Haidi

Haidi has been involved with dance most of her life. In her youth, she studied 
modern dance and ballet, going on to study and perform at Interlochen Arts Academy, 
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and receiving a degree in dance 
education for the College of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. She has 
traveled and lived abroad extensively, studying local dance forms wherever 
possible: Indonesia -- Balinese and Javanese dance; India -- yoga and Bharata 
Natyam, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Baghdad, Iraq, Cairo, Egypt, and 
most recently, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Oriental Dance (Belly Dance). During much of 
the last 20 years, in and out of the Middle East, she taught and preformed widely. 
Her style is uniquely her own, drawing on her many dance experiences, and heavily 
influenced by the Lebanese style of Oriental Dance. Both her teaching and 
performing styles emphasize the improvisational/spontaneous approach to Oriental 
Dance, something she feels is inherent to the origins of the dance.