How the Professional Mastermind Program came to life✨🌟💫

I´ve been working in the field of Egyptian Oriental & Folkloric Dance, at the highest level, first in Egypt and then around the world, for 25 years. A quarter of a century (I´m shocked, just stating it).

My path started in Egypt where I started my career and went deep into the roots of this dance, music, and culture. In the middle, there was Lebanon - from where I had to run - and Oman - where I spent a day in prison for making a man, who was harassing me, shut up in public.

For 8 straight years of success, struggles, victories, and a lot* of hard work in Egypt, I performed with my orchestra at the best venues in the country - deepening my knowledge and experience, understanding what it took to create and sustain a successful dance performance in the birthplace of Egyptian Dance - dancing with and for Egyptians.

During those years of daily performances - up to 6 shows a day, especially in the Summer when I wouldn´t bother to go home and slept in the backstage room -, I also studied and worked with Mahmoud Reda, the Father of Egyptian Folklore.

With Mahmoud, under his guidance and often against it, I started to build what would later become my original Teaching Method combining a deep knowledge of Egyptian Dance, Music, and Culture with true - practical and efficient  - Personal Self-Empowerment.

I observed what worked and what didn´t work on other dancers - what they needed and how to help them get there. 

From Egypt, I traveled to the entire world as a guest teaching, performing, judging at major competitions, and lecturing. Another huge turning point in my career and in the way I saw this art form.

Suddenly, aside from my privileged knowledge of Egypt - from the inside out -, I also had access to the best that was being produced in international markets.

I saw how teachers taught and to which results. 

How performers performed and how audiences were, or not, impacted.

How organizers promoted their events - what worked and what didn´t.

How Egyptian Dance was practiced, taught, seen, and talked about in every corner of the globe.

Luckily, I also learned how to perform without my orchestra, something I was used to, and how to transport my work from the Egyptian context - dancing for local audiences - to the international context, dancing for audiences with radically different backgrounds, cultures, mentalities, and expectations.

From the combination of the strict - Egypt - and the wide - international market - experience, I went even deeper into the core of Egyptian Dance and what it takes to perform it and teach it at the highest, most effective level. I realized what it took to make an impact, leave a legacy, and change the perception toward the dance that I love with all my soul.

This vast experience, one I gathered with increasing passion, brought me here.

I published 3 books, opened Joana Saahirah´s Online Dance School, a project that I´d been empowered to create by my dearest Mahmoud Reda since the time I studied and worked with him, and started to educate coach students from India to Japan, from Taiwan to Spain; from every nook of our beautiful world.

Having created an original style, as a teacher and a performer, and succeeded at it without forgetting about who I am and what I stand for, I´m now coaching other dancers to create their original legacy.

What dancers receive in my Professional Mastermind is a product of this extraordinary and lengthy experience in the field of authentic Egyptian Dance and Personal Empowerment, as well as the unique potential each dancer I coach brings to the table.