Faculty | saffrondance.com

Faculty

Adriane

Adriane Walen is considered to be one of the most sought-after child and teen dance teachers in the Washington, DC area. For over 25 years, Adriane has taught and performed ballet, tap, jazz and belly dance in an around our Nation¹s Capital.

Allaria

Allaria loves to share the joy, elegance, and passion of Oriental dance with audiences and students alike. Even her name means joyful!

Her studies in anthropology and a love of many cultures eventually led her to the study of Oriental dance in 2004 and she has been hooked ever since!! Her movement background comes from her study in the performing arts, musical theater, ballroom and Latin dancing, yoga, and folk dancing from many world cultures.

Andrea

Dance has been an integral part of my life for as long as I can remember—indeed, my earliest memories include responding to music with movement. I’ve enjoyed many dance styles, including modern, jazz, ballroom and salsa, but when I discovered belly dance, I knew that I had truly found my passion!

Eugenia

A respected professional tribal bellydancer in the DC area, Eugenia is a frequent performer at many local venues for tribal bellydance, including Tribal Cafe and the Red Palace, as well as festivals all over the country. She is a member of the pure American Tribal Style troupe Transcendence Tribal, co-director of the Brain Dance Collective, and also performs as a tribal fusion soloist.

Faten - Master Teacher - Native Egyptian

Faten has delighted the International Belly Dance community for two decades. Her classes, focusing on all aspects of classical Egyptian oriental dance, continue into the century with an extra bonus for American belly dancers. Faten began dancing at 11 years of age when she was selected to attend the first-ever national folk troupe of Egypt dance school for children and was one of the first dancers selected for Egypt's National Folk Troupe.

Jen

Tribal Belly Dance is innovative, amazing, and fun! It is my responsibility to bring value to every dancer in each and every class, so that each student can experience the love and excitement of Pure ATS belly dance. As such, I stress strong technique in the classroom and offer plenty of individual attention so that every student leaves each class with new belly dance movement ability.

Katrina

I am so fortunate and thankful to have found my passion, Oriental dance and classic Egyptian music, and to be able to grow and share it with others. At Saffron, I am most proud of the focus on authentic Egyptian movement vocabulary, nurturing students as they grow into technically competent dancers and find their own voice, and having such a supportive dance community. I am consistently impressed by the dedication, talent, humor, kindness and joy that each student and faculty member at Saffron shares with each other…and remain honored and humbled to dance with them all.

Keika

Keika discovered belly dance in 2002. First a hobby, it soon became a passion, as Keika fell in love with the beauty and sensuality of the dance. She was--and continues to be--impressed with how belly dance is shared by women of all ages, backgrounds, and shapes and sizes.

Nica

From a very young age, Nica has always been enamored with dance and movement. She began ballet training with The National Ballet of Canada and studied Asian traditional dances with The Beijing Song and Dance Company in Beijing, China. She persued her passion and received her B.A. degree in Dance from The American University in Washington D.C.

Samar

Belly dance is such a celebration of the body. All too often in our culture, it is communicated to us that we should be at odds with our bodies, that we need to force our bodies to cooperate so that we can live up to a certain physical ideal. Belly dance is a vehicle through which we can reconnect not only with our bodies, but with our creativity, femininity, and maybe even our playful side. Seeing my students experience this has been my greatest joy.

Saphira

Saphira has been teaching dance for more than two decades and has been a professional oriental dance artist, teacher, and choreographer since 1996. As a performer, her vibrant Egyptian inspired styling and natural interpretation of oriental music captures audiences by portraying classical oriental raqs sharqi ("belly dance") movement through precision, strength, and grace. She has been a featured soloist for international vocalists and performs regularly in theatres, festivals, and private functions.

Shahrzad

Shahrzad started her journey in belly dance at age 11. Within a few months of taking classes she knew she would make it her career. She started dancing professionally at age 16 and since then has made a name for herself in the Arabic club scene working at the top venues in Philadelphia, NYC, and the DC area as a full time performer.