Lee Ali is a specialist in Moroccan dance and folklore. With a Moroccan dancer mom and a Turkish drummer dad, Lee was born into the Middle Eastern performing community. She began as a child performer in the 1970’s, the golden era of “old style” belly dance. On stage, she’s delivered more than 2,000 performances in theater, festivals, cabaret and film. Lee has studied dance in Morocco, Turkey, Greece and Egypt . A skillful drummer and percussionist, Lee plays the t’bal, (a double-sided drum traditionally played by men) and sings in Arabic and Greek. By age 20, Lee was artistic director of her own dance studio in Brooklyn, New York, where she perfected her colorful teaching style and a commitment to building community thru dance. In 1996 she produced a documentary film entitled Belly Dancing In America: Importing Middle Eastern Dance. Her troupe, The Berber Ballet, is a drum and dance ensemble specializing in 6/8 rhythms and theatricalized dances of the Maghreb. Lee holds a bachelors degree in Psychology from UC, Irvine and is currently writing a book on Moroccan dance and trance rituals