Professional Raqs Sharqi dancer

Badriyah is a professional Raqs Sharqi dancer and teacher, devoted to the beauty of Egyptian classical and folkloric dance. She is one of the world's leading specialists in Golden Era Raqs Sharqi — the enchanting dance styles from the 1930s–1960s Egyptian cinema — which she brings back to life through performance, research, and teaching. She is the founder of The Raqs Sharqi Museum, home to over 600 antique and vintage items, and the organizer of Leylet Raqs, Belgium's biggest bellydance festival. Badriyah teaches regular classes at Shoonya Dance Centre in Ghent and is invited to teach and perform at festivals worldwide.

Badriyah has been teaching and performing Raqs Sharqi for over 20 years. What draws her most deeply is the Golden Era of Egyptian dance — the artistry of legendary dancers she has studied for hundreds of hours through archival film footage, vintage photographs, and rare documents. Because the original Golden Era dancers are gone, this painstaking frame-by-frame study of what they left behind on film is the closest path back to their art, and sharing that knowledge is at the heart of everything Badriyah does. She continues to study with renowned Egyptian and international teachers through group workshops and private classes, always deepening her understanding of this rich tradition.

Most dear to her heart are the ten years she spent performing with Bellydance Evolution (2010–2019), the international bellydance-theatre production directed by Jillina from the USA. Badriyah joined the company as a troupe dancer and was later invited to take on lead roles — among them the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood (broadcast on Los Angeles TV), the Priestess in Dark Side of the Crown in Tokyo, and the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland in Marrakesh. In 2016, she joined to dance with the Moroccan Philharmonic Orchestra in Scheherazade's Tales in Casablanca.

About Badriyah

Over 60 shows in 13 countries — including Japan, the USA, Morocco, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Greece, and across Europe — with her final performance at the anniversary show in Hollywood in 2019.

Badriyah is a passionate collector and archivist of Golden Era memorabilia. Her collection of over 600 items includes postcards, vinyl records, press photographs, lobby cards, posters, and exceptionally rare pieces — among them signed photographs of Samia Gamal, vinyl records with the voice of Badia Masabni, an original photo print of Shafiqa El Koptiya, and a 1950s billboard featuring Samia Gamal. To share these treasures, she created The Raqs Sharqi Museum, featuring three curated online collections — Pre-Golden Era in Egypt, Golden Era in Egypt, and Western World & Bellydance — alongside scholarly articles and translations. She regularly brings parts of her collection to life through exhibitions at international dance festivals.

Over the years, Badriyah has won numerous awards as a soloist and with her troupes, including Silver Bellydancer of the Universe (2013, Long Beach, California), Vice Miss Bellydancer of Europe (2011, Berlin), and three awards at the Raqs Film Festival 2022 — Best Raqs Sharqi, Best Picture, and Best Artistic Production. She has been invited to teach workshops, lectures, and performances in Japan, the USA, South Korea, Finland, Greece, Estonia, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and many more. She is the organizer of Leylet Raqs — now in its 5th edition, it is the biggest bellydance festival in Belgium.

Beyond bellydance, Badriyah is also a Bachata Moderna dancer and teacher, and a certified Mat Pilates instructor. By day, she works as a space weather scientist at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, studying how solar activity affects modern technologies — with a Ph.D. in Astrophysics and a passion for science outreach.

About

Regular Classes

Badriyah teaches regular bellydance classes at Shoonya Dance Centre in Ghent, Belgium. Her goal is to teach her students not only the technique, but fall deeply in love with Egyptian bellydance. She pays attention to details, from understanding the music, to expressing the feelings in the dance.

She tries to help each student to find their own dance style and bloom into a confident dancer.

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