RETIRED PAGE: Enta Omri Program2021-07-22T13:31:21-07:00

Enta Omri (You are my Life), October 2017

About Enta Omri

Enta Omri -Arabic for “you are my life”- is a full-length dance concert, showcasing Arabic music and its physicalization through belly dance. Choreographed by the highly-influential and innovative dancer Suhaila Salimpour, this production is an intimate and emotional journey through a lifetime of love and loss. Enta Omri showcases the artistic and technical possibilities of belly dance as a genre, eschewing cliches and popular imagery. It is set to classic Arabic music arranged by award-winning composer, singer, and ‘ud player Ahmed Doughan, and featuring drummer Ziad Islambouli.

Enta Omri is at the cutting edge of theatrical belly dance choreography. Salimpour has seamlessly fused the intricate isolations and articulations of belly dance with her lifetime of study in a multitude of dance genres, including jazz, ballet, modern, flamenco, street dance, and more. With simple set design and costumes, this production showcases the virtuosity and potential of belly dance, letting the movement and music speak for itself.

Be swept away by the power and emotion of Suhaila Salimpour’s Enta Omri.

Meet the Dancers

Abigail Keyes is a dancer performer, educator, and scholar with a BA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and an MA in Dance Studies from Mills College (CA). She is a staff instructor at the Salimpour School and has been belly dancing since 2000.

Parya Saberi is a faculty member at a top ranking Bay Area university where she conducts clinical and behavioral research. Parya began her love affair with dance at the age of 7 studying Persian dance and later trained in New York Style Salsa and belly dance. She is currently an instructor at the Salimpour School and has been a member of the Suhaila Dance Company  since 2014. 

Lisa Price is currently a Nutrition Consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a BA from UC Berkeley. She loves the nourishing aspects of food, dance and music and has explored a wide variety of art forms since an early age.

Tina Toy is a successful IT Project Manager with a BS in Business Administration and a BA in Spanish. Her passion for music, culture and athletic movement culminated in an unrelenting desire to study dance and ultimately led her to begin training under Suhaila in 2006.

Rachel Duff is a professional photographer and retoucher and is an alumna of the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Rachel discovered her love of dance as a child, and began belly dancing in 2003 as a teenager in Chicago. She moved to the Bay Area in 2005 to study with Suhaila, and has been dancing in the Suhaila Dance Company since 2006.

Learn More

Suhaila Salimpour is a highly-acclaimed belly dance performer, teacher, and choreographer. As a teenager, she began integrating the Middle Eastern dance passed on to her from her mother, Jamila Salimpour, with her own extensive training in ballet, jazz, tap, and American street styles. After working as a professional belly dance performer in the Middle East for over 10 years, she established her school and certification program in the United States in the late 1990s. She has choreographed hundreds of dances, from the classic to the avant garde, and was nominated for an Isadora Duncan award for solo performance in 2005. Her methods and approach to teaching belly dance is a true artistic breakthrough: a revolutionary technique that has elevated belly dance practice and performance. Her technique and methods are now used by dancers in all stylizations, and the Salimpour School is one of the most respected and influential schools of belly dance in the world.

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.

Current Members: Abigail Keyes (SL5/JL5), Lisa Price (SL4/JL2), Parya Saberi (SL4/JL3), Rachel Duff (SL3/JL2), and Tina Toy (SL4/JL2).

Credits

Matt Ruiz– Lighting & Sound Design

Julianna Aberle-McClellan– Costume Design

Janet Daghri– Graphic Design

Rachel Duff– Headshots

Angelique Hanesworth– Photography

Acknowledgements

Suhaila would like to give special thanks to: the Suhaila Dance Company and the cast of Enta Omri for their hard work, dedication, and constant belief in my vision. Janelle Rodriguez for co-producing and helping to make this event possible. My mother for starting it all. My daughter for the inspiration to continue as an individual. My sister Vonda for….everything. Our talented technical crew that helped me realize my vision.

Future Events

Date: Sunday, August 5, 2018

Time: TBA

Location: El Cerrito Theater, 540 Ashbury Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530

Tickets: TBA

 

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