Samba Bellydance Fusion!

I just returned from an incredible trip to Los Angeles where I dived into an intensive weekend of dance workshops with the exceptional Shahrzad (@shahrzad_dancer_official) hosted by Adrianne Curran. These workshops were some of the best I've ever attended, and like any well-planned weekend, it went along with a beautiful gala show with some of my favorite dancers!
It was truly an honor to share the stage with these inspirational dancers and work on something brand new to push myself outside my comfort zone and keep growing as a dancer. If you know me, you know the last year or so I've been taking samba classes at BrasArte, and even though I'm still a baby dancer when it comes to samba, the music and challenge of the footwork have been making me fall in love with this dance form. For this gala show in LA, I decided to create a samba & belly dance fusion piece and I want to give a special shoutout to Tainah Damasceno (my incredible samba instructor) and Heather Louise (my dance coach) for helping me with this piece from creation to final critiques.
It was so much fun to make something new, challenge myself, wear something I didn't think I could pull off, and just grow as a dancer and person overall. Even though I am not 100% happy with my performance and see so many things I need to work on, I still want to share my growth and process and this lovely video filmed and edited by Mike Owens of Hot Raqs. Thank you to everybody who pushes me, inspires me, teaches me, and passes on the knowledge of these dance forms that I love so much.