BIO

 

Yasmina Ramzy, founder and Artistic Director of Arabesque Dance Company and Arabesque Academy, School of Middle Eastern Dance and Music Arts, received her key training from leading instructors in the Middle East, including Mohammed Khalil, director of the National Folklore Troupe of Egypt and Ida Nour. With an early foundation in ballet and constantly pursuing innovation and new challenges, Yasmina has broadened her knowledge base by studying Modern, Azerbaijani, Latin, Brazilian, Abinaya, Pilates, Capoeira and Aikido. She has studied Arabic language at the University of Toronto, as well as Arabic drumming and voice with Dr. George Sawa.
 

Yasmina has been performing, teaching and choreographing Middle Eastern dance, particularly the Egyptian style, since 1981 and has toured extensively as a soloist and with Arabesque Dance Company, teaching workshops and performing internationally. Along with Arabesque Dance Company, she was a featured performer at the 2nd International Conference on Middle Eastern Dance in California and at the United Nations Peace Conference in New York at Madison Square Gardens Theatre and with Alabina at the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto as well as many prestigious venues throughout the Middle East.

Curriculum Vitae

Choreography

 

Arabesque Academy & Dance Company

Articles

 

• Interview with Yasmina Ramzy By Salome 

• Yasmina Ramzy by Venus

NEWS

 

NAWA'EM - ARABESQUE DANCE COMPANY AND ORCHESTRA performing new choreographies including 13 dancers and 6 musicians at Dance Ontario Dance
 

 

Saturday, January 22, 1:00pm at Premiere Dance Theatre, Harbourfront - $5.00 info:416-204-1082

LAYALI ARABESQUE - live ACOUSTIC band featuring the vocals of Bassam Bishara and bellydancers performing twice - cabaret and folklore -

at Gypsy Coop, 815 Queen St. West - 8:00pm EVERY SUNDAY - $10.00 Cover - every week features a different dance artist.info:416-703-5069

for more info:416-920-5593 on both events
 

PICS

 

Yasmina Ramzy, head of Arabesque Academy and Dance Company, told me that she believes that the future of women’s mysticism lies in bellydancing.  From my own experiences with this dance, I was ready to believe her.  Bellydancing not only refreshes every single muscle in the body but also a curiosity for feminine nature and power."  

Women in Toronto have various reasons for taking bellydancing.  According to Yasmina, in her article, Bellydancing and Women’s Self-esteem, “During twenty years of teaching Bellydancing to as many as 120 women a week, I have come to realize that the reasons students take up the dance are varied and that there is no “typical type” of woman.  They come from all walks of life.  These women persist because Bellydancing enhances self-esteem…. all women love to Bellydance.  It is an expression of a woman enjoying her femininity, sensuality and the power that the female body has as an embodiment of reproduction.”

Yasmina is the Canadian girl from Montreal who spent seven years of her teenage life praying to the goddess Isis.  Her studies matured when she agreed to join a mysticism study group at the Masonic Lodge.  Although her dance training began with ballet, upon moving to Toronto she began studying the dance best known to our city  as bellydancing.

[click the link for more]

 

 

 

Belly-dancing and Women's Self-Esteem 

by Yasmina Ramzy