BIOGRAPHY
Beginnings at French Woods
Ever since I can remember, the beating of a drum has sounded in rhythm with the beating life force that is my heart. I cannot imagine my life existing without movement, music, and the expression I find through both. I am a 2nd generation Bellydancer born of German and Hungarian/Russian descent. I started my studies as a young artist in Musical Theatre, Drama, and Dance and began performing at the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts (www.frenchwoods.com), an accelerated arts program for youngsters and teens. Over the 6 years I studied there, I performed in dozens of productions, full-length Broadway musicals, One Act dramas, and even the circus (www.circusofthekids.com)! I was originally introduced to the program at French Woods for clarinet, an instrument influenced from my mother’s younger days of Professional Youth Orchestra. After my first summer, I found myself submersed in the musical theatre and dance world. French Woods invited thousands of young people from Northeastern organizations each year to come and watch these professional productions with Broadway lighting and set design on 4 different stages and theatres, with full pit orchestras of both pro-adult and young musicians.
A strong commitment to my character helped me overcome my insecurities as a person, and developed my confidence in lead roles. I also learned the responsibility and value of a hard working team, a necessary component of putting on creatively successful shows.
I had the opportunity to perform jazz, tap, modern, and lyrical dance with a children's touring dance troupe as a teen, visiting Inner-City camp programs as well as the elite vacation spots. It was at French Woods that I nurtured my acting, singing, music playing, and of course dancing- learning and performing every day of the week for 9 weeks. This discipline is what gave me the focus and an intensity for learning I still have today!
In this dance program I met the one teacher who inspired me to want to dance for the rest of my life. “Peanut” Washington was a tall, leggy, athletic, Alvin Ailey-styled, gospel, modern dancer whose intense African dance flavored warm-ups and technical, balletic control of modern dance’s catch and release movements was spellbinding. Among a small group of dancers, I would rehearse with him after hours, through meals, and during days off. This man showed me in so many ways what it's like to push yourself to the brink, fall over the edge, and still want to keep pushing. The emotions that make up who we are can be expressed through movement, and he made us feel every emotion our core would allow. After training with this teacher, I felt like my heart couldn’t beat without dancing.
Formal Training
I decided by the time I was in my teens that dance and creating was all I really needed and wanted out of life. The next step in ensuring this for me particularly was formal education. I focused on modern dance intensively at Performing Arts High School under the direction of original ‘Alvin Ailey 2' Artistic Director Tyrone Aikens, Charlene Jackson, and others at the Long Island School For The Arts. Dance history, choreography, and improvisation were all integrated into our regular technique curriculum of ballet, jazz, tap and modern dance. Lester Horton, Martha Graham, Jose Limon, and Dunham modern dance techniques were stressed, along with training from one of the original Isadora Duncan dancers who was also our beloved Dance History teacher (she was also there to see most of what she was teaching us-how cool!). In 1995, while under scholarship at NYSSSA (New York State Summer School of the Arts) at Skidmore College (www.emsc.nysed.gov/nysssa), I worked on a dance archiving project with renowned Modern Dance choreographer Donald McKayle. Our daily technique classes were with the original Paul Taylor Dance company members. We were given the chance to perform student choreographies at the closing Performance Concert of this festival, as well as the Professor’s work (see pictures in archives of student and teacher choreographies performed). I continued on with intensive educational programs by spending a few summers at American Dance Festival (www.americandancefestival.org) in 1999 and 2000. In this intensive dance studies environment, I worked up to 10 hours daily on different movement techniques with some of the most in-demand dance instructors and Modern Dance directors in the dance community.
I went on to finish my dance educational studies at The Ohio State University where I earned my BFA degree in Dance Performance. The program at this University exposed me to everything under the ‘dancing and arts’ sun- diversified dance techniques with live musicians in almost every dance class, music studies, anatomy and physiology classes, kinesiology, and Dance History courses ranging from the Beginning to Balanchine to Beyond. There was an extensive Labanotation© program (dance written on a score like music) and a year+ of choreography and composition studies, which integrated Theme and Variation, Time Signature dance studies, and Music Theory work. We had an extremely extensive computer resource room, with program courses for dance (yup, computer stick figures that move on que! Ask Merce Cunningham how he likes using it!) and a full program teaching professional lighting. We had technical courses which included every in and out of backstage work plus the requirements to run a show, and countless master class technique teachers. There were daily yoga classes and I was exposed at length to many Movement Theories such as the Alexander Technique©, Pilates©, and Bartinieff Fundamentals©. Under the direction of some professors such as Susan Hadley (Mark Morris Co.), Rosalind Pierson (Charles Weidman Co.), and Karen Elliot (Merce Cunnigham Co.) I realized the potential of dance as physical expression and always tried to step beyond my physical boundaries.
The Decision to Bellydance
So where did the Bellydance come into my world? My whole life my mother has been a Bellydancer. “Anais” originally of “The Harem Bellydance Troupe”, has been performing bellydance as many years as I am old. As much as I loved the music, the costumes, the sparkle and glitz, it didn’t call to me as a youngster the way modern, jazz and theatrical dancing had. I did have a few experiences performing Bellydance as a young girl and teen; The first was when I was 10, playing “Gypsy Tunes” on my clarinet while my mother and the other dancers took a quick costume change. Dressed like a Gypsy I barely danced on and off the stage. At the age of 15, I began my ‘professional’ bellydance career at Lincoln Center's Damrosh Park. Leading two groups in a rendition of the well-known song “Azziza”, I performed choreography to a live band (“Rip and Scott Wilson”) with Serena Wilson’s (Serena studios NYC) and Renate Wallasch’s (The Harem Studio, Long Island) performers at NYC’s annual ethnic week. My bellydance training was exclusive with Renate who formed “The Goddesses Bas Harem” (means “Daughter’s of the Harem”) for almost 10 years. This was my first Bellydance troupe, one that was designed so that a younger group of dancers could be featured out of the Harem school. We were mostly a “traditional” Cabaret Bellydance troupe, yet we had an experimental edge- Czar dances, Wing choreographies, sword numbers, fire, with music ranging from Classical Greek and Turkish, to Gypsy and Romi, to Led Zeplin. Also during this time, I dipped my toes into some Gothic-style Bellydance (yes, Ive seen and lived the dark side), accompanying NYC’s “Isis” to her many gigs around the lower East Village’s The Bank, Webster Hall, and Coney Island High. I spent 10 years with the ‘Goddesses’ exclusively before leaving the school to study with other teachers. I found many in NY I loved, including the infamous Yousry Sharif and Dalia Carella. Then I took a class with Kaeshi Chai one evening, suddenly found myself rehearsing as Bellyqueen for a Dance Theatre Workshop show, and the rest is history. After performing as an unofficial company member in April of 2004 I joined Kaeshi Chai as “Bellyqueen”, am now a full company member (“Queen” Elisheva, has a nice ring to it..) and Dance Captain (www.bellyqueen.com), and the company has continued to grow ever since. Bellyqueen Dance Theatre is a professional world dance company based in New York City directed by Kaeshi Chai, and co-founded by Amar Gamal. The Bellyqueen dance repertorie encompasses bellydance in it’s traditional “Raks Sharqi” format, as well as Middle Eastern dance blended with other dance forms, such as popping, hip-hop, modern, ballet, gypsy, flamenco, Chinese and Afro-Hatian dance forms. Many of the dances incorporate theatrics and storylines, making our theatre length shows exciting and inspiring to many audiences. The company has toured in over 25 major US cities, Western Europe, China, and Canada and has taught at Festivals all over the Globe. I am also the co-founder "Uyum Dans", a collaborative fusion bellydance group that includes Kittarina from Long Island.
As an adult, having the chance to perform bellydance in a professional theatre, on a real stage with lights, it feels so wonderfully full circle. As you’ve read I have made it my life to understand and create movement, and I can now see the two worlds of my traditional, trained, academic past feeding my current expression of emotion that I find through Fusion Bellydance.
Notes:
Her talents have been featured on commercials, television series (FOX), news broadcasts, and award-winning Independent Films, as well as cabaret/dinner clubs all over the N.Y.C. and Long Island area for over 10 years. She currently teaches in Long Island, and wishes to thank her parents, for all their inspiration, encouragement, and support.
Her passionate performances have allowed her to dance on stages with international powerhouses such as Oojami, and Elisheva's extensive dance training has given her opportunity to tour and perform at National Geographic's Performance Theatre and off-Broadway with Hip-Hop, Jazz and modern dance.
ELISHEVA’s name is derived from her Jewish heritage, the Hebrew name for Elizabeth.
Elisheva has studied with many Bellydance dance masters and instructors (too many to list), always trying to expand her current dance vocabulary with new and ancient taught techniques. She has been Level 1 Certified in the Suhalia Salimpour format and is IFTA Fitness Certified.
"There is always change in dance because it reflects a lot of 'the now', the culture that exists then, and the ideas that haven’t been explored yet- always changing, ever growing."