About Tedi

Tedi has been studying Middle Eastern dance for 28 years, performing for 26 years and teaching the dance for 19 years. In 1980 she began her initial four years of study of this dance at the Arabian Nights Dance Studio in Carbondale under the tutelage of Mariah (Cindy Smith) and Kishma (Kitty Hitt). Even though her introduction to the dance was as an exercise partner for a friend, the dance quickly blossomed into a life long passion. "Learning to move and dance this way in response to the music felt so right. It felt like coming home" She performed in Carbondale and throughout the region during that time as a member of the Arabian Nights Dancers. Since that time Tedi has been a founding member of the Marrakesh Dancers (1984-86) and the Little Egypt Dancer (1986-92) and continued on as a solo artist after the retirement of her last L.E.D. dance partner Marie B in 1992. Major influences on the early part of her dance development were Cassandra (Minneapolis), Aziz (Salt Lake City) and Suzanna Del Vecchio (Denver) in person and Soheir Zaki (Egypt) on film. The most recent influences on her dance development have been many and varied, but include Yousry Sharif and his proteges and most especially her fellow members of Nile Breeze Dance Company. Tedi is absolutely delighted to once again be a member of a vibrant and talented performing dance troupe.

About Sedonia

Sedonia has been studying and performing Middle Eastern dance for over eleven years. She began her journey into this dance in the unlikely niche of Logan, Utah. Sedonia recounts that she was initially drawn to the glittery costumes, but stayed with the dance after falling deeply in love with Middle Eastern music. Among the dancers and instructors who have had a major influence on her development as a dancer are Rebecca Clayton, Zahirah and Aziz (Salt Lake City), Sumra (Logan), Jamilla (Moab), June Seaney (Ithaca), A’isha Azar (Spokane), Diana Wolf (St. Louis), and her current colleague Tedi (Carbondale). An enthusiast of the Egyptian style, she also lists among her major influences the great past and present Egyptian dancers whose videography she studied extensively: Mona El Saiid, Fifi Abdou, Sohair Zaki, Samia Gamal, Dina, Randa Kamel, and others. Sedonia loves to dance to rich, soulful, and sublime Egyptian music by artists such as Oum Kalthoum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Abdel Halim Haifez, Balig Hamdi, and Farid Al Atrache.

About Shiira Sahar

Shiira Sahar has been studying Middle Eastern Dance for six years, and performing for three years. She began her journey in the dance on a whim, taking a community center dance class with some friends, and fell in love with the motion and the music. A number of instructors have had a major influence on her, including: Fatima of Morocco, Jasmin Jahal of Chicago, Diana Wolf of St. Louis, and her troupmates Sedonia and Tedi of Carbondale, IL. Shiira's training has focused on classical and modern Egyptian style danceand includes studying the vidiographies of the great Egyptian dancers Mona El Saiid, Najwa Fouwd, Samia Gamal, and Dina. Shiira loves to dance to the musical stylings of classical musicians Oum Kalthoum and Farid Al Atrashe, as well as pop musicians Hakim and Amr Diab.

About Lisa

Lisa has been studying Middle Eastern Dance for six years and performing for four years. She began her foray into the dance on a dare, and was promptly entranced by the music and movement of Egyptian and American-style Middle Eastern dance forms. First a member of Raghsidad out of Lawrence, KS, and now a member of Nile Breeze, Lisa’s major influences have been Zada Al Gaziyeh (Lawrence, KS), Cynthia (Kansas City), Lydia (Lawrence, KS), and now her troupe mates Sedonia and Tedi. Other instructional influences have been Cassandra, Yousri Sharif, and Amel Tafsout. Lisa also draws from the videographies of historical greats in Egyptian dance, including Fifi Abdou, Mona El Saiid, Samia Gamal, and Sohair Zaki, continuing to study past and present dancers to expand her knowledge of historical and contemporary Middle Eastern culture, music, and dance.

About Katherine

The Dance has always been a part of Katherine's life. Katherine
grew up with the dance, as her mother was (and still is) a dancer.
She is uncertain exactly when the dance became more to her than
just time to spend with her mother. Katherine used to go to her
mother's dance class just so she could spend more time with her.
Gradually it changed from wanting to see her mother into wanting
to learn more and do more in the dance. "I have pretty much been
dancing since I was able to walk, but it has only been in recent
years that I have truly become serious about dancing."