The Gilded Serpent presents...
Maria Strova
Maria Strova was born in Colombia where, at the age of 12 years, she studied ballet with Russian and Cuban teachers. At 17 she moved to the United States, where she studied modern dance (Graham, Ailey, Cunningham) and acting with Peter Flood, a director member of the Actor's Studio in New York. She's work as an actress and dancer with: Ellen Burstyn (The Ellen Burstyn Show), Michael Douglas (The jewel of the Nile), Danny de Vito, Robert Duvall and Quentin Tarantino (Le Iene). She studied Belly dance in NY with Agmed Hussein, Elena, Yousery Shariff, Bobby Farrah, and Morroco. In Los Angeles, she studied with Mesmera and Sarah Saeda and in Cairo with Raqia.
Particularly successful is her own interpretation of "Veil Dance", which combines the elegance of ballet with veil and belly dancing, bringing new perspectives to the different languages.Interested in the theme of motherhood she's graduated in classical yoga at the Brahamananda and was the first teacher in Italy to use belly dance and yoga in birth preparation courses to help women give birth in their own way.
Maria has produced several instructional dvd for dancers and is the author of the book "The Secret Language of Belly Dance". She has taught at the University of Rome, Dams, where she has presented her work on "Looking for Sheherazade" and on "Salomè and the Seven Veil Dance", which will soon become a book and a dvd. As an expert in dance, she has been interviewed and danced in renown television programs in Italy: Alle Falde del Kilimangiro, Costanzo Show, Uno Mattina, Mondo a Colori, Il mondo di Pshiche, Rai3 News Art. She has invited as an special guest to presented her book: The Secret Language of Belly Dance at the Feltrinelli Library in Rome.
She has produced "Inirida", for the theatre and "Looking Sheherazade", the first documentary in Europe on the importance and the beauty of the belly dancer and the struggle they face to keep alive their dance. Her goal is empowering women through dance and give the opportunity to dancers to tell their own stories.
Web site: www.danzadelladonna.it
Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Maria Strova
- 1-21-10 Is Belly Dancing Provocative?
This stereotype of Belly dancing has caused me a lot of displeasure; it has made me angry to see how imprisoned in negative models Belly dancing still is,and how much it had lost since it was formerly an ancient art that honors the female body.
