Heike Humphreys (Akasha)

Biography

Heike (professional name Akasha) is a qualified JWAAD teacher. She first starting learning Arabic dance in 1989 and instantly fell in love with the dance. She originally turned to the dance because of her love of all things Egyptian and also because it had nothing to do with Aerobics and the attached body fascism.

Heike originally studied with Sandra Thiebault, who unfortunately retired from regular classes after a while. Heike then continued her dance training by attending workshops with many highly acclaimed dancers of the Suraya Hilal School of Raks Sharqi, especially Anne Ashcroft and Liza Wedgewood. In 1996, Heike moved back to Germany for a short while and studied with Sonia & Albert, Edith Glockner, Shaddai and Rehan from Frankfurt who is renowned for her authentic Egyptian style.

Back in England, she carried on with the dance troupe, but was looking for more of a challenge. She joined the WADA (Wessex Arabic Dance) committee in 2001 and decided to bite the bullet and sign up for the Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance diploma in the same year. As well as studying for the diploma, Heike had also been bitten by the Tribal bug in 2000. Ever since then, she has taken every Tribal workshop possible with Carolena Nericcio (Director of FatChanceBellyDance), Kajira Djoumahna of BlackSheepBellyDance and Paulette Rees-Denis of Gypsy Caravan.

As part of the JWAAD diploma, Heike trained with the senior JWAAD teachers as well as attending workshops with master teachers from Egypt, Europe and the USA such as Randa Kamel, Yasmina, Dalia Carella and Alexandria to name but a few. Heike passes her JWAAD diploma with distinction in 2004, but has been teaching since 1999. She is a regular at the Fantasia festival and teaches workshops all over the country, and recently, Portugal. She studied with Master American Tribal Teacher Kajira Djoumahna of BlackSheepBellyDance, and obtained a Level 1 teaching certificate in the BlackSheepBellyDance ATS format.

Heike joined The Daughters of Lilith troupe in 2000, and they had many successful gigs, concentrating on 'the dark side' and including ritualistic elements as well as snakes in their performances. However, since 2004, Heike has been working with her troupe Medusa, who is currently performing ATS and fusion pieces. Her solo performances are inspired by a mixture of traditional and modern Cairo style, ATS (Kajira Djoumahna and Black Sheep) as well as Tribaret/Urban Tribal Fusion and gothic elements - not all in the same piece!