My teacher for several years - Faten Munger, in Indianapolis. A beautiful and graceful dancer, but a real taskmaster in class. She could be funny, but was also demanding. We had a lovely old gymnasium at an old church to practice in and she would have us doing turns and walks from one side to the other, just over and over again.
She also is a complete stickler on arms. I had completely awful control over my arms when I first started dance classes and I still can hear her yelling at me, 'Woman, your arms!! Your arms!!!'
Being yelled at isn't my favorite thing, however, today I can say that I'm always aware of what I'm doing with my arms and they are never just hanging at my sides.
She was very encouraging when it came to beginning to put together our own choreographies and would watch what we had and point out where what we were doing didn't match the music. But then she would make us think of things that would go with it.
In workshops... Leila Gamal is just amazing. So generous and so vibrant and really makes the student feel the mystique and the sensuality of the dance. She did a workshop when I saw her on the dance styles of the Golden Age of Bellydance, describing different moves that famous dancers from Eqyptian film. So very inspiring and she's a joy to watch dance!
When I first started dancing, my first workshop was with Mahmmoud Reda in Kansas city, MO. Unfortunately, I didn't have a good enough base in dance to grasp a 10th of what he was teaching, but I was aware enough to realize just how brilliant he is and feel honored just to be in the same room with him. He was teaching the choreography for a candelabra dance and it was so high energy.