Belly Dance Classes with Joharah in Oakville
Bellydance that moves you.
Joharah's students come from all over. From Niagara Falls to Richmond Hill. From Bulington to Milton. Hamilton, Guelph, Cambridge/Kitchener and Mississauga. When you love to belly dance they way our students do, the drive to Oakville is well worth it!
Joharah's vision many years ago was to create an oasis for bellydancers. A haven of sorts that would bring together a community of women where they had a place to share all things bellydance. With a passion for teaching this beautiful and complex dance form, Joharah's dream came to fruition in 2007 when she opened the first BellyUp Belly Dance Studio, located in Oakville. In just over a year, BellyUp’s classes were so popular it was clear Joharah needed to find bigger digs and within three months of finding the next location, Joharah relocated BellyUp to the glammest of all bellydance studios… with two adjoining studios, and over 2,000 square feet of lucious bellydance space. In such a short period of time BellyUp has achieved many things. Several appearances on City TV's Breakfast Television and CHCH TV. Countless public performances at major community festivals, galas and corporate events along with numerous fundraisers for numerous causes. Contributor of many articles on the art of bellydance to local and national publications. BellyUp also won "Dance Studio of the Year! Two reader's choice platinum awards were given to BellyUp. Plus so much more. Read on about Joharah's involvement and commitment to the community and her journey to learn and share all that she can about this most amazing and elegant form of dance and feminine self-expression.
Commitment to her Community
Joharah loves to spread the word about the many benefits of bellydance and she is pleased to devote time to reaching into the community to educate and share her love of bellydance and all its healthy benefits. Joharah has been an Ambassador for Lululemon Athletica of Downtown Oakville and enjoys being part of a joint marketing alliance with this innovative organization. Joharah teaches belly dance at many of the local area high schools throughout Burlington, Oakville and Mississauga and also promotes a Love Your Body through bellydance workshop designed to help young girls and women build self-esteem and confidence. She believes that bellydance is a vehicle that allows women to embrace their bodies and femininity. Bellydance does not discriminate ... in fact as women become older often the better they become at bellydancing. Since bellydance is about emotional self-expression, women with life experience often have more range in emotion to use in their dance. Joharah has donated endless performances to fundraisers for Breast Cancer, Halton Women’s Shelter, International Women’s Day, WelNepal, Women of Afghanistan and community multicultural festivals celebrating cultural diversity. Joharah has written many articles on the history and benefits of bellydance for body, mind and soul.
The Journey of Learning
Joharah believes that learning to belly dance is a life long journey and works hard to continue her own education to constantly improve her teaching and performance style and to bring new and interesting techniques and approaches to share with her students and dance troupes. She regularly studies with a host of master teachers, performers and instructors in Canada and the U.S. and enjoys training with Middle Eastern Dancers such as Fifi Abdo, Dr. Mo Geddawi, Aida Nour, Tito Seif, Asmahan, Lubna Eman, Randa Kamal, Dina, Nagua Fouad as well as North American bellydance masters such as Suhaila Salimpour, Jim Boz, Aziza, Bozenka, Ansuya, Audra, Noura and Badia Star. Joharah hosted Jim Boz and Aziza at BellyUp this year for two sold out weekend intensives and she looks forward to hosting a fabulous range of master instructors in 2010 such as Fifi Abdo, Mohammed el Hosseny, Mira Betz and Carolena Nericcio of Fat Chance Belly Dance.
Teaching from the Heart
When Joharah dances, she really feels the music. And when she teaches it's no different. She emphasizes safe technique throughout every class and insists that BellyUp instructors share the same teaching ideals and principles and commitment to continuing education. She believes proper posture and body alignment is essential to learning how to dance in the bellydancer way. Joharah wants women to feel the purpose and beauty of every movement and gesture that is being taught and this includes teaching women to dance with feeling, emotion and most of all to dance from the heart which is BellyUp’s mantra. Once basic movements have been mastered, she looks to take the students out of the realm of repetition and into a space where the beauty of motion, subtle nuances of belly dance and self-expression can be explored. This is when the student feels as though they are truly belly dancing. Joharah’s strong sense of musicality and rhythm provides the student with insights into the dance that allows them to develop a cultural awareness of the dance form but also to develop a multi-dimensional technique with texture and great awareness of the musical rhythms and phrases they are dancing to. Joharah emphasizes to students the importance of not just executing a movement in the mechanical sense, but to understand why they are moving in this way to a specific phrase of the music. Students are encouraged to explore and develop their own unique style of dance allowing them to take the moves they feel most suitable for their body. Egyptian people will tell you that the bellydancer that dances with soul and emotion is the dancer that captures the hearts of the audience. And every bellydancer will tell you that the point at which you become one with the music is a very empowering almost spiritual feeling.