Summer 2024 Belly Dance Wrap Up, Part One

It’s been an exciting summer of belly dance with classes and performances. In the next few posts I’ll share some of what we’ve been up to!

First off, a small group of my students from Better Together Dance Theatre and I performed at Carnival of Stars 2024! It was our first performance together as Troupe Alisa and their first time performing at a belly dance festival. We had great time preparing for and performing in this show. I’m so proud of their hard work. We put our entire set together with very little time and they did a stellar job!

Alisa and students performing at Carnival of Stars Belly Dance Festival 2024

The following day I had the honor of performing the in Carnival of Stars Gala Showcase to live music with Pangia.

Alisa performs with Pangia at the Carnival of Stars 2024 Gala Showcase.

I’ll share video from these shows and more of our summer adventures in the coming weeks.

Tonight is our last night of summer classes at Better Together Dance Theatre. Then we take a two week break and come back refreshed for our Fall season. My fall teaching schedule is available on my Classes page - come dance with us!

Bay Area Belly Dance Events

Happy Wednesday, everyone.  There are so many exciting Bay Area Belly Dance events coming up that I wanted to do a recap of the ones I am involved with before we move back to more vintage clips of the gorgeous Egyptian dancers.

First of all, I want to remind everyone that registration is open for both my Beginning and Intermediate Belly Dance Classes through the South San Francisco Parks and Rec.  Registering online is very easy.  Click this link https://econnect.ssf.net/ and put code 165114 in the box for Beginning and code 165115 for Intermediate.  Please always contact me if you have any questions, I am happy to answer them all!!

Next up, the San Francisco International Arts Festival kicks off this weekend and Arabic Dance is well represented thanks to Amina Goodyear's fantastic Magic Carpet ride.  I wrote more about the show here.  

I will be performing with the Aswan Dancers at the San Francisco International Arts Festival this year.

Amina describes the show like this:

“The Magic Carpet is a Middle Eastern Dance and Musical Adventure. The musical carpet will transport you to various countries across the deserts of North Africa, through Egypt, the Middle East and onto the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. We want you to sit back and enjoy the ride and let the drums, the music and the dance take you to the Arabian Nights of our dreams when magic and fantasy was foremost and stimulated all the senses. Performed by The Caravan Band, The Aswan Dancers and Joweh Dance Troupe.”

— Amina Goodyear

I am in the show for a little bit and so I got a sneak peak of their rehearsals last night.  It is going to be a wonderful expression of music and dance like only Amina can produce.  Tickets are available here: http://www.sfiaf.org/aswan_dancers

After that, coming up June 2nd we do our monthly First Friday party at Tannourine Restaurant.  Live Arabic music and dancing with sensational singer Khalil Abboud.  Reservations are always highly recommended as this show often sells out.  Great music, food and dancing- I look forward to it every month.

Monthly First Friday Party at Tannourine Restaurant presented by Sensational singer Khalil Abboud

Looking ahead a little bit, Carnival of Stars is right on the horizon in July!  I love this event, which is produced by the lovely Pepper Alexandra.  Mark your calendars now for two days of music, dance and bellydance-related SHOPPING :)

I will be performing on Saturday on both the main stage and the cabaret stage with musical favorites Pangia.  Stay tuned for more details and performance times but there will be gorgeous dancers on two stages no matter what time you are there.

Lastly, I perform at Marrakech Restaurant in downtown San Francisco almost every Sunday night. Come down and dance with me.  Complete details as always on my Shows page.

Alisa Greer and Nader Shahin at gorgeous Marrakech Restaurant

Whew!!  Thanks for reading and I wish everyone a fun-filled week.

Happy Dancing, Alisa