Home town Festival, at Chautauqua, for Space for Dance, Naropa University, Small Circle Imports, the World Beat Festival, Colorado University's International Celebration, The Boulder International Festival, Ali Baba Nights, Marrakesh Magic, Bantava nights, CATV's Friday Night Live, the Gaia Celebration, The Goddess Dances, at the National Storytellers Convention and at seminar shows and private events. Silk Road was recently awarded a grant for artistic excellence and community service by the Boulder County Arts and Humanities Association.
Natasha has written and published over 20 articles on the dance in "Habibi," "Arabasque," and "Crescent Moon" magazine. Articles about her have appeared in "Crescent Moon," "Binty Balady," Habibi," "Gameel Gamal," and in the Egyptian magazine, "Alhaba." Her photo was featured in a 1980 issue of "People Magazine." She was featured in 3 books: The Art of Belly Dancing by Dahlena, Ancient and Enduring Art Dance Orientale by Suheyla, and in a Canadian book The Way of Middle Eastern Dance. The Near East Heritage Dance Theater appeared in Moon over Denver's "The Veil of Isis" video. Natasha has a forthcoming CD-"Six Dynamic Shows for Belly Dancers," and is currently producing a video of her collected works, an instructional video of her unique approach to teaching beginners and a documentary video of the dance.
Natasha's early influences:
Natasha's teachers were the pioneer Middle Eastern Dance teachers in the Mid West, including Virginia Davran and the legendary Dahlena. Dahlena's technical proficiency and dynamic presentation were unique contributions to Natasha's development. The instruction Natasha received from the late Ibrahim Farrah fed her creative spirit. Natasha danced in Dahlena and Farrah's shows as a soloist and was featured in Dahlena's book," The Art of Belly Dancing".
Natasha's teaching Styles:
Natasha's style of teaching makes her classes fun, playful and informative. She believes that everyone has a dancer inside waiting to emerge and believes that the most important benefit of this dance is that it can bring out one's authentic Self. Her background as a Dance Movement Therapist helps her students advance in their expression and self confidence. Her unique use of everyday imagery as a teaching tool is a shortcut for learning the movements of the dance. She helps a student gain the body awareness that is necessary for the precise body control that it takes to learn the complex isolations of Belly Dancing.
Natasha is versed in teaching both of the primary cultural styles of the dance- Egyptian and Turkish. Having danced in Chicago nightclubs to live Arabic and Turkish music, she gained a proficiency in understanding the ethnic music and dance styles. The Egyptian style that Natasha teaches includes both the old lyrical style and modern Egyptian style. The dance vocabulary in Modern Egyptian style, is characterized by intricate hip work, locks, and accents. The Old Style is noted for its lyrical, flowing movements, graceful arm and hand executions, constant energy flow and deep emotional expression. Together the two styles make a dancer versatile, dynamic and free.
Natasha teaches tribal dance styles such as Bedouin, and Ghawazee, Zar trance dance, the Turkish Kashlimar, cabaret style, and specialty dances with props-canes, swords, veils, and finger cymbals. She has researched the Ancient Egyptian dance and has recreated elaborate temple and goddess rituals on theater stages. She teaches gypsy fusion with Spanish and Moorish influences. She has created group performances of a fantasy, poetic, and mystical nature. She is noted especially for her inspiring choreography, her talent for staging, and the technical excellence and deep emotional expression of her dancers. In addition, her dancers' ability to improvise freely and to express their own individual styles and authentic self with an authentic relationship to the music, is a trademark of Natasha's work.
Belly Dancing as a Healing Art:
Natasha is convinced that this dance is a healing dance. Her background in Dance Movement Therapy and her research into the transformational benefits of belly dancing has helped her understand how to impart these benefits to her students. Students gain greater body freedom, enhanced creativity, a confidence to improvise in solo performance, and to put emotion into motion. Natasha celebrates the shifts that occur in students as they begin to love their bodies and feel a deep connection with "embodied spirit;" -a direct result of the power of this ancient and joyful dance. Some students choose to perform and some do not; either way, the dance is so satisfying to body, soul and spirit, that it stands on its own, as a lifetime expressive art, making fitness a joy-filled with fantasy and fun.
Natasha specializes in bringing an individual's self expression to the dance. She encourages dancers to find their own style within the framework of solid technique, combined with a working knowledge of the rhythms and music. Freedom in the body and emotional expression are also essential elements in her teaching styles. She believes that improvisation is the soul of the dance. In the many years she has been teaching, she has evolved methods that can free the body, and bring a dancer to performance level in a short period of time. For dancers who do not intend to perform, her work is healing, exhilerating and mood shifting. Her class provides a good physical and fun workout.
Teaching Locations:
Natasha is currently teaching at her own studio, Silk Road Studio-north of Boulder. She teaches at Kake's Studio in Boulder and at Mayama Studio in Lyons. She is a Registered Yoga teacher (RYT), and a Registered Dance Movement Therapist (BC-DMT.) She is in private practice in Dance Movement Therapy and is a trainer in the Internal Family Systems Therapy.
