About Maria
Photo: Hanna Karlsson
Maria is a professional artist and instructor with twenty years’ experience of Oriental Dances – both the Arabic ”belly dance” and the Persian classical dance.
She’s performing regurarly in Stockholm and is also a member of the international Helia Dance Company of Persian Classical Dance as well as the Stockholm based dance group Navak Dance Ensemble.
Maria started teaching Oriental Dance in 2008. She’s appriciated for both her educational skills and developing technique excercises as well as her choreographies. Every student should feel confident enough to express her or his own personality in the dance.
Training and education
Before Maria started to study Oriental Dance she had been dancing flamenco since 1995 and also tried on dance styles such as tango, salsa, jazz and Irish folk dance. In 2003, Maria tried her first class in Oriental Dance with Bia Bergström in Stockholm, and immediately fell in love with it.
She got further education through the Suhaila Salimpour School of Belly Dance in California as well as in Creative Dance and Eurhythmics for Dancers at the University College of Music Education in Stockholm. She has participated in workshops with international dancers such as Aziza (CAN), Tito Seif (EGY), Maria Sokolova (RUS/CA), Mohammed Kazafy (EGY), Mercedes Nieto (HUN) and further courses with dancers in Stockholm; Sabriye Tekbilek, Lena Helt, Susanne "Zeina" Petrén Abou Shebika and Marita "Samasem" Fahlén among others.
Since 2011 Maria has enhanced her knownledge in Persian Classica Dance through workshops and/or private lessons with Helia Bandeh (IRN/NLD), Banafsheh Sayyad (IRN/CA), Olimdjon Beknazarov (NLD), Shahrzad Khorsandi (IRN/CA), Miriam Peretz (ISR/CA), Shachlo (UZB/DEU) and Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam (IRN/CA). With Helia Bandeh as her primary teacher she has passed a private intensive training and is since 2016 a member of Helia Dance Company of Persian Classical Dance.