Zahra Zuhair
Master teacher, performer, and choreographer, Zahra is world renowned for her
knowledge, authenticity, and dedication to the art of Middle Eastern dance.
Raised in oriental dance from a young age, Zahra is known for her musicality,
flawless technique, and elegant style. She has trained and influenced many of
today’s international, bellydance stars! Zahra has performed and taught
workshops worldwide, including Raqia Hassan’s Ahlan Wa Sahlan Dance Festival
in Cairo Egypt.
Zahra fell in love with bellydance in the early
1970’s in Columbus, Ohio. She enthusiastically studied traditional folk
styles as well as oriental bellydance styles, including Lebanese, Turkish, Moroccan,
Tunisian and Egyptian. Zahra began teaching in 1977 after the tragic death of
her teacher and mentor, Scheherazade.
She began a specialization in Egyptian dance
with her first study tour to Egypt in 1979, studying with Cairo’s top
teachers. Zahra has had the good fortune to see first hand, 3 decades of the
great dancers of Egypt, such as Nagua Fouad, Soheir Zaki, Fifi Abdo, Mona Said,
Aza Sherif, Hannan, and many more, to the present day stars. Zahra has continued
her study and love of Egyptian dance, and conducts study tours to Egypt, as
well as Morocco, and Turkey, under the name Eternal Egypt Tours.
Los Angeles, CA. has been Zahra’s home
base since 1984, where she has been one of LA’s most esteemed teachers
for many years. Her always-evolving style keeps students, old and new, coming
back for more.
She is also the artistic director of the Ghazella
Dance Company, and has written, directed and choreographed theatre productions
intertwining Middle Eastern stories and dance, under the name Po Na Na Dance
Theatre (loosely meaning a blend of many things) since 1997. Her productions
include Layla and Majnun; The Veils of Inanna; Tapestry; and Journey, In Search
of the Divine.
Music is why we dance. Always dance to the
music, with the music, and only because of the music.
Watching a dancer show off tricky complex moves one after another, just to try
to wow the audience is like
watching someone do aerobics. It becomes nothing more than an exercise drill.
The simplest movement can
be brilliant when executed beautifully, in perfect harmony with music.
~Zahra
Zahra’s certification program, Artistry In Motion (AIM), is a dance intensive
and dancers symposium, created for the continuing development of oriental dance
excellence. In 2007 Zahra co-founded DanceGardenLA dance studio, with dancer,
Jenna (formerly of New York). DanceGardenLA is Los Angeles’s hottest dance
studio promoting and preserving the art of Middle Eastern dance, where Zahra,
along with many of LA’s luminary instructors conduct classes.
A great dancer accomplishes a harmonious
blend of strength, elegance, high technical ability, and musicality,
all the while appearing a seamless, effortless vision. A great artist acquires
all of these skills, yet with that
acquisition comes the realization the journey has just begun.
~Zahra