Mark Balahadia for the Gilded Serpent

The Gilded Serpent presents
Mark Balahadia

Passionate, beautiful, seductive, playful, athletic, and extravagant are just some of the many words audiences use to describe Mark Balahadia’s dancing. With light and yet grounded movements, he creates sensational tableaux that indulge sight and sound.

Mark is a professional male belly dancer (el raqs el sharqi) based in the Washington, DC area. He has performed throughout the United States and has traveled to Lebanon to research dance. Mark has received formal training from some of the best in Middle Eastern dance.

Mark is well known for his Classical Lebanese/Egyptian style, based on dance styles of the late Samia Gamal, Tahia Carioca, Naima Akef, Bebe Ezzedine, Nadia Jamal, and others from the Golden Era of Egyptian cinema during the 40s and 50s. He has also been influenced by more recent stars in Oriental Dance in Egypt, Lebanon, and Turkey like Tulay Karaca. He also credits Artemis, his first dance teacher for helping him get to where he is today along with Yasmin who is an expert on Egyptian style and Suha Azar, an expert and master instructor from Lebanon.

Mark also specializes in other dances of the Middle East, including dabke, khaleeji dances, and the kochek dance from Turkey. He is acclaimed for his unique fusion of Khaleeji dance with belly dance, Iraqi and other influences, which he calls "MTV Khaleeji".

markbalahadia.com

Articles on Gilded Serpent about or by Mark Balahadia:
10-4-04 Folktour's 2nd Annual Music and Dance Camp Photos by Carl Miller, Report by Mark Balahadia
Pennsylvania, May 2004, Dancers and musicians all over the East Coast (and abroad) came to participate in the four-day oriental dance and music camp.