Zafira Dance Company: Over a Decade of Dance
Greetings!
After over 11 active years, Zafira is closing the dance company.
Thank you for your support! It has been a great pleasure to dance, sing & work with you all.
Each of us are pursuing solo careers and plan to collaborate with each other and other artists in the future. Please join us for the next phase of our artistic endeavors. You can keep up with us on our individual websites: Maria, Christine, Olivia
Zafira Dance Studios will continue to have classes & events, and Christine, Maria & Studio owner ~Olivia, will teach there regularly.
We will have a final show in which we showcase some of our favorite Zafira pieces, our solo work and new projects on Oct. 4 at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. This show is co-produced by the Belly Dance Super Stars and will include performances by these lovely dancers.
Zafira Dance Company: Christine, Maria & Olivia w/ Tamara Juel
HYBRID Dance Project: Kari Merlina, Joanna Abel, Patrice Langford, Tamara Juel & Olivia
And Special Guests: Jennifer Imashev & Tessa Myers
Stars of BDSS: Sabah, Moria, Sabrina Fox, Stefanya & Victoria.
Club Bellydance
Oct. 4, 7:30 Kelly Strayhorn Theater
We hope to see you at this final Zafira performance!
Sincerely,
Zafira Dance Company
Maria, Christine, & Olivia
Message from Maria
" As I enter into being a solo artist, all I can think about is who I want to collaborate and dance with. For the entirety of my training in Middle Eastern dances, I have been in a troupe or dance company (thats almost 20 years!) I'm very excited about traveling and open to learning and dancing with other artists & friends as well as teaching solo at festivals classes & seminars.
My focus in this art form has shifted a little and I feel pulled towards my roots. My past has many works focused around folkloric dances and I'm eager pick that training back up again to perform & learn more about. I'm also very drawn to the classical & vintage Turkish & Egyptian oriental bellydances- (Helena Vlahos, Artemis Mourat, Eva Cernik, etc.) I feel this is the soul of bellydance and want to study more and more these timeless styles.
I'm excited about collaborations in my future- I have recently performed Tunisian with my sister and ex-Ghawazee & Zafira member, Jennifer Imashev (Ever After Dance) & Kalbelia with sister Christine Andrews. I've talked with other dancers with my same interests about working together as well. It seems that with Tribal Fusion, there are less groups & more soloists which is a little sad to me- However with this, has also come a lot of collaborating and dancers that may not have danced together before are getting together to try something new~ I love this & very excited to take part!
"On a side note note, I wanted to thank 2 ladies who were there for a good chunk of the Zafira life that we failed to mention in the note- Tamara Juel & Jennifer Imashev. These lovely ladies were a pleasure to work with & they added such awesome energy for the years they put into Zafira... Zafira wouldn't have been the same without them and I'm excited to dance with them until I'm 80! " ~Maria
Check out my new website about new things on the horizon!
www.mariahamer.com"
Message from Christine
" I will continue collaborating with the other members of Zafira on various projects. In the near future I will be working on new choreographies with Maria, and teaching & performing with Olivia in Germany in Oct. 2011.
Community and the connections between dancers are a huge part of the dance for me. I look forward to future collaborations with other artists including: Jennifer Imashev of Ever After, Tamara Juel, Jill Parker, HYBRID Dance Project and others.
I will also continue studying and sharing my knowledge of Belly Dance, Kabelia Dance (a folk dance of Rajasthan, India), and ethnic dances from around the world."
Message from Olivia
"I am proud of what Zafira has created together and I am excited to see how each of us unfolds with our art. We have shared so many experiences and dance-time together, that I think that we will always be a part of each other's work.
I have had the pleasure of dancing with these ladies for almost 2 decades. Our tribe has met with incredible dancers, musicians and artist in 4 continents. We have been continually inspired by the incredible visionaries that are involved in the Tribal Belly Dance movement. Thank you all for supporting Zafira over the years!
We've made memories teaching and performing in some of the best and worst theaters, sticky bars, beaches, mansions, and circus tents. You name it, we have probably done a show there~whether its an opera stage or campfire. And if you know us at all, you know which one we prefer.
A special thank you to our campfire friends. I cherish all those late nights in the bog~ dancing until we drop. THAT is where the magic begins. I believe Zafira will always be summoned when you get us around a fire together. I look forward to dancing with these ladies until we are grannies~ passing our stories on to our grandchildren. "
Thank You for over a Decade of Dance!
