Tag: Arab dance | Lynette Harper PhD

Fall 2025 Classes in Nanaimo

Let’s Belly Dance!

Dances of the Middle East * Raqs Sharqi

THE BASICS

Review and learn the basics of a body-friendly dance for greater body awareness & overall confidence. Build core strength, balance, & flexibility through diverse dances originating in the Middle East. A multilevel class for beginners to advanced dancers.

Thursday Sept 18 7:30-9 pm Vibe Studio 4 Drop-in $20

LET’S DANCE

Multilevel classes focus on learning rhythms, movement, and expression through a beautiful and lively Raqs Sharqi choreography.

4 Thursdays Sept.25 to Oct.16 7:30-9 pm Vibe Studio 4 Fee 4 sessions $60, single drop-in $20

All 5 sessions $70

Info/Register laahper@gmail.com

www.lynetteharper.ca

Spring Workshop in Kelowna 2025

Workshop descriptions: Saturday Rahma – ‘Your Light, Your Dance!’ Using the image of energy as light, we will explore ways that this can be used from the inside outward using exercises and techniques Rahma has developed for teaching her classes. Ending with a fun note, Drum solo choreography using body percussion!Lynette – Ghawazee Sparkle and Turkish Curves Explore the soul and vitality… Read more…

2026 Winter/Spring Island Teacher List

Vancouver Island Dance Teachers Nanaimo Lynette www.lynetteharper.ca dancetarab@gmail.com 250-797-7953 LET’S DANCE With apologies – My weekly multilevel classes are postponed until spring. All classes at VIBE Studios, Nanaimo * Pynksy Shell aka Tania Amaral https://www.facebook.com/tania.amaral.1253/ pynksyshell@gmail.com Afro Fusion Sharqi Danceᵀᴹ Fridays 6:30 Level 1, VIBE dance studio www.afro-fusionsharqidance.ca * Ramona ramona.passarello@gmail.com 250-616-3824 Available… Read more…

ReOrient present Ghawazee dance at the Duncan Showroom, 2019

The dance in these videos is an interpretation of an historical style of dance and costume common in Egypt in the late 1800’s and into the 20th Century. Our choreography is based on historic photos and travellers’ writings about the Ghawazee, and our studies with Aisha Ali, Banat Mazin troupe members, and others. The Ghawazee… Read more…

Earthfire dance company

1001 Likes – July 2014

Lynette Harper rediscovers a DVD treasure. Reprinted with permission from the Middle Eastern Dance Association newsletter, Sahda, July 2014. Read more…

Belly Dance Fact & Fiction: References

OPA Showcase Lecture/seminar, Victoria BC – presented by Lynette Harper Ph.D. November 2013 References – Books (*specific articles cited) Belly dance around the world: New communities, performance and identity. 2013. Caitlin E. McDonald & Barbara Sellers-Young, editors. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company. * What is Baladi about al-Raqs al-Baladi? On the survival of belly dance in… Read more…

More books for dancers

Four essentials for a dancer’s bookshelf, published in the last two years: Belly dance around the world: New communities, performance and identity – The belly dance reader – Global moves – and You asked Aunt Rocky: Answers & advice about Raqs Sharqi & Raqs Shaabi. Each book offers powerful ideas, analysis, and inspirations – and they’re… Read more…

Bekaa Valley Girls

Several excerpts from Bekaa Valley Girls, Lynette’s full-length collaborative creation with Rahma Haddad, presented in the Noon Dance Seriesat Vancouver’s Dance Centre, November 2009. Duet with Rahma Haddad (part 1) This segment recalls when Lebanese cousins Lynette and Rahma first met. Though raised in different parts of Canada, they shared a family history of… Read more…

Nanaimo dancers & teachers

Lynette 250-753-1659 laahper@gmail.com Genya 250-739-0589 genyasdancing@gmail.com Ramona 250-616-3824 Ramona@bellydancer.ca Giselle Jacob – Drum & percussion classes available – see her Facebook page Crimson Coast Dance Society Artistic Director Holly Bright, Nanaimo, BC – Develops and supports contemporary dance creations, productions, performances and educational opportunities at both grass roots and professional levels in Central Vancouver Island. Read more…

Arab music understanding

Egyptian music appreciation and practice for bellydancers by George Dimitri Sawa A must-have for dancers, teachers, and students who wish to develop their understanding of Egyptian music! The quality of the package is awesome – exceeding my already high expectations of creator George Sawa, an Egyptian born historian, musicologist, qanun virtuoso, a true master… Read more…

Arab dance workshops

TARAB – Arab music and spirit of the dance Explore the soul and vitality of Arab music as inspiration for dance improvisation and choreography. Teaching level: Multilevel; works well for mixed levels beginner through advanced. Read review. Length: 2 or 3 hours From Countryside to Cabaret: Egyptian Saidi and Raqs Sharqi styles Build your technique, movement vocabulary,… Read more…

Dance is in their blood

Gilded Serpent June 2007 by Kevin Potvin A reluctant visitor to a multicultural arts show comes away with a new appreciation for how art entwines with ordinary life for ordinary people. . . . (click here to read article) Excerpt: That doesn’t mean I don’t understand dance at all –… Read more…

Lynette Harper Workshop Review

OPA! News, Victoria Spring 2008 by BOBBIE BARRY Lynette is the quintessential teacher. After 30 years of teaching and performing this art form, she knows her stuff! My first meeting and experience of Lynette Harper as a teacher was back in July 2003. At that point I had been studying Middle Eastern belly dance… Read more…

Arab Women Arab Dance

Arab Women Arab Dance Opening of Arab Women Arab Dance, presenting life histories with dance. Featuring Lynette, Rahma Haddad, Salma Ferchichi, Rabab Ward, and Emily Basha. Produced by Vancouver’s Dance Centre. Excerpt from a Vancouver Dance Centre production, interweaving life history narratives with demonstrations by five Arab women. Read more…

Books for dancers

READ THIS BOOK!!!! Belly dance: Orientalism Transnationalism and Harem Fantasy edited by Anthony Shay and Barbara Sellers-Young For over a century, solo improvised dance, especially belly dance, has had enormous popularity, and by the 1970s and 1980s in the wake of the feminist movement, over a million women in the United States, and many… Read more…

Unveiled: Performing identities in the Arab diaspora

On Canada’s west coast, a large and active bellydance community has grown and thrived distinct from Middle Eastern ethnic communities. Orientalist fantasies and Egyptian stylings regularly appear onstage alongside western tribal and other ethnic bellydance fusions. These performances do not challenge popular media stereotypes about the Middle East; they comfortably coexist with ideologies linking veiled… Read more…

Arab Women, Arab Dance

When most people think of Arab music and dance they usually think of bellydancing, the North American dance craze based on an ancient tradition. These two presentations at Vancouver’s Dance Centre (2004 & 2005) provided a personal and cultural context for understanding the dynamic and evolving art of Arab dance. Five diversely accomplished Arab women,… Read more…

Exploring Tarab with Lynette

Spring 2007 OPA! News, Victoria by Sidona On February 18th members of Women of Widad piled into a van to take the trip up to Nanaimo to attend a workshop with Lynette Harper. We were excited and all felt that we needed a burst of dance energy after the long winter and… Read more…

Contact Lynette