troupe directed by Isis, of which I had been a
member for a couple years. This is where I got a
lot of experience choreographing for a large group
of dancers. I was hired to create and teach several
cabaret and folkloric custom choreographies for
Isis’ performing companies, and I’m honored to
say they still perform those dances to this day!
In 2005, I got married to the perfect man and
moved about an hour away from the studio. I felt
like this was a good time to try and start my own
business. I learned so much being at Isis’ studio
and felt a lot of support there. I hoped that all I
learned from being at Isis’ studio would enable
me to be even a fraction as successful at starting
my own school as she was. With immense
support from my husband, I started teaching
classes out of our home. My student enrollment
got up to 100 dancers coming and going every
week! I taught about 10 classes per week plus
various workshops on the weekends. All the
while I was performing more than ever for Arabs, Turks,
and Persians, and even traveled to other regional cities to
perform at concerts, weddings, and even some Middle
Eastern music videos. Over the years I have racked up
thousands of performances including many accompanied by
live musicians like Tony Chamoun, Aboudi Badawi, Samr
Issa, Fadi Sultan, Layali Band, Phoenecian Band, Pangia,
and Badrawn. I was getting real, nitty-gritty performance
and teaching experience and earn ing my living as a full-time
professional belly dancer.
I decided to start a few belly dance troupes in 2006. I had so
many students wanting to perform that it only made sense.
I offered three different levels of troupes so that any student
who had interest in performing would get performance
opportunities. There was a student-level troupe, an advanced
troupe, and a professional troupe. My professional troupe
included belly dancers who were also professional Hip Hop
and Flamenco dancers. I was honored to work with these
talented ladies. One of my lead dancers in my professional
troupe was Delmar Reyna, the Dance Captain and main
choreographer for the Dallas Mavericks Dancers and the
San Antonio Spurs Dancers. Delmar also choreographed
for Jillina’s Bellydance Evolution show, “Dark Side of the
Crown.” My professional troupe was hired to perform our
flashy cabaret, folkloric, and fusion shows for many high
14
The Belly Dance Chronicles
July 2017
Bollywood - Photo by Dan Parr
profile events around Dallas. One of the performances my
former troupe, “Danza della Luna” is best known for is a lively
Samba/Bellydance Fusion piece, which we performed at the
Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive, by invitation, in 2009.
In 2013, I filmed my first full-length instructional DVD,
“The Move Before The Move,” with Michelle Joyce of
Cheeky Girls Productions. It was a great experience and I
leaned A LOT. I was really proud of the rave reviews I
received from students who bought “The Move Before
The Move” DVD. I wanted to make more instructional
videos, so in 2015, I decided to take matters into my own
hands and start “Sa’diyya ONLINE”, with a lot of help
and support from my husband. By creating, producing,
and editing my own instructional videos, I had complete
creative and quality control. And I didn’t have to wait and
hope for a video producer somewhere to invite me to be on
their label. I have since sold my online instructional videos
on every continent in the world (except Antarctica)! I have
many more titles in the works, but creating a human being
in 2016 slowed me down a bit!
Another aspect to my professional dance journey has been
producing events in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. When I was
at the peak of my student enrollment, I produced Spring and
Fall recitals at the critically acclaimed Eisemann Center in