Belly dance and science are my life! I love both with equal passion and feel balanced when I have both in my life. During the day I am a nerdy graduate student working on a PhD in biochemistry and at night, I trade my lab coat for a rhinestone encrusted belly dance costume and dance my heart out.
I saw a sign....it was posted on a message board at UC Davis. It said try belly dancing and so I did.
Hip Travels
Favorites
Lived in Germany and toured most of Europe and Greece Visited China Belly danced in Germany, Iceland and Japan. Planning trip to Turkey!
Fifi Mona al Said Lucy Dina Randa Kamal Leila Farid Beata and Horacio Cifuentes
Dancer
Dance style(s): Egyptian, American Cabaret, Turkish Oryantal and Romani
Nyla Crystal began her obsession with belly dance while earning her
B.S. in biotechnology at UC Davis. Her background of ballet, tap dance
and cheerleading, combined with the graceful, feminine and emotional
aspects of Middle Eastern dance result in her unique style of belly
dance. She has won multiple belly dance awards in solo, duet and
troupe categories.
Performance highlights include belly dancing in shows with Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity, Turkish pop star Sertab Erener and Demir Demirkan, and the Grammy nominated Brothers of the Baladi. She has performed for international corporations including Cirque du Soleil's cast of Alegria, Nordstrom, SanDisk, and Herbalife as well as belly dance shows in Japan, Iceland and Germany.
Between performing at parties, weddings and corporate events all over Sacramento and San Francisco, directing Kanz al Sahara and co-directing Troupe Scimitar, Nyla is working on a Ph.D. in biochemistry at UC Davis where she is researching the molecular pathways of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
Teacher
Live in the Davis or Sacramento area? Come join Nyla Crystal's belly dance class and troupe Kanz al Sahara. 9pm on Tuesday nights at FDF Center in Davis, CA.
From Nyla Crystal:
"I have and will continue to be a belly dance student all my life. I have been fortunate to have so many great belly dance teachers and have taken all the best parts of their teaching and class styles to base my teaching off of. The girls in Kanz al Sahara are all mellow ladies and we have a lot of fun studying different styles of belly dance. With grad school, I only have time to teach once a week and have chosen to only work with intermediate/advanced level students. The class is set up as a "pro training program". In addition to learning choreography, I teach other important things like what to expect at private parties, how to interact with the audience, how to select music, costuming, etc. I feel the backstage prep is just as important as the performance and an integral part of becoming a professional belly dancer."
