Nahla first learned how to shimmy in 1997 in a community ed class taught by Gaziyeh in Lawrence, Kansas. After graduation, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Gaziyeh had told her about Suhaila, so she sought out Salimpour’s classes in El Cerrito, attended her first and only Rakkasah festival, and bought some zills and a hip scarf.

Nahla is happy to have settled now in Minneapolis where she has taken classes at the Cassandra School, with Libbie Henderson, and with Roberta Webb.

While enjoying her full time job as a stay-at-home mom, Nahla has discovered the delights of Tribal dance through rehearsals with TNT.