Your community resource for Middle Eastern Dance in Los Angeles and Southern California
Your Community Resource for Middle Eastern Dance in Los Angeles and Southern California
Our next phase is here which includes expanding our online magazine with reviews, articles, and interviews specifically about and for our Southern California dance community. And we are looking for more writers to join our team! Do you have a desire to share your writing with the community? Do you have an article idea or something you have written already? Email for more details~ info@laraqs.com.
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Hope your holidays were restful and celebratory! We are dancing our way into 2024 with excitement as the calendar is full of amazing events, teachers are offering new classes, and a wide range of opportunities are popping up as our dance community grows and thrives in new ways. What are you looking forward to this new year?
As always if you have an upcoming event or if you teach, please submit your info so we can support the wonderful things you are doing. We are a FREE community service to support our dancers, choreographers, teachers, producers, enthusiasts, vendors, and more! Let’s make this year amazing!
This beautiful event is something a variety of us have done over the years in different configurations. It was time to host one specifically as LA Raqs highlighting a variety of dancers vending their own costumes and wears. Always a great treasure hunt with amazing deals. HUGE thanks to all that attended!!! And to our amazing vendors~ Alia Gamal, Aubre Hill, Courtney, Jill, Kamala, Georgette, and Melanie Lane!!!
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It took a while, but summer is finally here! Festivals are bustling, shows are happening everywhere, classes and workshops are popping up all over the city. AND our community to thriving! What are you looking forward to this summer?
Read MoreSpring has brought all the dancing! Showcases, haflas, workshops, festivals, and so much more! Our community is building back after the past few years of change with abundance! That means we are growing to help be a central source for all things Middle Eastern Dance in Los Angeles. Are you a producer? Send your event info in to be added to the calendar. Are you a teacher? NEW teacher directory is coming asap. Have you attended an event and want to share your experience? Email us. Include photos if possible and we will highlight on our IG. Community is grown, nurtured, and amazing because we all tend to this amazing garden. Keep dancing, keep thriving!!! ~your LA Raqs team
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We are growing and looking to expand our team. Do you have a passion for Middle Eastern dance and our SoCal community? Looking for journalists, writers, researchers, archivists, and more. Email if you are interested! info@laraqs.com
Together we build a vibrant community!
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Happy new year from LA Raqs! This year has already started with a bang! Events are back and booming!!! Check out the calendar to see some of the amazing things coming up and be on the look out for our new teacher directory coming later this month as classes both in-person AND online are thriving!!!
Here’s to an inspiring and dance filled 2023!!!
~LA Raqs
Read MoreIt’s our first week back in action, and it was an extra packed with events and catching up with community. Sunday, August 21st was the first Anisa Swap Meet in years! We packed the studio with vendors, dancers, a delightful audience, and even a pet bird.
Just down the street a short time later Aynur’s Moonlight & Stars began!
Across town, Shimmy Showcase was heating things up at Baboush! Dance events are thriving across the city!
The last two years have been a wild adventure, and we are finally BACK! Our community has changed, venues have closed, terminology has revolutionized, and new budding opportunities are growing forth. Welcome back to our community resource website for Los Angeles and Southern California! This site will be growing as we rebuild and rework, but first things first~ let’s get this community calendar full of all the amazing things happening. If you have a Middle Eastern Dance event in the Los Angeles or Southern California area, please email us at info@laraqs.com the details along with a flyer, and we will get it up asap! Thank you and WELCOME back!!!
Read MoreOn Friday, April 28th, another great lineup of dancers gathered for the LA Raqs Spring "Fusion" Hafla!
The show opened with a beautiful performance by Georgette to music from her home country, Venezuela. We also welcomed a newcomer to our haflas, Chloe, for her first performance with us. Other performers included Alia Gamal, Belen, Jenn and Friends, Shelly, Heavy Metal, and LisaMarie. Workshop teacher Stefanie Mari and special guest/workshop teacher Amy Sigil also performed that night, rounding out a very diverse evening that truly showed off the many different forms of bellydance fusion.
Later in that same weekend, Stefanie Mari taught a Contemporary Bellydance Fusion workshop and special guest Amy Sigil taught two workshops for local dancers that helps introduce them to ITS and push their artistic boundaries.
Get a sneak peek below with some photos from the evening and a video with glimpses of each performance.
On Friday, November 25th, we gathered at Movement Art Space for the last LA Raqs Hafla of 2016! These dancers brought all of their creative ideas to life to honor the seasons and help us end the year with a bang. We again had all styles represented, including fusion, folkdance, American Cabaret, Raqs Sharqi and ATS.
Our November performers included Kamala Almanzar, who choreographed a fusion group piece; Lumina Dance Company; a newcomer to our haflas, Brianna; the Qabila Folkdance Company; Eden Lighthipe; Shana; Galadriel; Amber Ray; Jenn Aguilar; Bella Luna; and MAS BDT.
On Friday, August 26th, we had a group of both familiar and new performers join us to share their dance creations with different props for the "Prop Play" hafla.
We had both fusion and traditional raqs sharqi represented that night, as well as a number of group pieces that showed off very creative use of props.
Our August performers included Heather Shoopman, who danced with feathers; Qabila Folkdance Company performing Saidi; Melissa Sanchez, who did single handed veil work; Aubre and the Spears (the MAS BD II Sword class); Stefanie Mari, who danced with fan veils; Jayna and her MAS class performing with circular veils; Sarineh, who joined us for the first time performing with Shamadan and finger cymbals; Alia performing a pot dance; MAS BDT performing a group veil choreography; and LeelaBellydance Productions performing "Java Jive" with their unique coffee inspired props.
