Brief  introduction to Joana Saahirah´s BIO  

Joana Saahirah is one of the most respected names of Arabic Dance in Portugal  and in Egypt where she´s currently performing in the best show places with her Egyptian orquestra.

Joana was the first professional Portuguese dancer to introduce and dignify Arabic Dance in Portugal, having opened her own event´s enterprise – Magical Dance Prod. – and built her website ( www.joanabellydance.com) with the aim of informing students and interested people about the richness and amazing benefits that Arabic Dance can bring to us, westerners.

Joana  has produced the most successful events in Portugal relating to Arabic Dance and Egyptian Folklore and had several appearances on television shows and national scale events building a name of respect and admiration from students, audiences and the press.

 

Joana S. has performed in New York, Oman, Lebanon and Qatar before moving to Cairo, Egypt where she performs with her Egyptian orchestra presenting a show composed of Raks Sharki and  different types of Egyptian folklore as well as assisting Master Teacher Mahmoud Reda in his dance work and finishing her first book about Arabic Dance in Egypt and her own experience as a dancer in the arab world.

Joana Saahirah is one of the emerging and most respected names in the actual Cairo dance scene and  is taking her experience in this field to several places all over the world.  

 

See more about Joana´s BIO bellow:

 

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Curriculum Vitae

 

 

NAME: Joana Lopes Martins.

ARTISTIC NAME: Joana Saahirah

BORN DATE: 13-06-1979

BORN PLACE: Lisbon, Portugal

NATIONALITY: Portuguese

PROFESSION: Actress, Oriental Dancer/Researcher /Teacher and Manager/Director of "Magical Dance" enterprise

 

DANCING ESPECIALIZATION:

Oriental Dance (Raks Al Sharki), Egyptian Folclore and Gipsy Dance.

 

CONTACTS IN EGYPT:

MOBIL: 012 2588817 (and dial 002-code before the number only if you are calling from outside Egypt)

 

EMAILS: joanabellydance@sapo.pt / dancemagica@gmail.com

WEBSITE ( Professional Home Page): www.joanabellydance.com

 

CONTACTS IN PORTUGAL:

MOBIL: (00 351-international code) + 96 642 7997 or

(00 351-international code) + 96 642 7997

EMAIL AND WEBSITE : Same as above

 

This is due to a three years of intensive  teaching, performing and divulgating the Egyptian Culture, Music and Dance in Portugal always counting with the massive colaboration of the television and written press (magazines, newspapers, etc).

 

     This work has dignified and expanded Egyptian culture, bringing many

      students to research and learn more about the dance in Egypt.

 

 

Joana Saahirah started her academic and artistic education at the age of 4 years old in the National Conservatoire of Classical Ballet in Lisbon where she learnt Classic and Modern Ballet from this early age till 16 years old.

 

Amateur and professional presentations on theatres and television during all the learning years in the National Conservatoire.

About the age of 16, she continued her education in dance learning with some of the best dance masters in many different styles of dance like African, latin-american, "street dance", contemporary boogie-jazz by the English master Stuart Thomas, etc.

 

At the age of 17, Joana S.  started her Professional education for Latin –American Dances and Rithms and started teaching one year after that.

She finished the Secondary School (12 th year) in the Humanities/Literature Area with a medium classification of 18 values (the maximum is 20 values) to all subjects.

She applied for Superior Philosophy Course in the Classical University of Lisbon and entered to the Course immediately with one of the best marks of the year (19,5 values).

 

At the same time, she applied for the National Superior School of Drama and Cinema and also entered in the Course, being included in the 15 person class of that year, between 450 candidates excluded.

She prefered Theater to Philosophy and graduated as Licensed Actress in the National Superior School of Drama and Cinema.

 

Joana S. won a annual scholarship to study  in Madrid in the

"Real Escuela de Arte Dramatico de Madrid".

During these years of drama faculty, she learnt several subjects such as:

Esgrime, several dances, dramaturgy,  acrobatic gymnastic, singing and vocal tecknics, acting for theatre and for television, etc.

 

 

Joana S.  frequented Oriental Dance Workshops (in Portugal) with Prisca Diedrich  and Myriam Szabo and studied for one intensive year with the Egyptian dance teacher Shokry Mohamed in Madrid (Classical Oriental Dance, Nubian and Folklore Dance).

At the same time, she studied throughout Europe with teachers like Nur Banu (Ibiza, Spain), Devorah (Barcelona, Spain) and Dr. Mo Gedawi (Berlin, Germany).

 

She travelled directly to Egypt starting to learn from the biggest  masters of Egyptian Dance such as Souhair Zaki, Nagua Fouad, Mona Said, Dina, Raqia Hassan, Dr. Mo Gedawi, Mona Gareb (from the National Egyptian Ballet), Ibrahim Akef, Aida Nour, Mahmoud Reda and Farida Fahmy (from the Folkloric Reda Troupe), Yousry Sheriff, Hassan Afifi, Magdy El-Leithy, between  another great Egyptian teachers.

 

Joana S.  participated as student and performer in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Oriental Dance Festival of Cairo organized by Raqia Hassan.

 

In the year of 2002, she went to perform in New York (United States) as Colombian Embassy guest to perform and she also perfectioned her technic in the Egyptian Dance Academy of Yousry Sheriff and with Dalia Carella (in the Gipsy/Romani dance area as well) , also in the same city.

 

 

Joana S. performed with several bands, including the gipsy music band "Ciganos de Ouro" going with this group as special invited artist/dancer to the Macau Performing Arts Festival in March of 2003 (China).

 

Joana S.  worked  frequently on television and theatre (as actress) and as Professional Oriental Dancer/Performer, Teacher and Coreographer presenting her live shows in Portugal and Spain.

She opened the enterprise "Magical Dance" to promote Oriental dance and Egyptian Culture in Portugal.

All the events have won the admiration and participation of massive groups of public and of all the press.

Joana S. has been invited for several T.V shows, programs and talk-shows  in Portugal to promote her work as Actress and in the Oriental Dance in the same way she has been interviewed for many national and international newspapers and magazines like Cosmopolitan, Elle, Público, Expresso, etc.

 

 Joana S.  has organized , between many other events, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Oriental Weekends as well as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Editions of Orient Space with invited teachers from abroad.

She was teaching regular and private classes, seminars  and workshops during all the year for the last three years and she has also created different Oriental Dance shows with live music, classical Arabic dance, Egyptian folklore and Singing making the fusion between the Arabic and the Portuguese singing traditions.

 

 Joana S.  taught the first Course for Professional of Oriental Dance in Portugal, she dropped her consistent and successful starting career in Portugal behind and came to live and work permanently in   Egypt to accomplish several projects in the Oriental Dance area.

Between them there is a project for writing a book about Egyptian Dances.

 

 More recently, Joana S. danced in New Year´s Even at 5 Star Hotel "Winter Palace" in Luxor and went to Oman to perform to Sultan Qaboos, at the Muscat Festival.

 The last year, Joana S.  performed  in New York (the legendary Lafayette Grill for Oriental Dance), Egypt (Cairo and Luxor) , Lebanon (Beirute) and Oman (Muscat), besides the events and shows where she performed in her own country (Portugal), always with great success from the press and public.

More recently...

 Joana S. is currently performing regularly in Cairo with her Egyptian orquestra in "The Pharaos" and she´s been performing in the best dance sites in Cairo (Pyramisa, Misr Travel, Sheraton, Semiramis, etc). She´s being acclaimed and recognized by both arabs and foreigners due to the quality and originality of her art.

 

Joana S. is also teaching as assistant of the world wide celebrated choreographer Mahmoud Reda, deepening her knowledge and experience in the Egyptian folklore field.

Joana S. was invited to teach and perform in Brighton in the "Brighton Orient Festival" (July, 2007) and saw her work received with the greatest love and enthusiasm from audience and students.

 

Portuguese, Latin, Spanish, English and French.

Basic notions of German and Arabic Language.

Spain, France, Turkey, Oman, Lebanon, Qatar, Cuba, Mexico, United States of America, Egypt, China, England, etc.

 

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