Egyptian Megastar Instructor, Choreographer of Allan Wa Sahlan Festival.
Our 2016 Classes with Madam Raqia Hassan
June 24th, Friday Class, Egyptian Technique 9:30 am – 12:30pm
June 25th, Saturday Class, Folkloric 10am – 12:30pm
June 26th, Sunday Class, Oriental 10am – 12:30pm
Raqia Hassan is a renaissance woman in the Oriental dance community. A dancer since the age of four, Madam Raqia rose to stardom as one of the principal dancers in Mahmoud Reda’s National Folkloric Troupe of Egypt. She obtained the status of soloist at the young age of 16. Today, with over 30 years of professional experience performing folkloric and Oriental dance, she praised as a dancer, choreographer and master teacher. A remarkable performer, Raqia has focused her talent on teaching others rather than on the stage. As a result she has trained some of the biggest modern day Egyptian stars. She is credited with the training of such dancers as Dina, Dandash, Mona el Said and Randa Kamal.
As one of the most highly sought after Raqs Sharqi choreographers today, Madam Raqia travels extensively, and has in the recent past made stops in Spain, Japan, Korea, China, Sweden, and the United States among others. She also has produced a line of multi volume instructional DVDs, which are highly sought after throughout the world.
In her native Egypt, she has, for 12 years, organized the Ahlan wa Sahlan (‘Hello and Welcome’) Festival. The festival is dedicated to bringing together teachers of from all over the world to teach Oriental style dance, a performance technique which is her admitted great passion. Begun on a small scale, Ahlan Wa Sahlan now boasts over thousands of amateur to professional level participants each year, who congregate in Cairo. Madam Raqia and the festival have been at the heart of the Oriental dance community – often credited with keeping the art of Egyptian dance alive.
In addition to teaching, performing and organizing, Raqia is an accomplished designer – with her own line of costumes sold throughout the world. Her glamorous and creativie costumes are now the talk of the dance community, echoing once more that she is the creative voice of Oriental Dance!
Raqia Hassan of Cairo, Egypt is the most internationally known teacher and choreographer of Egyptian style belly dance in Egypt and the world today. She has her own very unique “Raqia technique” that she currently teaches in her videos and in her dance workshops all over the world. Raqia’s teaching style is top notch. She is friendly, professional and patient. She knows just what she is aiming for and is very clear in her explanations. She always has something new in her thrilling choreographies, and her teaching skills are top class.
Raqia started dancing at the age of 4. She joined the most esteemed “Reda Troupe” of Egypt at the young age of 16. One year later she became one of the first principal solo dancers with them, an honor achieved by very few dancers. The “Reda Troupe” was the first Egyptian dance company to record Egyptian folk songs and dances and perform them on stage. They became world famous with many followers. Their work has shaped and influenced what is known today as Oriental Dance (Raks Sharki). Later on, Raqia started teaching “Oriental Dance” on her own because that’s her true passion and first love.
She travels most of the year around the globe for workshops. She is constantly in demand giving workshops in various parts of the world, and is the producer of the highly sought after Raqia Hassan technique videos. Raqia’schoreographies are full of interesting moves that are challenging without losing the fun and joie-de-vivre of the true Egyptian style.
She is the producer of the annual “Ahlan wa Sahlan” dance festival in Cairo, Egypt. Almost behind every successful Egyptian style dancer is the name “Raqia Hassan”. Madame Raqia has trained Azza Sharif, Mona el Said, Nani, Nelly Fouad, Dina, Amani, Sorraya, Dandash, Randa Kamal, not to mention countless other dancers in Egypt and all over the world.
Egyptian dance is fitness for the body, it makes a woman happy, and reminds her that she is feminine, she is a lady. The women in Europe and America work hard, like men: they find their femininity in the class. The mother of the Egyptian girl in the class inside said to me, “Why don’t you do something like this for us? We need something like this!” I told her, “Maybe soon you shall. This dance is Life. For me, it’s my life. When I teach, I feel I’m a dancer, not a teacher.”