I started taking lessons from Sultana Ebrahim; she was a very experience teacher and dancer from Egypt. After about six months of lessons she push me out into the entertainment world. This was not an easy task to accomplish, to perform at nightclubs you had to give an audition and maybe you got hired. I did have other opportunity to dance at banquets, parties that Sultana would scout for me.

     I started taking Arabic language classes at the local community college. Not that I learn to speak Arabic but I did learn the Arabic alphabet, how to spell my name Yasmina and my real name Kathleen. Which if I had stay with my study’s it would have been more benefit to me in the long run. I had the good fortune to meet other Arabic college students, which open the door to performing for the Arabic community. Thru my friends I meet Arabic musicians and started performing with them at the society events.

     I would also go to the different nightclubs in Los Angeles to see other dancer performing which give me an insight to the different style of dances being performed at that time. I still was continuingly studying with Sultana from group lessons to private lessons. She was a very strong teacher, which I’m very graceful for.

     Sultana taught me how to dance to the music, to recognize the different changes in the instruments being play. I mostly dance improvisation-having freedom to change with the music. In the nightclubs it was a whole different thing. I dance to live music and they had their own rules on how they want you to dance, and that goes into a whole other story.

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