To celebrate her one year anniversary, Sandra Tanemura of Zahirah Middle Eastern Belly Dance School, is offering free dance lessons this weekend.
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. everyone is welcome to drop in for classes in Nia, Flamenco, belly dancing, bellyrobics, acting and Zumba.
"Everything the studio offers is being offered for free this weekend," said Tanemura. "This gives a big thank you to those who have already been here and made this year so fantastic and hopefully will inspire even more people to say 'hey, I've always wanted to try this and since it's free I can check it out'."
During the past year Tanemura took to the stage with Canadian guitar icon Jesse Cook and Pavlo, Greek god of the guitar, when they performed in Prince George in October.
"Each show was an incredible experience," said Tanemura. "Pavlo's band made me feel like part of the family and he invited me to sit with him when he was taking a private moment to himself before the show -- we talked about food, actually. The band was so gracious and I danced with them for the song we planned to do and then they called me out twice after that, too."
The experience with Jesse Cook was mind boggling for some of the Zahirah dance troupe members who had never performed on stage before, she added.
"Talk about having nothing to compare it to because you're starting on top," laughed Tanemura, whose dance name is Halawa. "Really friendly band and Jesse Cook was fantastic. We did the song we were supposed to perform and then they called us back out for the final bow. It was great, really, really great."
Tanemura took six troupe members to a workshop in Victoria in November. Tanemura did a solo at the Metro Theatre and the troupe danced as well.
The teacher of the workshop, Yasmina Ramzy, top teacher in Canada and top four in the world who does choreography for Shakira is Tanemura's idol.
At the workshop Ramzy offered participants application forms for a professional course where people from around the world audition for a place in the class.
"She told me she would audition me right now," Tanemura said. "After the audition she told me that I was in the class. That was exciting enough but then two days after I got home I received an e-mail from her saying 'I saw you in Victoria, I really liked what I saw, you have great technique and would you be interested in coming to perform at the International Bellydance Conference of Canada in Toronto in May?'
"This is huge, it's like the Grammies for bellydance. It's the biggest event in Canada a bellydancer can go to. There are film producers and recruiters that come. There are more than 120 dancers that audition to be on the mainstage and I was asked to perform on the mainstage. So I'm going. You only live once!"
For more information about Tanemura or her dance classes visit www.zahirahbellydance.net.
