I was introduced to Tribal Belly Dance in 2003 as rather a fluke. A friend living in Mexico coaxed me to visit her in San Miguel de Allende to attend an intensive workshop taught by Troupe Salamat from Prescott, AZ. I immediately loved the focus of women dancing for themselves and other women, collectively forming a sisterhood of dance. I also welcomed the improvisational aspect of this dance style.

Returning to Minnesota, I found Amira who had started a Tribal Belly dance class through Community Education. Although the class was geared toward advanced students, Amira welcomed me to the group. After performing in a couple shows, including at the Renaissance Festival that year, I took a break from belly dance.

Since then I have taken oriental belly dance classes on and off in order to learn more belly dance basics. I studied with Suzanne D'Souza, Barb Tate-Lunde, and Mary West through Community Ed and Kathy McCurdy at the Cassandra School. For Tribal practice, I used the Fat Chance Belly Dance videos.

Just this winter I took a Tribal class from Chinyere. She connected me to TNT and I am very excited to have become a member of this troupe.