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Home Classes Book Us! Events Gallery Dancers Katiyja Tara Rhiannon Kalirah Ati Ayita Cinefra Kalila Marjahn Rahil Xenaqui Zahra Resources About Us Contact Us |
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Home | Classes | Book Us! | Events | Gallery | Dancers | Resources | About Us | Contact Us Daughters of the New Moon (c) 2006 |
Katiyja
saw her first Middle Eastern style dancer at
Zorba the Greek’s in
Sacramento, CA and knew she had to learn this dance. She first began
taking classing in 1976 through Juneau Community Schools with Dorie
Swanson
and later with Odette Foster. She expanded her studies to Jamila
Suhaila
Salimpour’s week long workshop in San Francisco where classes
were also
taught by Aida. 
Tara took her
first belly
dance class as a way to firm up after the birth of her eldest child
(he’s now in his 30s) but didn’t get serious until
her best friend convinced her to join her in dance lessons, taught by
Katiyja & Diana of the Daughters of the New Moon, in
1993. She continues to dance because, once the drums beat and
the zills ring, some part of her always feels the need to
move. And what better, socially acceptable outlet could there
be for this compulsion than to share it with her
sisters-in-dance? 
Rhiannon
became interested in bellydancing in Juneau in the early
90’s, when she and her sister would watch Daughters of the
New Moon rehearse in the commons at community schools right before
their square dancing class, dreaming of the day that they could be part
of the bellydance group too. 
Kalirah began dancing early in life
with lessons in various styles of ballroom, country, and folk dancing;
which would stand her in good stead when she began to
bellydance. In 1999, she was finally able to fulfill a
longtime
wish and took her first bellydance
lessons through Daughters of the New Moon. Kalirah quickly
adapted
to the dance and came to love the movements and musical
interpretation inspired by Middle Eastern rhythms and dance.
Ati began
studying Middle Eastern dance when she
was 13 years old in Southern Oregon with Lou Estes. She
danced with women
and girls of all ages and loved watching women in different phases of
life
dancing together. Since then Ati has also enjoyed studying African,
modern, and
Latin dance forms. 10 years later Ati found her
way back to
Middle Eastern dance through the Daughters of the New Moon.
Ayita 
Cinefra was
introduced to Middle Eastern dance in 1992 by Judy Kennedy,
one of
the members of Daughters of the New Moon, while they were performing a
gold rush saloon show. Realizing that ballet would become too
strenuous at a certain age, Cinefra took private lessons for
a couple of months, then joined the group for classes and
started
performances in 1994. 
Kalila began
studying Middle Eastern dance in
2001 by taking courses offered through Daughters of the New Moon and
taught by Katiyja and Diana. In 2005 she began dancing
regularly with the troupe.
Marjahn
came to the troupe with an extensive background in ballet. A
former ballet teacher in Juneau, Marjahn would wonder on the multiple
occassions that she found stray beads and sequins in the dance space.
Once she joined the troupe in 2010, Marjahn solved that small
riddle: bellydancers had been performing there again! 
Rahil was
introduced
to Middle Eastern dance in her hometown community schools program in
Chugiak, Alaska. She started lessons in earnest in
1988 while attending Michigan State University and has danced with
various troupes since then. 
Xenaqui has
been a wandering Daughter since 1996 and returned to the troupe in the
spring of 2010. She has had no formal training in any other style of
dance although she enjoys all forms of dancing. Xenaqui looks forward
to eventually choreographing group dances but at the moment is simply
enjoying the freedom dance gives her and spending time with her dance
sisters. 
Zahra first
starting dancing in, of all places, the fishing village
of Pelican. This was many moons ago, self-teaching herself, along with
two other women. As life does, there was a large gap of time where she
wasn’t able to dance. Zahra returned to dance in 2002 by
taking the Amaya workshop sponsored by the Daughters of the New Moon.
There were too many gaps in her dance knowledge to do anything else but
start over at the beginning by taking lessons offered through the
Daughters of the New Moon. Zahra was invited to join the troupe in
January of 2006 and has been dancing with them ever since.