Ziva's Bio

The founder of Troupe Anwar, has been performing and competing dance and tumbling for over 20 years and has been teaching dance and tumbling for 10 years. She has experience in numerous dance forms including jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical , hip-hop, sacred, pantomime, contemporary modern, acro jazz, improv, ballroom, cultural folk dance, period dance, and her passion is Raks Sharqi (Belly Dance).

Ziva comes from a family of sacred dancers and has performed for many church events and weddings. She has also performed at many local and national competitions for over 15 years, and has performed for various events and shows with her dance studio where she teaches.




Ziva actually started off early in her childhood in a much different sport. She had a natural talent for golf. Achieving much success throughout high school she quickly realized even though she had a gift for it, it was just not her sport.

She knew she had to find something to express her emotions more adequately. She was already taking lessons in gymnastics and decided she really wanted to try dance. Against her parents wishes, she pushed for the dance lessons. She took up many styles of dance from ballet to tap even Jazz and of course then came belly dancing.

Ziva went onto to continue her education through Hope college in Holland MI, where she doubled majored in Psychology and Dance. Having learned a lot about the many techniques in college she was still drawn towards belly dancing, something they did not teach in college.

Captivated by the beautiful music of the Orient, Ziva began to stray from her Classical roots and developed an intense interest in Belly dance. Falling in love with Arabic music, she knew she had found her true heart in the dances of the Middle East, and later could not resist claiming it as her life's work.

Ziva has gone to such lengths to become well versed in the art of Belly Dancing that for several years she would drive over 2 - 3 hours each way to Washington DC to train with top name instructors such as Artemis and Laurel Victoria Gray. She even traveled all the way to South Beach Florida to tryout for one of her favorite dance groups The Belly dance Superstars.



Ziva recently has had the chance to audition in front of some of the best dancers and choreographers in our country. She recently tried out for the Fox hit show "So you think you can Dance". Although she did not make it to the finals she was successful in finishing in the top 40 out of over 2000 other contestants in the New York City round. She will be featured on the show on Fox May 24th during the shows first show for their 3rd season.


Ziva was recently a featured dancer at the Bollywood Movie Awards at the Nassau Colliseum in Long Island NY. She is a lead dancer for the Bollywood dance group Diwalker Performing Arts.

Ziva was recently invited by the staff at Citizens Bank ball park in Philadelphia PA to help celebrate the Philly Phanatic's Birthday. Prior to the start of the game, the Philly Phanatic had an Egyptian birthday party where he was King for a Day. Ziva performed and danced for the Phanatic in front of over 40,000 fans. Ziva was officially crowned the Queen of the Belly Dancers. Among the entertainers for the celebration was a visit from Irina the Heroine of the hoops, Doc Swan the famous Fire swallower and of course King Tut himself.


Now a full time professional belly dancer and instructor, she is constantly working on improving and perfecting her craft. Ziva will be resigning her long standing position with her current studio in August to start a new studio in Edison NJ and possibly a 2nd location in Long Island NY. There she will teach all styles and levels of classes as well as continuing to teach belly dance and educate her students on the many benefits this art has for them as well as the background that the dance form has.

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10 Jan 2011

10 Jan 2011

23 Jul 2007

23 Jul 2007

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