Urvashi began her belly dance obsession in Autumn of 2004 after her very first class with Nadira Maher in Alexandria, VA.  Soon after, she became entranced with the community, music, and passion of belly dance and began taking classes with teachers such as Marci of Devyani, Ami of Sahara Dance, Wendy Youssef, Nimeera of Cleopatras Closet, Asharah, and Saphira (owner and director of Saffron Studios in Clarendon, VA).

She has attended many workshops with several of her idols to include Artemis Mourat, Jasmine, Carolena Nericcio, Rachel Brice, Suhaila Salimpour, Zoe Jakes, just to name a few.

Urvashi has a mad love for percussion and enjoys playing finger cymbals, riq, and doumbek and has had the opportunity to learn from great instructors such as Issam Houshan, Suhail Kaspar, Karim Nagi, Raquy Danziger, and Sidiqi (Brad Sidwell).

She is one of the few snake charmers in the area and loves to perform with her dance serpent partners as well as her scimitars, candles; whatever she can get her hands on.

Urvashi was the name a friend gave to her when she in search of her dance name.

In Hindu mythology, Urvashi is an Apsara (nymph) and was a celestial maiden who danced for the royal court. An Apsara is a female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hindu and Buddhist mythology and are dancers that entertain gods and fallen heroes.

She chose another Hindu name as her dancer surname, Chandani, which means moonlight. Many years ago, before Urvashi danced, a dear friend of her gave her a “spirit” name of Ocean Moondance so she wanted to keep a link to her spirit name that apparently foretold her future.

Her love for all styles of belly dance has enabled Urvashi to incorporate various styles into her dance personality and she coins the term for her style of belly dance as “Raqs Eclectique!”.

She is founder and troupe leader of Raks Eclectique and a dance partner in the premier Snake Enchantment Belly Dance Duo in the DC Metropolitian area, Serpens, the brain child of Farasha.

Urvashi can be seen performing solo or with her troupes at local events throughout DC and Virginia. She is currently a proud and active member of the Tiraz Dance Network as well as the DCTribal community.

www.urvashichandani.com
http://people.tribe.net/urvashichandani
info@urvashichandani.com