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Current Members
Danielle
Photo by Isabelle Marchand
Danielle began her obsession with belly dance in 1999. Since then, she has explored American cabaret and Turkish... tribal, world and gothic fusions... with a sincere love for anything outside the box. She has traveled the U.S. studying with some of the best instructors this country has to offer and feels happiest when she can share the belly dance love with others. She considers herself very fortunate to continue to dance with long-time friends, Jennifer and Heather of Mandara, and Amber of D.O.A., a gothic tribalternative bellydance duet. To pay the bills, she works as a web and graphic designer at Virginia Tech and regularly practices yoga and Pilates to keep sane. She lives in Blacksburg with her husband, son, and 4 furry babies.
Heather
Photo by Isabelle Marchand
Heather has always enjoyed pursuing diverse forms of artistic expression, including dance and music to complement her interest in the visual arts. She graduated college with a degree in fine arts, concentrating in ceramics, and she has taken classes in ballet, modern, and jazz, as well as performing with a world class colorguard. Since moving to southwest Virginia she has additionally grown to love contra dance and salsa. She also plays violin, clarinet, and saxophone, and hopes to learn drumming to complement her new found love of middle eastern music and rhythm.
Heather is inspired by the beautiful women she has met through belly dance and is attracted to the distinct rhythmic and expressive qualities of the dance, and well as the elaborate costumes and creative potential. Mandara represents her first venture into belly dance performance and she is very excited to be dancing with her mentors and teachers.
She is currently a resident of Earth, where she spends her days embroidering a vastly voluminous variety of various variables, as well as exploring the world of faux-tography and graphic design. She also enjoys air, water, sunlight, painting the roses red, time travel, and Pantone #540.
Jennifer
Photo by Isabelle Marchand
Creative movement has always been an integral part of Jennifer's personal and professional life. As a physical therapist, yoga teacher, Pilates instructor, and dance teacher in the New River Valley, she enjoys integrating movement arts and healing arts into her work and play for overall health, well being, and enjoyment. She loves that this dance form can encourage people of all ages and ability levels to become more aware of their bodies and loves to help individuals enjoy the beauty of movement regardless of physical limitations. Jennifer was a co-director and founding member of Manipura with whom she performed and helped teach belly dance workshops throughout the SE United States. She is very honored to have been part of this incredible group of ladies.
She has taken workshops with the following nationally known instructors: Aisha Ali, Asharah, Aziza, Awalim, Baraka Mundi – Onca, Mira Betz, Blue Damsel - Rachel Lazarus Soto, Blue Moon Dance Company, Rachel Brice, Colleena, Suzanna Del Vecchio, Devyani – Megha, Kajira Djoumahna, Domba - Heidi Alexander and Samantha Riggs, FatChance BellyDance - Carolena Nericcio, Zhaleh Fereshteh, Kassar, Katayoun, Kawakib, Khafif, Sharon Kihara, Mardi Love, Tim Rayborn, Tobias Robinson, Sahra Saeeda, Saqra, Suhaila Salimpour, Solace - Jeremiah Soto, Elizabeth Strong, Turbo Tabla - Karim Nagi, Ultra Gypsy - Jill Parker, Unmata - Amy Sigil, Urban Tribal Dance – Heather Stants, Zafira Dance Company, and Zoe Jakes.
In addition to belly dance, she enjoys and explores other ethnic dances such as West African and classical and folkloric Indian. She is currently studying Middle Eastern drumming to gain a better understanding of the music she loves to dance to and to help create music for her fellow dancers. Jennifer is a also contributing columnist for Zaghareet! magazine. When she is not being an overachieving geek, Jennifer enjoys hiking, swing dancing, contra-dancing and drumming with her complementary half, her husband Rob. For more information about her work, you can visit www.innerawareness.net.
Alumni
Heather - Nobones
Photo by Isabelle Marchand
Nobones has been enjoying belly dance on and off for the last 10 years. Starting while still in high school in northern VA, she met her first troupe mates in Fortune’s Rhythm. They danced and drummed together for four years. She then moved to Blacksburg to finish school and has continued her dance in this area ever since. Belly dancing is one of her unique hobbies and she enjoys how all the different styles can be fused together. Being a belly dancer is one of her many alter egos and she loves to show people that it is not taboo, but an art form of strength, beauty, empowerment, and celebration. The joy that the dance creates for her and the audience is very fulfilling and rewarding. She was a co-director and founding troupe member of Manipura, World Fusion Belly Dance. Her experience with them was truly magical, amazing and lots of fun.
Nobones resides on a small peaceful farm with her 6 goats, little poodle, and significant other. The simple and beautiful mountainous surroundings keep Nobones happy here in SWVA. All of the wonderful people here make it a very enjoyable place to live. When Nobones disguises herself as a real person, you can find her working as the manager of Annie Kay's in Blackburg. She is very happy to have found a dance home with Mandara.