|
Award-winning dancer, Azhia, has trained and performed since the age of five in ballet, tap, and jazz at various schools, including Ballet Arizona and Tempe Dance Academy. While with the Tempe Dance Academy, Azhia traveled to Moscow and Leningrad in the former Soviet Union and to Copenhagen, Denmark, to perform and engage in youth cultural exchange. In 1988, Azhia discovered an affinity with non-Western dance arts and studied Bharata Natyam (South Indian Classical Dance), West African, Flamenco, Filipino folk dances and Polynesian dances. Ultimately, Azhia found her passion and mainstay in Oriental dance, performing and teaching in Phoenix and eventually in Philadelphia, PA, where she attended law school. Starting in 1998, Azhia performed with the best Middle Eastern musicians in the Delaware Valley as a house dancer at the former Nile Restaurant (adjacent to the legendary Middle East Club), where she cultivated a joy and fluency in performing to live music. This lead to Azhia's "Dancing to Live Music" workshops, a well-attended learning experience for both amateur and professional-level dancers, who practice via live musical accompaniment by Bill Koutsouros of world music ensemble, Animus, and Joe Tayoun, whose well-known family is steeped in Middle Eastern musical tradition. In 2003, Azhia won the Jewel of the Nile Middle Eastern Dance Pageant, the Belly Dancer of the Universe Competition (BDUC), Universal Category, and People's Choice Award. Azhia was invited to return to the BDUC to judge several categories.
Soon after, Azhia quickly rose to become one of Philadelphia's most recognized and respected dance artists. Azhia regularly performed and presented solo and group choreographies in prestigious venues such as World Café Live and the Grounds for Sculpture, lead numerous workshops and performed locally and abroad (Osaka, Japan; Oregon; Maryland), and also co-produced FUZEFEST with Bill Koutsouros, the pair forming a dynamic duo who promoted world fusion music and dance with this yearly event. Throughout this time, Azhia continued to teach regular classes, vend custom-made costumes from Egypt, and mentored up and coming and professional-level dancers privately, as well as through the Azhia Movement Project, an ever changing group of talented dancers who perform Azhia’s original choreographies. In 2005, Azhia resigned from over 4 years as an attorney to devote herself fully to dance performance and instruction, and added zambra, hip hop, and aerial arts to her personal studies. Starting in 2007, Azhia established herself as a reputable freelance makeup artist and stylist, after graduating first in class from the Jean Madeline Aveda Institute with a diploma in cosmetology. Inspired by an idea from PhillyRaqs' webmistress, Fatima, Azhia teamed with Cassandra Panek of Synthetic Shadows to organize "Raq the Camera." Azhia continues to work in a variety of settings for her styling work, from dance theater, to photography, to short films. Azhia recently relocated her base of operations to Montréal, Quebec and continues to travel to Philadelphia and all over for dance and styling work. Azhia's first DVD in "The Dancer's Companion" series, "Preparation, Drills, & Cool Down" was released in April 2008 and is available for purchase. The next DVD in the series, "Basic Makeup Techniques for Performance and Photography" will be available August 2008.
|