The Dangerous Beauties
We are the Dangerous Beauties. We are artists, dancers, performers and teachers united through belly dance. Coming from all walks of life, we use our unique perspectives to create performance art honoring women who have shaped history.
Surreyya Hada
Director of Dangerous Beauties
Director of the acclaimed Dangerous Beauties dance troupe and Co-director of Troupe Scimitar, Surreyya is an award-winning, international performer and instructor. She sings in English and Turkish, and dances regularly solo as well as with several world fusion and rock bands.
Surreyya’s performance is full of excitement, and is inspired by Egyptian, Turkish and American Tribal flavors of dance, and she is known for her skills in sword dancing and zill playing (finger cymbals). She has performed for the cast of Cirque du Soleil and is an annual entertainer for Apple, Sandisk and Yahoo corporations and other national and international festivals. Surreyya has her BA in dance (summa cum laude) from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, CA and is currently working toward her masters. She is a LEAP program awardee. She received her Dance Major Degree at CCSF, is a PMA certified Pilates Master Trainer, Barre and TRX instructor and holds a Guinness Book World Record in Roller Skating.
Rose Harden
Rose Harden, multi-disciplinary artist, has been a part of the vibrant San Francisco artist community since returning to her native city after college in 1999. She has contributed her artistry to the innovative concepts, costuming, and choreography to influential Bay Area belly dance companies Ultra Gypsy, the Barbary Coast Shakedown, and Beats Antique.
Rose currently teaches dance and Pilates in the San Francisco Bay Area where she creates solo performance work and is currently a member of Kami Liddle's Gold Star Dance company and co-directs Dangerous Beauties Dance Co. Her dance and movement background include over 18 years of instruction. Rose cultivates an in depth understanding of the body with a holistic approach to teaching that acknowledges the mind body connection and creates an encouraging and positive learning environment. She continues her studies with Dunham Technique, Modern Dance, and Afro-Diaspora forms. Her newest passion includes Taiko Drumming with San Francisco's Mikaze Daiko.
Making use of her background in sculpture(RISD BFA), Rose has created innovative costuming for Belly Dance Superstars, Suhaila Dance Company, Rosin Covin at the Edwardian Ball, and countless Bay Area performers. Her unique approach to costume design makes her one of the bay’s most in demand designers for stage. Her original ready to wear designs have been featured at NYC Fashion Week in 2015, 2016, & 2017 as a part of the One Mama Collection… Rose is also the official lift truck and variable reach operator for the Life-Size Mousetrap.
Princess Farhana
Internationally acclaimed dance star Princess Farhana (Pleasant Gehman) has performed, taught, researched and written about belly dance and burlesque since 1990. She has appeared in Egypt, Turkey, Hong Kong and Australia; toured several times across Europe and the United Kingdom, as well as throughout North America. An artistic chameleon and a boundary bushing pioneer, she performs many styles of dance with ease, from ultra traditional to contemporary belly dance and burlesque. Her diverse talents encompass visual, literary, musical and dramatic arts as well as dance. She has fronted three bands, and is featured as an actor in several motion pictures and television shows, and has been interviewed for numerous feature length documentaries, including direction Steve Balderson's "Underbelly: A Year In The Life Of Princess Farhana."
Trained in Egyptian style belly dance by Zahra Zuhair in Los Angeles and Raqia Hassan in Cairo among many others, The Princess is well known as a theatrical belly dance fusion performer conceiving and executing fantasy tableaux in minute detail, a dramatically recreating vintage styles of Oriental Dance from the Edwardian Era, the 1920's, The Egyptian Golden Age, and the American Cabaret Style of the Sixties and Seventies.
The Princess is known for her high-concept, innovative performances, dramatic stage presence and incredible abdominal work. Her warmth, enthusiasm, extensive knowledge and her adventurous spirit- both on and off stage- captivate audiences worldwide.
Nyla Crystal
Nyla Crystal began her obsession with belly dance in college and depended on belly dance to survive graduate school. She graduated from UC Davis with a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology for her dissertation work on estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. As a dancer, Nyla has won multiple bellydance awards and co-directs Troupe Scimitar, an internationally performing duet, and the Dangerous Beauties bellydance show. She has performed for groups such as Cirque du Soleil, Apple,
Sandisk and is a staple at international dance festivals.
Talia Soleil
Owner and founder of Red Door Dance Studio, Talia Soleil is the founder, sponsor and producer of Raqs Tiki. Dancing her way through life, she has enjoyed studying Ballroom, Jazz, Ballet, Modern Dance, Hip Hop, Hula, African, and of course, Belly Dance. She is also a multi-award winning belly dancer, choreographer and former fitness champion. She has recently brought her troupe to a first place win at Hot Raqs, the beautiful west coast festival in Clovis, put on by Andalee and Mike Owens.
Talia studied theater, and has been involved in both community and college productions, and loves to combine the skills of dance and dramatic arts in her art form.
As a life-long student of movement and dance, and an instructor for over 30 years, Talia continues to learn and grow, often traveling worldwide to "fill her cabinets" with knowledge, passion, and new friendships. Teaching workshops, or taking workshops, Talia enjoys them both equally.
As artistic direction, choreographer and director of the award winning Dansoleil Belly Dance Theater, she trains all levels of dancers to reach their highest potential.
Maharet
Multi-talented Maharet is a triple threat: a belly dancer whose performances are a visual treat, informed by her skills as a photographer and graphic designer. Using her skills to craft arresting performances, she blends her disciplines to create a range of fully conceived characters, from otherworldly flights of fancy to unique takes on historical women.
Hailing from Missouri, she was traditionally trained by the late Jasara, an American Cabaret dancer who became her biggest influence. Maharet continued the tradition, teaching classes and hosting workshops in the Springfield area, before branching into fusion and also becoming a show producer. Some of her best-loved productions were the “Inappropriate Half” series created, which featured outrageously theatrical and often comedic performances ranging from belly dance to fire dance and burlesque from all over the Midwest and beyond. Relocated to California in 2013, she immediately found a home with The Dangerous Beauties, allowing all of her talents-dramatic dance and the visual arts- to be combined.
DeVilla
Elegance, grace and beautifully executed Middle Eastern Dance with an old Hollywood flair are the benchmarks of this Los Angeles based dancer. DeVilla’s performances have been said to be dynamic, mixing contemporary raqs sharqi innovation with classical inspiration.
DeVilla performs and teaches in LA and nationally as a soloist and with Sekhmet Dance Company, for whom she functions as Artistic Director. Accomplished in classical Egyptian and folkloric styles of Middle Eastern dance, having studied extensively with world renowned teachers in the U.S. and Egypt.
An award winning Dance Artist and Emmy nominated professional Make-Up Artist, DeVilla is equally at home onstage and behind the scenes, as she seamlessly integrates her two full time careers. She has produced and co-produced many shows in Los Angeles and has most recently performed in the gala shows of AEOMED, Jillina’s BDEvolution “OZ”, Fahtiem’s Oasis Dance Magic and Cairo Shimmy Quake--Los Angeles’s biggest Middle Eastern dance event.
DeVilla teaches privately and at Dance Garden studio in Los Angeles--Voted LA Weekly’s ‘Best Place to Learn Middle Eastern Dance.’
Kamala
Kamala Almanzar’s professional Belly Dance career spans 4 decades. She has
performed in venues around the world, as well as being featured in movies and
television.
Currently Kamala teaches, produces and choreographs Bellydance. She has
been a sought after coach and mentor to many dancers. Kamala’s recent
accomplishments include producing, and choreographing for the “Cairo
ShimmyQuake” festival’s Gala theater productions, named “Teacher of the Year
2017” by “Belly Dancer of the Universe”, instructor for “LA Legends of Bellydance”,
producer of “Raqs Film Festival”, and teaching workshops around the country.
Amar
Amar is amongst a handful of local DJs whose taste cuts a path through an abundance of musical selections and leads dance floors into a hypnotic sway like snakes before the charmer. In this instance the muse is a masala that brews sounds from the Middle East and Balkans with rhythms of the Asian underground and electric Brazilian vibes. Whether its breaks, bhangra, house, drum & bass or downtempo the global nature of Amar’s sets bridges a multi-culti span from the world to the Bay Area.
As a DJ and promoter, he has collaborated and shared the stage with some of the Bay Area’s & world’s most innovative Musicians, DJs and dance troupes including DJ Dragonfly, DJ Sep, Dr. Israel, Freyja, Maneesh the Twister, Giamma, Cheb i Sabbah, Ultra Gypsy, Soulsalaam, Urban Tribal, Ariellah, SooozhyQ, Dub Gabriel, Dhol Rhythms, Lorin/Bassnectar, Nitin Sawhney, Unmata, Nader, Midival Punditz, Shabaz, Sila and the Afrofunk Experience, Zoe Jakes, Ansuya, Lady Ra, Third Eye Tribe, DJ Layla, Karsh Kale, Janaka, State of Bengal, Dr Das & Ramjac, Jimmy Love, Frederique, Rachel Brice, Glitch Mob and others.
Producer and resident of the bay area’s Global Gypsy night ELECTRIC VARDO and SF Weekly World Beat & Belly Dance night UNDERGROUND NOMADS, Amar has performed at SFs hottest underground venues including Public Works, F8, Club Six, DNA Lounge, Nickie’s, 1015 Folsom, Temple, Amnesia, Mighty, El Rio, Underground SF, Elbo Room and Rickshaw Stop with Dhamaal, Nonstop Bhangra, Surya Dub, Worldly, Opel, Dance Jam, Triple Power, & the Groove Garden plus other ongoing and special events & festivals worldwide.
