Ashley first fell in love with belly dance while taking classes with Ishara Gamal at the University of Illinois. She immediately became obsessed with Tribal Style and proceeded to take classes and workshops as often as possible. She has studied with Carolina Nericcio, Rachel Brice, Zoe Jakes, Mardi Love, Sharon Kihara, Kami Liddle, Heather Stants, and Jill Parker. In **** she attended the Rachel Brice retreat in Costa Rica. Her dance background includes training in various Latin dances, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Flamenco, Tahitian and Hula.

In **** Ashley became a certified group fitness instructor and currently specializes in Yoga and Pilates. She began teaching basic belly dance classes in ****. A year later she formed the Tribal Fusion troupe Trikhala in Champaign, Illinois. In **** she joined SF Hula and then formed their sister troupe, Orchid Belly Dance [link to orchids page]. Orchid Belly Dance currently performs professionally all over the Bay Area and beyond for various events, night clubs, and restaurants.

Currently, Ashley teaches in the Bay Area and performs for festivals, nightclubs, restaurants, corporate events and private parties. She has also appeared as a guest soloist and belly dance choreographer for Naach and has been interviewed by Illinois TV news channels WCIA and WILL. Ashley holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in Opera from the University of Illlinois School of Music and has performed with Opera San José and BASOTI in San Francisco.

She likes to collect sparklies...lots and lots of sparklies...and puts them on top of one another with glue and string.

Orchid Belly Dance
Orchid Belly Dance is a professional Tribal Fusion belly dance troupe, which was formed in March **** under the direction of Ashley López (link to home page). They currently perform all over the Bay Area and beyond for festivals, nightclubs, restaurants, corporate events and private parties.

Their style is influenced by American Tribal Style (ATS) belly dance, Modern, Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Bollywood, Hula, Tahitian, Salsa and other Latin dances, Flamenco, Yoga, Cabaret and Circus shows. They perform to a wide variety of music and try to tailor each performance to their client's taste. Likewise, they use a diverse array of costumes to compliment the flavor of their performances.

Book Orchid Belly Dance for your next event!