About Al Wadi Dance Company
Al Wadi Dance Company is a raqs sharqi (belly dance) education and performance collaborative of Heather Louise and Ella Moore. We offer joyful, engaging, and culturally connected instruction grounded in Egyptian traditions.
“Wadi” means “valley” in Arabic; the company name pays tribute to our location in the Willamette Valley. Just like the Nile Valley in Egypt, the Willamette Valley’s fertile soils have heavily shaped its population’s way of life. An elegant earthiness defines both our surroundings in Portland, Oregon and the essence of raqs sharqi.
Meet Heather Louise
Heather is a raqs sharqi performer, teacher, and life long student of Middle Eastern music and dance based in Portland, Oregon. She has established herself as an elegant and polished performer for weddings, events, festival stages, and everything in between. She is known for her intuitive musicality, soulful movement quality, natural playfulness, and inviting charm.
Heather has been teaching for as long as she’s been performing. She has honed a keen eye for movement and has become a sought after teacher and workshop instructor. In addition to teaching in person through Al Wadi, she has recorded hundreds of hours of instruction on Datura Online, where she has been a featured instructor for over ten years.
Meet Ella Moore
Ella had the good fortune to stumble into a raqs sharqi class during college, and she’s been obsessed ever since. She continued her studies while completing her Bachelor of Arts in Music (Percussion) at the Florida State University. Since moving to Portland in 2017, she has carved out her niche as a raqaasa with an expressive musical style, a sense of humor, and a thumb on the pulse of modern raqs sharqi.
For Ella, the music of North Africa and the Levant is an eternal wellspring of inspiration, and musical understanding plays a large role in her performing and teaching. She’s a firm believer in growth mindset, and delights in not just teaching students what to learn, but HOW to learn it.
Want to see us perform?
Guest Instructor Jason Ramirez
Jason is a multi instrumental percussionist and has played with many of Portland Middle Eastern bands over the years. He specializes in darbouka and was the lead drummer in Ritim Egzotik, playing Arabic and Turkish music with a rock edge. He is known for his powerful, crisp playing and is a favorite among Portland dancers.
Shaunti Fera is a double-decade Raqs Sharki performer. She specialized in banquet, corporate and Middle Eastern wedding entertainment in the Los Angeles area from 2005-2017, including performances with Flowers of the Desert, Adam Basma Dance Co, Aubre Hill's Lumina, Zahra Zuhair's Eshta, and Shaunti's own dance company Sababa. Since relocating to Portland in 2017, she has been making appearances at local events including collaborations with Raqs Ayana, performances at Marrakesh Restaurant, and appearances at Mississippi Pizza with the band Ritm Egzotik and more recently The Occidental Tourists. A couple of years ago she started a deep exploration of Raqs al Assaya and the recent trend of female dancers incorporating stylizations from the historically male Tahtib style of stick martial art from The Said Region of Upper Egypt. The result is a fascinating blend of power, precision, and fluidity. In 2025, Shaunti was awarded 1st in the prop category at Wild Rose Belly Dance Competition and 3rd in the professional category at Belly Dancer USA for one of her Raqs al Assaya choreographies. Al Wadi is now hosting Shaunti to teach a new choreography this Spring 2026.