Amina
Teaching Experience:
Amina’s classes are small and students are encouraged to get to know each other in class as we also have club night out(s). Amina has been teaching as a teen and even in college, starting first as a volunteer. She has been professionally teaching now for 8 years. Her classes have been featured on Fox 5 News. Click here To see the press
Performance:
Amina has performed at many venues which include the Kennedy Center, the World Bank, University of Maryland, George Washington University, Image-in-Asian Television, the French Embassy, as well as charity shows and cultural programs. Most recently she has been invited on a month long cruise aboard a Celebrity Cruise Ship teaching and Performing Polynesian Dance. She recently choreographed a group dance number for a Bollywood Independent film. She has also acted and danced bellydance in the Independent Film Terror in the Pharaoh’s Tomb. She performed bollywood dance in another Independent film called Sangamam (she’s listed on imdb.com for these movies). She has been in several local Hip Hop Crews and is currently a member of Polynesian Dance Company . Contact Amina if you are interested in a group hip hop performance for your next event!
Judging Experience:
Amina has been invited to be a judge at dance competitions including the Indian National Competition Boogie Woogie shown on Sony TV in India and America. (It’s an Indian Show similar in popularity and format to the American show “So You Think You Can Dance”.) She has also judged the Macdonald Dance Competition as well as the Muqabla 2008 Dance Competition and the Muqabla 2009 Competitions and most recently the India Day Competition in 2011. Contact Amina if you need a dance judge for an upcoming competition.
Dance Training & Certifications:
* CPR & AED Certified for Adults, Children, and Infants
* Zumba Certified (Zumba is a Latin fusion cardio dance)
* There are no certifications or universities for degrees in Hip Hop, Bellydance, or Bollywood Dance
* Amina has been attending all kinds of dance lessons and performing since the age of 3. As far as she knows, none of the classes she took or currently takes teach the same kind of curriculum.
Why I do This:
I went to college all set to have an office job . . . then I hurt my ankle and had a boot cast for 3 months. The most painful thing during my recovery was not being able to dance. For the first time in my life, I realized it was something I couldn’t live without. I’d taken many kinds of dance classes since I was a three-year old and was even on my college dance team, but I had taken it all for granted. I still finished college at Carnegie Mellon U, but my injury inspired me to make a living as an artist. They say if you do what you love you never work a day in your life and that’s how I see it.
My Inspiration:
As a teenager I was constantly going to nightclubs (I started going when I was 17!) and high school dances. So I knew what it was like to not know what to do when I was out in public freestyling. I felt so awkward when I first started going! I realized that the choreography I’d learned in my hip hop classes wasn’t going to do me any good at the clubs – the movements were usually too big to do in a small space. I figured out on my own how to dance at clubs by observing how other people danced when I went out. I never could find a class that actually taught how to do body isolations or simple hip hop moves to international music casually at clubs or parties and I felt there was a need for it. My classes are for those who want to build up their dance knowledge, confidence, and coordination and learn how to actually apply these moves in a club or party setting. And I mean casual dance that could even apply to dancing at a wedding or family party, not grinding or dirty dancing.
