Posted on 13/11/2024 by Kay Taylor

Meet Levana: organiser of Etoiles d’Orient and amazing teacher / performer

Meet Levana

by Carmen Tormo

I met Levana for the first time around 2018. I went to her festival Etoiles D’Orient in Mallorca on my own, without knowing anyone. As soon as I arrived, both her and her husband Miguel were so incredibly warm and welcoming that I felt super comfortable for the whole weekend. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of  adventures together: festivals, workshops and gala shows. She has been a huge inspiration for me, not only as a dancer but as an entrepreneur and over all hard working dancer and business woman. She has the most vibrant personality and you can’t help but fall in love with her as soon as you meet her. 
This is why I have been so keen on introducing her to the UK bellydance scene because I know that you will all fall in love with her as much as I did back then and that she will be a great teacher and mentor to you all

Here’s a little about Levana:

She started dancing ballet when she was 4 years old. Around the age of 7, she joined gymnastics and modern dance. She trained lots of technique  and went on to study other styles like jazz and even cheerleading! She non-stop trained hard until she was around 19, when she discovered a little shop in Mallorca that offered bellydance classes. She had always wanted to learn bellydance and soon fell in love with it.
Levana moved on to a different school in Mallorca where she learned from an Argentinian teacher who was part of bellydance star Amir Thalebs troup. Meanwhile, she travelled the world to keep on developing her technique with different teachers, as well as visiting Cairo to learn from Egyptian masters.
Every teacher taught her something different, from the basics, to dancing with props, improvisation.. she found her true calling with Ukranian dancers who, having a ballet background just like her, had a style very similar to what she connected with. Levana has trained very closely with ukranian master teacher Dariya Miskevitch, who will be attending Etoiles D’Orient festival this year in Mallorca.
In 2015 Levana opened her dance school in Mallorca and it has grown so much since then that she is hoping to expand to a bigger dance studio in the near future. She offers different styles of bellydance, polinesian dance and many other styles, hosting more then 250 dance students every year. She has soon become the biggest dance school in Mallorca. Her students travel the world with her and have won many competitions, from amateur categories to master. She is incredibly proud of her students and always talks about them as “the future of bellydance”. You can see the glow in her eyes when she is watching them dance.
Her students are part of the reason why she started running her bellydance festival. She saw that she wanted to give her students the opportunity of learning with other teachers, just like she had been doing for so many years, so what better chance than giving them a festival where they could have so many master teachers together all at once? Levana and her husband Miguel run Etoiles D’Orient festival, which has also become one of the biggest bellydance festivals in Europe. Levana says that she also likes bringing dancers together so they can meet each other and share that love for bellydance that we all have. She never thought her festival would become as huge as it now is and I know exactly why this is: not only does the bring the best master teachers to learn from, but both her and Miguel look after every single dancer so well, you end up feeling part of this huge dance family. For me this is key, you can go knowing no one and somehow leave Mallorca knowing so many new dancers. For this I will always be thankful to both of them

So why should you come and meet Levana? You know, I could give you an incredibly long list of important festivals that she’s taught at (China, Argentina, Poland, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Spain…) but for me, this is only a tiny bit of what Levana is. Levana as a teacher is patient, caring, knowledgeable, she will explain technique in however many ways you need her to. If anything is too advanced, she will break it down or give you alternatives so that you can finish that workshop feeling that you can take home so much to work on. 

I hope you will love Levana as much as I do. See you at Fantasia

Tabla solo workshop
Levana of the ‘Etoiles d’Orient’ festival in Mallorca teams up with master percussionist Joelle Barker to create amazing tabla solos.
You will work with live tabla and look at the dynamics of what makes a show stopping tabla solo.
Levana has a whole host of experience working with different percussionist.

Lyrical Technique
 Join Levana to develop your flow and musicality.  Levana looks at technique to create a beautiful flow to lyrical music.  This includes veil work.  Bring a silk veil to class if possible. Find ways to make your veil and extension to your lyrical dance.  Fantasia is an amazing opportunity to study with inspiring teachers.  This is Levanas first time teaching in the UK and we are delighted it is at the UK’s biggest festival: Fantasia.