Top 10 male belly dancers and teachers

Nowadays, belly dance is a predominantly female art form; however, there are several male belly dancers around the world. Below a list of 10 I know of.

1. Ibrahim Akef – he was a famous Egyptian belly dance choreographer, who passed away in 2007. He taught many famous dancers and his style influenced a lot of modern dancers such as Raqia Hassan, Khaled Mahmoud, Dina and more.

2. Dr Mo Geddawi and Mahmoud Reda  - are two of the founders or the Egyptian Reda Troupe, which made Egyptian folk dance famous.  Dr Mo Geddawi and Mahmoud Reda are both soloists and choreographers and have taught (and still teach) workshops all over the world.

3. Khaled Mahmoud  – Egyptian from Cairo but based in London, UK. He dances Egyptian folk style as well as raqs sharqi. His style is very energetic and graceful at the same time.

4. Jim Boz – he is a male belly dancer based in California, whose style is quite earthy and who taught and performed at the International belly Dance Congress in the UK.

5. Amir Thaleb –belly dancer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he runs his own academy. He is very appreciated all over the world and travels extensively to teach and perform.

6. Ahmet Ogren – he is a famous Turkish style dancer from Istanbul.

7. Mohamed El Hosseny – Egytpian based in Finland, where he runs a belly dance academy.

8. Horacio Cifuentes – originally from Colombia and now based in Germany, where he runs an oriental dance academy with his wife, Beata .

9. Ozgen – Turkish dancer based in the UK, specialised in Turkish belly dance and gypsy dances.

10. Shafeek Ibrahim – Egyptian who lives in London; he performs folkloric, raqs sharqi and fusion styles.

In addition to the dancers above, there are of course many more, whom I have come across through Youtube. For example, Tito from Egypt, Zack (tribal dancer from Texas), Said Rashid and Samir Abut from Argentina just to name a few.