About the Studio

Belly Dance Eugene Studio focuses on women-centered classes, providing a safe space to build confidence in our bodies and empower women to embrace their feminine curves. Women of all ages, sizes, and body types can feel beautiful while belly dancing. It is one of the few forms of exercise where you can dress up in an exercise class for you—without the pressure of the male gaze. Which isn’t to say men or nonbinary people can’t attend classes at the Willamalane Community Center or Amazon Community Center locations. Men have attended these classes to connect with their culture, be supportive of a family member, and try a new form of exercise.

Belly Dance Eugene focuses on improvisational and social dance in the same way ballroom does, which fosters community building and social interactions. We get to know each other with Haflas (belly dance parties), craft days when we work on costumes, and have performances for the level two, intermediate, and advanced students. Current student troupes include Advanced: Fusion Fascination and Level 2: Bellissimo Fusion.

The studio focuses on fusion belly dance and ATS (American Tribal/Transcontinental Style), a hybrid style inspired by folkloric dances that originated in the Middle East, Northern Africa, India, and Europe. "Belly dance " is a modern word and concept as broad as the word “ballroom,” too large to encompass all the styles out there under its umbrella. Belly dance has been influenced by the Raks Sharki style of Egypt, the Gwazi from India, the Romany who spread from India over Europe, and the influence of the Ottoman Empire that left their imprint over cultures in Europe, and European folk dances. People often confuse belly dance with folk dance and Middle Eastern dance, and while these styles blur together, these are all separate styles. Many moves in hip hop, contemporary dance, and even burlesque and stripping, have the same roots that belly dance shares from Northern Africa. Some parts of our costumes have Eastern European influences, and some parts have Turkish and Middle Eastern influence. (More about this history can be found in the blog.)

About the Instructor

Sarina is the artist director, owner, and teacher at Belly Dance Eugene and Springfield Studio where she manages dance troupes, Fusion Fascination and Bellissimo Fusion. She performs solos as well as performs and directs both troupes.

Sarina is a tribal fusion dancer who combines tribal belly dance or tribaret with various styles she has studied in the past. She primarily performs improvisational dance, and for that reason, she might at any given time be inspired to bust out something vaudeville, break dance, flamenco or other dance styles she has studied when it fits the music. Her love of soundtracks and old music is often evident in her musical selection in her performances and classes she teaches.

Sarina began studying belly dance at the age of 15 after seeing Gypsy Caravan perform at the Oregon City Public Library. "That was the moment I fell in love with the art form," says Sarina. She studied belly dance with a variety of instructors, as well as studying Hawaiian hula, swing, salsa, and Scottish and Irish folk dance. Eventually she studied with Gypsy Caravan, then with Severina, and on to Egyptian cabaret and Turkish Romany at Euphoria dance studios. She performed with Znama's student group, had solos, and began to teach workshops and children's belly dance classes.

When Sarina moved to Japan for work, she studied Turkish belly dance and break dance in Sapporo, but was disappointed by the lack of tribal belly dance available. As a result, she introduced Tribal and Tribal Fusion Belly dance by teaching at Soulwave, Deena's Dance Studio, and Studio 2001. She performed in informal settings at restaurants such as Caribe, as well as for audiences of up to 500 people at large events.

For the last 15 years, Sarina has been working and living in the Eugene area where she has studied tribal with Sabine, tribal fusion with Luminessah, flamenco with Elena Villa, taken workshops, and for ten years immersed herself in tango. She was an active member of the Middle Eastern Dance Guild of Eugene, performing regularly at Cozmic Pizza, volunteering, and opening for events like No Shame Theatre, Trek Theatre as the Orion Slave Dancer, and dancing to local bands like Mood Area 52 as they played live music. Sarina was the original artistic director of the Fusion Friendly Shows at Cozmic Pizza, has organized shows such as Sugar and Spice variety shows, steampunk variety shows at New Zone Art Gallery, and books the musical acts for No Shame Eugene and other events.

Most recently, her troupes have performed at retirement centers, the Asian Celebration, the Eugene Saturday Market, the Eugene Holiday Market, Axe and Fiddle in Cottage Grove, the Faerie Market at the Hybrid, the MeWe Festival, Halloween Downtown Eugene, the art walk at Emerald Art Center in Springfield, A3 Family Art Night, Whirled Pies, Old Nick’s, and has performed solos at Poppi’s Anatolia’s Greek Night.

Sarina looks like an artist or dancer if you should happen to run into her outside of performances and classes. This is because she wears many fashion items she makes for belly dance on normal occasions. She designs and creates many of her costumes and sells bloomers, bustle skirts, hair fascinators and steampunk jewelry at fairs and through her website. She teaches belly dance and bellylicious classes at Willamalane Adult Activity Center in Springfield and Amazon Community Center in Eugene, and offers private lessons in her studio.