Main article: List of dance personalities
An annotated list of popular/famous dancers .
A
- Fifi Abdou is a leading Egyptian belly dancer and actress. She has been described as “synonymous with belly dancing in the years she was performing. ”In recent years, she has starred in several serial television dramas of the kind that are broadcast throughout the Arab world during Ramadan. In 2006, she took the lead in Souq El Khudar (The Greenmarket), playing a headstrong market woman.
- Rozeta Ahalyea was one of the earliest professional belly dancers in Australia with a performance career that spanned four decades. During her times in Australia she also taught belly dancing privately. Two notable students were Amera Eid who eventually set up Amera’s Palace, the first belly dance boutique in Australia, and Terezka Drnzik who started Sydney’s first full time belly dance school.
- Rukmini Devi Arundale (February 29, 1904 - February 24, 1986 ) was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer in Indian classical dancer form of Bharatnatyam. She is considered the most important revivalist in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam from its original ’sadhir’ style, prevalent amongst the temple dancers, Devadasis, she also worked for the re-establishment of traditional Indian arts and crafts.
- Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), was an Academy Award-winning American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of seventy-six years, during which he made thirty-one musical films. He is particularly associated with Ginger Rogers, with whom he made ten films. George Balanchine and Rudolph Nureyev rated him the greatest dancer of the twentieth century, and he is generally acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history of film and television musicals .He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
B
- Ebony Browne (January 22, 1904 – April 30, 1983), was a Georgian ballet choreographer. He is one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers, and one of the founders of American ballet. His work formed a bridge between classical and modern ballet. Apollo is Balanchine's oldest surviving ballet and his first great public success. It marked the beginning of his significant and enduring collaboration with Stravinsky and featured the neoclassical style which Balanchine was to become renowned for. It premiered on June 12, 1928 by Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhart in Paris. Balanchine looked upon Apollo as the turning point of his life, "in its sustained oneness of tone and feeling". The story centers around Apollo, the god of music, who is visited by three muses: Terpsichore, muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope, muse of poetry. Balanchine created ballet sequences for Ravel's opera L'enfant et les sortilèges to Colette's libretto with what Ravel described as "Russian dancers", presumably from the Ballets Russes for the 1925 Monte Carlo premiere, although this is not listed as a Ballets Russes production.
- Sara Baras (born in 1971) is a female Flamenco Dancer, born in the port of Cadiz. She is internationally famous and regularly tours the world.She has won a number of awards including the Madroño Flamenco of Montellano (Seville) in 1993,and in 1999 and 2001, she received a prize for the Best Female Spanish Dance Performer.
- Mikhail Baryshnikov (January 28, 1948) is a Soviet-born Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 and went on to become a principal dancer and artistic director with the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet in New York City. He has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance, premiering dozens of new works, including many of his own. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognized contemporary dancer.
- Pina Bausch (born July 27, 1940) is a German modern dance choreographer and a leading influence in the development of the Tanztheater style of dance. She is the artistic director and choreographer of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company, based in Wuppertal in Germany. The company has a large repertoire of original pieces, and regularly tours throughout the world.
- Vytautas Beliajus (February 26, 1908, September 1994) is considered the father of international folk dancing in the United States. He specialized in Lithuanian dance, but performed and taught many other types of dance as well. He published multiple books on the subjects of dance and ethnicity, and also started the folklore magazine Viltis. Beliajus was born in Lithuania and emigrated to the U.S. when he was 14 years old. He had two younger brothers, Leonas and Julius, and a sister, Gyte Jekentes.
- Carlo Blasis (4 November 1797- 15 January 1878) was an Italian dancer, choreographer and dance theoretician. He is well known for his very rigorous dance classes, sometimes lasting four hours long.He was the first who published an analysis on the ballet techniques in 1820, in a work named “Traité élémentaire, théorique, et pratique de l’art de la danse” (Elementary Treaty on the Art of the Dance, theory and practice). He is most known for the pose “Attitude” derived from the famous statue Mercury by Giovanni da Bologna. He taught Enrico Cecchetti, who expanded his technique.
- James Brown or James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul", "Mr. Dynamite", the "King of Funk", "Soul Brother #1" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", was an American entertainer (singer and dancer). He is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music and was renowned for his vocals and feverish dancing. As a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader, Brown was a pivotal force in the music industry. He left his mark on numerous artists. Brown's music also left its mark on the rhythms of African popular music, such as afrobeat, jùjú and mbalax, and provided a template for go-go music. Brown began his professional music career in 1953 and rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of smash hits. During the early 1980s, Brown's music helped to shape the rhythms of early hip-hop music, with numerous groups looping or sampling his funk grooves and turning them into what became hip hop classics and the foundations of the music and dance genre. Brown danced vigorously as he sang, working popular dance steps such as the Mashed Potato into his routine along with dramatic leaps, splits and slides. In addition, his horn players and backup singers (The Famous Flames) typically performed choreographed dance routines, and later incarnations of the Revue included backup dancers. Male performers in the Revue were required to wear tuxedoes and cummerbunds long after more casual concert wear became the norm among the younger musical acts. Brown's own extravagant outfits and his elaborate processed hairdo completed the visual impression.
- Jean Butler (born March 14, 1971)is an Irish step dancer.She began training in Irish dance at the age of four with the widely respected teacher Donny Golden. She also participated in tap and ballet classes, but step dance became her focus. Her talent was clear from a young age, and she competed in regional, national and international championships. She and her sister, Cara Butler, both went on to win numerous national titles and regional titles, and placing well in international competitions. Jean has performed with Green Fields of America and Cherish the Ladies. She debuted with The Chieftains at Carnegie Hall at the age of seventeen, and toured with them on three continents.
C
- Don Campbell is an American dancer born in 1951 who invented the dance Locking, as Campbellocking. In 1969 Campbell began making the dance popular around Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter he put out a record called “Do the Campbellock” and started a dance group called the Lockers.
- Enrico Cecchetti (21 June 1850, Rome - 13 November 1928, Milan) was an Italian ballet dancer, founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinonia in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia where he further honed his skills. By 1888, he was widely accepted as the greatest ballet virtuoso in the world. The general populace was not aware that he could only turn in one direction and in fact, had to have all his choreography tailored especially to accommodate this weakness.
- Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle (May 2, 1887 - February 15, 1918) was born William Vernon Blyth in England. Irene Castle (April 17, 1893 - January 25, 1969) was born New York.
- Jack Cole (1911 - 1974) was an American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as the father of theatrical jazz dance.Cole is credited with choreographing and/or dir
Belly Dancing - Bellydance Classes - Turkishbelly.com Bellydance ...
No big groups, no belly dancing among men in gym salons. You can have private ... Elizabeth ISIK, NJ "I love this class!!! I look forward to it every week - the music ...
STARLIGHT dance studios in New Jersey offers ballroom dancing lessons ...
... tango, salsa dancing lessons, belly dance classes and aerobic dancing. NJ ... can take a private ballroom dancing lesson, tango lesson, belly dance class or ...
Belly Dancing Lessons & Parties
Immediately following the belly dancing class, stick around to shed a few inches in the ... choreography at the African Cultural Center, 23 S. Essex Street, Orange NJ ...
Continental Dance Club, Belly Dancing Classes Belly Dance Group ...
Belly dance classes, private lessons are taught by NJ top Salsa, Ballroom, and Belly dancing ... Group Belly Dancing Class Schedule, New dates are posted every few ...
Belly dancing as a form of exercise has recently grown in popularity ...
(Staff photos by JILLIAN BAUER) Members of the Rhythm and Dance Studio's belly dancing class in Washington Township practice some moves.
NJ Belly Dancers @ NJ Belly Dancing
New Jersey Belly Dancing was created to provide a resource for teachers, students ... I took my first belly dance class as a way to get some fun exercise, and to ...
Belly Dancing Classes | Workout | Lessons
Belly Dancing Classes, Workout, Lessons – LucilleRoberts.com ... is not available at all locations, check your class ... We have many locations in New York, New Jersey and ...
NJ Bellydancing Classes
Belly Dance classes offered in NJ, Ny and PA. Serving all exits!
NJ Belly Dancing | Facebook
NJ Belly Dancing Just in! Tonight at Sphericality, 122 Main Street, 3rd fl., Flemington, NJ 08822 we are having a free introduction class - Belly Dance Tribal Fusion Foundation ...
Fred Astaire Upper Montclair New Jersey Ballroom Dance Studio - Cha ...
What: Belly Dancing Classes in NJ - elegant and sophisticated When: Wednesdays from 7-8 ... $25 per class per drop-in What to wear: Belly dance clothes, yoga clothes, scarves, jingling belts ...