Sera Solstice

Sera Solstice is an international Bellydance Artist, based in New York City, known for creating the East Coast Tribal bellydance style, characterized by Lunar and Solar movement categories, which use extensive full-body movement, intense multi-layer hipwork within pop’n lock elements, tied together by deep emotive power and story-telling flow. Sera is the founder and director of Solstice Studio: a Bellydance Studio in New York City, with over 300 active participants using Bellydance as a means for building self-empowerment, expression, and creativity. Sera is director and choreographer of the dance troupe Solstice Ensemble, and The Solstice Project, as well as two student companies, the Lunar and Solar tribes. Sera has produced and directed dozens of dance events in New York, in the theater and in night clubs.

Sera has created 5 full-length instructional DVDs on East Coast Tribal Bellydance, (produced by World Dance New York) including 1) East Coast Tribal, 2) Foundations of Bellydance 3) Solar Bellydance 4) Lunar Bellydance, 5) Goddess Dance: Prenatal Bellydance and Meditation. And is featured in the DVD series: Gothic Bellydance: Revelations and Fantasy Bellydance: Mystery.

Sera’s Choreography has been described as “complex, content-rich, sublime, haunting, psychedelic, technically superb, at the forefront of evolution of bellydance as an artform.” Sera is frequently a featured dancer with bands: Raquy and the Cavemen, Djinn, Copal, Beatbox Guitar, and the Rhythm Shamans. Sera is fed artistically from underground electronic music culture. Sera has a passion for electronic music, but also enjoys earthy, acoustic elements: she has participated in American fire-circle culture for nearly 2 decades, therein developing bellydance as a sacred movement form, used in ritual and for healing. In 2005, Sera was invited to India to teach movement as a form of healing and empowerment for young women who had been rescued from sexual abuse and other oppressive circumstances.

Sera was a full-time Sculptor upon discovery of Bellydance, and has transferred from her medium of clay and metal into the body moving through space. Although she challenges dancers to find deeper expression in their movements, Sera is known for her hard-driving, highly technical classes. She believes one must first master their tool-set before putting it to use. Sera is a former core member of 3 internationally acclaimed dance companies: Bellyqueen, The Silk Road Dance Company, and Raqs Sahara. Sera’s foundation of technique, form, and discipline was by means of her formal apprenticeship with Rachel Kay Brookmire (of DC’s Sahara Dance) Rachel Kay Brookmire.