When you become a student of the Salimpour School, you join a global community of talented and supportive dancers.

One of the great ways to connect with fellow students in your community is by joining or creating a Salimpour Performance Collective. The Salimpour Performance Collectives take great pride in presenting and representing the influential Salimpour legacy in belly dance. These performance groups are officially sanctioned by the Salimpour School and help to keep you motivated, inspired, and connected with the “Mothership.”

When you’re part of a Salimpour Performance Collective, you learn and perform choreographies in the Salimpour repertoire. You and your fellow dancers  support each other as you train and prepare for certification exams.  You also have the opportunity to work directly with our highly-trained Level 5 instructors, either in person or through Skype or Google Hangouts.

Members must have a Level 1 certifications in the Suhaila Salimpour and/or Jamila Salimpour Formats, be active in the program, and maintain a plan for the next certification level or format goal.  Group leaders, however, must maintain higher certification.

The Suhaila Dance Company has been at the forefront of classical, contemporary, and fusion belly dance since its founding in 1996. Under the direction of acclaimed and groundbreaking choreographer and master instructor Suhaila Salimpour, the company performs classic and contemporary works by Salimpour herself, including the critically-acclaimed Sheherezade and her newest body of work, Enta Omri. SDC has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including multiple times at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. They have also appeared on multiple performance DVDs, including the Fitness Fusion series produced by Goldhill Entertainment, as well as on the documentary American Bellydancer.

The company includes some of the most highly trained belly dancers in the world; all company members hold a Level 3 certification or higher in the Suhaila Salimpour format. They also perform with Bal Anat, the folkloric and fantasy belly dance troupe begun by Jamila Salimpour in 1968 and under the direction of Suhaila Salimpour since 1999.