You are amazing

Everyone deserves to feel good about themselves. Too often we encounter body shaming and are told we too fat, too thin, too old, too young, too this, not enough that. Well, that is just not true. You are perfect as you are and you have every right to celebrate that. Do you want to wear a sparkly costuming?  Put on colorful glittery makeup?  Get yourself some gorgeous photos? Well perfect!  Let me help you with that!
Aralia Pearl, Lisa Wall, and Sahina were interviewed by DJ Spence for the Creative Valley show on Valley Free Radio. In it they discuss bellydance, body image, and the beautiful local dance community. Listen to it here.

Costuming How To Articles


​Sahina has written many how to articles in her blog to help dancers learn to make their own costumes and accessories. New articles are added several times per year. Here are links to the current selection:
5 Minute Hair Flower Tutorial
How to Make Your Own Saidi Cane
How to Make a Floral Headpiece
How to Sew Zill Elastic
Circle Skirt Tutorial
Triangle Hip Wrap Tutorial
Sahina Designs

Costume Shopping

Costume are beautiful works of art. Designers have so much talent and I just love to appreciate their work. Here are some of my favorite designers and places to shop​:
Cynthia King Vegan Ballet Slippers
Dahlal- a wide variety of costumes, props, and accessories
Bella- the best designer in Turkey
L Rose Designs- NOTE- they seem to have gone out of business. This was my favorite place for custom made practice wear and costume skirts. For about 10 years they made all of our student show costumes.
Painted Lady Clothiers- the most beautiful hand dyed 25 yard skirts
Pharaonix of Egypt- couture costumes from Egypt

I often bring items I am selling to class, but sometimes I remember to post them online as well!  You can view current items for sale here.​​​​
I absolutely love looking at costumes, and I am assuming you might too. So I have made a page to share my costume collection with you!  You can visit my costume closet here. ​

Photoshoot Perfection

Photos of belly dancers are so beautiful and captivating- and there is a lot of work that goes into making that happen! This blog series will discuss how those gorgeous photos come to be and help lead you through all of the necessary steps to having a successful professional photoshoot.

Part 1- The Basics
Part 2- A Good Photographer is a Dancer's Best Friend
Part 3- Behind the Scenes
Part 4- Location, location, location
Part 5- Your Look
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Fearless Photoshoot Workshops

The incredibly talented duo of Hayam and Ashley Elizabth Photography co-teach photoshoot workshops together. Hayam does professional styling to help dancers work on poses that accentuate their natural beauty while Ashley Elizabeth works her magic behind the lens. My dear friend Aralia Pearl and I love to host their Fearless Photoshoot workshops once a year in western MA to bring this fun service to our local area. Take a look at some of the incredible photos from the last workshop in summer 2016!

Photographer Recommendations

I have worked with so many wonderful and talented photographers over the years. Here are links to contact them!
Ashley Elizabeth Photography
Huong Phan Photography- now on the west coast
Jenn Burdick Photography
Peter Paradise Michaels
Ben Brau

Vegan Makeup

Nowadays it is easy to find products that will make you look great on stage and avoid animal testing or animal-derived ingredients. I wrote a blog post as a guide to help you find ways of converting your makeup to be free of products that cause harm to animals and to help people who already shop for these types of makeup products to discover new brands. It discusses what the terms cruelty free and/or vegan are intended to mean, and recommendations of some of my favorite products to help get you started. It isn’t intended as a complete list of options (though I will include a resource section at the end where you can find more) but as a recommendation guide for what I use as my makeup for professional events and photoshoots.

Another version of the blog on the fabulous site Belly Dance New England!