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Sallamah |
Instructor Bios
at EDE School of Belly Dancing
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Sallamah |
Sallamah Chimera began studying belly dancing at the University of Florida in 1979, an ambition she acquired as a 10 year-old after seeing a newspaper article on belly dancing. The photo showed a 14 year-old girl dancing with a red veil and Sallamah knew the dance would make her feel mature and feminine. In 1980-83, she continued her studies at Daytona Beach and Valencia Community Colleges and with Azuri Zanarr of Orlando. In 1981, she started teaching at Daytona Beach Community College. In 1997, Seminole Community College hired her to teach at their Sanford/Lake Mary campus. During the summer of 1997, she moved to Gainesville and began teaching at Santa Fe Community College. Several of the SFCC belly dancing classes are now offered at the studio.
In 1987, as part of her commitment to improve the image of belly dancing, Sallamah, returned to college to major in dance and graduated with high honors in 1989. She had a brief opportunity to study with Erick Hawkins, Martha Graham's dance partner. Her studies improved her skills as a teacher and a dancer, giving her a wider range of dance experience to draw upon to assist her students as they learn to dance. She has taken modern dance, jazz, ballet, ballroom, Polynesian, Spanish, and gypsy dance classes to gain a better understanding of world dances.
Sallamah regularly attends dance seminars to expand her knowledge of ethnic dances and to learn new teaching methods. She has studied frequently with nationally recognized masters of the dance: Serena Wilson, Morocco & Tarik, Amaya, Dalia Carella, Cassandra, Dahlena, Phaedra (NYC), Amir, Aegela, Suhailia Salimpour, Suzanna Del Vecchio, Kathryn Ferguson, as well as with, Aziz, Sergio, Laurel Gray, Habiba, Delilah, Margo Abdo O'Dell, and Beata & Horacio Cifuentes of Germany. She has also studied with some of the leading Egyptian choreographers and dancers like Mahmoud Reda, Dr. Mo Geddawi, and Nadia Hamdi.
Sallamah has had a number of articles published on dance related subjects over the past 28 years. She is a member of the Florida Folk Dance Council, the Florida Association of Belly Dance Artists, the Arts Association of Alachua County, and is a founding member of MEDEA (Middle Eastern Dance Education Association) which sponsors a yearly dance recital with proceeds donated to the Alachua County Humane Society, Inc.
Sallamah Chimera opened Ethnic Dance Expressions Studio on June, 1, 1999, a lifetime ambition. Her goals are to have teachers from other fields of ethnic dance teach and perform at the studio. She also directs the Ethnic Dance Expressions Ensemble, a student and professional dance troupe.
"Ayla"
Instructor of
Beg/Intermed Classes at
Ethnic Dance
Expressions Studio
Dancing: 18+ years
Teaching: 6 years
Profesional Dancer
Performs Belly Grams for
EDE Studio
Also teaching at the studio, is Ayla. Ayla's interest in exotic rhythms began in her early childhood, listening to her Mother's collection of Hawaiian, Polynesian and Tahitian music. In her late teens, she was instantly attracted to the art of belly dancing upon seeing her first live performance with a professional belly dancer. The dancer's hypnotic and mesmerizing movements combined with the exotic music and costumes were all that were needed to entice Ayla to embark upon a continuing pursuit of this dance form.
Since her first dance classes in Seminole, Florida at Eva McKeon's dance studio to teaching beginner classes at Ethnic Dance Expressions Studio, she has had the opportunity to dance at various events and celebrations. Among them are: Student nights at Middle Eastern clubs; charitable events; health institutions; schools; birthdays; an Egyptian wedding; art festivals; and haflas.
She has attended seminars taught by the following nationally known instructors: Aziz, Amaya, Dahlena, Dalia Carella, Kathryn Ferguson, Jihan Jimal, Margo Abdo O'Dell, Dr. Mo Geddawi, and Phaedra. Ayla is also a member of the Bay Area Middle Eastern Dance Association in Pinellas County, Florida. She has studied and performed Middle Eastern dance for more than 18 years and brings her individual style to Studio students. Ayla, teaches Belly Dancing I on Wednesday's evenings from 5:45 until 7:15 PM and is one of the original members of Ethnic dance Expressions Ensemble.
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2001-2008 Sallamah Chimera