ABOUT KAREN
Karen Sun Ray was lucky to be introduced to many cultures growing up. As a little girl she was taught the songs and dances of her father’s native Indonesia and the dances of Polynesia. Her father taught her to play ukulele. She performed with her mother at many festivals and events including a weekly Polynesian Revue at the Hilton Hotel in Gainesville, Florida where her mother emceed, performed and sang.
Her first experience with world of belly dance came from a close family friend from Syria in her teen years. He taught her how to listen to the music and phrase it properly with dance movements. Her dance vocabulary grew with her participation in workshops taught by many well know instructors around the US. She also traveled to Germany to study with Beata and Heracio Cifuentes.
In 1993, along with four other women, she co-founded the Sahnobar Dance Ensemble. They had the honor of performing at Disney’s EPCOT, Universal Studios, SPIFFS Annual Folk Fair, Florida International Museum’s Grand Opening Ceremonies for both the Egyptian and Alexander the Great Exhibits. They have performed annually since 1993 at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in Gainesville, Florida. Sahnobar also has the distinction of representing the Egyptian Women’s Club of Tampa Bay by performing their native dances at various festivals.
Karen became director of the Saint Petersburg International Folk Festival’s (SPIFFS) International Dancers in 1995. The group performed at many events in the Tampa Bay Area, in particular at the annual SPIFFS Folk Fair. In the summer of 1998, Karen toured the United States with a professional Polynesian troupe.
At the end of 2000, Johanna Krynytzky arrived in town and attended one of Karen’s belly dance classes. They became friends and started working together in 2001. In 2004, they created Hip Expressions and began fine tuning the process of teaching the art of belly dance by creating a unique curriculum. They taught classes in various locations spread around the county along with holding a monthly dance show that has continued to this day without interruption.
In 2006 Karen began dancing with fire. Mesmerized with the art form from the moment she lit her fire poi; Karen began adding many other fire props to her repertoire. She enjoys performing with her Hip Expressions dance sisters as a guest at the Sunset Hookah Lounge on St. Pete Beach and at other events in Tampa Bay along with some of the amazing fire performers in the area and beyond. She has also co-taught fire workshops with Johanna Krynytzky at Tribal Solstice in South Florida and Kimberly Freed at Tribe Original in North Carolina.
Karen is the Performance Director and Staff member at Hip Expressions Dance Studio, as well as being a Co-Founder. She is the Dance Department Director at Ovations School for the Arts, a non-profit private school. She performs mainly in the Tampa Bay Area and occasionally around Florida, and has taught classes in Europe.
