The Salimpour Legacy
With its worldwide reach, inclusive values, and long-established teaching methods, the Salimpour School is one of the most influential schools of belly dance in the world. From its humble beginnings in California to its growth into a global institution, the school and its students are known for their dedication to the art, strong technical training, and deep understanding of Middle Eastern music and culture.
We are proud to be at the cutting edge of belly dance education. Learn from us online with classes, choreography, or with Suhaila herself. See the Events list for more.
We also offer online Level 100 (Fundamentals) certification in both of our revolutionary formats. In the Fall of 2020, we opened the Suhaila Salimpour Institute of Online Education, offering certification in Level 200 (Foundations) through Level 500 (Teacher Training), exclusively online. Read more about the origins of the Salimpour School and its founder, Jamila Salimpour and its director, Jamila’s daughter Suhaila Salimpour, and our worldwide educational program.
Our Director: Suhaila Salimpour
First-generation Middle Eastern (Kurdish, Sicilian, and Greek) American belly dancer Suhaila Salimpour is known not only for creating the first certification program in belly dance in the world, but also for the global influence of her own format on belly dance performance and instruction.
Just like her mother’s belly dance step vocabulary, the Suhaila Salimpour Format has inspired thousands of dancers around the world. Her students approach belly dancing as a performing art worthy of dedication and serious study. They train with intention to responsibly represent the dance, the music, and the culture from which it originates.
Suhaila’s work has been recognized by leaders in other dance forms for its depth and innovation, preserving the essence of belly dance while bringing it into the 21st century with grace and integrity.
A Childhood in Dance
Suhaila grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area (US) observing her mother Jamila Salimpour’s classes, as well as studying a wide range of dance forms. Born severely pigeon-toed, she overcame her turned-in feet with years of childhood ballet.
She also trained in jazz, tap, classical Indian, Polynesian, flamenco, modern, and more. She had the honor of training with masters in these forms, such as Rosa Montoya, Chitresh Das, and Tony Award-winner Hinton Battle.
But belly dance was always her first love. She began performing at only 2 years old, with her mother’s dance company, Bal Anat. Throughout her childhood, she assisted her mother in her workshops at home and away, particularly when students asked for more explanation of a dance step.
Traditionally, belly dance had been passed down in families, but Jamila Salimpour was becoming a leader in the form, as the first person to put names to the steps and to document the movements. This was the first time non-Middle Easterners had a “map” for the belly dance form.
By the time she was 12, Suhaila knew every step in her mother’s vocabulary and was traveling to teach Salimpour format workshops by herself. When she was 14, Suhaila supported herself and her mother financially, teaching belly dance in cities across the United States and Canada on the weekends. At this time, too, she traveled to the Middle East, where she observed dance steps that became part of the Jamila Salimpour vocabulary.
Jamila and Suhaila filmed instructional videos—a rarity at the time—including an archive of Jamila’s Format. This time also yielded three iconic pieces, which she created with her mother: “Joumana,” “Maharjan,” and “Hayati.” The newly-formed Ethnic Dance Festival of San Francisco selected all three for their program, respectively, from 1983-1985. Suhaila was the first belly dancer to perform at this prestigious event.
The Third Generation: Isabella Salimpour
Isabella Salimpour is a 3rd generation multidisciplinary artist, dancer, singer, and actress.
Daughter of master Middle Eastern dance instructor and performer Suhaila Salimpour, and granddaughter of Jamila Salimpour, Isabella has been on stage since the age of two and assisting in her mother’s workshops since the age of eight. She learned Middle Eastern dance the traditional way: by watching and following at home.
In addition to Middle Eastern dance, Isabella has studied a diverse range of movement and performance forms, including ballet, jazz dance, tap, ballet, lyrical, musical theater, music composition, and vocal studies. She has been a featured performer in several of her mother’s evening-length dance productions, including as a soloist in Enta Omri and in Bal Anat. She also has a passion for teaching and has taught workshops to both children and adults at some of the world’s largest Middle Eastern dance festivals.
Isabella studied music and jazz vocals at the renowned New School in New York and holds a BPA from Saint Mary’s College of California. She currently works in Los Angeles as a vocal coach, musician, and producer.
Our Founder: Jamila Salimpour
Over 50 years ago, in 1949, dance pioneer and instructor Jamila Salimpour (1926-2017) taught her first belly dance classes, establishing the Salimpour School of Dance in San Francisco, California. Her revolutionary approach to teaching belly dance left an undeniable mark on the art form, beginning in the San Francisco Bay Area, then across the United States, and today, throughout the world.
Creating a Revolutionary Teaching Method
The daughter of Sicilian and Greek immigrants, Jamila grew up in Harlem, New York. As a child, she didn’t speak English until she was 5 years old. After touring for several years with the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940s. There, inspired by her father’s tales of Egyptian ghawazi dancers, dancers in the Egyptian films playing at the local La Tosca theater, and the growing Middle Eastern immigrant community in Southern California, she began performing in community events and Middle Eastern nightclubs. Then, people started asking her to teach them how to dance. From there, Jamila realized she had to create a system for teaching belly dance that was more than just “follow me.” Her instructional method did what no other belly dancer before her had done. She created standard names and terminology for belly dance steps. Today, her teaching legacy reaches far and wide. Global dancers continue to use step names like Basic Egyptian, Maya, and Choo Choo. Jamila catalogued hundreds of steps after careful and meticulous observation of professional and casual dancers in a variety of venues and contexts, particularly in the 1960s, when Middle Eastern nightclubs became popular in California’s big cities. Each step name reveals a bit of its origin. The Algerian Shimmy was attributed to a dancer from Algeria. Zanouba was named after a a dancer who performed regularly at the Fez in Los Angeles. After moving to San Francisco, Jamila even bought and managed her own nightclub. Her Bagdad Cabaret, which became a fixture in the city’s Middle Eastern music and dance scene.
Forming the World’s Oldest Belly Dance Company: Bal Anat
But Jamila’s influence doesn’t stop there. By a happy accident of fate, in 1968 Jamila Salimpour established the longest-running belly dance company in the world: Bal Anat. Bal Anat first performed at the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Marin County. They showcased small ensembles of dancers costumed in rich textiles and heavy jewelry. Each group represented a region or style of belly dance. Additionally, a chorus of dancers played cymbals and other instruments behind them. For the costumes and dances in Bal Anat, Jamila drew inspiration from current anthropological research. She also consulted her fellow dancers from the related cultures. Jamila was one of the first to showcase performing with a sword, which is now one of the most popular props in belly dance. Her show also featured balancing on water goblets, dancing with live snakes, and performing with water pots. Bal Anat continues to perform, making it the world’s oldest belly dance company.