Sharif's Web Links

The Art Of Middle Eastern Dance	Everything you have always wanted to know about belly dance but were afraid to ask you can find on this extensive website by Shira.
Salome	"Orientaldancer.net" is an extensive website with lots of articles and a lively forum with lots of topics. You will often find Zorba, DaVid and me on the "Male Dancers" forum.
The Gilded Serpent	An on-line magazine of Middle Eastern dance with tons of articles and links.
Belly Dance of Santa Cruz	A website for local belly dancers with message board, pictures and a calendar.
Zorba, "The Veiled Male"	Zorba is a local male belly dancer with a wealth of information about male belly dancing and an opinion about pretty much everything! He has an extensive list of male belly dancer websites.
Rakkasah	The largest belly dance festival on the West Coast, held every year in Richmond in spring. So popular that dancers line up in January and spend hours on the telephone for a chance to be on stage! Next to three days of performances there is a great bazaar of all things belly dance.
Desert Dance Festival	A belly dance festival in early autumn held in San Jose. Smaller than Rakkasah, but very enjoyable. Also has a lot of belly dance merchandise for sale.
Luna Gitana Festival	A local yearly belly dance festival right here in Santa Cruz county! They have a headliner every year, past headliners have been Kamaal, SeSe and Heather Stants. Small but nice, and close by!
Arabian Nights at Sea	A once-a-year three night cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada with belly dance lessons and performances. Highly recommended, a lot of fun!
Rhythm Fusion	A local store in Santa Cruz selling percussion and other instruments and some belly dance materials. Also provides percussion lessons.
Armando Mafufo	One of the foremost percussion players in the US is local to our area. Check out his website for CDs, instruments and instruction videos.
Zamora's Tribe of Gypsies	Cory Zamora is a long time belly dancer and teacher in the Fresno area. She offers several instructional videos, and has experience teaching male dancers. Her troupe has performed a lot on Renaissance Faires.
Selket	Selket has an extensive list of Middle Eastern names. Don't just make one up that sounds nice, lest you end up with something that means 'scurvy dog' or worse in Arabic... My dance name means "Distinguished, noble", which matches up nicely with my everyday last name.
Adira	Adira runs a belly dance store in Mountain View and performs and teaches as well (in San Jose). I bought a pair of nice black-and-copper harem pants and veil from her.
Alyne	A well-known belly dance instructor from San Jose specializing in double veil technique. I have seen her troupe dance at Rakkasah, and also taken one of her workshops.

More external links can be found on the teachers and local dancers pages.