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JAMIE

Jamie is 21 years old. She lived in Central Point most of her life. With a three years cheerleading background at the Crater High School where she graduated in 2003.

In 2006, Jamie moved back to Southern Oregon where she started working with Superior Athletic Club and where she is becoming a group fitness instructor for Group Groove, a new exciting dance fitness class.

Jamie started belly dancing when she moved back to Southern Oregon. She started with regular weekly classes with Tiazza ar the Medford Dance Center and has been a regular student till she joined Sahara Bellydancers. She was one of the first members to form the original troupe and she has been featured in every show since.

Jamie's challenging backbends have always impressed everyone. Her dance flexibility is a great asset for Sahara Bellydancers.


      ThumbnailTIAZZA

Tiazza was born and raised in Morocco till she was 23 years old when she first moved to New York . Growing up with Arabic music all her life, she was intruduced to belly dancing at a very young age, she danced as a kid in weddings and social parties and grew up learning more styles as she met dancers from all over the world in Morocco.

She then took a long trip around the world visiting  Canada, Japan, Hong Kong / China, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Seychelles, South Africa, Brazil and Cuba. In every country, she tried to learn about the music and the dance and was surprised at how all these dance styles have a lot in common with belly dancing.

After this long trip, she received a full scholarship at SOU and decided to move to Ashland, OR. She graduated in 2003 and has been involved with the dance scene at SOU directing and performing at the International Show every year since 2002.

After  graduation, Tiazza started teaching all the different styles of belly dancing she has learned in Morocco and through her travels. This led to the birth of Sahara Bellydancers in 2006 where she is currently the artistic director and the main choreographer.

Tiazza is usually featured at all the group dances with Sahara bellydancers and many solos: drum solo, cane dance, sword dance and Flamenco remixes.
   
                                  
    ThumbnailLEAH

Leah is our beautiful tribal fusion dancer. Born in Mount Vernon in Washington, she traveled all over the US until about the age of 8 when she finally settled in Oregon with her family.

She was introduced to the Art of bellydance and Middle Eastern Music at an early age by her mother Grace who is also an avid dancer and musician. Leah started her first bellydance classes with Tiazza at the Medford Dance Center and discovered her interest in a very different bellydance style: The American Tribal Fusion.

Leah is always featured in the tribal fusion dances with Sahara Bellydancers. Leah's dances reflect the traditional tribal music from Northern Africa mainly Morocco and Algeria where authetic tribal dance style emerged as part of the native Berber culture.

Her love for poetry shows in her mesmurising, slow and well controlled moves as she dances.  Behind her serious tribal look, lies a genuine young woman who loves to laugh.
                                
     ThumbnailLINDSAY

Lindsay grew up in Cottage Grove in Oregon and moved to Ashland, OR to attend SOU where she is currently pursuing a nursing degree.

Lindsay has been a dancer for over 7 years. She experienced many styles of dancing from Ballet to Jazz  to Native American Tribal dance and graduated to Belly dancing when she joined Sahara Bellydancers.

Lindsay is featured in the wings of isis dazzling dance she performs at all Sahara Bellydancers shows. She mastered the techniques of this very ancient dance that is rarely performed in the west  thanks to her ability to spin gracefuly and with a lot of control of her moves.

Her love for the wings of isis dances and spinning made her very interested in the art of trance spinning with veils and mostly the double veil dances which will be featured in future shows.


     ThumbnailAUDREY

Born in California, Audrey moved back to Southern Oregon when she was only few years old.
She always had a love for dance as she grew up heavily influenced by her Spanish background and her family from Peru.

Her love for dance started with Ballet and Salsa and got introduced to belly dancing through a dance fitness class at the YMCA.  Her style is very fast and precusive. Her endless shimmies are astonishing and her performance on Shakira's music is always the crowds' favorite.

Audrey will also be featured in Flamenco and belly dance remix performances in the troupe's future shows.

Behind the beautiful dancer is a hardworking girl with dreams and a wild taste for outdoors from water ski to rock climbing but her goal is still focused on college where she is pursuing a nursing major.


ThumbnailELYSIA

Elysia grew up in Santa Barbara,CA and moved to Southern Oregon about 5 years ago.

She danced for 12 years with the Montecito school of Ballet and experienced many styles of dancing: gymnastics, jazz, salsa, hip hop, modern and Irish dancing and performed at the Lobero, Granata and many more ...

Elysia's style is sensual yet dramatic. Her dance background was a great asset for her as she got introduced to belly dancing. Elysia is usually fatured in group dances with Sahara Bellydancers and will be ssen perofrming solos in our future shows.

She is currently a student at Southern Oregon University where she is pursuing a major in pre-physical therapy Health with a minor in Sports Medicine.




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Sonia left her native Ohio after getting a degree in philosophy, and promptly began a whirlwind tour of places: Hawaii, Arizona, Thailand, Ethiopia, Connecticut, Oregon; money-earning pastimes: certified personal trainer, personal assistant, book editor, restaurant manager, shiatsu intern, dance teacher, delivery driver, Native art gallery webwriter; and passions: writing (she is at work on a novel), wilderness survival,
health, chi kung, herbology, and of course ...dance.

She began her dance training at age four. At sixteen she learned Middle-Eastern dance from Ates Altiok, the fiery Turkish dance legend. Sonia’s style is both graceful and intense, with precise technique and emotional expression.

Her Native American name is Hummingbird. She would like people to know that hummingbirds are the only birds that can hover, fly upside down and backwards, and that though they are small some tribes named their warriors after hummingbirds, due to their bravery and ferocity when fighting birds many times their size. Mostly, however, hummingbirds are joyous, and they tend to vibrate, which may be the source of Sonia’s shimmy.

     
TIFFANY


Tiffany is a Southern Oregon native, she started dancing at school plays and was part of the Jazz Choir for 6 years where she got a very  good understanding of music and rythms, which makes her a great asset for Sahara Bellydancers as she helps to create original dances and develop new interpretations of existing dances and instructs performers at rehearsals to achieve the desired effect.

When she is not planing and perfecting moves and dances, she enjoys shopping, eating out and singing in her car.


                                                                   
ThumbnailBESS

Bess is originally from Connecticut , although life has since taken her to many other wonderful places. She graduated from the University of Idaho in 2004 with a B.S. in Natural Resources Ecology – Conservation Biology and now works for the National Park Service.

Early on, Bess’ family instilled in her an appreciation of other cultures and dances. She has been all over, including living in Nepal and exploring India . She loves trying different dances and is especially fond of Bollywood numbers. Bess has admired Middle Eastern dancing for a while and has been bellydancing since 2005 in northern California and southern Oregon . She enjoys the classical Egyptian style and expressive, dramatic movements and is excited to be part of Sahara Bellydancers.

When not dancing, Bess is usually creating artwork or wandering outdoors, especially in the form of biking or hiking.





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Dawn has been dancing since the age 12. She is a belly dance and Flamenco dance teacher and performer and masters the Turkish cabaret style. She is also an Aerial and fire dancer and has obtained the bronze level as ballroom dancer. She is also experienced in Argentine tango and a ballet."
Dawn has also acted in several small movies while pursuing her psychology degree.

In additional to her acting and dancing, Dawn is a saxophone player at the band "La Rouge" where she also does back vocals. She has experimented with different musical instruments such as Piano, guitar, doom-bek, zills, castenets, and flute.

She also enjoys some wild hobbies: knife throwing, motorcylce riding, snowboarding, skiing and playing chess. 

In her spare time, she enjoys drawling comic book style art work, designing and making belly dance outfits.