About Nataša

I am the co-founder and head of the KUOD Bayani dance company, and a dancer, Oriental dance teacher and choreographer. I have a degree in geography and sociology from Ljubljana´s Faculty of arts.

My dance education started at the age of 12 at one of Slovenia´s top dance schools (2 years of overall dance training and 4 years of jazz ballet).

At the beginning of the new millennium, I discovered my love for Oriental music. This drove me further and soon I joined my first Oriental dance school. It was love at first sight. From that point onwards, I began my life-long affair with Oriental dance. I have visited more than 200 WS with different teachers from Egypt, Europe, and America. I am a certified Oriental dance teacher and dancer. From 2004 onwards, I have been teaching 7-9 classes per week and I have around 70 regular students each year. I organize WS and events and have passionately produced and co-produced 10 theatre dance shows (in Slovenia and abroad). I BELIEVE THAT ORIENTAL DANCE IS A STAGE ART.

My passion for knowledge is infinite. I read a lot of professional literature, study and travel to Egypt as much as I can. There I research and learn, trying to understand more about Egyptian folklore and the origins of Oriental dance. YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT MY RESEARCH IN ARTICLES AND THE FIELD RESEARCH FOLDER.

You can get to know me better from one of the best BD podcasts ever Iana BD Dance Podcast, where I spoke about my dance life

I still remember when my teacher told me to dance with my inner organs. She said: ‘Feel it in your liver.’ I didn’t understand what she meant. Only years later – and with a lot of dance practice myself – did I realize what this actually means. To dance with our inner organs means to relax our body so that a certain combination of moves becomes a dance.

Nataša Kočar