Meet our Directors

			Oasis Dance Camp is the culmination of a dream for two dancers who both lived in Michigan but met for the first time in Marrakech. Sa'ida and Vashti (Jean Courter and Mary Lynn Buss) organized the first Oasis Dance Camp in 1985 in Northern Michigan to provide an opportunity for themselves and their dance troupes to study with Cassandra. Eventually each of them moved away from Michigan and established branch camps near their new homes in Florida and Washington. They return each year to the original camp location in Michigan which continues to fill to capacity year after year. With the addition of Camp New Zealand in 2004 and Camp Marrakech in 2005, Oasis has become a truly international dance experience.
			Jean Courter (Sa'ida Bint al-Waha) began dancing in 1972 at a community center class called "Belly Dance for Exercise". Totally smitten she has attended every workshop, class, and event which time and funds would allow since then. Teaching in order to grow in dance, organizing events in order to learn from the best instructors, wishing there was more time for both, Jean remains a devotee to the art. In her free-time she is office manager for an architectural firm in St. Augustine, Florida where she was until recently also the administrative director of a large non-profit dance school.
			Mary Lynn Buss (Vashti) took up dancing while studying law at the University of California in Berkeley in the early 70's. She continued her dance study and began performing while lawyering in Chicago and later in Lansing, Michigan. She founded the Habibi Dancers and was director of the troupe for 10 years until she left Michigan to move to Vashon Island, Washington. She now spends her time on Vashon teaching dance, making tiles, and serious gardening. She and her husband spend their winters in the southern hemisphere where he works, and she teaches dance and collects seeds of the native flora. In 2004 Mary Lynn chose to retire from directing dance camps and focus more fully on her tile making.