After 25 years as a real estate attorney, and General Counsel and Executive Director of a non-profit low income housing development company, Melia brings her passion, determination and business expertise to Bellydance, and the promotion of this beautiful art form.

Melia is the co-founder of LARaqs.com, the premier Bellydance web site in the Greater Los Angeles* area. In addition to providing resources and information for belly dancers, the site promotes teachers and dancers through its workshops, comprehensive Teacher Directory, Dancer Directory, and listings of performance venues that feature belly dancing. The site also highlights a local teacher each month.

Prior to discovering Bellydance, Melia studied ballet, tap and modern jazz with former Radio City Rockett, Mildred Ballint, African dance with Leroque Bey, and Caribbean folkloric dance. She was a member of the Barbados Theatre Workshop of New York City, where she danced and acted Off-Broadway for more than 2 years to sold-out audiences, in Under the Duppy Parasol. The show closed with a 2-week run to packed houses in Barbados. Melia also studied massage therapy at the World Yoga Center in New York City, and yoga and fitness in college, and received certifications in self-hypnosis and psychorientology.

When Melia was introduced to Bellydance in 2003, she immediately knew that she found her passion. She studied extensively with world renowned Master Instructor Zahra Zuhair, and attributes Zahra with her love of Raqs Sharqi and the Egyptian style of the dance. Her insatiable desire to learn more about the dance led her to take classes and workshops with more than 60 teachers, including American super stars Tamra-henna, Fahtiem, Princess Farhana and Jenna. She has attended Zahra Zuhair’s Dance Camp since its inception in 2004, and has taken Ansuya’s Certification Program. Melia has also studied Middle Eastern Dance for 3 years and Middle Eastern Dance History at Glendale College where she was honored to do a Middle Eastern Dance internship in the Fall 2008 semester.

The biggest thrill of Melia’s dance life came when she performed to a live band, in the Grand Ballroom of the Mena House Hotel in the shadows of the Pyramids of Gyza during Ahlan Wa Sahlan in 2007. While in Egypt she had the opportunity to study with some of Cairo’s super stars, including Raqia Hassan and Randa Kamal.

Melia performs at parties, festivals and showcases and teaches classes and workshops.

*LARaqs covers Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Kern, and Los Angeles Counties.

Tamra-henna is an internationally acclaimed performer, choreographer and master instructor of Middle Eastern dance. She has delighted audiences throughout the world with her emotional range and exquisite technique since 1991. Her style is solidly rooted in the rich culture of the Middle East where she lived, performed, and studied dance for 7 years. During her time in the Middle East, Tamra-henna worked full-time as a soloist performing with her orchestra in many of the most prestigious nightclubs in Egypt, including those located in many of Cairo’s preeminent 5-star hotels, such as the Cairo Meridien, Cairo Sheraton, Cairo Marriott, and the Mena House Oberoi. Most notably she appeared at the Belvedere nightclub in the Nile Hilton as the featured dancer under an extended contract, an honor never before bestowed on a foreign dancer.

In pursuit of diverse cultural experiences, Tamra-henna accepted contracts throughout the Arab world and has performed, traveled and lived in Lebanon, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen, and Cyprus. While in the Middle East, she studied musical interpretation, the Arabic language, and further developed as a dancer and artist through intensive training with several of Egypt’s legendary dancers and teachers, including Nadia Hamdi, Raqia Hassan, Mona El Said, and Ibrahim Akef.

Since her return to California, Tamra-henna continues to be a highly sought after performer and teacher world-wide. She toured internationally as a featured soloist and workshop instructor with the world famous “Bellydance Superstars,” and has recently taught workshops in Japan, Canada, England, South Korea, Mexico, France and throughout the United States. Her global audience can see her in numerous IAMED and Hollywood Music Center belly dance performance DVDs as a featured soloist. Her latest release is “Arabic Rhythms and Combinations,” instructional dance DVD on the IAMED label.

Tamra-henna earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance Choreography (within the genre of raqs sharqi) at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has taught accredited classes in Middle Eastern dance technique and culture at UCLA, California State University, Pomona and, currently, in the dance department at Glendale College. Her ever popular weekly classes have been frequented by several of the superstars of bellydance, and her roster of students includes “Bellydance Superstars,” Sonia, Aubre, Lorinda and Georgianne.

Tamra-henna continues to broaden her kinesthetic knowledge, hone her teaching skills and expand her artistic expression. She is certified in Gyrokinesis and is currently working towards certification in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies.

Tamra-henna brings the art of Oriental dance to students and audiences across the globe!