Blissful Belly
Nurturing & Empowering Mamas
sundari dance company
about sundari dance company
Sundari Dance Company is a collective of bellydance artists with a common aspiration to share their love of bellydance through performance art and education. The group is mainly inspired by Egyptian style bellydance, but also incorporates other cultural dance with contemporary movement. Each Sundari dancer follows her own path while also being dedicated to a collaborative group format. Sundari Dance Company supports and encourages a combined artistic energy and creative ideas of its members rather than the model of the traditional dance company. Sundari Dance Company endeavors to create & present soulful pieces that express the richness of Middle Eastern dance, blended with other dance forms as well as the spirit of the divine feminine.
sundari dance company founding members
Adriana Sarasvati: Adriana is a bellydace artist, teacher and choreographer with over 20 years experience. She has had a love of dance since childhood. Once she discovered bellydance at age 18, and her natural abilities, she was hooked. Her intensive training was at the Arabesque Academy in Toronto, Canada. Within a few short years she was invited to join the critically acclaimed, Arabesque Dance Company and Orchestra as an understudy and eventually became a lead dancer. She remained a lead dancer from 1995-2005. She has performed with the company & as a soloist on prestigious stages & dance festivals across Canada. Notably, The Premiere Dance Theatre, Dance Ontario Dance Weekend, and fFIDA, Fringe Festival for Independent Dance Artists. Her love of dance and creative movement lead her to study Flamenco, African, Brazilian, Latin, Classical Indian dance as well as yoga, pilates, contemporary dance & ballet. She is a founding member, trainer and co-choreographer of Sundari Dance Company.
Carlee Gehrke: Carlee is a skilled, graceful dancer and has had a life long passion for dance. She is a native of Kelso, Washington where she began her early dance training in tap when she was 5 years old, which continued until she reached high school. At the age of 19, she went on to pursue and study other dance forms as modern, ballet, hip hop, latin, ballroom and of course bellydance. She has studied bellydance at the Gypsy Caravan in Portland and with Astrid de Michelle in Eugene among others. Carlee performed in the Lane Dance Company while attending Lane Community College from 2005-2006. Shortly after moving to Portland, she began dancing & performing in the first Sundari Dance Troupe under the artistic direction of Adriana Sarasvati. The original group dismantled within a year, however, Carlee & Adriana reconnected in 2009 to reinvent Sundari Dance Company as a founding member, along with Alissa Lesperence. Carlee is also an LMT and a certified pilates instructor.
Alissa Lesperance: Originally from Massachusetts, Alissa studied at Cape Cod Community College, graduating with high honors with a degree concentrating in Theatre and Dance. She began her bellydance training at the age of 15 and has since studied with various teachers throughout the US, including Morocco, Dalia Carella, and Rachel Brice, to name a few. Most recently, she studied classical Odissi dance in India. Alissa has been performing as a bellydance soloist for almost 15 years across the country and teaching bellydance for the past 9 years. Currently, she teaches weekly classes at Northwest Women's Fitness as well as being a full time personal trainer and yoga instructor. She has been a guest presenter at the Northwest Fitness Forum for the past 3 years teaching bellydance and yoga workshops. Sundari Dance Company is her first bellydance endeavor with a troupe. sundari dance company apprentice members
Gina Alongi: Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, Gina began her dance training at the age of 5, with ballet and gymnastics. As a teenager, she studied tap dance, and competed regionally in rhythmic gymnastics. Pursuing her passion for film and animation, she spent two summers at the California State Summer School for the Arts, studying animation with professional artists and filmmakers. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Pomona College, where she expanded her dance experiences with classes in modern dance and traditional Balinese dance. Gina has been practicing yoga and bellydance off and on for the past 10 years. She has trained in a variety of bellydance styles, ranging from classical Egyptian dance to American tribal. She has been a bellydance student of Adriana's since September of 2010 and Sundari Dance Company marks her first experience as a member of a bellydance troupe.
Nikolyn Garner: Nikolyn is an artist, singer and dancer. She has always loved to dance, from when she could barely walk and had to be carried, crying, from the dance area at pow wows. She learned from an early age that dance can be a prayer. Nikolyn has studied many different dance forms including swing, latin dance & hip hop. Bellydance is a more recent, deeper love, having started taking bellydance classes with Adriana in January 2011. Like the traditional dance she learned growing up, it can be a bridge to the divine or a fun, entertaining visual display. She is excited to share her love for dance with others as part of Sundari Dance Company.