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Monica brings over three decades of movement, music, percussion, cultural, and language experience to her raqs sharqi and raqs baladi performance and educational  offerings. She is a  recognized member of the communities she works within. 

Her performances are audience-focused and joy-bringing experiences, always tailored to the event, and can include live or recorded music. 

Monica's dance instruction is rooted in respect for dancers and respect for dance forms, and her classes are musically driven, with an additional focus on cultural, political, and artistic context aiming to deepen what we know as globalized "belly dance" and keep it connected to its cultural home.  

Information on Monica's monthly in person San Francisco class.

Monica offers private dance classes and coaching in person in San Francisco or online anywhere in the world. She has worked for many years with dancers, duets, troupes, andcollaborators who are creating or polishing a piece, looking for inspiration, or need a  critical but supportive eye on their work, progression, or style.   

Rates are $90 per hour (over Zoom) or $125 per hour (in person in San Francisco, including studio rental fees). Please contact Monica for a questionnaire and initial consultation.

Sometimes 1:1 work leads to more of a mentorship. That is a conversation best had in person after we've worked together for a bit.

Need choreography? Reach out to Monica  for current rates, references, samples, and details of how it all works. 

Photo by Saman Qadir

Monica is a social practitioner and ongoing heritage learner of pizzica pizzica, tammurriata, and other regional tarantelle and balli popolari from Southern Italy. Piecing together childhood memories with lots of new learning and re-learning, her focus plays with defossilizing diasporic dance and music expressions, honoring them for what they are and how they developed via immigration, while linking them back to regional sources (all while having a good time, of course). 

Monica enjoys sharing what she knows about these styles with her own community, family, social circles, and fellow learners and practitioners. 

She hosts weekly online practice and social dance sessions to learn how to move together to great music and in-person study and skillshare groups in San Francisco, where she is slowly but surely putting together un collettivo di danza, an Italian inspired movement, percussion, and cultural arts collective. 

She also incudes Italian songs and dances in her monthly Mediterranean Movement group classes in San Francisco. 

Photo taken at the Museo Civico Pietro Cavoti in Galatina by Heather Serginia