HC: Your dance style is a blend of tradition and artistic innovation. Which features of your style are traditional and which are your creative contribution to our artform?

Leyla Najma: My dance style is a combination of the old style dancers from Egypt around the 30's through the 60's. Most of the dancers were all hip with great exaggerations with the hips and phenomenal accents. I was in Egypt in the early 90's so I was able to watch old black and white musicals and see a lot of jaw dropping choreographies. So they started me on my path to understanding hip articulation with music.

When I came back to the US I realized that our modern-day audiences expect more dramatic full-bodied movements. So my style is root bound in the old style tradition but I've added more full-bodied dancing with a lot of layering and a lot of ab work with locks and pops. So what I decided to do is create a style that balances out the right and left hips.
This way my students can get the old style hip combinations but with more speed working the full body. So to put it simply, I teach spontaneous choreography and that is my contribution in a way. Most of my students can go out and dance to music with a better understanding of how to move their bodies. My instructional DVD “Hip Phylosophy”has combinations that will help dancers build up speed by balancing out the left and right hips.

HC: As you communicate with your audiences in the language of dance, do you feel and project your connection to the spiritual, mystical and ritual-related traditions that imparted their essence to bellydance throughout its history?

Leyla Najma:When I dance before any audience the first thing that I do is realize that I am a story teller. I am the link between the music and the audience. Since I dance at different venues such as restaurants, night clubs, and stage, each one requires a different state of presence and mind.

If I'm dancing at a restaurant, most people see me as entertainment along with their food. So I entertain them and talk with them and make sure they are comfortable and happy. Stage performing is total freedom for most dancers. We have the dancer's prerogative to be anything we want to be. So when I dance on a stage I go into my inner temple and try to create a performance that leaves people moved. Now night club performing, I go nuts. Put me before a live band and I'm in heaven. So anything and everything comes out of me. I feel we have 4 corner stones to our dance.
#1. is the emotions
#2. is the mind
#3 is the body
and # 4 is the spirit.
When they all come together than we truly bring out the Goddess within, we become one with ourselves and what better gift can you give to your audience than to be one with yourself?

HC: What makes a dancer an entertainer? Does being an entertainer require a special talent and set of skills?

Leyla Najma: I've often wondered what is the difference between being a dancer and entertainer. So I love this question!
There are so many dancers out in our field that are phenomenal dancers and are technical masters. But the question that has entered my mind many times is why do some dancers stand out while others don't.

The answer is simple and complicated. A majority of dancers who entertain forget that the best prop they have is their body. So you can dance with any kind of prop you want but people really want to see how you move in your body. So do you need a special skill, not really, all you need is confidence in your ability as a dancer. Now here's the amazing part, all of a sudden because of this confidence you become an amazing entertainer. Being an entertainer just means you love what you do and you have the confidence within yourself to go out and wow the crowd.

If you go out as a dancer without this confidence, the audience can detect it immediately. There is not any technique in the world or amazing combinations that can take the place of confidence.

HC: You have your own method of instruction to help dancers develop strong hipwork, what are the main principles of this method?

Leyla Najma: My classes were developed with a lot of thought. They were created from my blunders and hard knocks as a dancer. I did not want any one of my students to ever feel as inadequate as I did at times performing. Also I felt that as a teacher I must share everything with my students. My style was created by just dancing and learning. But for my students, I wanted to help them bypass my bloopers.

First I decided to help students develop faster, sharper, stronger hips but in a way that balances and again I'll say it the right and left hips. WE always have one side weaker than the other and we tend to favor one side over the other. This is the one obstacle that all students have to contend with even established dancers.

So I work on the right and left sides equally with combinations that help strengthen the weaker side while helping the student understand where their center is. Then we work on going in different directions because hips were made to go in every direction possible. Next comes the ab work. This area to me is our power center. Working your upper and lower abs can take center stage and give your hips a rest. So I show my students how to work combinations that are just as dynamic as any hip work. And my most favorite part is teaching students how to work the hips and abs as a team. They are a dynamic duo!

Another area that is hard and not just for beginner or intermediate students but even for the experienced dancer is to know how to move the body to the difference phrasings in music. We have such an incredible variety of music to dance to now that our options are endless as far as how we can dance. The reason I teach spontaneous choreography is because then the student has to depend on her 4 corner stones. How to dance to music is just as important as learning to dance.

So I will take a group of combinations and have my students dance to 3 different songs but with the same combinations. This is to help them understand that with music you must feel the song in your body. Remember that the body doesn't fake emotion.

HC: What, for you, is the most fulfilling aspect of being a bellydancer, or of your career as a dancer?

Leyla Najma: I love being imperfect!! How boring life would be if we were all perfect.
What would the challenge in life be than?
So for me as a dancer I have the perfect dancer in my mind but I am not her. My journey in this dance field has taken me to amazing places and shown me how much I really don't know about this dance. So it makes me even more hungry to learn and grow. I have met amazing women who have mentored me and shown me how to walk a better path. I have also learned from other women how to walk a better path by their mistakes.
Both are equally as important to me. Knowledge is power and as women of power it is important for us to keep on our path of enlightenment.
Belly dancing for me is my compass. As long as I can dance, I am walking
in the right direction.

HC: Do you feel that you are part of a community of dancers? What does the bellydance community give you or do for you? How do you handle the instances of conflict and jealousy? Do you believe these are inevitable in dance communities?

Leyla Najma:This is an awesome question!!! Just to let you all know, I am a loner.
This was never intentional but to keep my sanity at times, it was necessary. But I know many dancers and have worked with some of the best in our field. I remember a workshop here in Albuquerque over a year ago when Amaya brought in Suhaila. The camaraderie in the dressing room was a dream come true. But then I have danced at other venues and workshops were you could cut the tension with a knife.

Let me be frank, this is entertainment. To think otherwise is foolish.
Our society in general has taught women to feel inadequate anyways.
Just think about it, you get a room full of women who are all performing, hoping to do an amazing dance and jealousy will be involved. Because no matter what, every woman wants to be the star. Then you have different studios who are in competition with each other performing in a venue together, and well we have all experienced this situation.

Women have to come to a place within themselves so that they can be in a place where they are already equal. The way I look at it, if I am dancing with some of the best dancers in our field, I am up there with them on stage. What an honor to dance with the best! That is the highlight of any dancer's dreams and humbling at the same time! We make our communities what they are. And what they represent is where we are in our hearts. The choice is ours to come together or be apart.

HC: What was your path to becoming a dancer? Who were your teachers or main creative influences?

Leyla Najma: When I was 6 years old I saw belly dancing on TV here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I can remember feeling something inside me growing so powerful that I felt like crying. So I ran into the kitchen and told my Mom that I was going to be a belly dancer when I grew up. You should of seen the look on her face!

So I would have to say that our ancestral sisters spoke to me at an early age. I craved it so bad and knew that one day I would make it happen. So here I am today.

The main dancers who have inspired me have all been from Egypt. My love for Egypt runs deep in my veins and I feel so fortunate to have been there in the early 90's. I even worked in Tombstone Arizona at the Birdcage Theater ( as a historian) where Little Egypt performed; there, right in the front room, is a life-size portrait of her. She spoke to me in my soul and I always found myself gazing up at her wanting to ask her questions. Oh, the stories she could of told!

HC: What are your all-time favourite dances/genres of dance / rhythms /props to use in performance?

Leyla Najma: I try to keep an open mind when it comes to music and getting prepared for a show. New music will usually get my juices flowing and images will come to my mind. I feel that music is a gift given to us to express our creativity so I listen to all kinds and I see what stories start to take form.

There is no better prop than your body! And I love to dance and figure out ways to dance better and get across the story better. I would have to say Classical Egyptian with a modern twist is my favorite dance but I do love to watch American Tribal!!
I have found that at any given moment my tastes change in what appeals to me as a performer. So, of course, I am spontaneous.

One prop that I really love is the cane. Boy do I have blooper stories to tell you all about my cane days but that's another article!
As far as my greatest inspiration in preparation bar none is Sohair Zaki. I was blessed to see her perform live in Cairo before she retired. To me she is the essence of belly dancing . I love her technique and I love her passion for the dance. She is one of the all-time best belly dancers in the world!! So Egypt is my meditation and then my dance seems to come alive to me.

HC: have you ever experienced self-doubt, insecurity or a creative block as an artist? If so, how did you handle these challenges?

Leyla Najma: Self-doubt is a very human characteristic that creeps up on us all. But I feel sometimes that it can be humility hiding behind self doubt.

I have often said to my students, how do you compare one flower to another? Do flowers worry about not being the prettiest flower on the hill? When we start to compare our creative ability with other dancers, then we are definitely on a path of self-doubt and not only do we help create this emotion but we keep it alive.

The answer is very simple, don't compare yourself to other dancers.
There is only one of you in the whole universe. What a unique and miraculous gift you are to this dance. Look at the hill full of flowers and all you see is an incredible array of color and beauty. That is what we are.

We are the flowers of our dance. And if we stand together all people will see is how beautiful we are. There is no comparison, just a visual array of perfection!!!