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SHANGRILA HOUSE

Gaspar Lourenço Street, 25

Vila Mariana

Sao Paulo - SP - Brazil

Postal Code: 04107-000

 

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+55(11) 50842183

+55(11) 55395092

 

A Nova Casa da Lulu!

 

BIOGRAPHY:

Biography

Lulu Sabongi is Brazilian, born in Sao Paulo. In 1983 Lulu began her studies in Oriental Dance with the Armenian dancer Madeleine Iskandarian (Shahrazad) who has lived in Brazil for 40 years.


At the age of seventeen she fell in love with the Arabic culture and because of that she has maintained contact with the Arabic community and close relationship with the best musicians in the country.

In 1984 she started to dance professionally at Khan El Khalili, Egyptian tea house which is now a national symbol of the art of Oriental dance. Khan El Khalili offers shows from Monday to Monday with renown dancers. Khan El Khalili is the most traditional Egyptian tea house in Brazil, founded by Jorge Sabongi in 1982.  Jorge and Lulu have been working together in a very strong partnership for the last 19 years.

Bio1

In 1986 in her first trip to the United States she met Ibrahim Farah and took private classes with him. In 1989 she started her career as a teacher and without planning it was born what later would turn out to be the best belly dance school in the country. Today it counts with seven teachers and approximately five hundred students. The school is exclusively focused to oriental dance.


In 1991 she retured to the USA and took veil techniques classes with Nahid Sofie (NY). During her three week stay she performed at The Nile night club under the supervision of the Egyptian coreographer Saied.

In 1993 Lulu released her first oriental dance didactic video (the first in Brazil) which brought her nationwide recognition selling at once 20.000 units.

In 1994 Lulu began to hold workshops all over Brazil.


In 1995 she attended classes with Hossam Ramzy.

In 1998 three new didactic videos were released, approaching veil techniques, rhythms, floor descending and improvisation techniques. Later came two more videos with a live presentation in the fifteenth anniversary of her career bringin together 30 professional dancers who were her students and an audience of more than 1200 people. These 5 videos sold initially 10.000 units each.

In the same year, by invitation of Mr. Lofty Zayed of the Brazilian Association of Egyptian Culture Lulu traveled to Egypt where she performed at the Shepperd Hotel. This presentation was broadcasted on three different channels of the Egyptian television causing great interest in the quality of Brazilian dancers.


In 1999 by invitation of Devorah, USA, (experient coreographer and teacher for more than 20 years) she travels to Barcelona, Spain and participates in daily classes with Shoukry Mohamud. Lulu Sabongi performs at the release of his second book, "The dance and its women", to an audience of 700 people.

Bio02

In 2001 in her trip to the International Dance Festival in Egypt she brings the biggest group from the same country (45 dancers). They had classes with Mohamoud Reda, Farida Fahmi, Aida Nour, Yousri Sharif and Rakia Hassan and others. At the closing the Festival, together with Shahar Badri and Soraia Zaied, she was invited to perform with the official orchestra of the event. The only foreigners who danced at the festival stage were Brazilians.

In february and may 2002 she releases her seventeen new didactic videos with the participation of many professional dancers from all over the country, most of them her own students. Here are some of the new videos's covers.

Also in may 2002 Lulu opened her new dance studio (O Harem) in Itu, Sao Paulo State, with capacity for more than 600 students.

Bio03

In june 2002 Lulu had her first expericence as a teacher out of Brazil, by holding a one week workshop to Bellydance Group Zamila, in Bergen, Norway, as well as performances at Bergen Danser Dance Festival and Zamila Summer Fest.

Lulu travelled then directly from Norway to Egypt to attend the Cairo Internacional Dance Festival 2002, and after that she spent one week teaching in Iceland.

In october Lulu was back in Norway to dance and teach in the Stavanger Bellydance Festival 2002 and in Bergen.

Bio04
Bio05

November the 8th was a very special day for Lulu.   More then 2000 people participated in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Khan El Khalili tea house, with performances by some of the most renown dancers in Brazil.

2003 will be a busy year for Lulu. She will be teaching both in Brazil and abroad and plans to release her book "The art of Bellydance in December. Another big party will be thrown in August, this time to celebrate Lulu's 15 years of dance at the Khan El Khalili Tea House in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Bio06

Having her image linked to Oriental dance and being one of the most respected dancers and teachers in Brazil she has participated in many written or broadcasted interviews and her picture has been seen on the cover of magazines an eleven oriental music CDs.

Lulu Sabongi is a constant researcher and throughout the years has found inspiration both in her constant trips, books and videos and in her masters inside Brazil and abroad:

Morocco (NY)
Ghassar Fadlalah (NY)
Jajouka (NY)
Anahid Sofie (NY)
Sereena (NY)
Shareem El Safy (USA)
Dahleena (San Francisco)
Amany (Lebanon)
Rakia Hassam (Egypt)
Khaled Seif (Egypt)
Gamal Seif (Egypt)
Aida Nour (Egypt)
Farida Fahmi (Egypt)
Shokri Mohamed (Spain)
Shahrazad (Armenian)
Gail Hadad (Canada)
Flavia Martins Buchler - Flamenco dancer and teacher
Thania Allan Ribeiro - Belly dancer and teacher