Instructors

Suhaila Salimpour
Suhaila Salimpour is the originator and head instructor of Suhaila Salimpour School of Dance. Schooled from an early age in jazz, tap and ballet, Suhaila began integrating her extensive classical training with the Middle Eastern dance passed on by her mother. Suhaila Salimpour has been teaching over 25 years and has revolutionized belly dance as an instructor, choreographer and performer.
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Jamila Salimpour
Jamila Salimpour is the originator of tribal
bellydance in America. She is also the first one to solidify a format of terminology in belly dance still used today. Her format is taught and applied to dancers movements worldwide. Jamila has been an influential figure in belly dance for over 50 years.
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Isabella Khoury
Isabella Khoury is eight years old and is a third generation belly dancer. She is the daughter of Suhaila Salimpour and grandaughter of prominent belly dancers Jamila Salimpour. Her roots in Middle Eastern music and dance are generational on both sides.
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Rashid
Artistic influences on both sides of his family nurtured Rashid's interest in fine and performing arts. He was encouraged to play piano and guitar at an early age but didn't experience his first taste of performing on stage until tap dancing as a child of eight.
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Sabriye
Sabriye Tekbilek is a performer and instructor of Middle Eastern dance whose stage presence and technique have been shaped by a lifetime of international performance and study. She currently holds a level 4 in the Suhaila Salimpour Certification program.
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Kitiera
Kitiera is originally from Lexington, Kentucky and has been belly dancing since the age of 12. Before moving to California to study intensively with Suhaila Salimpour, Kitiera was a working performer, instructor, choreographer and troupe director in Seattle, WA. Kitiera currently holds a level 2 in the Suhaila Salimpour Certification program.
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Gina
Gina has been teaching and performing middle-eastern dance since the age of three, and is a second generation belly dancer. Her technique both combines fusion and classical styles, and she has performed on national and international stages throughout her career.
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Nadia
Nadia was born in Iran and moved to California at the age of two. Her physical training began as a child in gymnastics. She has trained in yoga, Persian dance, ballet, jazz, modern, tap, hip hop, salsa, ballroom and flamenco. She discovered bellydance at the age of 19. Nadia also graduated cum laude from UCSD with a degree in Human Development and a minor in Art History. After extensive travels throughout Europe, India and Mexico, she began working in women's health. Nadia began training with Suhaila in 2003, joining SDC and Bal Anat in 2005. She is an instructor at the Suhaila Salimpour School of Dance, currently Level 3 certified and working on Level 4 certification. Nadia is also Studio Manager for the Suhaila Salimpour School of Bellydance.

Rebecca
Rebecca has been studying dance since she was five years old. She started with ballet, jazz, modern and hip-hop and when she was eleven years old she added belly dancing to her repertoire. At the age of fifteen, in 1999, she began studying directly under Suhaila Salimpour. She has been dancing for Suhaila in Bal Anat, Suhaila Dance Company, and now the Repertoire Ensemble. Rebecca was in the first two original productions of Suhaila Salimpour's Sheherezade, as well as the entire Fitness Fusion DVD series produced by Goldhil Entertainment. Rebecca earned her degree in Anthropology, with an emphasis in dance, from Occidental College, in Los Angeles. While she lived in LA she continued her studies of ballet, jazz and salsa at reputable dance studios, enabling her to audition into a competitive ballet and jazz dance company upon return to the Bay Area. Currently, Rebecca is level II certified in Suhaila's format and working on testing for level III in February of 2009 as well as an instructor in Suhaila Salimpour's Belly Dance School.
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