About Mercedes

My name is Mercedes Nieto, I live in Budapest. I’m Hungarian with Spanish ancestors. Raqs sharki (bellydance) was love at first listen to me. We’ve met when I was 16, although music and dance were always part of my life.

I have journalism and philology masters degree, I’m fascinated by words and language, but maybe even more by feelings that words can’t describe, yet dance and movement can. Raqs sharki is a beautiful, powerful and alive art form with strong roots in its culture but also an incredibly organic and contemporary art form of self expression. I have been inspired by Egyptian artists and people, and their way of life.

Being engaged with raqs sharki not only helped me to learn about other cultures and people, becoming more empathetic, but also to learn about myself and grow as a person. 

I love to witness how it brings people together from all walks of life. What I enjoy the most about dance is the flow it creates and requires. A space for losing myself yet finding myself on a deeper level, where there is system but also chaos, a world of untold stories and feelings waiting to be processed and expressed. It’s so powerful and vulnerable.

Dance offered me an exciting journey of physical and artistic development too and I love to watch my students discovering their own unique relationships to their own body and soul.

My favorite thing is teaching and creating. I direct a bellydance school in Budapest - the Nimfeum - for over twenty years. I produce Egyptian music for raqs sharki enthusiasts, I organize CAIRO! Fest Budapest that brings people together from all over the world for the past 15 years. I’m also lucky enough touring the world the past decade to teach and perform, and feel grateful for the meaningful connections made along the way.

Dance is the inside and the outside of my comfort zone, a space to embrace my sensitivity and use it as strength. A neverending process that is intellectual and intimate too. I’m passionate about sharing it with others, helping dancers to develop their artist within.
I started studying oriental dance in 1997 with Tia, who was one of the first to teach classical Egyptian belly dance in Hungary, and who became one of the most defining personalities and masters of my life. I used to dance to jazz ballet and flamenco and have been a part of the stage since I was eleven.

On my paternal side, due to my Spanish origin, music and dance have been present in my life from the very first moments. 

I was initially attracted to belly dancing through my devotion to Arabic music and culture, to the mystical depths of the Eastern world seemingly undiscovered for the European eye.

For me, Egypt embodied all: where the presence of the ancient, mythical worldview and the sparkle of modern life, in the Arab world are all blended in innumerable shades.

Like Arabic culture, Arabic music, and Raqs Sharki itself are extremely diverse. From the beginning, the depths of dance have fascinated me, as the dancer becomes the epitome of an ancient, eternal female being, while being inspired in her everyday life too. Belly dancing helps to stay motivated, to stay fit, to be part of a community and to live a fuller life.

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