Nahia~desire; "I picked my name to remind me of the desire I have to be a great dancer."

• BECAME A GYPSY IN: January 2006

• DANCE BACKGROUND: I really have no dance back ground. Once I reached college I began to take dance classes: social, ballroom, and country dance. I always wanted to dance when I was younger, but never had any encouragement. I started taking belly dance classes through UVSC (now UVU) community education program in September 2004.

• YEARS DANCING: 4 years belly dancing.

• INTRODUCED TO MIDDLE EASTERN DANCE BY: A neighbor was taking dance and invited me to join her in taking a class at UVSC.

• FAVORITE STYLE OF BELLY DANCE: I love anything that involves a prop because my arms are so long and lanky that they need something to distract the attention.

• STRENGTH: I haven't quite found my strength. It might be getting to practice on time, though.

• WEAKNESS: I feel that my weakness is in freestyle dancing.

• EMBARRASSING MOMENT: During performances I have lost a zill, forgotten choreography, but my most memorable embarrassing moment was when a sister dancer and I got our fringe tangled in each other's coin belts. We were lucky it was the last dance in our performance set so we were able to exit without too much notice.

• PASSION FOR DANCING: Dancing is beautiful to me and I feel awake and alive when I see it. It reaches into my soul and when I allow it to show in myself it can express who I am, better than how I can say it.

• OCCUPATION WHEN NOT DANCING: I am an Executive Assistant at a third party administrator for retirement and cafeteria plans.

• HOBBIES & INTERESTS: I like to read, quilt, hike and travel.