Biography
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Ayperi Nominated for the Phoenix Best of Portland Awards
Ayperi has been nominated for the 2008 Best of Portland Awards sponsored by the Portland Phoenix in the Dance Performance category--as the only individual performer!
Biography
Ayperi performs & teaches belly dance in southern Maine. Based in Portland, Maine, she teaches weekly belly dance classes in Bath & Yarmouth. She appears regularly at Acropolis Restaurant in Portland and can be spotted at myriad area events.
Attracted to the combination of joy inherent to belly dance, the challenging technique, and a whole world of music, Ayperi fell headlong into belly dance. Her delight at finding her true dance love was enhanced by a long break from her childhood obsession--ballet--due to a teenage injury.
Ayperi's dance education began with of a solid ballet base from childhood at the Maine Dance Center in Ellsworth, ME & later at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA, where she also focused on visual arts.
She began studying belly dance in 2003 with local masters and continues her study in local classes and workshops farther afield.
Workshop highlights include a recent weeklong seminar with Morocco in New York City, and workshops in Maine & Boston with Mira Betz, Ramzi El Edlibi, Artemis Mourat, Suhaila Salimpour, Bozenka & Nourhan Sharif.
Ayperi holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, where she studied liberal arts with an emphasis on French language.
Raqs is the Arabic word for Dance. Ayperi is a Turkish name meaning Moon Fairy. Hence...
...Raqs Ayperi!