
Khafif -- Classes -- Description --	Performers -- Photos -- Audiovisual -- Schedule -- Links

		Safa -- Neefa -- Berna -- Jaya -- Jas
		Denys -- Safiya -- Mahakaruna

Neefa

Why do I dance? For years, I've been enjoying it -- studying Middle Eastern dance (Turkish style), Rom dance (Indian, Turkish, and Spanish), Central Asian dance, Persian dance, and Flamenco -- but I've rarely thought about the why. Then I remembered the day my dance changed. Someone had turned a switch on inside me. It was the first time I ever saw an Uzbek dancer. She was so full of grace and elegance, with gestures and facial expressions so beautiful and subtle that to compare her to a flower would be too coarse and crude. Not only was she so delicate (and yet full of restrained strength), she spoke about every emotion without ever saying a word; I understood her without a need for translation. Joys, worries, and sorrows know no cultural boundaries. We are bonded by those commonalities. Dance, for me, strengthens those bonds of our humanity, celebrating it, validating it. I never learned that dancer's name, but in a sense, she is every dancer that has ever danced.

Click here for Neefa's official dance resume/biography.

Dancing

Moving in joyful celebration
With the earth,
Feeling the sweet scents
Of her spirits,
Of her gifts.
Being one moving part
Of the universe,
Of the people.
Sensing the harmony
Of the web of life,
Trying to live a balance.
The joy, the sorrow,
The wonderfulness
Of life.
All moving, all living,
Inside of me.