About Charni
Charni is a belly dance teacher who teaches women the world over from her home city of Melbourne Australia. She is the creator of the online belly dance program Happy Hips @Home, uniquely designed for people who have never danced before. She uses understanding, humour, creating the feeling of having her right there in the room with you.
For more than 15 years, she has been using her unique teaching style to liberate women to learn to love their bodies exactly the way the are. Thousands of women all over the world have been introduced to the world of belly dance by Charni’s embracing and friendly nature.
Happy Hips @Home is designed to go beyond just teaching belly dance. Her students notice over time that they look confident, move confident, and are confident.
“I remember what it was like to learn belly dance from scratch, being in a crowd of women and worried that I would look silly”
Biography
Charni lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two children. She fell in love with belly dancing when she had her first class in 1995, and hasn’t looked back since.
She quickly went on to perform at the 1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival, then continued her tuition with all the major belly dance schools of Adelaide and Melbourne, and seeking out Expert dancers from around the world. Since then she has performed in a wide variety of concerts, fund-raisers, festivals and functions, teaching and choreographing many groups for stage performances.
Charni loved teaching and got a real thrill out of watching the improvement in technique and confidence in the students from one week to the next, and so she started live classes in 2003 opening a second location in 2007.
Creating Online Classes
In 2011, increasing numbers of her students wanted to keep the great feeling of classes with Charni, but just couldn’t make it to regular weekly classes due to the many demands of their lives.
Recognising that she was just one woman and could only stretch so far, Charni instead pioneered online belly dance classes specifically aimed at beginners.
Knowing how important the personal experience is, Charni has taken many steps to bring the feeling of being “in the room” to her online classes, including free belly dance props sent as needed, and video feedback every 3 month “semester”.
As a lifelong learner herself, she is always seeking to improve both her dancing and teaching. Charni always uses safe dance practices. Your body is precious.
