Nataša Kočar, co-founder of KUOD Bayani dance company, head of KUOD Bayani dance company, dancer, teacher and coreographer of oriental and indian dance, also memeber of CID UNESCO. She has a degree in geography and sociology from Ljubljana´s Faculty of arts.
Nataša started her dance education at the age of 12 at one of Ljubljana´s top dance schools Urška. After 2 years of over-all dance training (jazz, latin, standard) she decided to go deeper into jazz balet. After 4 years she quieted dance and soon found the love for oriental music. This drove her further and in 2000 she joined her first oiental dance school. It was love at first site. After she stared with a life-long affair with oriental dance. She visited more than 200 WS with different teacher from Egypt, Europe and America (among her favourites are Morocco, Randa Kamel, Maria Aya, Marie el Fajr, Helene Erikssen, Nesma al Andalus). She is a certificated oriental dance teacher and dancer. For 12 years already, she teaches 7-9 classes per week and has around 70 regular students each year. She organizes WS and events and passionately produces shows (Jalla jalla 2006, Zaghareet 2007, Hayeti 2009, Kundalini 2010, Zeina 2011, Om Shakti 2013, Hamsa 2015, Hamsa Circle 2017). Last three years she is aslo known as co-organizer of Slovenian oriental dance festival Nawar. Her passion for knowledge is infinite. She reads a lot of professional literature, studies and travels to countries of origin as much as she can.
Her indian dance career started in 2002 when she took her first Bharata natyam class with Ujwal Bhole in Ljubljana. Soon she joined slovenian bharatanatyam group Nataraj, for regular classes and performances. On 2007 she met her Kathak teacher. She new at once this will be her main indian dance. Since 2008, she studies Kathak with different teachers (Mayala Bracha, Subhash Viman Gorania, Hemant Devara, Geetanjali Lal, Ines Smiljanič). She likes semi-classical bollywood. In 2008 KUOD Bayani established indian dance group called Shakti.
Nataša´s life dance moto is: » To promote oriental and indian dance as stage art !«
Nataša Kočar je diplomirana geografinja in profesorica sociologije z bogatimi pedagoškimi in organizacijskimi izkušnjami. Leta 2010 je postala članica CID (Conceli International de la danse) UNESCO. Svojo plesno pot je začela kot osnovnošolka v plesni šoli Urška, kjer je po končani dveletni splošni plesni izobrazbi začela s treningi jazz baleta pri Mimi Marčac Mirčeta ter se izpopolnjevala na jazz seminarjih pri Fredu Lasserju.
Ko je konec devetdesetih let spoznala odlično glasbo Natache Atlas, so se ji na široko odprla vrata v Orient. Svoje izobraževanje je začela pri Mojci Rakipov – Nursel ter nadaljevala pri nekaterih drugih domačih in predvsem tujih učiteljcah, od katerih so nanjo največji vtis naredile Morocco, Sabuha Shahnaz, Helene Erikssen, Bahara, Astryd Farah de Michelle, Brigitte Ferchichi, kasneje pa Raqia Hassan, Randa Kamel, Aziza in zadnje čase predvsem Maria Aya.
Pri Helene Eriksen, plesalki, koreografinji, učiteljici in plesni etnologinji, se je izobraževala od leta 2004. Na njenih delavnicah ter privatnih urah je spoznala številne severnoafriške, bližnjevzhodne in centralnoazijske folkore ter ji pomagala pri prevodu strokovnih besedil iz plesne etnologije omenjenih plesov. Helene je leta 2009 nastopala kot gostja predstave Hayeti, ki so jo v KUOD Bayani plesalke pripravile ob 5. obletnici ustanovitve skupine Bayani.
Pri mag. Barbari Kazerouni – Bahari z Dunaja se je med leti 2006 in 2008 izobraževala za učiteljico orientalskih plesov. Aprila 2008 je to izobraževanje tudi uspešno dokončala in se odločila za ponovno dveletno izobraževanje pod njenim mentorstvom, tokrat za odrsko plesalko.
Med leti 2006 in 2010 je poleg rednih mesečnih seminarjev za plesalko in učiteljico (teh je bilo približno 40), obiskala vsaj še 60 plesnih delavnic in seminarjev drugih plesnih učiteljic (poleg zgoraj naštetih še Sonia in Amara Gamal iz BDSS, Rachel Brice, Elizabeth Strong, Sherin, Mercedes Nieto, Leila Haddad, Marie El Fajr, Claudia Heinle, Zaza Hasan, dr. Hasan Khalil, Serena in Hossam Ramzy, Magda in Atef Farag, Aziza, Randa Kamel, Yasmina Ramzy, Dalyla Ramy, Michelle Joyce, Maria Aya…).
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