Very few belly dancers have been elevated to national Egyptian treasures, but Samia Gamal, born Zaynab Khalil Ibrahim Mahfuz, was and probably still is one of Egypts most loved dancers. I’m sure you’ve already seen lots of video clips of her and if you’ve studied with me you’ll know that I adore her iconic moves and have […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, February, 17th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning No Comments

How can we all learn to be more confident in our own skin? And how can committing to our movements also help us to become betters dancers as well as happier human beings? Amerita, a dance activist sums it up beautifully in her Ted Talk which you can view on YouTube here. You’ll only need […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, February, 10th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Your Dance Body No Comments

January is resolution time – and even if you don’t believe in those – it tends to be a time of reflection for most following the festive season, family gatherings and the move to a brand new year. So if you were to change just one thing – what would it be? Here are three […]

By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, January, 8th, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration, Your Dance Body No Comments

One of the key elements of achieving your goals and also enjoying doing so, is to stay motivated. This may seem easy when it’s something that you really enjoy doing, such as attending workshops or weekly classes. But it’s a lot harder to find that motivation for things that you maybe don’t enjoy that much, […]

By Ishtar Dance on Wednesday, January, 1st, 2020 in Dance Coaching, Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration No Comments

Every year I aim to make it the best ever when it comes to dancing and 2019 was probably one of my favourite years in a while. I decide to take charge of my time and turn down jobs I no longer wanted to do and instead focus on what I really wanted and enjoyed. […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, December, 2nd, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Entrepreneur, Dance Inspiration, Learning No Comments

The importance of understanding belly dance rhythms is not to be underestimated, yet it can be really hard – even for seasoned dancers to get their heads around how these work and not least remembering their names. Most dancers will know the rhythms perhaps intuitively and therefore improvising to them becomes fairly easy after a […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, November, 25th, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning 2 Comments

It’s nothing new that dancing is good for you on many different levels, and if you’re already a dancer, I’m sure you know that it works your muscles as well as your brain, not to mention raising your endorphin levels and helping release that feel good hormone that we all enjoy after dancing. But the […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, November, 4th, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Your Dance Body No Comments

Last month I hosted my first ever Shimmy Challenge and it was a really interesting process for me as well as [I hope] those who took part. The aim was to develop strength, endurance and technique, as well as inspire the participants to start a regular belly dance practise. Something I know a lot of […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, October, 21st, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments

The one question I probably get asked the most is ‘how to get my arms to look graceful/elegant/effortlessness etc. and I’m afraid there is no magic trick to achieve it instantly. But the good news is that there are some proven techniques which teamed with lots of practise will make it happen. Beautiful arms are […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, October, 7th, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments

Shimmies are one of those moves that many dancers think they master, until they have to either start laying them or maintain them for more than a few seconds. In order to help dancers improve and not least inspire them to develop a daily practise routine I launched my first free September Shimmy Challenge [2019] […]

By Ishtar Dance on Monday, September, 30th, 2019 in Dance Coaching, Dance Inspiration, Learning, Your Dance Body No Comments