To Nadia Ibrahim, dance is a way of life.

“I've danced since I was six years old,” she said, noting that her family tells stories of her dancing around the house as a small child.

Although she was a ballet, tap and jazz dancer in her youth, when belly dancing became popular in the 1980s, Ibrahim was instantly attracted to it, as it was a part of her Lebanese heritage.

“[I thought] this would be a really good fit for me because I understand the music,” she said.

Ibrahim began learning the dance on a professional level by traveling to New York City for a week at a time on several occasions, learning from heralded international instructors. She would attend class from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. for a week at a time, and worked hard to perfect the traditional belly dance that so captured her interest.

Even after her formal education was finished, Ibrahim has continued to research the cultures that brought about each style of the belly dance in order to maintain the integrity of each.
“You have to maintain the integrity of the culture, the dignity of the culture,” she explained.

Although there are similarities between all types of belly dance, she divides them in to three main categories – Egyptian, Arabic and Turkish. “As similar as they are, there are some movements that are unique [to each type],” she noted. “There are unique steps.” Each of these divisions has a type of the belly dance they are best known for, such as the Lebanese line (part of the Arabic division) and the Egyptian stick dance.

Although she learned the dance originally for herself so that she could dance it professionally, when she had learned it and began performing, people began to ask her if she would teach classes in it.

Ibrahim considers herself to be a “traditional” belly dance teacher, meaning she does not teach fusion or tribal variations on the belly dance. She believes in adhering to the integrity of each dance. To Ibrahim, the belly dance offers a mind-body-spirit combination that she feels is a huge part of the dance's popularity. “I think they [women] are more confident, more self assured,” says Ibrahim. “It's really a dance for women.”

The dance also offers a great form of exercise, and is not exclusive to those with prior dance experience of a certain body type. According to Ibrahim, many of the people who take her classes are non-dancers. “It's not as easy as they think it is... but we have fun in our classes,” she comments.

The length of time it takes one to learn the dance depends on the individual. Previous dance experience usually means one can pick up the dance more quickly, but Ibrahim also cites one's passion for learning the dance as another factor. Ibrahim teaches her classes at different levels to accommodate the various learning speeds and dance abilities.

There's a great deal of satisfaction,” says Ibrahim of seeing women embrace the dance and the culture from which it stems. To her, it helps to keep her culture going. “I grew up with the music,” she notes. “This is where my heart and soul is.”

In addition to her classes, Ibrahim directs the Nadia Ibrahim Middle Eastern Dance Company, a group of women who perform at a wide variety of venues with and under the instruction of Ibrahim.

“The dance has taken me into many different avenues,” notes Ibrahim, who says that the women in her group are of all ages, sizes and types and are all “very lovely, just wonderful.”

“It's an ancient dance. When it came to this dance, I'm very passionate over it,” says Ibrahim. “Sometimes its [dance] just something that's in you.”

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