Sara Shrapnell

Sara Shrapnell attended her first belly dance class in 1992, with the aim of toning up and regaining her fitness after the birth of her son. Instead, she discovered a dance form that pulled at her heart much more than the ballet and disco lessons of her childhood. She met amazing people and fell in love with the UK belly dance scene.

Her weekly class soon turned into two, four, and then six classes a week, first with Tina Hobin and then with Afra Al Kahira. In 2000 she attended the Al Kahira School of Middle Eastern Dance (ASMED) teacher training course, which includes study with City & Guilds (a leading UK vocational education organization,) to gain qualifications in adult education as well as belly dance learning.

Sara took on established classes, and approached local gyms and councils. She quickly expanding her teaching to twelve classes a week. She graduated from ASMED in 2003 and continued to work within the organization to mentor other teachers.

Together with Emma Pyke, she set up Mersin, a professional troupe composed of local teachers and performers. She also directed a number of student troupes, including Nashida Abla and a tribal fusion group, who performed in a wide variety of venues.

Sara is an accomplished event hostess. She hosted a popular “Day of Dance,” which ran two or three times a year for ten years. Sara has planned many stage shows, workshops, and hafla for her students. She has hosted national and international belly dance stars for workshops and gala shows. For five years she was a member of the Wessex Arabic Dance Network committee, an organization committed to bringing high-quality events to the wider community.

In 2011, Sara closed her UK classes and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. She established belly dance classes in Pleasanton, Dublin, and Livermore. In short order she formed a new troupe, Neshee Dolu, who now perform at local, regional, and national events.

Sara has become an active member of the thriving San Francisco belly dance scene.

Her first book, Teaching Belly Dance, was published in 2014. She took the knowledge she had gained from teaching more than four thousand belly dance classes and wrote a book full of helpful advice, hints, tips, and tried and tested solutions. In 2016 she published “Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage” a Stagecraft Handbook, co-written with Dawn Devine, Alisha Westerfeld and Poppy Maya. The aim of the book was to be a teacher in absence for everyone making the journey from belly dance classes to the stage.

Sara continues to support belly dancers of all levels through her books, classes, workshops and on-line mentoring.