Meet the Company
Josephine Wise
Josephine is a leading international performer and teacher. Her style is known for its authenticity and deep expression.
Josephine has danced and taught extensively throughout the UK, Europe, Egypt and the Middle East. She has toured the UK with her dance company MASRIAT, and has choreographed works for the theatre and opera in England and France.
She formed JWAAD to run courses here and abroad, the JWAAD Teacher Training Diploma Course, the Fantasia Festival and the annual JWAAD Summer School. She also runs the International Bellydance Congress.
Josephine is Artistic Director of Johara Dance Company.
Email: jo.wise@jwaad.com www.jwaad.com www.bellydancecongress.com
Catherine Bartholomew
Catherine has been studying Arabic dance for over 10 years and is a JWAAD qualified teacher based in Kent. Having always enjoyed the femininity of the dance, Catherine was thrilled to be able to dance throughout her pregnancy last year and even during the birth! Catherine teaches regular classes in Aylesford, Strood and Sittingbourne.
Gwen Booth
Gwen is known for her elegant and dramatic theatrical bellydance style, combining elements of Middle Eastern dance with influences from ballet and western theatrical dance forms. She also specializes in Egyptian bellydance and in the use of props including sword, stick, veils, fans and shamadan. Oxford-based Gwen is a tutor on the JWAAD Diploma course, and is training coordinator with the JWAAD Teachers' Association. She has been performing and teaching bellydance for over a decade, and has performed and taught at international events such as the International Bellydance Congress and Bellyfusions Festival Paris.
www.elegantbellydance.co.uk Email: geb21@hotmail.com
Photo by Nancy Fleischhauer
Norvell Cenac
Music and dance has always been a strong influence on Norvell's life. She began studying Ballet, Tap, Contemporary and Jazz at an early age. In 2006 Norvell was charmed by the world of bellydance; in particular its music and celebration of the female form of all shapes and sizes. She has a firm belief that to interpret music in dance, you must feel the music.
Yvette Cowles
Yvette Cowles was a founder member of Josephine Wise’s Masriat Dance Company and is now a soloist with Johara. She has taught and performed bellydance for over 15 years and her background is in Egyptian style dance, although she now specialises in theatrical bellydance. She is a senior JWAAD tutor and trains bellydance teachers on the Foundation and Diploma Courses.
Yvette has taught extensively across the UK as well as in Gloucestershire, where she is based. Events include London Fantasia, the Bellydance Congress, several Farida Dance weekends at Ford Castle and the Jewels of the Nile show. She also teaches at the annual JWAAD Summer School. While living in South-West France, she taught regularly in Bordeaux and Marmande and performed as a soloist in La Nuit de la Danse Orientale at the Casino Municipal in Biarritz. Yvette will be teaching at Gothla UK in July 2011.
Yvette's work also focuses on the healing power of dance particularly with women who, like herself, have suffered from or are living with cancer.
For further information contact Yvette on yvette_cowles@yahoo.co.uk or visit www.DanceYourselfHappy.com
Harriet Gervasio
Since accidentally falling into the world of belly dance over 10 years ago Harriet has studied with some of the most highly regarded teachers in the UK and Egypt. She is renowned for her sassy, playful style and incorporates elements of western cabaret into her performances alongside traditional styles of Egyptian dance.
Margaret Krause
A highly-experienced teacher, much loved for her sensual, feminine style, Margaret teaches regular classes in Surrey and workshops around the country. She is a soloist with Johara Dance Company, a senior teacher on the JWAAD Teacher Training course and the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Habena dance group.
Helen Morgan
Beginning her dance career in ballet at the age of three, Helen went on to fall in love with belly dance in 2004 whilst living in New York. For the next three years she studied extensively with Reyna Alcala (a member of both Jamila Salimpour’s Bal Anat and Ibrahim Farrah’s Near East Dance Company), performing in shows and festivals, as well as gaining recognition as a solo artist. Whilst in New York, Helen also studied tribal belly dance and Bollywood before returning to London in 2007 and joining the BellyBliss Allstars. Since then, Helen has taught many classes and workshops in London and performed at the UK’s major belly dance events. Known for her authenticity and sunshine smile, Helen is now delighted to be dancing with Josephine Wise's troupe Johara!
Samantha Neal
Samantha has been belly dancing since 2000 and teaching since 2003. She trained as a teacher with JWAAD (Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance)
and has trained as a dancer with the top teachers and dancers from the UK, USA and Cairo. She is well known for her fusion sassy style. as well as teaching bellydance Samantha also teaches Zumba. Samantha
teaches in North London, Essex and Hertfordshire.
For more information on her classes and workshops go to www.samnara.co.uk or contact her on:
Tel 07770 596634 Email Samantha@samnara.co.uk
Nuxya Nereisidos
Inspired by ballet and English folk dances, Nereisidos first performed her own choreography at the age of six. Whilst drawing on her acting experience for solo pieces, Nereisidos also worked with an international Bollywood dance company. She continues to study the myriad forms of Bellydance, primarily Egyptian, Tribal Fusion and Gothic, as well as Flamenco Descalzos and Hawaiian dance.
Email: nereisidos@gmail.com
Jan Piggott
Jan Piggott is a JWAAD Teacher and Tutor on the JWAAD Foundation Course. She teaches regular classes in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire plus workshops throughout the UK. Jan is known for her lively style and sense of fun. She has performed on TV, in theatres, clubs, for private and corporate events, and with her student groups has helped raise money for many local charities.
Email: janbelly@hotmail.com
Trish Rapley Giles
Trish has been dancing for twenty years. A JWAAD-trained teacher, she has been a tutor on the JWAAD teacher training courses, she is based in Berkshire and is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Habena dance group.
Maelle Roger
Born in France, Maëlle’s childhood has been rythmed by dance. She started her stage experience at the age of 4 being part in the musical for children “Maxi’Mômes”. She did this for 10 years while she was training as a rhythmic gymnast from the age of 6. Always willing to discover different forms and styles of dance, she started learning modern Jazz, street dance and Salsa as a teenager. She discovered Middle Eastern dance in 2004 in Arras with Aida. She moved to London in 2007, where she mainly trains with Josephine Wise and keeps expanding her repertoire to new forms of dance and skills such as fire and props.
Email: maelleroger@yahoo.fr
Sorcha Ra
Sorcha Ra is a full time performance artist. She performs both Egyptian and Tribal fusion bellydance. She loves the grace and sensuality of this dance and the sense of community between dancers. Sorcha is also a professional fire dancer, contact juggler and stilt walker.
As one of the UK’s leading fire artistes and over the last decade Sorcha has been passionately committed to raising the level of excellence in this emerging art form. She was one of the core members of BrightFX, a company who combined fire, circus and fireworks to create large scale pyrocircus shows. She recently started teaching fire dance classes in London and is the co founder of Fire In The Belly, an organisation that arranges workshops and shows that involve and combine both fire and dance. She brings a flare for the dramatic and a great sense of humour to all her work.
www.sorchara.com Facebook page – Fire In The Belly.London
Christine Wood
Christine is proof of the rehabilative qualities of Middle Eastern Dance. After being involved in a near fatal skydiving accident in October 2000, in which she suffered numerous bone fractures including 7 fractures to her spine, Christine was advised that belly dancing would assist her road to recovery. She found the claim that this form of dance would assist in the mobility of her lower spine particularly interesting. From her first lesson she was hooked and she believes that this dance form has given her more than physiotherapy ever did.
Christine is over 6 foot tall and tries to use her height to her advantage when dancing; her dance style is often described as very elegant and graceful. She particularly enjoys the elegance of Oriental style and her favourite props are veil and folkloric stick.
Christine is a JWAAD qualified teacher, having qualified in 2009.