I suppose for me the person who I have had the most from in recent years is Sara Farouk. She has a background in contemporary dance and understands movement as well knowing exactly where Egyptian dance is now.
Sara is also exceptional at teaching essence and feeling. She taught a mixed ability class lasy year at the Arabic Arts festival and some people had never been to a dance class in their life. It was difficult to tell as she works in a way which everyone understands and is a challenge as it connects movement, music and emotion.
I heartily recommend her to anyone who is visiting cairo and I know she is doing a short selected tour of the States some point in the near future.
The other thing is Sara is very direct and she may frighten some people.
I like this becuase I like to be pushed and not played with in a gentle way. Many teachers are just too nice as they fear not being asked back.
Shareen el Safy was also great but I have only had 2 workshops with her many years ago. I also loved Amel Tafsout for her Algerian and Leila Haddad for her Tunisian. I have had many workshops with good teachers but the environment was not productive for me personally. I work better with a relationships rather than one off workshops.
For lesser known teachers I would say Venus Saleh for her Persian and Armenian. Houda Amrani is just wonderful and she is performing on Sunday at the Arab Arts Festival. She is strict too but her energy is amazing and she is a joy to watch.
I also have alot of respect for many of the teachers local to me. There is some great talent emerging on Merseyside and this could never of happend without them.
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