Nalini
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Nalini is a master instructor and choreographer in Indian dance and belly dance. She spent many years performing in the most elite nightclubs, stages and restaurants of Moscow, Russia, where she entertained VIP clientele before moving to the United States. She is the founder, director, and choreographer for the Blue Lotus Dance Co. and performs as a soloist all over the U.S. She is well-known for her grace and beauty as well as the warmth and joy she instills in the hearts of her audiences. |
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| www.nalinidance.com |
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Emma
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Emma has loved to dance since she was small. Her dance training began with ballet, African dances, and modern dance.
She then studied at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. During this time she maintained a broad interest in dance which led her to delve into a variety of dance forms, including Flamenco and classical Persian dance. |
Inspired by some Indian (and non-Indian) friends, she has most recently become passionate about Indian dances. She began studying with Nalini in 2008, deepening her understanding and appreciation of belly dance and the dances of India. |
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Elisa Gamal
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Elisa Gamal is entering the third decade of her love affair with Middle Eastern dance. She blames (and blesses) Nalini for swaying her formerly steadfast heart toward her newest passion - Bollywood!
A multi-award winning performer and instructor throughout the Pacific Northwest, Elisa also occasionally packs up her sequins and travels the country to study with dance masters from around the world.
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| Elisa Gamal is Vice President of Middle East Arts International, the mother of two delightful children, grooves on gardening and good books, and bakes a mean pie. |
www.middleeastarts.org
www.elisagamal.com |
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Casey
Baldner
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Casey has a love of dance and languages from cultures all over the world. She began studying belly dance for the first time in ’99 but took a break for a few years to study abroad. While abroad she was exposed to Latin dances in Costa Rica and Flamenco in Andalusia, Spain. While attending college she took up belly dancing again and also began to study classical Indian Orissi for a few years. |
| After moving to Seattle she took classes from local professional teachers and a year ago at folk life was inspired by the Blue Lotus Dance Co. performance, which prompted her to begin dancing under the instruction of Nalini. Since then she was invited to join the company and she is very excited to be able to dance with so many talented women and learn new styles of dance such as Bollywood and Russian Gypsy. |
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| Shannon |
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Shannon was introduced to the world of bellydance in 2000. Little did she know how her passion for dance would grow! She started
her studies
with local teacher, Aleili and then became a student of Amelia Moore in 2001, with whom she has studied bellydance and later Turkish Roman
(Turkish gypsy dance). |
Shannon performed as a member of The Circle, a Seattle bellydance company founded by Amelia, from 2003 to
2008. It
was through her experience with The Circle that Shannon was encouraged
to continue her growth as a dancer, studying a variety of
bellydance
styles, and to perform as a soloist as well.
Shannon has studied with many local, national and
international teachers and will always consider herself a student of
dance. She is honored and excited to now be a member of Blue Lotus and a
student of Nalini. She is thrilled to continue to learn bellydance and
to step
into the exciting world of bollywood under Nalini's
gifted direction. |
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Anna Vasilevskaya
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Anna Vasilevskaya is a renowned Russian singer. Born in Siberia, she studied in the Russian Academy of Theater arts in Moscow, and moved to America a number of years ago. Here she began sharing Russian Gypsy, folk, and romance music with American audience, translating many of the songs into English. Anna has performed at different venues in the Puget Sound region, including Seattle Public Library and Benaroya Hall. |
| http://vasilevsky.com/Anna/ |
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Alena
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Alena was born in Russia and moved to Seattle in 2005. She discovered love to dance when she was little and since then dancing has been an amazing experience in her life.
Alena is grateful to her teacher, Nalini, to discover passion for Belly Dance and Bollywood dancing.
Alena has been performing as a member of different dancing groups and as a soloist.
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Shiori
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Shiori was interested in dance and had a desire to take dance lessons since she was very young, but a small town in Japan where she grew up didn’t have any dance lessons. It was not until 2007 that she started taking bellydance lessons (her first dance training!), and it soon became part of her life. Since then she’s been taking bellydance lessons from well-know dancers/instructors in Seattle area. |
| She’s been enjoying dancing as a solo but also wanted to be a part of group performance as well. She met with Nalini in early 2010 and decided to join the Blue Lotus Dance Company to expand her dance experience. It was a perfect opportunity for her and she feels so fortunate to dance with Nalini and other amazing girls in the group. |
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