Roula Said

Roula Said is a multi-faceted artist who has dedicated her talents to Middle Eastern music and dance. One of Canada's leading lights in the world of bellydance, Roula is the director of Om Laila Bellydance, the producer of FunkaBelly - Toronto's premier global Grooves Dance Party and Bellydance Cabaret,  and the vocalist, dancer and percussionista of Gypsy/Arabic funk band, Nomadica (which she co-leads with trumpeter and composer, David Buchbinder).

Roula is an inspiring teacher who has been sharing the wisdom and pleasure of bellydance for over 20 years.  She has taught workshops from coast to coast in Canada, as well as in the US.   Along with her warm and poetic teaching style, Roula also brings to students her fluency in the Arabic language and vast knowledge of Middle Eastern music.    She has studied with some of the leading educators in the field including Yousry Sharif, Elena Lentini, Yasmina Ramzy, Aziza, Jillina, Mahmoud Reda, and the late Ibrahim Farrah.  As a musician, she sings and plays qanun and percussion, having studied with George Sawa, Simon Shaheen, Bassam Bishara and master musicians in Syria.

Roula's current passion as a teacher is Seven Waves Movement System, a holistic, bellydance infused series of movement sequences built upon the wisdom of the wave at the centre of all healthy movement.  Seven Waves is simple, essential, deeply transformative and seriously fun.  It is truly a work out for body and soul and imparts a profound experience of integration and wholeness.  Roula is also a masterful finger cymbal player and has developed a thorough and challenging method for teaching and playing the saghat/zylls which she is currently setting to DVD and presenting at the 3rd International Bellydance Conference of Canada.

Reaching further back, Roula  has a performance background as an actor having worked both in theatre and film.  She most recently appears in Ruba Nadda's film Sabah (Ruba is the director of Cairo Times which is currently garnering rave reviews in the international film festival circuit).  Roula has studied physical theatre, contemporary theatre and clown (Richard Pachenko style).  She has performed in numerous works from avant guard renditions of Shakespeare to sketch comedy and has created many witty and sidesplitting choreographies with her performance troupe The Roulettes and with NYC's fabulous Ranya Renee.