Rebecca Wolf-Nail, A.K.A. Banshee, began her dance studies in ballet, modern dance and jazz while earning a B.A. in music at Portland State University. After moving to Seattle she established herself as a composer, writing the scores for many independent films and composing an award-winning musical.

One of her projects required her to research the music of Spain and the Middle East. She began studying belly dance and Flamenco to gain a deeper understanding of the rhythms, as well as to indulge her love of dance. She quickly discovered a passion for belly dancing!

She studied both Classical Egyptian belly dance and Flamenco with Maria Morca for a number of years, and joined the belly dance performance group Maria Morca's Middle Eastern Dancers (now known as As-Hab Mariam, under the leadership of Maria's student Deb Katz.) She has also explored less "traditional" forms of the dance, such as tribal, fusion and gothic. She received teacher training certification from Saqra and has taken workshops with many recognised instructors including Rachel Brice the legendary Mahmoud Reda. She performs in the Seattle area and competes in local belly dance events.

Rebecca began teaching belly dance when she gave a series of belly dance workshops at Curves of North Bellevue and Kelsey Creek, where she worked as a circuit trainer. She realized that bellydancing is not just a beautiful art form--it's also an ideal workout for women of all ages, types and sizes! Her experience as a circuit trainer gave her an in-depth understanding of how the body works and how to move safely. She now teaches belly dance classes at the Health Within yoga and dance studio in Redmond WA.

Rebecca has also produced two CD's of original music for dance, Experiments in Bellydance and Denizens. They are available on this site.

 

 

Photos by Jennifer Richard

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