Taaj's Biography

In the Beginning...

Taaj started dancing in 1995 in Virginia Beach, VA. She spent 8 weeks studying with Janeeda, then 3 months with Cheldyra. After that, her education came from private classes, workshops, video, and members of the Arab community. Her most influential experiences have been dancing at Arab parties and traveling to Egypt. Her style is Egyptian, but she spent many hours and lots of money traveling to learn a little about a lot. Therefore she has a broad teaching and performing repertoire.

Zaghareet! is Born

Taaj and fellow dancer, Avanha, talked about starting a local belly dance newsletter to keep everyone aware of what was going on. That idea blossomed into Zaghareet! magazine, an international trade publication for belly dancers that included articles, reviews, an event calendar, and much more. The first issue was released in September 1996 and featured Delilah on the cover. Creating a magazine is a lot of work, so Avanha moved on to other things after the first year. Taaj passed it on to her student, Sharina, after she was offered the chance to dance in Egypt in 2000. Zaghareet! remains a much loved magazine to this day.

Egypt

Taaj jumped into everything with both feet in the beginning. The same was true of her first trip to Egypt in 1998. Knowing nobody and not speaking any Arabic, she braved the streets of Egypt alone. That, and every trip since, has captured Taaj's heart ensuring that she continues to return. (You can read about her first trip there here.) Taaj returned to Egypt the following year as co-director of a sacred travel tour. During that trip she was first offered the chance to dance in Egypt. She's cultivated many personal and professional contacts since then and has been back many times since then.

Troupe Director

Taaj was the original director of World Tribe, a belly dance troupe that worked all the major festivals in the Hampton Roads area. They prided themselves on providing a wide variety of Middle Eastern and North African dance styles as well as Tribal. This troupe is now directed by Sharina and is strictly tribal.

Sponsoring Events

When Taaj started dancing, it consumed her whole life. If there were any workshops in the area, she was there. The dance scene was not as large as it is today, however; and she had to travel quite a bit to satisfy her craving for more. She thought it would be wiser to hire the teachers that she most wanted to study with and have them come to her (how naive!), so she started sponsoring. She has sponsored Anthea, Miraj, Litani, Aziz, Shakira, Eva Cernik, Hadia, Tasha Banat, Deliliah, Mesmera, Josef, Maja, DeAnn, Paulette Rees-Denis, Kajira Djoumnha, Niran, Laurel Victoria Gray, and Dunia. She also sponsored East Coast Raks, a benefit for the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund and The East Coast Belly Dance Classic, a contest.

Writing Articles

One of the reasons why Taaj started Zaghareet! was that she had so much to say. When she moved on, she still had lots to share, so she began writing for other dance publications. Her articles have appeared in Zaghareet!, Jareeda, The Belly Dancer Magazine, The Chronicles, WAMEDA, Raks Sharki, and the Gilded Serpent. Some of her articles are reprinted here

Teaching

Taaj began teaching after one year of lessons. Her classes have always been a reflection of her passion and knowledge. In the beginning, she was American style and did lots of props and choreography. She evolved to include folkloric styles, then as her understanding of Middle Eastern culture and music grew, her teaching changed to become more authentic. As Taaj's students became more interested in developing professional skills and teaching themselves, Taaj's teaching changed again and incorporated more structure and outcomes based instruction. Her goal was for her students to set and achieve definable goals. She didn't want them to simply think, "I am good enough to be a professional." She wanted them to know if they were good enough and have some way of objectively measuring that. This has resulted in Taaj producing 16 award winning students, with 37 trophies in 5 contests from 2002 to 2006. Taaj no longer teaches weekly classes, but you can benefit from her knowledge by taking lessons from a Certified Belly Dance Trainer or becoming one. Taaj also created a beginner level training DVD to help her students practice her technique at home.

Awards

Taaj's  achievements have been acknowledged by Madison's Who's Who. She also won the Oasis of Color Award, a People's Choice award, in 2006

Dancing

Taaj started dancing professionally after one year of study. Her first gig was an Egyptian/ Afghan wedding! That first party introduced her to the local Arab community and that was all she wrote! She became a favorite among Arabs and she's been dancing for Arabs ever since. The highlight of her career was opening for Egyptian pop star, Hakim, in Washington D.C in 2004. Dancing in Egypt was also a good time!

Media Coverage

Taaj has appeared on the WTKR morning show, and WNIS and WNOR morning radio shows. She was a guest on the "Rendez-vous with Lorraine" radio show as well. She has also appeared in print in Dimensions and The Virginian-Pilot. She made a blitz of media appearances during the time period when the city of Norfolk instituted restrictions on belly dancing in restaurants in 2005. Due in large part to Taaj's outspokenness on the topic, the ACLU championed the belly dancers' cause and many of the restrictions have since been removed.