Kiteera began learning belly dance on her own around 2003, and then started taking formal belly dance classes in Sarasota, FL in 2005 from Misha Nell. She fell in love with Tribal after seeing a video online of Rachel Brice, and began to do research and learned about American Tribal Style® Belly Dance, Tribal Fusion, and other branches of the Tribal tree.

She started formally learning Tribal from Misha, and continued to study videos online and from DVD’s.

She moved to Gainesville, FL in 2008, and began dancing with Suzy Bell of Gypsy Camp, taking her classes and performing with her and other local dancers. In March 2010, Kiteera flew to Bloomington, Indiana to learn from Carolena Nericcio of FatChanceBellyDance®, and received her ATS® General Skills Certification. This experience was made possible by Theironics, LLC of Gainesville.

 

Kiteera began teaching basic Tribal Belly Dance after that point, and has performed at various gigs since then.

In June/July 2012, Kiteera attended and passed Rachel Brice’s 8 Elements™ Phase 1: Initiation intensive in Portland, Oregon (32-hour intensive), and received a scholarship by Little Scarab (Rachel Brice and Sol Crawford) to attend the intensive. In October 2013, Kiteera attended and passed Rachel Brice’s 8 Elements™ Phase 2: Cultivation intensive in Portland, Oregon (50-hour intensive).

 

Other dance styles that Kiteera has studied (minimally) include modern, jazz, ballet, salsa, cha-cha, merengue, tango, swing, waltz, American Cabaret and Modern Egyptian Belly Dance.

 

In March 2013, Kiteera joined the budding performance troupe the Manic Menagerie Vaudeville Company in Gainesville, FL, becoming one of the founding members and the principle belly dancer of the troupe.

 

When not dancing, Kiteera is swinging weapons around for people’s entertainment as part of the Living Chessboard show at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. She is a member of the Thieves Guilde, a volunteer acting and stage combat troupe based in Gainesville. Kiteera has performed stage combat since 1998. She watched her father perform in Medieval festivals in the early 90’s and he asked if she wanted to perform out there with him someday. “Yup!” was her response, and the rest is history. Kiteera grew up building a stage combat and theatre background, performing onstage in plays starting from middle through high school alongside her work in medieval festivals. She often draws on her theatre background heavily for belly dance.