Delilah Flynn

Delilah Flynn began studying belly dance in San Diego in 1972 and quickly entered the professional performance world. Her early career developed in an environment where dancers worked directly with Lebanese, Arab and other Middle Eastern musicians. She later became known for highly theatrical performances that placed particular emphasis on veil work, musical interpretation and visual storytelling. Delilah was also an early innovator in belly-dance educational media, producing instructional and performance videos during the 1980s when home-video dance training was still new. Over the following decades she taught internationally, produced events and developed a substantial body of educational material. Her combination of performance artistry, entrepreneurial work and early use of video makes her an important figure in the development of American belly dance.