Jennifer Secrist Goran
Jennifer is the lead instructor and director of The Nawaar Dance Company and currently teaches 6 classes a week in Boulder, Colorado. She has also been the featured guest instructor for workshops in Florida, California, Washington & Arizona.
Jennifer began her belly dance training in San Francisco in 1989 with world famous American Tribal Style (aka ATS or FCBDStyle®) founder Carolena Nericcio, director of FatChanceBellyDance®. She was immediately impressed by the presence and poise of the instructor and by the powerful, organic feel of the dance. To this day Jennifer still enjoys studying with Carolena when in the Bay Area.
In addition to the ATS dance form, Jennifer spent several years training and performing classical belly dance styles. She draws on this experience to help guide belly dancers from other styles (classical Egyptian, American cabaret, Persian, Tunisian & Turkish) to quickly and easily distinguish the nuances and inflections that are so important to creating the distinct look of ATS/FCBDStyle®.
Jennifer is known for her long term experience with ATS as well as her strong movement technique, focused arm work, isolations, creating dynamic movement dialect & performance sets. She is often praised as a passionate teacher who strives to help each student she works with reach their fullest potential.
See what people are saying about studying with Jennifer…
Merav
Merav’s middle name is Salome… for reals! We think she was born to be a belly dancer. Born in Miami from Cuban-Israeli descent, she always admired Middle Eastern culture and wanted to keep a connection to it. She decided one night to be brave and try a belly dance class. The class proved life changing and now she is embarking a lifelong serious study of belly dance.
Belly dance helped her become more in tune with her body & serves as a way to balance out her spinal disorder. She hopes to share her personal experiences and knowledge with others who are also going through the same thing. Merav has been dancing since 2010. She has so far danced for 3 troupes & performed solos on stage and in restaurants. She joined The Nawaar Dance Company in 2013 as part of her pursuit to study transnational fusion. She feels that Fat Chance Belly Dance Style® is the root and history of what has become American belly dance! Merav hopes that one day she can take constant trips to the Middle East to learn more. When she is not obsessed with belly dance, she is writing, playing video games, eating cupcakes and learning how to sew and how to speak Arabic and Hebrew.
She believes practice makes perfect and will have students drill and dance until they sweat. Students leave class with a good workout and solid movement knowledge.
Steph Maes
Steph was fascinated by Belly Dance since she was 12 years old. She tried to teach herself, along with following VHS tapes (that used to be a thing) that her mom bought her. When she went to college, Belly Dance was offered as a credit. So she signed up immediately. The teacher would bring in videos every few weeks, showing the different styles of Belly Dance. One day she brought in Belly Dance Super Stars Tribal Fusion. As soon as Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes, and Mardi Love came on, Steph knew exactly what style of dance she wanted to learn. She researched the biographies of the women who inspired her, and noticed that the all had a background in ATS. She looked for the closest teacher and found Jennifer in Golden.
After building coordination, she took a 200 hour Yoga teacher training in 2011. She has since then taken a 200 hour Gymnastics Teacher Training, and is now certified in Barre and Indoor Cycle. She is now a 900 hour Licensed Massage Therapist, and is now going back to school for a Year 2 Program to specialize in Medical Massage and the 10 Series of Structural Integration (just another 504 hours). She is also working on completing the 8 Elements with Rachel Brice and has completed the first two phases and will finish the last two in the very near future.
In the little free time Steph has, she enjoys taking dance classes, hitting the gym, hiking, getting outside when possible, traveling, and fighting zombies 😉
Steph’s strong background in fitness and belly dance will provide students with a well rounded dance practice and workout with focus on body safety.
Kristin Bruce
Back in 2008, Kristin’s roommate, Lena, decided she wanted to learn to belly dance. And Kristin, being a very good friend, went with her in a show of solidarity. After several classes of feeling like fools, they both decided they really liked it and should probably stick with it. Thus began her love of belly dance.
Kristin joined The Nawaar Dance Company in late 2012 to continue her practice and to try something new. She’s been dancing with the group ever since! She loves the dance form and often tells others that “these are my people.” She is so proud and honored to be part of the Nawaar team!
In addition to being a fabulous dancer, Kristin is also a talented photographer.
Her teaching style is fun, gentle and playful. Students will leave class smiling and feeling good about themselves and dance.
Rebecca Buchholz
Rebecca is a Scientist with a side-passion in Dance – she has been sampling many styles since she was 6 years old including Hip-hop, Jazz, Swing, Salsa and Balinese Dance. During her PhD years, she discovered FCBDStyle/ATS® in Wollongong, Australia. Rebecca crossed the Pacific Ocean in 2014 to Boulder, Colorado, and quickly found The Nawaar Dance Company.
Rebecca loves the way this dance form builds connection between dancers, during both learning and performing. The dance-form is a conversation between dancers on stage and is unique every time you perform.
Rebecca’s love of all dance styles and passion for belly dance technique will give students a well rounded class full of good information to strengthen their dance skills.
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