About Maia
Maia's Bellydance Background
Maia has always danced. Starting at age 4 she attended classes in ballet, jazz, modern dance and dance for musical theater.
Her involvement in bellydance began in 1996 with Alcina’s class through Sunnyvale Parks and Recreation in California. Alcina helped her to build strong fundamentals through her beginning and intermediate classes and eventually ongoing private lessons, and always encouraged Maia to explore different dance styles through workshops and intensives. She also encouraged Maia to perform and, as she grew more skillful and knowledgeable, teach. What a great mentor!
In early 2002, Maia participated in Morocco’s weeklong in New York. Morocco and Tarik Sultan helped her to master some difficult movements and higher level finger cymbals, as well as to hear and dance to the music in a deeper way. They also taught the importance of knowing the culture around the dance, for which she is exceedingly grateful.
Around this time Maia's Dear Husband gave her Hossam Ramzy & Aischa’s “Stars of Egypt” video series. She became engrossed in the “original” Egyptian style of dance and Egyptian music.
Shareen el Safy’s weeklong in 2004 was a turning point; learning to analyze the dance watching videos of Fifi Abdo and other Egyptian dancers, Maia began to fill in the nuances of the music and dance she’d been missing before. The movement classes were incredibly intense and difficult. It may have been one of the hardest and most frustrating dance experiences of her life, but she's so glad she did it.
Sausan’s writings on the MED-List fascinated Maia, as Sausan was provocatively proclaiming there were only two movements in all of bellydance. Maia had the opportunity to take her weeklong intensive Primary Course in 2006 during which Sausan helped shift Maia's dance paradigm and clarify her thinking on the movement vocabulary incorporating the full body. Sausan helped Maia to distill and restructure her own teaching.
Maia has had the privilege of attending several of Zaina Hart’s Intensives and treasures her techniques and style, as well as her incredibly generous spirit. Maia is still working on incorporating all she’s learned from Zaina, and looks forward to working with her in the future to develop as much as possible as a dancer and teacher.
Most recently, Maia has participated in Sahra Saeeda's Journey to Egypt experiential educational program, concluding with a nearly-month-long stay in Egypt visiting Cairo, Aswan and Luxor to learn traditional dances from local dancers and to learn history and culture on site. The trip of a lifetime with an icon of the dance!
Maia feels so fortunate to have encountered each of these great teachers at the right moment in her life! She is so grateful.
Currently, Maia's dance journey is about sharing what she's learned, encouraging her students to grow in their dance, deepening her own dance practice through ongoing practice, workshops and lessons, and fostering relationships with the Pacific Northwest dance community. She hopes (and plans) to dance as long as she lives.
Maia has always danced. Starting at age 4 she attended classes in ballet, jazz, modern dance and dance for musical theater.
Her involvement in bellydance began in 1996 with Alcina’s class through Sunnyvale Parks and Recreation in California. Alcina helped her to build strong fundamentals through her beginning and intermediate classes and eventually ongoing private lessons, and always encouraged Maia to explore different dance styles through workshops and intensives. She also encouraged Maia to perform and, as she grew more skillful and knowledgeable, teach. What a great mentor!
In early 2002, Maia participated in Morocco’s weeklong in New York. Morocco and Tarik Sultan helped her to master some difficult movements and higher level finger cymbals, as well as to hear and dance to the music in a deeper way. They also taught the importance of knowing the culture around the dance, for which she is exceedingly grateful.
Around this time Maia's Dear Husband gave her Hossam Ramzy & Aischa’s “Stars of Egypt” video series. She became engrossed in the “original” Egyptian style of dance and Egyptian music.
Shareen el Safy’s weeklong in 2004 was a turning point; learning to analyze the dance watching videos of Fifi Abdo and other Egyptian dancers, Maia began to fill in the nuances of the music and dance she’d been missing before. The movement classes were incredibly intense and difficult. It may have been one of the hardest and most frustrating dance experiences of her life, but she's so glad she did it.
Sausan’s writings on the MED-List fascinated Maia, as Sausan was provocatively proclaiming there were only two movements in all of bellydance. Maia had the opportunity to take her weeklong intensive Primary Course in 2006 during which Sausan helped shift Maia's dance paradigm and clarify her thinking on the movement vocabulary incorporating the full body. Sausan helped Maia to distill and restructure her own teaching.
Maia has had the privilege of attending several of Zaina Hart’s Intensives and treasures her techniques and style, as well as her incredibly generous spirit. Maia is still working on incorporating all she’s learned from Zaina, and looks forward to working with her in the future to develop as much as possible as a dancer and teacher.
Most recently, Maia has participated in Sahra Saeeda's Journey to Egypt experiential educational program, concluding with a nearly-month-long stay in Egypt visiting Cairo, Aswan and Luxor to learn traditional dances from local dancers and to learn history and culture on site. The trip of a lifetime with an icon of the dance!
Maia feels so fortunate to have encountered each of these great teachers at the right moment in her life! She is so grateful.
Currently, Maia's dance journey is about sharing what she's learned, encouraging her students to grow in their dance, deepening her own dance practice through ongoing practice, workshops and lessons, and fostering relationships with the Pacific Northwest dance community. She hopes (and plans) to dance as long as she lives.