Nahoko Sugiyama discovered her niche at an early age. As a little girl growing up in Tokyo, she imitated the moves of the Japanese idols she saw on TV. As a teenager, a penchant for clubbing set the foundation to become a dancer, and in her twenties she took up Oriental (belly) dance, Quickly becoming a popular draw through professional appearances, she decided to make a career out of this exotic form of expression.

Moving to New York in 2006 for more in-depth training, Sugiyama joined the Mosaic Dance Theater Company a year later. “One of my teachers in here is a choreographer for this company, therefore I joined it,” she explains. “We have a wide range of Middle Eastern dance numbers, not only Oriental dance, which makes us unique. We focus on theater shows, [and] have big theater shows both in New Jersey and New York every year.”

This Friday, she will perform at Manhattan’s Arena Event Space with six other dancers as part of the Alternative Belly Dance Show. Other recent highlights include her work with musician Elias Shakar and the Oriental Spectacular shows Sugiyama has organized with him since last winter. (She also christened the series.) “I really would like more people to know how beautiful the Middle Eastern music is, especially when you hear it live and how exciting [it is] to see dancers collaborating with live music,” Sugiyama says. “I also wanted to introduce this dance form to Japanese people here in New York, since it is very popular in Japan.”

Popular, but still rare. Sugiyama relates that it’s a “privilege” for Japanese to see this kind of dance outside of their country. Are there any similarities between traditional Japanese dance and Oriental dance?

“I heard you never improvise when you dance traditional Japanese dance, but you do when you dance Oriental dance,” she says. “Oriental dance is all about improvisation! That is the part I love most about it…on the other hand, you can find lots of similarities [among] the instruments played for Japanese and Oriental music such as koto and uod, shamisen and kunon, and taiko and tabla. I do not know if they are really similar technically, but they look similar!”

Sugiyama continues to study other forms of dance, including modern, jazz, ballet and others at Dance New Amsterdam. She prefers rehearsing to traditional Oriental music, with “lots of changes” and a “classy and gorgeous” sound.

For belly dancing beginners, Sugiyama has some simple advice: “Just enjoy being yourself! There are so many teachers, so many choices here in New York…I think that it is important to know what style of belly dance you would like to learn.” Her own regimen consists of yoga and Pilates classes, along with a strict diet of fish, fruits and vegetables (“no sweets,” she pouts). In her free time, she likes to see “as many shows as possible,” and says that art “should be inspiring, sexy, lively, passionate…that is why artists keep exploring, [being] inspired, traveling...I also go back to Egypt every year to study, to feel, [and] see Oriental dance.”

Sugiyama encourages everyone to see this form of dance to gain new perspectives. “If you have a chance to come to New York, and especially if you are [an] Oriental dancer, please experience a dancer performing with live music played by experienced musicians, which will change your [expectations] of this dance form,” she says. “Open your eyes…New York is a place where you will get inspired in many ways—that is why I decided to stay here! Love this city!”

See Sugiyama perform with other dancers at the Alternative Belly Dance Show at Arena, 135 West 41st Street (between 6th Avenue and Broadway) on Friday, May 14 at 9 p.m. Admission is free. Visit her homepage at http://nahokodance.com.