Sacred Dance Circle
Adina
Passionate Visual Storyteller
Adina Adito Lallah means Adorned Great Goddess Daughter of Joy.
Through the years Adina has studied with many greats including ballet with Fabian Barns, Dunham Technique with Dr. Sherrill Berryman-Johnson, Afro-Cuban with Angela Ingram, and traditional diaspora dance with Donna Mejia. She plans to continue growing in the dance and sharing the love of movement with the world. Movement is air to Adina. She enjoys teaching the divine womanly art of Bellydance in weekly classes and melding her many dance practices together with her sisters in dance.
Adina is a member of Soulful Hips and Got Moor Hips, each subgroup of Bellydancers of Color Collective. Adina appears in the Moor Hips Belly Dance Volume 1 DVD.
Join her in the studio with the shared desire to sweat hard and laugh easily.
Leila
Smooth, Serene, and Exquisite
Leila fell in love with music early in life. A love shared through her Caribbean roots and parentage. Leila started her bellydance education over a decade ago in 2006 at Mamasitas Studio and Wellness Center (formally in North West Washington, DC). She immediately feel in love with the variety in the style of belly dance offered by Dr. Sunyatta Amen as well as the diversity in the ages, shapes and sizes of the women in the class. Under the direction of Dr. Amen and the Moor Hips troupe members, Leila participated in several performances while studying at Mamasitas, and in 2010, she started teaching for Dr. Amen at other sites and functions. Leila has appeared on the BET show My Black Is Beautiful along with a select group of students from Mamasitas and also appeared on the Moor Hips Instructional video. She completed her Instructor Training Certification in 2015 and shortly before the closure of Mamasitas Studios. Since then she continued to advance her dance education via workshops with Lotus Niraja, Naimah, Donna Mejia and Deb Rubin to name a few.
Leila currently performs with Soulful Hips and Got Moor Hips belly dance troupes. Additionally, her love of movement and teaching has led her to continue to empower women and build female self-confidence through continued bellydance instruction. Leila teaches at multiple locations under the Bellydancers of Color Collective. She is fully invested in movement as a joyful fitness effort and her musical choices reflect her roots and culture. Leila’s style of bellydance is a combination of Egyptian bellydance, Cabaret, American Tribal Style and fused with Afro-Caribbean dance.
Janine
Inspiring, Purposeful, and Sincere
I loved ballet as a child and took another class in college. Growing up in Indiana I loved dancing to all the Detroit Motown radio stations. In 2000 I started taking bellydance lessons from Leila Gamal from the Chicago area. Every time I saw Leila perform the audience was enthralled. Through dance I have met amazing women in Philadelphia, D.C. and NYC. I was so fortunate to study with Sara Jo Slate (Zweena Bint Azya) for several years. She choreographed 40+ student dancers for the Performing Arts Center in Ft. Wayne, IN. She also choreographed performances for the Lyric Opera House and the Met in NYC. I studied with Habiba in Philly and Artemis Mourat in Silver Spring, MD before I found MamaSita’s. Dancing with Sunyatta Amen was a perfect fit for me. Through belly dance I have met amazing women, lost weight, increased my strength and flexibility. I love it and love sharing what I know with new students through Soulful Hips. Bellydance has always been a sacred dance, healing women, celebrating our strength and sensuality throughout time. Passed from generation to generation out of Africa and throughout the world.
Gigi
Natural, Graceful and Dynamic
Gigi, BA, JD, CPT has been involved in dance and fitness all her life. A graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Smith College and Catholic University Columbus School of Law , she has worked for and taught in major Health Clubs for the last 17 years. A former figure bodybuilding contestant, she has successfully trained many clients as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor.
She is the owner of MhayaMovement, a platform for combining the sacred art of bellydance with the strength work of body weight resistance training to help create beautiful healthy dancers. A student of Dr Sunyatta Amen and trained in the Sunyatta Style Fusion Bellydance, Gigi has taught & performed around the Washington Metropolitan area. In addition to Belly Dance, she also teaches a variety of group fitness formats. Les Mills Group Fitness, Atheltics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) and National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)! Gigi believes that it is an honor and privilege to help others live their best healthy life through dance, fitness and wellness.
lori
Splendid, Specialized, and Extraordinary
If you have taken any classes with us, you have likely had the pleasure of hip bumping with Lovely Lori or experiencing her as our Shimmy Mob Co-Captain. She is our amazing Little Sister with BIG energy, memory, and heart! Lori is currently training with BOCC for a certification in Afro Caribbean Bellydance Instruction!
Lori has previously studied ballet, gymnastics, and competition cheerleading in high school and Frostburg State University. She even studied acting! Lori says she found her heart and healing with Bellydance. Join her as she spreads the joy, the peace and, the healing one shimmy at a time.
Erika
Powerful, Graceful, and Fun
Erika began taking ballet and jazz dance classes at age 11 and immediately fell in love with the art. A few years later, she added tap dance and continued dance until high school graduation. While studying electrical engineering at Howard University, she also studied dance too. In her junior year, Erika danced on the Howard Bisonettes Dance Team, performing at all home basketball games.
In 2008, Erika was certified as a Tae Bo instructor by the legendary Billy Blanks. She was later certified as a kickboxing instructor through AFAA (Athletics and Fitness Association of America). She taught kickboxing classes at Pies Yoga and Fitness Studio in Alexandria where she took Mayasa Telfair’s bellydance class for several years. In February of 2021, Erika walked into Dragon Academy and fell back in love with bellydance and with BOCC. She excitedly joined BOCC January 2023!
Featured Master Teachers!
Nazu
Ivory Coast native, dancer with the National Ballet of Ivory Coast, more than 30 years of experience as Master Dancer, Choreographer, Instructor, Actor, Producer, Musician, Writer, Artistic Director and Founder of Nazu Dance Company, and business owner.
Letitia
Holder of the Light. BESA African Dance Workout Instructor.
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Nava
Egyptian Bellydancer, Instructor, Performer. A life long lover of dance and artistic pursuits
Lady Dane
Amazing all around performer, dynamic, energetic dancer, writer, actor.
