Rosa Noreen

Ballet Basics for Adults, Belly Dance / Raqs Sharqi
Website, Email

Rosa Noreen, one of the co-founders of Bright Star World Dance, is a professional belly dancer who has taught classes locally for many years, as well as sharing her love of belly dance through workshops and performances nationwide. Rosa loves seeing the "I can do this!" light appear in the eyes of a student. She provides a warm and supportive environment for people of all fitness levels and genders, ages 14+.

Rosa's Grace Academy helps dancers add depth and dimension to their work so they grow in confidence to take their places on stage and in the world. Drawing on her background in ballet and visual arts, combined with a passion for Egyptian and American belly dance, she is known for her elegant lines and emotional performances.

Becca Pruente - Portland Swing Project

Swing Dance, Lindy Hop
Website

Becca grew up participating in the Irish dance scene in Boston. She continued dancing into college, where she began teaching and choreographing Irish dance performances. After moving to Portland and becoming a public school teacher, she found herself looking for a new regular dance practice, eventually finding Portland Swing Project in the fall of 2016. She was instantly hooked, trying to learn as much as possible about the movement patterns and partnered momentum (and really practicing letting go of upright Irish dance posture). She soon found herself completely immersed in the Portland dance scene as well as traveling out of town for workshops and social dances. Becca appreciates any opportunity to combine her love of teaching theory with dancing.

Kento Ichikawa - Portland Swing Project

Swing Dance, Lindy Hop
Website

Kento took his first rhythmic dance classes as a child, but they quickly became overshadowed by the allure of soccer and baseball. Over a decade later, he was astonished by how much he loved his first Portland Swing Project class in 2016. He immediately found himself obsessively practicing the shapes, forms, and patterns he was learning in class. Since then, he’s participated in as many local dances and classes as possible. He now regularly spends evenings either dancing, looking up dance videos from events around the world, or reading extremely dry books about the history of jazz music and dance. He’s excited to help teach in Portland, and is always excited to dance with people of all levels of experience and dance backgrounds.

Elizabeth Converse

Ballroom Dance
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Elizabeth fell into ballroom dance by accident after college, when a friend’s parents’ opened a ballroom studio in Maryland. Then she fell in love and took all of the classes that were available. After moving away from Maryland, life happened and ballroom did not. When she moved to Maine, it was a combination of looking for friends and needing to move her body that drew her back in. Her love of dancing reignited, along with a newfound knowledge of the community that social dancing offers.

Elizabeth’s goal as an instructor is to make ballroom dance as welcoming as possible to as many people as possible. Working with beginners is the perfect way to show that ballroom dance can, and should, be a good time with good people. She’s working toward a time when “going out to dance” could mean going to a ballroom social just as easily as going to a club.

Ashley Jolly

Stiletto Strut
Website

Ashley Jolly is a Dancer, Choreographer, and Creative based in Maine. She grew up dancing at the Centre of Movement School of Performing Arts where she trained in various styles of dance and danced competitively. Ashley has always felt a strong connection to her sensual and feminine side, and fell in love with heels dancing. She created and founded Stiletto Strut in 2018 and has been teaching since. Her main goal through this class is to connect with other women and people to help them explore and express their sensual sides as well as teach them core heels foundations. She strives to facilitate a positive and encouraging dance environment and community.

Ashley also choreographs for music videos, live concert performances, and other dance projects (artists such as Spose - music video work, and Brit Martin - choreographed and performed for live performance opening up for Bia and Erica Banks). She is signed and represented by Dirigo Talent Agency.

Ginger Rita

Burlesque

Ginger Rita is a former burlesque performer, choreographer and instructor. She was the founding member of Stripwrecked Burlesque and performed in many shows like the Slutcracker, Boston House of Blues, Boston Symphony Hall with Amanda Palmer, and the Slipper Room in NYC. Ginger Rita has performed with many groups including the Dirty Dishes Revue, Atomic Trash, Red Hot & Ladylike, Vivid Motion, and the Boston Babes in Boinkland. Her background is in theater, ballet, modern, jazz and Latin dance.

Jamie Cancelliere

Yoga
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Veeva Banga

Afro-Beats & Hip Hop Workshops

Veeva Banga was born in South Sudan. She has been dancing for most of her life. She has studied a variety of dance styles but her favorite will always be Afro-Beats. It's more than just a dance style that she enjoys; it's a way for her to stay in touch with her roots. Teaching Afro-Beats allows her to share her culture with others locally.

Interested in teaching at Bright Star World Dance?

We welcome your proposal!

Email us your class or workhshop proposal, or schedule a time to visit the studio and chat with the managers.