Introduction of Laura Rose
by Delilah

Laura Rose has been belly dancing since she was born – having been raised as the daughter of Delilah, how could she not? She would accompany me to workshops across the country and went to many of our Visionary Belly Dance Retreats in Hawaii with her sister Victoria. She got to meet and study with famous dancers for 10 days at a time. She would fall asleep to Sirocco (Sulyman's oud and cymbulum, Armando's tar and drum) as well her father’s dreamy key boards, ney and Rumi poetry. She was young. Belly dance was like the food and water of life. It was not something competitively acquired and manipulated by the hands. It was experientially absorbed by way of osmosis. It went straight to the gut and was commonly digested. For Laura Rose, belly dance was fun but it was also “Mom’s thing”, so there has always been a healthy spirit of independence in Laura Rose. This is a good thing. The culling of techniques would come later and in the spirit I always suggest:

“Study all things, be a creative vessel.”

Laura Rose loves costuming, makeup, theater and spooky things. She has always had an amazing imagination and routinely led all the kids in the neighborhood in elaborate, imaginative fantasy games. She transformed herself and her playmates into enchanting characters. “What shall we play? Who shall we be next, Laura Rose?” they chimed. She mesmerized the other kids. As she got older, her mind inquired further and her fantasy grew.

She made movies as school projects. She was in drama in high school. She did Shakespeare and comedy and played the role of Eva Tanguay, a vaudeville star, at The Moore Theater on 2nd Ave. She cultivated a fusion of musical tastes brought up with her father’s, Steven Flynn, dramatic musical soundscapes (his solo albums), rock and roll (with Jr Cadillac), blues (with Brian Butler. . .) and Classical Turkish (with the Mevlevi Dervishes). Meanwhile she was listening to the likes of Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, Ministry and Marilyn Manson.

She graduated from The Evergreen State Collage with a degree in video and film production. There, she made lots of spooky movies as well as a heart-felt documentary about belly dance and the Aphrodite archetypal experience. I marveled at her diversity.

After college, she came home and reedited and produced five of Delilah's instructional video programs into DVDs and added 90 minutes of new programing to each volume. During that process she studied every inch of her mother’s video archives – both performance and instructional – with a magnifying glass. All of a sudden, the belly dance bug bit her. She got costume ideas, one after the other! She'd come running out of the editing studio with her hips articulating complex patterns saying “Like this Mom? Like this?”

“Yes my dear, by Goddess, you’ve got it! And you have more, you have a gift for the fantasy of the dance!”

Career Bio

Laura Rose started her professional belly dance Career at age 22 in 2003 as a member of Delilah and Sirocco’s East Coast Caravan tour – 40 days and 40 nights. The tour visited 15 cities, and included a show in Washington DC which was favorably written up by the Washington Post. This was followed by many performances in Seattle, including a show with the Brothers of the Balady at the fabulous Triple Door, First Monday at the Pyramid Lounge with Raks Serpentine, a lead in the Fremont Solstice Parade Ensemble, as well as being a character member in two Seattle dance troupes, Burning Hearts Burlesque and Sinner Saints. Her most recent foreign engagement was a 5 stop tour in South Korea with Delilah and company.

To sign up for Laura Rose's class, download our Registration Form (pdf format).