Helene performs Thursday, July 30, with Bellydance International and Orient'al at Don Quixote's.

Helené has come a long way from the time she had to dress up in a gorilla suit with her belly dance costume underneath. The artist, who dances Thursday (July 30) at Don Quixote’s with the Middle Eastern band Orient’al, remembers her early gigs for a Campbell agency called Cheesecake.

“I would have to show up and dance in all different kinds of places,” said the one-name solo performer and director of The Sisters of the Desert Sky dance company. “One time in ‘Cisco, we had a gig where we all had to be dressed as Star Trek characters.”

Now the artist is more likely to be found teaching raqs sharqi (belly dance) around the county, dancing Saturdays in The Crepe Place’s garden or producing and performing in productions like the Bellydance International show at Don Quixote’s this week, which also features guest artists Malia and Sese. She will also be one of the featured performers and instructors this September at the Earthdance Festival in Los Gatos.

“It’s a passion. I love to dance, so it’s following my passion,” Helené said.

Professional dance wasn’t in her original life plan. Though she always longed to be onstage, Helené trained to be a nurse in England, pleasing her family. Then a vacation in Santa Cruz led her to meet her husband at The Catalyst. One miserable English winter later (“the worst in 200 years”), the couple moved back to California, and here they’ve stayed.

A practitioner of tai chi and karate, Helené became involved in belly dance for her own mental health. “It was terribly hard for me to adjust, and so I started dancing for myself as a form of therapy,” she said. “It was really for my own survival I went back to dance.”

She credits her teacher Caroleena for starting her on the path to performing, and Los Gatos’ Ma Shuqa Mujan for turning her into a professional.

Belly dance, said Helené, is about women’s power, honoring the feminine in the dance. Her passion for it has led her to visit Morroco and Egypt, studying behind closed doors with local women to learn traditional dance moves.

“We have the freedom here as women to express ourselves openly,” she said. “”In Egypt, the women are being shamed for dancing.”

But for Helené, there is nothing but honor in the snaky moves and sinuous lines of the dance. “We’re carrying the tradition in America that women in North Africa and the Middle East aren’t free to do.”

Helene & Bellydance International with Orient’al. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 30. Don Quixote’s International Music Hall, 6275 Highway 9, Felton. $10. Ages 21+. (831) 603-2294.