Middle Eastern music filled the air as guests settled onto woven rugs covering the studio floor of Jawaahir (juh-WAH-heer) Dance Company in south Minneapolis. For its 22nd annual Henna Party, Jawaahir (an Arabic word meaning "jewels") offered performances by its professional belly dancers and students of the Cassandra School.
Members of the audience also were invited onstage to learn the steps of Middle Eastern dances.
To help fund Jawaahir's performances this fall, dance classes and professional henna body paintings were raffled off, and, as the event concluded, guests joined in a mass henna-painting party.
![Jawaahir Dance Company professional dancers wowed the audience at the 22nd Annual Henna Party. ] (SPECIAL TO THE STAR TRIBUNE/BRE McGEE) **Jawaahir Dance Company](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/5C7O6NJTGQWFP3ZRISSEPAUWXA.jpg?&w=1080)
