About Sedonia

Sedonia has been studying and performing Middle Eastern dance for over eleven years. She began her journey into this dance in the unlikely niche of Logan, Utah. Sedonia recounts that she was initially drawn to the glittery costumes, but stayed with the dance after falling deeply in love with Middle Eastern music. Among the instructors who have had a major influence on her development as a dancer are Rebecca Clayton, Zahirah and Aziz (Salt Lake City), Sumra (Logan), Jamilla (Moab), June Seaney (Ithaca), A’isha Azar (Spokane), Diana Wolf (St. Louis), and her current colleague Tedi (Carbondale). An enthusiast of the Egyptian style, she also lists among her major influences the great past and present Egyptian dancers whose videography she studied extensively: Mona El Saiid, Fifi Abdou, Sohair Zaki, Samia Gamal, Dina, Randa Kamel, and others. Sedonia loves to dance to rich, soulful, and sublime Egyptian music by artists such as Oum Kalthoum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Abdel Halim Haifez, Balig Hamdi, and Farid Al Atrache.

About Shiira Sahar

Shiira Sahar has been studying Middle Eastern Dance for six years, and performing for three years. She began her journey in the dance on a whim, taking a community center dance class with some friends, and fell in love with the motion and the music. A number of instructors have had a major influence on her, including: Fatima of Morocco, Jasmin Jahal of Chicago, Diana Wolf of St. Louis, and her troupmates Sedonia and Tedi of Carbondale, IL. Shiira's training has focused on classical and modern Egyptian style danceand includes studying the vidiographies of the great Egyptian dancers Mona El Saiid, Najwa Fouwd, Samia Gamal, and Dina. Shiira loves to dance to the musical stylings of classical musicians Oum Kalthoum and Farid El Atraish, as well as pop musicians Hakim and Amr Diab.