Sani Rifati is a Rom (Gypsy) from Kosovo, former Yugoslavia.  He began dancing at a young age in his neighborhood (mahala) in Pristina, learning from uncles, neighbors, and especially his mother, Djevria.  Sani was a member of the folklore dance ensemble as a young teenager, and later became a percussionist with a Serbian band.  Many of the dances he did learned from his mother and various neighborhoods throughout former Yugoslavian “Mahala’s”.  In his late teens, Sani performed with “Kheljen Roma”, a traveling dance troupe in the former Yugoslavia.  He spent summers with his cousin, Esma Rezhepova (the “Queen of Romani Music”) in Sutka, Macedonia, where he learned many traditional Balkan Romani dances, including the different styles/variations specific to this area.  In Florence, Italy, where Sani lived for four years, he choreographed and performed Romani dances for a folklore group from the Romani neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.