The Gilded Serpent presents...
Samira Shuruk
Samira is a premiere belly dancer based in the Washington DC and Baltimore region. After studying dance at the University of Connecticut, while she was in high school, at the age of 17 Samira was offered a full scholarship for modern dance to the University of Utah. At that time her dance dreams lay in jazz dance and she attended the Philadelphia University of the Arts.
She followed this 2 ½ years of professional dance training with an honors program in theatre production Bachelor of Arts Degree, specializing in costuming. Samira combines her love of dance with her talent in costuming and intense interest in historical research to create authentic performances that bring joy to the sharing of cultures.
This early education laid the foundation for her belly dance career. She has danced for royal families, ambassadors, diplomats, is recommended by the Turkish embassy in Washington DC, sponsored for both belly dance and folklore by the Egyptian embassy, has performed at Smithsonian museums and on military bases. Highly respected for her cultural knowledge and professionalism Samira is “the real deal” with her stunning shows.
Long term study with renown teachers (Artemis Mourat, Yasmin of DC, and more recently Faten Salama), Eqyptian folkloric troupe work, live musician work, workshops, videos and abundant research is the basis of building top-notch quality. As a teacher, Samira is generous and fun, while sharing knowledge and joy. Samira’s belly dance workshops, Bollywood workshops and university programs with Georgetown, Ball Sate University, University of Delaware (and more) received glowing reviews for both educational components and gala performances.
After being vastly impressed with Samira’s belly dance performances, a DC venue sponsored Samira to learn Bollywood Mujra for their restaurant and special events. They were kind enough to invest in her training and her first Bollywood costumes. Samira continued to pay this gift great honor by also studying Kathak and extending her own education. Samira’s Bollywood Mujra shows bring item numbers to life and her Bollywood workshops create cultural understanding.
Samira has had the unique honor of hosting a weekly belly dance show on Persian satellite TV and taking privately from Shoo Shoo Amin and continues her dance and musical studies both in the US and abroad. Samira’s 2011-2012 projects include new belly dance instructional video productions and a Pilates CD.
Live music and belly dance creates an incredibly exciting performance. The traditional styles require a great amount of knowledge and high skill set with improvisation. Samira has performed in live music venues with these highly talented musicians, many renowned in the field: Elias Sarkar, Chris Marashlian, George Stathos, Amir Naoum, Umut Yasmut, Gamal Shafik, Carmine Guida, Scott Wilson, Pangia, Shawkatt Sayyad, Mohamed Amir, Souren Baronian, Souhail Kaspar, David Buchbut, Rashid Halihal, Mike Stoupkakis and more. She is frequently invited to New York City to perform at their prestigious clubs with their astounding live music and she regularly travels to teach and perform.
Web site:samirashuruk.com
Articles on Gilded Serpent by Samira
- 3-17-14 Dangerous, Dirty and Dastardly, 17 ways to Avoid It by Samira Shuruk
Every day we go to places where we are surrounded by strangers! - 5-17-12 Fun with Fabric, Three DVDs for those with Fabric Festish Affliction, Kaishi Chai’s Expressive Belly Dance Veil, Jrisi and Devi’s Fan Veil Combinations, Veil with Aziza
If you’re like me, you have tubs of fabric and always see the “need” for more. But our love of fabric is NOT just manifested in our stashes and projects, it’s also reflected in our dance, our beautiful veil dance and more recently the fan veil dance. Each of these three DVDs offers something positive for different dance goals. - 2-3-12 Conditioning and Floor work; Two Strong Strengtheners!Cassandra’s Conditioning Class, Ruby’s Flawless Floorwork,
It was with a bit of concern that I agreed to review these DVDs, as I have an extensive background in these topics.
