Aszmara Bio

    "Dance is emotion in motion" describes accurately the quality of Aszmara’s dance. She is one of New York’s best interpreters of the ethnic dance. She impresses through her expressive stage presence and interprets the music with her own blend of modern and ethnic Arab and Turkish dance. The New York Times describes her dance as "intense".

    As one of the leading figures in the field of the Oriental Dance, she is also one of the founders and principal dancers of the AMMED Award Winning Middle Eastern Dance Company, Oriental Images as well as co-founder/co-director of SaZ Dance Theatre, a multi-cultural woman’s dance company.

    Her teaching style is highly energetic. As a master teacher she teaches master and beginner’s classes with the same enthusiasm. Her workshops, thus, are highly appreciated both by professional dancers as well as by beginners.

    Aszmara performs amd teaches workshops regulary in the USA and in almost all of Europe. With Transition she has been performing as a solo dancer regularly since 1989. Whenever she performs, there is an electric excitement of music and dance created in the space between choreography and improvisation.

International Performances & Workshops

• Uhuru World Festival: Weeklong Workshop & Performance. Soloturn, Switzerland
• Lenk Symposium for Music & Movement in Lenk, Switzerland
• Yearly Performance & Workshop Tours through Switzerland: Zurich, Bern, Luzern, Winterthur, et al.
• Since 1989 Yearly Weeklong Dance Workshops in Switzerland
• Weeklong Workshops on regular basis in Toscana, Italy
• Trinity College, Dublin
• Dublin, Belfast, Galway & Cork, Ireland
• Performance Tours in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, France, Bahamas & Bermuda

National Performance & Workshops

• 2003, 2001, 2000 & 1999 Festival of the Nile, Florida
• Mahrajan Concert 2007, Brea California with Sahra Saeeda & Angelika Nemith
• Workshop Series in Newburgh, NY
• Adjunct Professor at The College of New Rochelle since 2002
• Artist in Residence Oak Lane Country Day School, PA
• Ongoing class schedule in Manhattan, New York & Connecticut; instruction, coaching & choreography for dance companies and solo performers
• Workshop Series in Manhattan
• Guest Artist & Teacher in New Hampshire, Vermont, Florida, Boston, Connecticut, New Jersey & Pennsylvania
• Workshop Series in Stamford, Connecticut
• Weekend Workshops in New Jersey, Boston, Vermont & New Hampshire
• Regular Performer in all the major NYC nightclubs: Fazil’s, Baba’s, Darvish, Marrakesh, Ibis...
• Frequent Guest Artist in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
• Ethical Cultural Society
• Brooklyn Academy of Music, Niklaus/Louis Choreospace, Washington Square Church with Elena Lentini & Co
• Scottish Rites Auditorium, Hollywood, California with Ramzi El Adlibi Dance Co.
• Commissioned choreography for New Rochelle Opera Company, & New Rochelle Civic Theatre
• Yearly Educational Dance programs at New Rochelle Library

Dance Companies

Oriental Images Workshops & Concerts

• Annual Workshops in New Jersey & Pennsylvania
• American Academy of Middle Eastern Dance Hall of Fame
• Recipient of AAMED Hall of Fame Award 1997

SaZ Dance Theatre

• "Out of Time"
• "Time Sojourns"
• "Non-Stop Belly-Dance"
• "Veiled Threat"

 

Performance Venues:

• Ohio Theatre
• Evolving Arts Theatre
• Movements Afoot
• Knitting Factory
• SounDance Repertory
• Dance Space
• Morocco's Tent Theater

“Aszmara, an internationally known dancer, provided one of the highlights of the day with an exquisite solo. Using every inch of her eloquent body she clarified the music in all its depth and richness.”   Reading Times, PA

“... a fire red whirlwind is Aszmara. Her artistic movements go beyond this dance.”    Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Switzerland