 Shida
Pegahi
A native of Iran, Shida studied at
the National Ballet Academy of Iran and at the School of Royal Ballet
in England. Starting at the age of eight, she trained extrensively
and rigorously in classical ballet, modern, jazz, ethnic and the cultural
traditions of Persian form. She has also studied and performed ethnic
dance categories including African, classical Saudi Arabian and Eastern
European. Asian and the regional dances of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
and Armenia. Shida received her B.A. from Ohio University. For several
years she performed with the West Coast Dance Company, Westside Balley
Company, Avaz International Dance Theatre, the Sufi Dance Theatre,
and Dance Electric She taught ballet, jazz and modern dance at Crossroads
for a number of years before opening the Pacific Arts Center and Dance
Studios on the westside.
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 Tamra-henna
[belly dance] is a performer, choreographer and instructor of Middle
Eastern dance whose emotional range and technique have been shaped
by seven years of performance, study and life experience in the Middle
East. With the intention of learning the art of belly dance from its
source, Tamra-henna moved to Egypt to study Egyptian style musical
interpretation and technique as well as the Arabic language and culture.
While studying in Cairo she pursued a performing career and danced
in Egypt's most prestigious venues including the Nile Hilton, where
she held an extended contract. Subsequently, she accepted contracts
throughout the Arab world and has performed, traveled, and lived in
Lebanon, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen,
and Cyprus. Since her return to her native California in 2000, Tamra-henna
has earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance/Choreography (within
the genre of raqs sharqi or belly dance) at UCLA. She has taught at
the Dept. of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and in 2004 she performed
internationally with the "Bellydance Superstars."
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 Delane
Vaughn [beginning jazz dance] UCLA’s Jazz Dance Master Delane
Vaughn is now teaching at the Pacific Arts Center & Dance Studios.
Delane has been a dance instructor for the past twenty years and has
taught at Cal Arts among other prestigious dance institutions. His
fun and upbeat unique style combines modern lines, West African and
jazz movements.
Delane has been featured in the Los Angeles Magazine for having the
best work out in L.A and recognized by Allure Magazine as one of the
best exercise dance instructors in the nation. |
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 Doris
Born and raised in France of a West Indian mother and a Persian father,
Doris began studying ballet at six and became one of the best French
gymnasts (rhythmic gymnastics).At 15 she began her studies of African
dance with Georges Monboye and came to her Persian roots dancing with
the famous band Black Cats. She developed a new dance style mixing
African dance, Ballet and Middle Eastern dance and created her own
dance company here in Los Angeles. |
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Sonny Perry (Ballroom and Latin) got his first big break on his high school dance team where his Jazz teacher, Henry, introduced him to his greatest talents, music and dancing. Later, after choreographing numerous country music videos, stage productions, amateur dancesport competitions, and after acting in local and national commercials and videos from Levi's to Billy Ray Cyrus, Sonny moved from Nashville to Los Angeles to continue his work in entertainment. Here Sonny is a successful dancer (with over 54 professional and pro/am championship titles in the US and North America), a published singer/songwriter, a United States National and North American Professional American Rhythm Finalist, a working actor, and a very experienced teacher of Latin-American, American Rhythm and Ballroom. Sonny has studied various forms of movement via dance, theatre, sports, and music to enhance his abilities as a Ballroom and Latin American coach. With a current, extensive resume of work for TNN, MTV, CMT, VH1, and with a current project for OWN.TV, Sonny finds time for school, his many wonderful students and his music. Sonny has a degree in Broadcasting and is a former professor of dance at SMC.
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 Olga "Shamiram" Kramarova is a passionate performer, instructor, and choreographer whose knowledge of various cultural music and movements include Belly Dance, Persian Dance, Armenian Dance, Dabke, Indian Dance, Russian Folk Dance, Gypsy Dance, Latin Dances, Flamenco, and Ballroom Dance. She is currently co-director, soloist, and choreographer of Negma International Dance Company and founder of Viva Flamenco Dance Company. She has performed and continues to perform in several local venues throughout California as well as around the world. |
Troy began his dance career with a competitive hip hop team at the University of Virginia. Shortly afterjoining, he became one of the team's prominent choreograpehrs. He has taught hip hop and poppin all over Virginia and North Carolina. He decided to continue his teaching and training in poppin, hip hop, and house by relocating to Los Angeles. Although only training for three years, his passion has guided Troy to become a devoted teacher as well as performer.
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 Ziba
[belly dance workout] Ziba has been teaching in Los Angeles for several
years. Ziba's Middle Eastern work out is a very fun and upbeat class
that combines Persian, belly dance, and hip hop movements. The warm-up
and cool-down is a combination of yoga and pilates movements. This
class provides a great workout for getting in shape. |
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 Jerry
Gabaldon [jazz] has been dancing for over 20 years. Starting
at the early age of 10 with Jazz, Tap & Ballet, he moved forward
into Ballroom. Training with everyone from Joe Tremaine to the queen
of salsa dance Laura Canaillias, he found his place in the Salsa world. Jerry moved to the front of the
line making videos, commercials and having his own dance group “Phayz.”
He is now at Pacific Arts Center & dance studios teaching cardio
salsa with an old school twist.. |
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 Nar
[Belly Dance] began with Ballet and received her degree in Dance Education
at The University of Arts in Philadelphia, studying and performing
Ballet, Hip-Hop, Tap and Jazz. She began performing and teaching Middle
Eastern Dance with Adam Basma in Los Angeles, Jillina's Sahala Dancers,
Zahra Zuhair's Ghazella Dancers, Saba Dance Co., and recently co-founded
her own duo, Mas-Nar.
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 Emily Wu is a member of Jagged, a contemporary pole dance company, and Girl Next Door, a pole dance soirée. Emily has a dance background in ballet, jazz, belly dance, Argentine tango. Pole dance is her favorite hobby and alternative form of exercise while she pursues her career of dental medicine. She believes that pole dance empowers women to look and feel sexier, stronger, more graceful and confident in every aspect of life.
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 Catherine Round has been teaching ballet in Los Angeles for over ten years, including seven years teaching and staging productions for the prestigious Marat Daukayev School of Ballet. Catherine is currently acting as Ballet Mistress in her second season with City Ballet of Los Angeles, and gives
independent ballet instruction, professional & competition coaching, and sets original choreography at various locations across Southern California. A dancer for over 20 years, CatherineÕs career started on scholarship with Ballet Tennessee, under Barry and Anna Van Cura, and Atlanta Ballet, under Robert Barnett. She furthered her training under such greats as Marat Daukayev, of Kirov Ballet, Yuri Grigoriev, of Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet, and Ricardo Bustamante, originally of American Ballet Theatre and currently Ballet Master of San Francisco Ballet. For 13 years, Catherine performed as a Corps de Ballet member and Soloist with Ballet Omaha and Aeolian Ballet in Los Angeles. Soloist roles include:
The Tempest, La Bayadere, Romeo & Juliet, and the Nutcracker. She has also performed Corps de Ballet for Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Concerto Borocco and Les Sylphides |
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