Jasmine June

Jasmine June Cabanaw began dancing at nine years old. She trained in jazz until she was fifteen. In her early twenties, she traveled throughout Latin America and fell in love with salsa and merengue. When she moved to California, she started training to become a hip hop dancer, but never felt that her heart was truly in it. At twenty-three, Jasmine discovered tribal fusion belly dance in San Francisco and knew she was home. She studied under Jill Parker, and considers her a mentor until this day. Jasmine abandoned all other dance forms in order to study the wide variety of belly dance styles. She has now been trained in American Tribal Style, tribal fusion, Turkish Roma, and Turkish cabaret, and has started training in Egyptian under Amina Goodyear. Jasmine has also been trained in uitlizing sword, zils, veil, cane, and feathered fans. Jasmine is in three dance companies. Her solo company is "Avaishya Belly Dance", which she uses as an umbrella for restaurant and solo acts, teaching classes, and producing shows. She is in a duet company called "Carousel Belly Dance" with Alodiah Lunar, from Jill Parker's "Miel". In 2009, Jasmine went to Berlin and joined Zadiel Sasmaz's company, "Zadiraks" and continues to be a satellite member of the dance ensemble. At this point in her career, Jasmine has incorporated her former dance training into her belly dance style. She also combines her passion of writing with her love of dance. Her adventures can be followed on her blog, The Traveling Belly Dancer.

Web sites: travelingbellydancer.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/avaishya

Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Jasmine June

8-17-11 Dallas Observer’s Recent Belly Dance Ruckus by Jasmine June
The silver lining in all this is witnessing the wrath of Belly dancers scorned.
7-24-11 Bellydance 'n All that Jazz, Trends in Tribal Fusion by Jasmine June & Kim Mackoy
For some dancers, it can be easier to relate to music from one’s own culture than it is to music from halfway around the world.
3-17-11 Empowering Women in India through Belly Dance by Jasmine June and Samar
The company works with less fortunate and troubled families and women, and pays the women a decent sum for their crafts as a way of helping them out
2-26-11 Not So Steam punk Belly Dance by Jasmine June
Since Tribal Fusion is also easily accessible, there have been dancers who begin performing and calling themselves professional when really they are just hobbyists. A professional belly dancer would never label her dance genre based on an aesthetic.
12-14-10 Tribal Fusion: An Evolving Dance Form by Jasmine June
The biggest contrast between ATS and Tribal Fusion was that improvisation was the basis for ATS while Tribal Fusion, at least in its earliest phase, had a strong emphasis in choreography. This allowed Jill Parker to play around with musicality and to explore musical genres that were appealing to her.
11-3-10 An Intro to Tribal Fusion by Jasmine June
Since Tribal Fusion Belly Dance is a relatively new dance form, it is especially important to treat the genre with a level of professionalism, or else one runs the risk of discrediting the work of dancers who have dedicated their lives to creating and elevating Tribal Fusion Belly Dance.
9-16-10 To Berlin and Back, Bridging Cultures Through Belly Dance by Jasmine June
In this way, he demonstrated that belly dance isn't something that is defined by culture. Rather, it is an art form that can be perfected by anyone who puts their mind to it, and it's an art form that can be used to bridge cultures rather than divide them.