Venus

The Gilded Serpent presents...

Venus

Venus (Marilee Nugent) has been involved in bellydance since 1981 and currently works full time running Venus Bellydance, which offers classes from beginner to advanced and troupe repertory with 5 teachers in 6 locations in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia.

Contributor to the Belly Dance Reader Volumn 1

Venus' double interest in cultural and biomechanical aspects of Middle Eastern dance have led to her completion of a Bachelors degree in Art & Cultural Analysis as well as a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University. As part of her science degree she undertook a directed studies project to measure and record the joint actions and active muscle patterns during typical bellydance movements. She presented this reasearch at the Neural Control of Movement Conference in Spain, March 2006 and at the International Bellydance Conference of Canada in Toronto, April 2006. Venus has published several articles in Habibi Magazine, choreographs and produces bi-yearly student recitals, and has been performing professionally for 26 years.

She also offers and in-depth Middle Eastern Dance Instructor Training program, which combines a rigorous understanding of Middle Eastern dance movement syllabus principles from fitness research, motor learning research and biomechanics/movement analysis for the most comprehensive certificate course of its kind. Venus has just completed a 20 episode bellydance instructional TV show for Channel M Multivision in Vancouver, and looks forward to embarking on a Masters degree program in Kinesiology at McGill University in September, 2008.

Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Venus

  • The Skinny on Abdominal Strengthening
    You’ve probably heard the terms neutral spine and core balance being bandied about, and seen numerous class offerings for Pilates, body ball, and core workouts. You may be wondering, is this the sort of thing you should be checking out?
  • Behind the Scenes of " Bellydance Workout
    The television crew said that in the control room it was dead silent during filming as they strained to listen to what I was saying so they’d know where to aim the shots.