| Biography
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My
name is Holaya Estrada-Ortiz, I consider myself to be absolutely
and totally passionaste about belly dance! What I can say mainly
right now about myself is that I am very proud of the fact that
I have become an International A-Z Cerified Instructor! In the future
I plan to also get my Advanced A-Z Stage accreditation with Keti
Sharif.
I am the mother to two wonderful sons and one great daughter. I
am fully bilingual in Spanish and English. I also know and practice
Sign Language, which I find helpful since I work with children whom
have disabilities(my other passion) that include Behavioral, Learning
Disabilities, Autism, Down syndrome and Developmental. Being the
mother of a very loving daughter with a Developmental Disability,
and working with all those other disabilities has lead me into currently
seeking my Bachelor's degree in the field of special education.
This year I hope to experiment in putting together a little troupe
with my daughter and a couple of her developmentally challenged
friends. As for my name, Holaya, it belonged to my paternal grandmother
who was born in Puerto Rico and was of Spanish/Moorish decent. I
remember my father's family at age five comenting that "I had the
music in me", just like my grandmother. I did not understand it
back then but later in life I did. Looking back, I realize that
I have been in love with belly dance, and that belly dance has followed
me through out my entire life.
When I was a very young child, I would use my mon's sheets and cutains
to belly dance in front of a mirror behind closed doors. At age
six I remember being able to undulate and flutter my stomach. At
age seven or eight I remember making up all kinds of hand and arm
undulations. At age nine, my mom let me pick out a pair of shoes
for myself, the shoes that I picked out had upward-curled-pointed
toes! I wore them with pride and danced a storm as soon as I was
in front of that mirror by myself. Unbeknown to me, at the time,
that was the belly dancer in me that was trying to emerge. Later,
during the many hard struggles of my life, I found that dance would
help my sanity.
I have
studied belly dance for many years from great dancers as Delilah,
Aziza, Amira Mor, Keti Sharif and Miranda. In the past I have worked
as an exercise intructor at Elaine Powers back when this facility
was still in operation in the United States. I have also, on occasion
taught belly dance in Puerto Rico and Guadalajara,Mexico. Belly
dance has lead me to perform many times for family, friends and
by special request at parties with fellow belly dancers and at Haflas
for fellow belly dancers.
I love what I do and thoroughly enjoy sharing my passion and knowledge
with other womem who in turn become empowered and enlightened with
all of the positive feelings that belly dance can foster in their
minds and theirs bodies. This magical dance has the power to uplift
me from the deepest struggles with stress that unfortunately one
is forced to confront on a daily basis in the real world. Belly
dance transcends me to another realm where all is good and I can
let the music guide my body to absolute and final eudaimonia!!!
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