As part of celebrating 10 years at ZeoT, I’m sharing a little behind-the-scenes look at who I am and who I was before ZeoT. My mission to bring art into belly dance and help women discover confidence through movement is the result of many different experiences. If I were a cake, I’d be a multi-tiered wedding cake, layered with sponge, cream, and icing, and stacked with stories. The ten years I’ve been running my business is only one slice of the cake—just one layer in the many tiers of my life. Some steps have been solid, others surprising, but each has led me to where I am today. So, here’s a little slice for you.
2025 marks a major milestone for me and our dance studio: 10 years of movement, joy, and connection! When I took over the studio a decade ago, it was already a thriving space for dancers. My vision was to honour its success while bringing a fresh perspective—infusing more art, strengthening the sense of community, and expanding our offerings. The journey has been transformative in ways I could never have imagined.
Throughout this year, I want to take you behind the scenes of our 10-year story. We’ll reflect on where it all began, celebrate the incredible community we’ve built, and share some fun surprises along the way.
Why do so many doctors, osteopaths, gynaecologists, and physiotherapists recommend belly dancing, even without having attended a single class? Perhaps it’s because they intuitively understand that belly dancing strengthens the body’s inner musculature. Rachida Aharrat dives into the anatomy of bellydance to unveil the benefits for your body.
Der Kosmos tanzt: Planeten kreisen und Sterne entstehen. Am weiten Nachthimmel suchen die Menschen Sternbilder und träumen von fernen Welten.
Through spending some time alone with your veil you will discover some new and original techniques or ways to use the veil when you dance. ALIA has developed many exercises for fostering creativity, taking elements from theatrical training or contemporary dance, which she has used successfully in many performance based projects such as the Phoenix Performance Project. Here we discover how to use the veil in a deeper, more emotional way.
Dancing with a veil has become an essential element of oriental dance, whether as a short and spectacular burst of colour and movement during the entrance of the dancer or as the main player in a double veil fantasy piece.
But maybe its time to look again at how we use the veil and why, in order to create a dance far removed from cliché, a dance that is really DANCE, not just one that relies on the 'wow moments' of veil tricks and effects.
In this series of blogs we will try to answer the question, Why dance with a veil at all? Is it to cover or to reveal, to fill space, create impact, add colour, lightness or drama? By focusing on techniques to achieve a more profound use of the veil we will also include a few exercises for you to expand on your creativity.
Every style evokes different emotions in me, and different bodily awareness or focus. Something folkloric makes my heart open and my joy rise, I feel expansive and powerful dancing Raks Sharki, I melt and feel my core, my femaleness when dancing baladi. I don’t have a favourite style - rather a favourite way to work or choreograph which involves diving deep into the music, picking its rhythms, instruments, melodies apart from each other - playing with time, space, form to then bring everything back to hopefully one homogeneous whole. More than anything I love to combine elements from contemporary, jazz or ballet with oriental moves. Nothing stays the same, its always evolving and why not?
Dance has been called the universal language and in the same way that languages can tell us so much about a culture, so can its dance. Join us in KP6 to learn more!
There are many ethnic and folkloric dances and rituals throughout the Middle East that form the foundation of Oriental dance and in Kp6 we will be exploring just 3 of them: Persian dance (level A), Chiftatelli - Turkish Court dance (level A/M) and Turkish 9/8 (level M & M/F).
Celebrating and embracing dance, music and culture from the Middle East we also have 3 very special events coming up; workshops with Ozgen (Turkey) in September, Asian Hafla and a Palestinian music concert (with mezze) in November.
ALIA & the ZeoT team are looking forward to dancing with you in KP6
KP6 : 24.10 - 18.12
Tanzen ist eine universelle Sprache, die uns viel über eine Kultur lehrt. Tanz mit uns in der nächsten Kursperiode und lerne die orientalische Kultur besser kennen.
Im Orient gibt es viele ethnische und folkloristische Tänze und Rituale, welche die Grundsteine für den orientalischen Tanz legen. Drei davon werden wir kennen lernen: Persischer Tanz (Niveau A), Chiftetelli - Türkischer Hoftanz (Niveau A/M) und Türkischer 9/8 (Niveau M & M/F).
Im ZeoT feiern wir den Tanz, die Musik und die Kultur des Orients mit drei speziellen Events: Workshops mit Ozgen (Türkei) im September, eine asiatische Hafla und ein palästinensisches Konzert (mit Mezze) im November.
ALIA & das ZeoT Team freuen sich in der Kursperiode 6 wieder mit Dir zu tanzen!
KP6 : 24.10 - 18.12
