June Seaney is Moonlight Dancer, a Professional Oriental (Belly Dance) and Romani (Gypsy) Dancer performing and teaching to inspire people of all ages to feel the joy of music and dance of the Middle Eastern countries as well as the music and dance of the Romani people from Spain, Turkey and Russia.
With 30 years of performing and teaching experience of these dance genres throughout the US and 27 years teaching Belly Dance at Cornell University.
June brings to her performances and teaching, positive, infectious energy, sharing the joy of life through music and dance, creating a fun, relaxing, stress free energy, making all feel welcome and respected.
Workshop instructor and performer of Turkish Oryantal (Belly Dance) and Romani Dances from Turkey, Russia, Spain and the Balkans.
June has taught at Rakkasah East, Rakkas Minneapolis, Studio Artemis and Roxy & Dukes to name a few of the many locations across the country, sharing her knowledge of dance movement, technique, history and culture of these dance styles.
June’s dance expertise also extends to Egyptian Raqs Sharqi. As an instructor of Belly Dance at Cornell University I want to give my students the knowledge of movement, music vocabulary and history of Egyptian style (Raqs Sharqi) Belly Dance as well as Turkish Oryantal style. Both styles are beautiful and should be recognized for their differences as well as similarities.
June a Choreographer creates dances for performance and enhanced student understanding of Middle Eastern/Oriental/ Belly Dance and Romani dance and music. Oriental and Romani dances are solo improvisational dances but choreography can also be a tool to better understand how the movements are put together in the style of the music and dance they are learning.
Studies: I have traveled to Cairo, Egypt and Istanbul, Turkey to study the dance and culture and had the opportunity of performing while visiting there.
I have studied Middle Eastern/Belly Dance with Artemis Mourat, Tayyar Akdeniz, Eva Cernik, Dalia Carella, Sahra Saeeda, Karim Nagi, Nourhan Sharif, Suzanna Del Vecchio , Amaya and many other knowledgeable and gifted dancers/teachers.
Romani Dances: Romani people are still subjected to multi-racisms that exist today in the world and my hope is through music, dance and lectures, I can bring a better understanding of and respect for the Romani people and their diverse and wonderful culture and the many contributions they have made to society. My Roma friends and teachers have shared their music and dance with me, I am forever grateful to them for their friendship and teachings.
In 2020 I performed for the Sara e Kali Hamilton Celebration
In 2012, I met Dr. Ian Hancock, Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Romani Scholar, Director of Romani Archives and Documentation Center, when he gave a lecture at Cornell University. He was presented with a book chronicling a Roma project that I was a part of through Cornell University and it is now a part of the Romani Archives.
In 2007 Sani Rifati of Voice of Roma brought Yuri Yunakov and his Romani Wedding Band to my studio to teach a music and dance workshop which was educational and fun.
Studies: Turkish Romani with Artemis Mourat, Tayyar Akdeniz and Romani dancer Reyhan Tuzsuz, Russian Romani with Laurel Victoria Gray, Valentia Shakhovskaya of Drago Ensemble, the world renowned Romani performer Esma Redzepova from Macedonia, Romani performer, Mojca Rakipov Nursel, who taught me more Macedonian Romani dance and culture
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Photography by Carl Sermon & Michael Doy
