The Gilded Serpent presents...
Stasha
Joyfully dancing and teaching with over thirty-five years experience in Middle Eastern dance, Stasha has been the lead dancer in a traditional folkloric company, and also performs modern cabaret styling in various American Middle Eastern supper clubs (featured dancer at San Francisco's "El Mansour" Moroccan restaurant for over 20 years!). She’s happily enlivened a wide variety of weddings, special occasions, and exotic venues. She’s been the featured performer at several of London's Middle Eastern restaurants, traveled America with a Middle Eastern Revue, and was featured in the encore with the British rock group "Queen" before an audience of 16,000. Stasha has had the opportunity to research, perform and enjoy the dance firsthand in North Africa and the Middle East. She’s even shimmied on the silver screen in Warner Brother's "The Pirate". Watch for her in another Warner Brothers production "Matrix: Reloaded".
"The Harem Fantasy" is your favorite choice for celebration performances. From a captivating solo performance to a top-notch dance team, they've delightfully enlivened art galleries and galas of San Francisco's most recognizable and influential organizations and individuals.
With a background in Cultural Anthropology, Stasha calls her style Shamanic: inviting and holding the space for oneness of community. "Cultural Understanding as a Step Towards World Peace" is the topic of her lecture/dance experience, recently offered at California's San Francisco State and Stanford Universities. She also offers this educational outreach program to elementary institutions, youth groups and at trans-personal retreats. Coming to understand another culture's art is an easy first step towards understanding another culture.
Published in three volumes, "Adventures in Belly Dance Costuming" are Stasha’s comprehensive manuals of Middle Eastern Costuming. From basics to specifics, she simply and clearly explains (and demonstrates in the lecture series) how you can create "perfect fit" costuming that is beautiful, comfortable, durable and reflective of your own artistic expression.
Web site: www.stashamania.com
Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Stasha
- Thoughtful Technique in a Beautiful Package, Jo Wise’s "The JWAAD Book of Belly Dance"
Fortunately, this beautiful book can be opened at any time, to any page, for any length of time you can spare, and it will offer you concise instruction, illustrative photos, inclusive models, creative costuming, witty sayings, insightful technique and imaginative choreographic notes! - 1-27-12 "No Path is Straight" Says Anne Lippe, One of the First Westerners to Dance in Egypt
Anne Lippe, a trend-setting costumer, was not only one of the original Western dancers to perform in Egypt, she was also one of the first teachers of Belly dance instructing there as well. Anne started studying Middle Eastern Dance with Jamila Salimpour in San Francisco in1969 and joined dance troupe Bal Anat. - 11-2-11 Radio Bastet, Where the Hafla Never Stops!
An Interview with Its Creator, Marisa Young
Here’s one thing that is very frustrating: finding out that you have two or three copies of the exact same record, released on different labels, with different artists names, different track names and arrangements, and different covers! - 7-5-11 Becoming the Object of Your Own Fantasy, "Perfumes of Araby" in the 1970s, Part 1
The Belly dance scene in 1970s Los Angeles: It is difficult to spotlight succinctly even one portion of a vibrant, vast and quickly growing community of Middle Eastern dancers, their enthusiasts, and the ethnic communities, musicians, festivals and supper clubs that supported the dance arts. The abundance of inspiration in that era was almost beyond understanding; yet once upon a time before the Internet, music, imagery and information was less readily available. - 8-8-11 Becoming the Object of Your Own Fantasy, "Perfumes of Araby" in the 1970s, Part 2
We are packed tightly shoulder to shoulder, impulsing to the dramatic beat with great solidarity: traditional hand gestures, chest drops, all very serious and trance like. This mood was broken however by a guy at the back of the 200 plus audience, who stood on his chair, raised his beer glass and shouted "The one in the yellooooow…." then actually fell completely backwards like a tree that had just been cut! I hope he was OK! - 9-15-11 Becoming the Object of Your Own Fantasy, Diane Webber and the Perfumes of Araby in the 1970s, Part 3:
In an almost archetypal will to power, Diane encouraged us to utilize our costuming – and our dance – as a way to search out and expand our own unique spirit, fantasy and physique, something I try to continue with my students today: become the object of your own fantasy. - 11-17-10
We Will Rak You! My Dance Experience with Queen
I'll admit I wasn't too familiar with the music of the British rock group Queen. The year was 1977, the month of December, in Los Angeles. I was invited to perform at a dinner party where Queen, in Los Angeles for several concerts, was the guest of honor. The job came to me through Dianne Webber. -
10-9-08
A
Big Picture Book Review: Martha Burns' "Belly Dance, Celebrating the
Sacred Feminine"
Every page is a work of art, a truly astonishing array of images. The content is very inclusive and features all age ranges, body types and styles. You will see yourself, your best self, in these pages. -
12-3-02
“Adventures
In Belly Dance Costuming”
This is a good book for both sewing veterans and beginners alike.
