Layla Taj,, is a belly dancer in the classical Egyptianraqs al-sharqi style. She includes in her repertoire dances devoted to communicating facets of Egyptian culture. Taj's honorable title, "Dancing Queen," derives from newspaper headlines.
Early life
Taj is descended from a long line of opulent Greek Athenians and Egyptiotes. Her mother was a beauty queen who won the national pageant sponsored by the Greek-American Progressive Association and later became a singer and a Screen Actors Guild actress
Training
Taj was introduced to Middle Eastern dance in childhood. Later, as she developed her professional career, Taj trained in belly dance in the United States and Germany, where she studied with Dr. Mo Geddawi, who praised her work.
Career
Taj has been contracted annually as an in-house solo Egyptian belly dancer at upscale hotel venues throughout the Middle East, including Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt, where cultural and legal norms have been selective regarding who is eligible to perform. In Egypt, Taj was contracted as a principal belly dancer at the Hyatt Regency in Sharm El Sheikh and the Sheraton Towers and Casino in Cairo. Taj's audiences have included dignitaries such as politicians and Middle Eastern royalty. Outside of the Middle East, she has been selected to perform at events sponsored by the United Nations and by the Egyptian Tourism Authority. In 2009, Taj performed in New York City in an educational cultural program sponsored by the World Heritage Cultural Center. Taj also performed at the wedding celebration, termed the "Wedding of the Decade", of Middle-Eastern author and publisher Yara Michaels and ophthalmologist David W. Shoemaker; the event took place at Cà d’Zan at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Taj focuses on belly dance as being an artistic medium through which to communicate features of Egyptian culture. Taj rejects the floorwork that is common in other approaches, believing the upright posture of the classical Egyptian genre to be more culturally representative. Her interpretation of musical accompaniment is influenced by the vocal style of the late Egyptian singer and actress Umm Kulthum. Taj performs through The Egyptian Cultural Performing Arts Society Inc., whose mission is to educate the public about Egyptian culture. The cornerstone of Taj's repertoire for the Society is Journey Down the Nile, a multi-media Egyptian cultural program during which she performs numerous regional dances of Egypt interspersed with film clips that explain them. The signature dance in the program is Wings of Isis, in which Taj portrays Cleopatra VII and illustrates the queen's identification with the goddess Isis. In addition, Taj produced, wrote, and performed in the educational short film, Ancient and Modern Dances of Egypt. Taj has written about her experiences dancing professionally in Berlin, Germany and Stockholm, Sweden and her pioneering performances in the first Stockholm belly dance festival known as The Nile Group. She has been a repeated contributor to Bennu, the publication of the Associated Artists of Middle Eastern Dance. Her 2015 essay, The Difference Between Art and Entertainment, is a component of the dance curriculum at Brigham Young University. Before developing her career in professional dance, Taj was a recording artist with a single that hit the Billboard charts.
