About Maki

Maki is a naturally captivating performer who has loved dance all of her life, starting with ballet at the age of four. She went on to become a competitive Rhythmic Gymnast at the national and international level. After retiring from the sport, she wandered into her first Raks Sharki (bellydance) class in Vancouver and immediately fell in love with the style. Maki has gone on to perform belly dance across Canada, the US, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. She is an award winning choreographer and bellydancer as well as appearing on film and tv.

Maki’s bellydance career has spanned over 10 years and she has had the pleasure and honour of performing locally and abroad. Some highlights include Safar Middle Eastern Dance and Music Conference Gala (Vancouver), the International Bellydance Conference of Canada (Toronto), Jillina’s Bellydance Evolution (Los Angeles), The Theatrical Bellydance Conference (New York City), Raks by the SEA (Bali), Celestial Bellydance Sand and Sea (Kyoto) and The Crocodile (Tokyo).

Bellydance is a beautiful dance form that has its base in Middle Eastern folkloric dance. Maki teaches mainly Egyptian style with a modern flair. Maki has a background in ballet, jazz and Rhythmic Gymnastics which gives her a wide range of teaching approaches to help her students understand the elegant and exciting movements of bellydance.

Maki

Founder, Director-Vancouver, Instructor

One half of the founding directors of Noor Dance, Maki teaches weekly classes in Vancouver alongside Dinah. She also performs in Vancouver as well as internationally. Dance has taken her across Canada, into the US (NY, LA, Seattle) as well as Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Negma

Founder, Director-Victoria, Instructor

Negma founded Noor Dance Co with Maki and is now based in Victoria. Negma originally hails from Japan, getting her bellydance training in Tokyo. She has performed and taught throughout Japan and later going on to live and dance in Dubai for a few years. Her speciality is the Khaleegy, once you see her perform this Gulf style of dance you won’t forget it! For classes in Victoria, please visit negmadance.com.

Dinah

Instructor

Dinah joined the Noor Dance faculty in 2016. She is a powerful and engaging performer and a well loved instructor. In addition to being a soloist, Dinah has also danced in Middle Eastern folkloric dance troupes and was a founding member of the Dounia Dance Collective. Fun fact, Dinah has a background in competitive figure skating!

Lana

Instructor

Lana joined the Noor Dance faculty in 2021 and is a multi award-winning professional bellydance artist and instructor based in Vancouver, BC. A lover of creative expression, Lana performs regularly in the Vancouver area and is also involved internationally in multiple aspects of bellydance from training and performances to film productions. She holds a Masters of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University.