Caroline Evanoff

Caroline Evanoff Caroline is currently teaching classes in Dahab (Red Sea, South Sinai, Egypt) and workshops around the world. Most recently Caroline was working on cruise ships with Holland America Line as their "On Location Middle Eastern Cultural Specialist"

Background: Originally from Australia with Russian heritage, Caroline has been dancing in Egypt as a fully-licensed raqs sharqi performer since 1998 in 5-star venues and weddings as well as appearances on television. With a strong background in ballet she moved to Egypt to study Egyptian style dance with the great master teachers such asRaqia Hassan, Aida Nour, Ibrahim Akef, Mahmoud Reda etc and appears in 7 volumes of Raqia Hassan's technique DVDs (vol 4- 10). She has also performed under contract in India, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Mediterranean cruises (Al Salem) and currently with Holland America Line. She is a teacher at the annualAhlan wa Sahlan festival in Cairo and has taught at various international festivals such as Raqs Britannia and Jewel of Yorkshire in UK, Ahsan Nass, Ukraine, Cairo by Night, Greece, Fire in the Belly, Australia etc . Caroline regularly travels abroad to teach workshops in Ukraine, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, USA, Mexico and Singapore as well as running holiday courses in Dahab (Sinai, Red Sea).

During the ban on foreign belly dancers in Egypt, Caroline worked in various folkloric troupes ( including Gaby Shiba's troupe) performing in stage productions and on TV. The ban was finally lifted after she joined forces with Russian dancer Nour and singer Yasser Alswery and took court action against the decision resulting in the law being overturned.

Caroline is known for her pure Egyptian style choreographies because of her understanding of the language, music and feelings. Her choreographies are beautifully elegant, fun and sometimes a bit cheeky! Her ability to breakdown the challenging Egyptian Oriental technique makes her workshops a truly valuable experience. Caroline also teaches the various Egyptian and folkloric styles from Modern and Classical Egyptian, Shaabi, Baladi, Tarab style music, Saidi, Nubian, Alexandrian, Ghawazee (having studied with Khariya Mazin and Amal and Karem Mazin) , Shamadan as well as modern and traditional Khaleegy styles from the Gulf region and soon to add South Sinai Bedouin style- as I never stop learning! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcafHfKLQIohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRLNOlsZ1ac

c_evanoff@hotmail.com

Articles on Gilded Serpent by Caroline Evanoff

2-18-19 Mawheba: A Journey Toward Teaching Dance, Notes from an Interview with Dandesh by Caroline Evanoff
In Egypt you often hear people saying that the best dancers originate from Alexandria and Dandash is no exception. Born into a family of performers she was destined for fame. She also had a variety of influences over the years which helped create the unique style of the one and only Dandash!
2-4-12 Nelly, Beloved Star of Egypt, An Interview with Nelly Fouad by Caroline Evanoff
I asked Nelly if there was any comparison to the Awalim of Mohamed Ali street and she said no, they were different; the Alexandrian Awalim had a real school for teaching the arts — they were strict and corrected your mistakes.
7-7-11 Permits, IDs, Licensing, Foreign Dancers in Cairo, by Caroline Evanoff
It dawned on me that some dodgy nightclub manager, whom I didn’t know personally, had complete control over my passport and my freedom to leave! So, I had no alternative other than to end my contract in order to get my passport back which also meant halting the lengthy paper process.