PICTURES | VIDEO | CONTACT | LINKS | CLASSES
It all started with a movie
It was the Friday night movie. A young girl from Ramat Gan joined her family to watch the Friday night movie and was amazed by the dancers that she saw performing on the screen. Despite the black and white TV the dancers appear to be full of life, colorfully vibrant, and wonderful! Although the dancers are very shapely and voluptuous, and the young girl from Ramat Gan is small and thin, she understood their dancing, and was drawn to them with great joy, swept away by the sound of the music that emanated from the television
When Israel finally got color TV the dancers look all the more amazing with their dresses, veils, and ornamental jewelry. The girl, Ella, grows up and begins practicing the martial art “Kung Fu”. If you saw her practicing in her black clothing and using her nunchuckos and other weapons, you would think that she would excel in the art of “Kung Fu”. But no one would ever think that from time to time, with great yearning, she would play the music from that Friday night movie, tie a colorful scarf around her waist and get swept away in dance
The years passed by. In the honorable and intellectual Ramat Gan family, eastern dancing was seen as strange ant not appropriate. There was a stigma attached to belly dancing. So Ella was learning Chinese medicine. In the public eye she was practicing Chinese medicine, but secretly she was doing belly dance. She learned and developed from teacher to teacher until finally she meets the great Fifi Ness – out of all the teachers she was the one who influenced her friend out of living in secret. So Ella joined the show “flower to rose” – in memory of the dancer and teacher Rose Goldberg
The show was performed on the Susan Dalal stage in Yaffo. The auditorium was packed with people and television crews. There wasn’t a free seat and the aisles were filled. The women on the stage were vibrant, voluptuous and beautiful. The air was filled with electricity and life. The applause was thundering. All the remnants of the stigma attached to belly dancing melted away and dissipated. It became clear to all that eastern dancing had a well respected place in Israeli culture. Ella danced openly, and her great love of eastern dancing won out over her previous concerns
Ella continued to perform on Israeli stages, and was invited to appear on television programs. From time to time she would travel to Egypt where the international “Festival of Pharaoh” was held. The young Israeli woman took third place out of tens of participants from all over the world
Another outcome of her success at the festival was an invitation to perform in a television commercial for snacks. The commercial was very successful and was broadcast on television in European households, MTV, in movie theatres, and Israeli cable
Ella felt that opportunity was calling and she traveled to the United States. Soon the Kodiak theatre in Los Angeles opened its doors to her, as did UCLA and Las Vegas. She performed at a university in New York, and from there it was a short time before she was performing at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas alongside many great performers. She was invited to perform in movies, commercials and the music videos of various artists
Her nostalgia for Israel drew her back to her home country. Here she was recognized for excellence as an artist in Eastern dance, by the great dancer Rina Sheinfeld and Mrs. Rina Sharet
The United States called her again, and she joined the teaching team at the dance school of Adam Basmah, and danced as a soloist in his dance troupe in Los Angeles. Again the world gave her the opportunity to perform in music videos and movies
Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Las Vegas, and New York all glitter with star dust. But soon Ella shook off the star dust and returned to Ramat Gan, her hometown
Now she is here choreographing, teaching dance, and performing. In her lessons, Ella incorporates and integrates the principles of far-east medicine with middle-eastern dancing. Eastern dancing is a powerful tool – Chinese medicine balances the body and the soul. Ella uses crystals which reflect the change that was driven by the eastern dance. This change finds its source in great love; love that fills the crevices that exist in the body and soul. Love that dissipates all types of dust and leaves only clarity and purity. The love for life and joy so well expressed by eastern dance
