Belly Dance Life Iana Komarnytska

Pedro Bonatto is an internationally acclaimed photographer and drummer. Born in Brazil, Pedro works in fine art and fashion photography, with works published in Elle Arabia, Fashion Canada and a number of magazines and books. Pedro is also a drummer focusing on Middle Eastern music and the leader of the world music and dance band Blue Dot.

Iana Komarnytska is a professional dancer, teacher, choreographer, and passionate content creator helping dancers navigate their dance lives. She is a graduate from the professional dance program at York University (Canada), host of the Belly Dance Life podcast, creator of the educational online platform the Iana Dance Club, author of numerous articles, and winner of Star Bellydancer Canada 2014 among other international competitions. 

Sharing 10 practical tips that I use to memorize choreographies faster. These tips will be especially useful during workshop settings, when you need to learn a dance piece within very limited amount of time.

Oreet has over 25 years of experience in fitness and dance. She grew up with Yemeni folk and Oriental dance and has a degree in Contemporary Dance from SUNY College at Brockport. SharQuí has been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN, among other outlets. Some of Oreet’s bellydance awards are: Bellydancer of the Year, and Middle Eastern Dance Champion of North America. She’s led packed classes worldwide and has worked with thousands of men and women to realize their fitness potential.

Diana Garnik is the director of DiDance Studio in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. She was winner of the AlHayat Festival, recipient of the 3rd place at Raqs of Course Festival by Randa Kamel, and many other competitions. Diana is famous for her dynamic modern Iraqi performances, just as much as her love for Khalidji, shaabi, tabla solo, mejance, classical and lyrical songs. You may really enjoy having your next show choreographed by Diana.

Born in Cartagena, Colombia, Horacio Cifuentes started dancing at the age of five. He first studied Flamenco at the Academy of Maestro Realito in Seville, Spain. Later he also danced with the Ballet Folclorico Nacional de Colombia. He followed with classical ballet in Poland, and later gained a scholarship to the prestigious American Ballet Theatre School in New York. He eventually joined the San Francisco Ballet where he was featured as a soloist. He discovered oriental dance at Magana Baptiste’s Royal Bellydancing Academy in San Francisco where he also studied yoga with the great master Walt Baptiste. Together with his wife, Beata, Horacio travels the world performing and teaching.

As the closing episode of 2022 I’d like to share a compilation of some of my favorite moments from the interviews of this year. You will hear from Gitza, Semsemah, Mahaila El Helwa, and Tatiana Tarasova.