I’ll be honest: it was very tempting to title this episode as “From Egyptian Traditional Style to Burlesque Dancer”, but our conversation with Katalin Schäfer was much wider than just these two dancer styles on an incredible artistic arc that will definitely challenge your understanding of the art.

Katalin is an accomplished international performer, choreographer, instructor, and costume designer from Hungary. In 2004, together with three other master teachers, she established a dance company called Art of Orient, and soon after she established her own dance company with Arab boys and Hungarian girls. In the same year, she had come second at the Ahlan Wa Sahlan World Competition in Egypt, but later a meaningful artistic journey has begun that has effected her life on both professional and spiritual levels. Her wide range of interests has motivated her to create a very unique, personal style that she would call (if definition is necessary at all) Oriental Jazz.

In this episode you will learn about:

- Falling in love with Egyptian traditional raqs sharki and folklore, and later transitioning into fusion and burlesque dance

- The importance of feeling your body and hearing your soul’s calling

- How Katalin describes her own dance style

- Dealing with stigmas and judgements about being a belly dancer and a burlesque dancer

- Pregnancy and motherhood while being an active dancer

Show Notes to this episode:

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