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Bellydance

Ara started training in Turkish bellydance under Aynur Aydemir in Hong Kong. Very quick, Aynur asked her to replace her at the restaurant she was performing at twice every night. After six month in Hong Kong, Ara went to teach bellydance in Shanghai, and then in Hanoi. Vietnamese people became fast very fond of this dance art, and Ara could open more and more classes, and even, in 2007, the first studio ever dedicated to bellydance in Vietnam, Apsara.

She is also known as the organizer of several bellydancing events in the country, such as the Hanoi bellydance festival, which was held for the first time in October 2007, and has been enlarged every year since then, or as the director and producer of "Oriental Dreams", the one and only Vietnamese bellydance show, that she's been choreographing and performing with her professional team Bastet Douat.

First trained in Turkish style, Ara has then enriched her own style with a great deal of Egyptian style, particularly while training under Mayodi’s assistant in Paris (raks al sharqi and baladi), as well as with all the styles and influences that she is interested in, such as the Tribal and Fusion styles. She is now a complete Bellydancer, and is as beautiful to watch dancing alone, or with a drummer, than with accessories like the wings, the veil, the candles (shamadan) or the cane (raks al asaya).

Salsa and tango

When Ara met Anton Berchenko in Manila in 2005 she first joined his salsa company, Cachimbo, with whom she performed at the Manila Salsa Congress. He then offered to train her in tango and salsa, as he found out she was gifted and seemed to enjoy dancing more than her own job (graphic designer). When Anton asked her to become his partner, Ara decided to quit her job and try it out as a dancer. They performed in Seoul together, and came then to Shanghai, where the re-created Cachimbo with the local Chinese salsa instructors.

In October 2006 she came to Hanoi, Vietnam : the dance couple Anton Berchenko - Ara Hwang, following an invitation from a Vietnamese Salsa dancer, had decided to move to Vietnam to develop Salsa here. Together they've been teaching salsa on 1 and on 2, and tango, and helped out the local 'aficionados' to train and become better, by developing their musicality sense as well as their technics. They also organised 2007 Salsa competition, that was won by Dinh Sy and Sao Mai. Ara has also choreographed a very special chachacha for Bastet Douat.

Ever since, Ara has kept dancing salsa and tango everywhere she can, including in Shanghai where she got to meet and dance with Pablo Veron - a memory that she is going to keep in her mind and cherish forever ! Ara has also developed tango as a fusion element, and combine it with salsa while dancing with a partner (mambo-tango) and bellydance (belly tango).

Jazz and ballet

After training in jazz in Shanghai and with Anton, Ara has performed a Bob Fosse's Cabaret choreography with her troupe Bastet Douat in December 2007, as well as a special Christmas show directed by her friend Amélie Pontaillier.

She has then opened a jazz class in Apsara studio, and decided to train more in jazz and ballet, both dance forms that she respects and enjoys practicing very hard. She just finished a very complete training under Sean and Ailin (Jazz du Funk) in Shanghai, and under Millard Hurley (Studio Harmonic) in Paris.

Fusion

Very interested in all kinds of fusion, Ara has first founded the Watacheza Dance Company in Shanghai, together with Amélie Pontaillier. The troupe promoted an unique style of bellydance blended with African and Afrocaribbean moves, particularly meant to be danced on drums music. Ara has then developed Afrobelly through her solos ; let's mention for example this particularly beautiful and wild chachacha with drums that she's been choreographing in 2007.

She has created or worked on more fusion style ever sinces, as the tangobelly or the bellyflamenco, not to mention a very Tribal inspiration. She means to keep her creativity on, as well as to show the woman as the goddess every dance style has always meant her to be, and to do so she is learning different world dances, as for example flamenco with Clara Ramona in Manila, and African dance forms at the Momboye Studio in Paris.