Alexandra Gruden

Born in Paris, Alexandra spent most of her early childhood travelling. She settled in Casablanca, Morroco where she immediately felt at home. Her return to France proved difficult - she misses Morroco, its colors, scents and its music. Alexandra tried many kinds of dance before settling on the "Raks Sharki" or the oriental dance, that she learned in Nice, France with the famous teacher Sandra.

After some years as a student, Alexandra started learning to be an oriental dance teacher where she did not stop to enrich her knowledge of the oriental dance. She visited many workshops and dance festivals: Tito (Sharm el Sheikh), Nour (Cairo), Magdy El Leisy (Germany), Freiz (Cairo), Khaled Mahmoud (London), Oussama Eman (Cairo), Zeina (Stockholm), Aida Nour (Cairo), Raqqia Hassan (Cairo), Momo Kadous (Munich), Hayet el Helwa (Sao Paolo), Sorraya (Cairo), Mahsoub (Luxor).

After her arrival in Belgrade, Serbia, Alexandra opened the first oriental dance school in the country. The success came immediately. With her students she started a dance company "Les Jasmins" with whom she had many appeareances in prestigious cultural events.

Alexandra gave her dance a surrounding it deserved and concieved the first oriental ballet ever shown in Belgrade - "In the Heart of a Woman" that premiered in Bitef theater in June 2005. In the seasons 2005 and 2006 the oriental ballet "In the Heart of a Woman" was played in the prestigious Bitef theater in Belgrade. Les Jasmins continued to perform in 2006 and 2007 in the two oriental dance festivals in October 2006 and May 2007.