Andy Von began dancing at a very young age.  Her family jokes she learned to dance before she could walk.  Andy was born with a deep interest in Rom culture and a natural ability to roll her stomach. Andy Von began formal dance training around the age of three in Western style ballet and also dabbled in tap and jazz dance throughout her youth.  In 2001 at the age of fifteen, she was taken to her first “belly” dance hafla (performance/party) and fell in love with what she saw.  She vowed to learn how to dance in that style and has continued to learn, research, choreograph, and teach the dance style since.  She currently has over eight years of formal training from a wide variety of teachers and styles, but prefers to dance in traditional and authentic improvisational style, favoring traditional moves and modesty in dress.  She has also begun researching and training in the darbukah/derbekki (aka doumbek) drum and includes live drumming in her classes.

Andy has been a member of a professional troupe, has an extensive resume of instruction and performances, started N.C. State University’s first “belly” dance student organization called Fayroozat, was featured in the N.C. State University student paper The Technician for her work on campus, performed for the NBC17 Fitness Faire, teaches between Evolve Yoga Studio and her home studio in downtown Raleigh, and has even started her own troupe that celebrates the multicultural aspect of the Rom Diaspora.  Andy prefers to refer to this dance in quotations (“belly”) because that word is not true to any particular culture nor was it ever called by that name until the 1800’s Chicago World’s Faire when a ticket salesman changed the name ‘beledi’ (Arabic for ‘country’, perhaps the area where the dancers came from) to ‘belly’; perhaps the change was for scandal to sell out the show during the conservative Victorian era (which it did), or perhaps there were other reasons…Instead, Andy distinguishes between styles and cultures, such as Egyptian Saiidi or Turkish Roman in Karsilama rhythm, for example.

Andy Von is also a passionate student and researcher of the “belly” dance genre; she is finishing her BA in Religious Studies concentrating upon Hindu and Islamic traditions of the Middle East and South East Asia. Andy also has a great interest in the Rom (“Gypsy”) Diaspora from India to Spain in regards to form, music, and purpose of the dance; tracing the dance back to ancient sacred feminine temple dances in India.  Andy again prefers the names Rom, Roma, Roman, or Romani instead of “Gypsy”, as that name has been used as a derogatory term and she wishes to honor and respect the culture for who they truly are. She plans to continue through to a PhD and formally instruct dance classes, lectures, and compose texts and documentaries about these dances in the university system.  In her dance classes, Andy is adamant that her students learn not just the technical movements of which particular style they are focusing upon, but also to learn about that particular culture.  Not all “belly” dances are the same and it is of utmost significance to Andy that her students are well aware of the cultural, lingual, physical, contextual, gendered, and if relevant, religious differences not only in the dances, but also in the music and dress.  

Andy Von is also passionate about yoga (especially Kundalini) and international travel. Thus far, she has been awarded the CAORC Scholarship through the U.S. Department of State in which she was funded for two months to study Bangla/Bengali language in Dhaka, Bangladesh at the Independent University of Bangladesh and also traveled throughout the country.  She was also awarded the Woodenfish Program in Kaoshiung, Taiwan by the Fo Guang Shan Monastery in which she trained as an ascetic Chinese Chan/Zen nun.  She has also spent time in London, England and plans to see the world before she dies!