Spotlight Dancer/Troupe
Demi Faraday

Demi Faraday has been a performer since she started speaking. Born Demi Peterson in Lake Forest, Illinois she spent her early years singing, dancing, performing in school plays and community theatre. She holds a Bachelors degree in Theatre from Western Illinois University. After graduating she moved to Chicago where she was a professional actress and was constantly cast in theatrical productions (sometimes doing 2 or 3 projects simultaneously) for a decade.

Over the years she has received talent grants, scholarships, awards, honorable mentions and glowing, favorable press. Her lengthy and eclectic resume includes classical Shakespeare, musical theatre, dance, performance art, experimental theatre, children’s theatre, out reach programs, benefit and charity performances, mystery dinner theatre tours across the U.S. , industrial training videos for Sears, radio, lead and supporting actress roles in independent feature films, voice-overs, main singer with Tom Yore’s world-beat rock band, performances at The Second City Improve in Chicago, she even had her full sized photo on the back outside cover of the Chicago Yellow Pages!

She has studied many forms of dance starting with classical ballet, jazz, tap & modern. In 1993 she became fascinated with Bharatanatyam (classical dance of South India) when she saw the Hindi film “Khal Nayak” and knew she had to learn this dance. She literally went from store to store up and down Devon Street (in the East Indian neighborhood of Chicago) asking shopkeepers if they knew of any teachers who could teach her this dance. Finally she was handed a flyer for a teacher who was coming from India. She contacted the phone number and a few weeks later was studying with Papiha Desai from New Delhi. When Papiha left, Demi was networking to find another teacher and she discovered Ruth ‘Parijata’ Hombal, a well respected and talented dancer/teacher who came from a long line of Bharatanatyam teachers in Bhopal, India. She studied, performed, toured and taught with the Kalapadma Dance Academy for 7 years. During that time she also taught individual workshops and appeared as guest artist for College of Lake County, Western Illinois University and Concorde Academy.

While browsing through a catalog of classes, Belly Dance caught her eye and later that day she was enrolled for a beginning class taught by one of the greatest American belly dancers: Jasmine Jahal. Demi considers herself very fortunate to have studied with Jasmine and to have learned the fundamentals from this pedigreed and highly esteemed performer. Soon Demi was performing in restaurants and showcase performances. She began teaching beginning belly dance at Malibu School of Dance in Bensenville, IL.

Demi moved to Arizona in 1999 to enjoy all of the benefits of a desert environment. In addition to teaching and choreographing she attends workshop events around the country, and takes periodic master classes with Belly Dance Star Ava Fleming in Phoenix. Demi is deeply grateful that she has opportunities to teach 5 plus classes per week at several different locations in the valley and admires and respects her students who come to study belly dancing. They are quite brave to engage in a form of dance that allows them to dive below the surface of superficial movement and explore the many layers of their femininity and grace. She speaks from personal experience when she says it’s not always an easy thing to stand beside other students who may represent the conventional ‘ideal’ of body type, shape, form and  beauty as dictated to us in mass media images. To remedy this, Demi says look in the mirror at who you are, as you are and in that moment love yourself, without question. It gets giggles when I say that in class, but it does set in motion a certain affirmation that I often see juggernaut into expansive awareness and appreciation of the self. There is no need to buy into what she calls ‘visual eugenics’, we’re all individual for a reason. It’s up to each person to discover what that reason is and Belly Dancing is a fabulous path of study in the discovery process. She loves to pass on her knowledge and watch her students bloom. We have so much talent in the Phoenix Valley area and I am really excited at the prospect of being a part of the process of growing our community, so that some day soon it will receive more national and international attention as a bedrock of belly dance activity.

She is honored to be serving as Treasurer for the Arizona Chapter of MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture and Dance Association) and is busy collaborating with the Officers of the Board to produce the “Fall Festival of Music and Dance” to be held in Phoenix on November 1st which promises to be the biggest belly dance event in Arizona for 2008. Please visit the web-site www.levantalsonora.com for more information.

She is also pleased to announce the opening of her new studio ‘KV64’ devoted exclusively to teaching and perfecting the art of Middle Eastern Dance, now open in Queen Creek, Arizona. If you are curious about the choice of the name KV64 – just Google the name and it will tell you what KV64 is. From there you can form your own interpretations. In November and December she will be traveling to Istanbul and then on to Cairo to study with master teachers and is looking forward to weaving these rich threads of knowledge into her ever growing tapestry as an artist.

In closing she’d like to say, don’t ever underestimate the power of your own initiative in seeking out guides, teachers, friends and those who would inspire you in your search for greater meaning and self-evolution.

To contact Demi Faraday:
email: demifaraday@hotmail.com
website: http://www.demifaraday.com/

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