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BIO and WORKSHOP TITLES for Kajira Djoumahna - (Updated July 2010)  Kajira had devoted the first several years of her nearly twenty year long career to the proliferation of American Tribal Style (ATS) BellyDance (BD) and since 2001 has focused on her own innovative Format which she calls Synchronized Group Improvisational (SGI) Tribal Style BellyDance (since 2010). Though skilled in many other traditional dance forms, this specialty chose her due to its "no borders" sense of creativity, its modern approach to ancient ways, its inherent ability for developing one's sense of community, the fact that this form builds self esteem not through competition, but through cooperation; and its capacity to bring dancers together nearly psychically through the use of structured group improvisational dancing. Most of all, Kajira is the original Creator and "Chief Imagineer" of the Kajira Djoumahna/BlackSheep BellyDance (KD/BSBD) Format for SGI TS BD and is the Founder and Teacher of BSBD and its earlier incarnations, as well as hundreds of other individuals and troupes around the world. Kajira and BlackSheep BD feel technique is necessary only to facilitate the experience of the loftier goal of complete and total JOY while in the moment with others! We feel this format and the way it is taught is a vehicle for healing on so many levels. It is much more than a series of steps... Kajira has taught workshops, master classes, teacher certifications and several-days-long study programs in Germany, England, Austria, Taiwan, Canada, Mexico and throughout the US so far. Other teaching highlights include teaching and performing onboard a cruise ship for 4 years and as a teacher, performer and judge at the Belly Dancer of the Universe Competition (BDUC) on 3 separate occasions, with a standing offer to return anytime. She holds an honorary award for "Lifetime Achievement in Middle Eastern Dance and the Arts" from the same. She is author of the famous Tribal Bible (currently sold out of its 6th printing), which has become known as "a rich and incredibly well-researched and documented resource for dancers of all styles". It never goes out of date due its chapters and interviews with the people who were there from inception, and features more than 300 photos to document this dance form's history, textiles and jewelry ATS dancers love to incorporate into their costumes (where they're from, how they're traditionally worn and how we adapt them) as well as chapters on music, movements and Dance As Ritual and its inherent spirituality. She hopes to make it available again one day. She is the featured Tribal-and-Alternative Q-n-A columnist for Zaghareet! Magazine for more than 4 years and has numerous articles and interviews with your favorite dancers on her web site for all to read after publication. Kajira has 2 DVDs produced by the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance (IAMED) (Vol. 1 having been honored as one of the "Top 25 DVDs for Belly Dancers" by Shira of shira.net and the *only Tribal one* to make the cut!). She self-produced 3 more DVDs, released in 2009. Kajira is a performer and teacher of *many* dance styles including Gothic BellyDance and the traditional Moroccan Guedra Blessing Ritual. She co-produces along with her husband, Chuck, the world's first all Tribal-and-Alternative dance event, Tribal Fest (a 4-time winner in Zaghareet! Magazine's annual popular-vote Golden Belly Awards for Favorite Event). It's grown to become 5 days long with a show that runs 3 days. In 2009 we had attendees from more than 19 countries, and are grateful to the global dance community who help make it "the place to go" for anyone into Tribal, Fusion, Gothic and Alternative BellyDance and Tribally-Based Performance Art. It is important to Kajira that dancers have a chance to "think outside their boxes" and learn the roots as well as the many possible future forms of these explosive styles at her event. Other awards for Kajira include the Instructor of the Year award from IAMED, and Favorite Instructor in Zaghareet! Magazine's Golden Belly Awards! Kajira's most influential teachers in her dance life include Carolena Nericcio of FCBD, with whom she spent 8 years as a student and as a member of her various student performance troupes, Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, Delilah, Suhaila & Jamila Salimpour, TerriAnne, Deanne Adams, Tempest, Rachel Brice, Laurel Victoria Gray, Morocco and Sarala Dandekar. Kajira
gained invaluable insights through fellow dancer and musician Staff
for a decade (1995-2005) at the prestigious Mendocino Middle Eastern
Music and Dance Camp in CA, on staff again in 2008, as well as from
fellow Staff for 3 years at Folk Tours Camp in MD. Kajira is constantly grateful to have a full schedule year-round traveling to share her art with others, whenever possible accompanied by members of her troupe. For more information, please join our Tribe: http://bsbd.tribe.net and visit our site: www.BlackSheepBellyDance.com or call 24/7: 808.891.8891. We can be found on YouTube as BlackSheep BellyDance and on Facebook as both Kajira Djoumahna and under a Facebook fanpage called BlackSheep BellyDance. WORKSHOP TITLES Dear
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