Christine Andrews, was my first teacher, her classes facilitated a strong sense of community and were always very welcoming and supportive. She taught me the importance of drilling the basics of Turkish style and to in general learn the basics of a traditional dance form, and once you have that ground work, then change it and make it your own. Christine also taught me the most important thing is to dance from your heart and soul, always.

In 1997, Maria and I traveled to Turkey, to experience the culture that is the back bone of this dance form. Also in the early days of my dancing, I had the great pleasure of studying with Jill Parker of Ultra Gypsy, she planted in me a strong sense of posture, technique, and most important, creativity. Over the years I constantly learn more about myself as well as about dancing from her.

In 1998, I began dancing with Ghawazee, and in 2001 the group dissolved and Zafira Dance Company was born. We all poured our hearts and souls into Zafira, creating, pushing boundaries, experimenting, and fusing all of our visions together to create what we call World Fusion Belly dance.

My style is definitely a fusion, with a strong core in Turkish and Egyptian style belly dance, however its branches reach to North Africa, Central Asia, India, Spain, and to modern dance styles as well. There are so many dancers who inspire me, some of which include: Olivia Kissel, Christine Andrews, Maria Hamer, Jennifer Imashev, Jill Parker, Heather Stants, Eva Cernik, I could go on and on, but the ones who have refined their technique and who dance from their heart, those are the ones I can’t get enough of. Thank you to all of you that keep adding to the pool of knowledge surrounding this ever expanding dance form.

My favorite is hanging out with a few amazing musicians and dancers, and improvising and improvising, creating new things and just letting it be, for the fun of it.

Other than teaching and performing dance, I work as a massage therapist, and a birth and postpartum doula, assisting women and their families through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period, and working towards becoming a home birth Midwife.

I also have a 7 yr.. old amazing son, Shiloh, and a super star of a step daughter, Mariah (you may have seen her steal the stage on various occasions), and a husband Eric(who isn’t too bad on the drums, if I may say.)

For Classes with Tamara in Santa Cruz, Ca goto West Coast Classes
email Tamara
More bios!
Christine, Jennifer, Maria, and Olivia