ESTONIAN CHAMBER OF ORIENTAL DANCE

Belly dance is awesome and we want everyone to know it!

The Estonian Chamber of Oriental Dance (EITK) was founded in 2017 by eight dancers, friends and Oriental dance fans for their great love for this form of dance, also known as belly dancing. 

As back then, we still don't know what the future will bring. But we have been sure from the start - bellydance is awesome and we want everyone to know it!

:)

History

In October 2016, Estonia celebrated the anniversary of Pille Pärs (Roosi) – one of Estonia’s best known dance teachers and choreographers, as well as the 20th anniversary of Oriental dance in Estonia. 

Pille Roosi’s life’s work has been introducing Oriental dance or belly dance into the Estonian dance field. She was the first to start teaching Oriental dance in Estonia in 1996. During the following decades, the majority of Estonian belly dancers learned under her guidance. Pille Roosi is the initiator and had been the main organiser of the International Oriental Dance Festival in Estonia. 

Shortly after the jubilee concert, Pille handed over her former work with organising the International Oriental Dance Festival and the annual concert of Estonian Oriental dance enthusiasts, to a group of her former students and the main organisers of the jubilee concert. For this purpose this group of dancers and friends founded the Estonian Chamber of Oriental Dance in January 2017.

The mission of EITK is to promote the art of Oriental Dance and Oriental Dance education.


Board Members in 2020-2023:

Kairi Reinvee
Kirsi Mari Laan
Sandra Vokk


Founding Members of the Estonian Chamber of Oriental Dance:  


Iris Frolov 

Iris Frolov began studying Oriental dance in 1996 as a student of Pille Roosi. Her professional dance career began in 1999 as a member and co-founder of Zahira, one of Estonia's first professional belly dance troupes. Iris has been teaching belly dance since 1998 in Estonia and abroad. She has been a member of the organizing team of the International Oriental Dance Festival since its early days and is one of the Festival's most popular teachers. From 2007 to 2013, Iris worked as an Oriental dancer in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Oman, India. During this time she had the opportunity to learn in depth about Middle Eastern culture and society, music and dancing. Through dance, Iris was introduced also to the Pilates training method and became a certified Pilates teacher.


Kaidi Udris

Kaidi's professional dance career began already at age 6 as a member of the Estonian folk dance ensemble Sõleke.  She began studying belly dancing in 1999 and is now a renown performer and teacher in Estonia. She has taught across Europe, including Latvia, Finland, Italy, Greece, Israel, Czech Republic. After dancing Oriental dance for 14 years in Europe, she decided to move to Egypt and had a successful dance career for 6 years in the Cairo Opera House, in the folklore-inspired contemporary dance company „Forsan El Shark“. Kaidi has also featured as a dancer in Arab pop music videos and dance productions for Egyptian TV-ads and TV-series. Kaidi has a Bachelor's degree in choreography from Tallinn University's Faculty of Choreography.


Kairi Reinvee

Kairi began her belly dancing studies in 2005 in Liina Remmelg's classes. She has supervised Oriental dance groups all over Estonia and given workshops across Europe (Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland). Kairi has been an Oriental dance guest teacher in Hong Kong in the summer of 2016. In 2011/12 she toured Europe with the Amaya Dance Company giving concert performances in metropolitan theatres. Kairi is an active solo artist and has gained a lot of troupe experience through various projects as a member of the Zahira Dance Troupe, with whom she started cooperating in 2008. In spring 2015, she graduated from Tallinn University with a Bachelor's degree in choreography. 

Kati Pruel (Jamila)

Jamila has been dancing since 1995, when she started to study Indian classical dance. She also practises flamenco and belly dance. In 2010, she was the first in Estonia to launch regular Bollywood dance classes. Extensive stage experience has transformed her into an expressive artist and choreographer under whose guidance it is comfortable to make the very first steps as a beginner as well as to discover something new as a more experienced dancer.


Kirsi Mari Laan (Kalila)

Kalila has a versatile dance background, she began dancing already at the age of 3. Her belly dance studies began at 2005 under the guidance of Liina Remmelg. She has won several awards at belly dance competitions both in Estonia and abroad. Kalila is a performer in the Zahira Dance Troupe and has been conducting belly dance classes since 2010. She is a valued guest teacher both in Estonia and abroad. She has a Master's degree in choreography from Tallinn University. 


Maarika Merirand (Safran)

Safran started her belly dance studies in 2003, in the Sansaara dance studio in Tartu, Estonia. She has improved her dancing skills and knowledge under the guidance of several Estonian and foreign teachers, as well as dancing professionally in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and India. She is a performer in the Zahira Dance Troupe and has supervised classes in both Tartu and Tallinn. She is also a certified Zumba trainer and is actively engaged in yoga and various other dance styles.


Ruth Maria Roosi-Ott

Having grown up in the midst of dance, Ruth Maria began studying classical Indian dance bharatanatyam in 1995 under the guidance of Pille Roosi. She currently teaches it herself at Amrita Dance Studio. Ruth Maria is not involved in belly dancing, but she's definitely involved in organizing the International Oriental Dance Festival - she has been on the festival's organizing team since its very first event.


Sandra Vokk (Eeben) 

Eeben has been practising Oriental Dance since 2003, when an encounter with Arabic music took her to her first belly dance class by Pille Roosi. Since then dance has been an inseparable part of her life. As a multi-awarded artist and choreographer, Eeben has performed around Europe and the Middle East. Eeben received her BA degree in Near Eastern and Asian Studies in 2010 from The Estonian Institue of Humanities at Tallinn University, and an MSc in Social Anthropology in 2012 from the University of Oxford. She has taught classes on Near Eastern Solo Improvisation and Oriental Dance Studies at the Faculty of Choreography at Tallinn University and is the author of Oriental Dance related educational materials.