Dancers/Teachers in »Sydney «
Josefina has been teaching belly dance in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney for over ten years. She teaches a wide spectrum of belly dance styles from classical to tribal fusion, as this photo gallery illustrates!
For details of her classes and more, visit the Northern Beaches Belly Dance website.
Faye is part of the Cabaret Arabia troupe and bellydance school, along with Jessica and Danielle.
I'm just beginning to get used to dancing with a sword, so I was taken aback when I saw Faye balancing not just one sword, but two in this clip!
Faye is multi-talented - her dance background includes African as well as traditional belly dance, and she's also an artist and a writer/illustrator of children's books (for more information, visit her website). She also has a bellydance website at fayebellydancer.com.
I'm including Georgina because I saw this performance at the Sutherland Belly Dance Expo a few weeks ago - but I have to admit I know nothing about her, other than she's from Spain.
Here's another clip from a Spanish festival:
Read more about Georgina on her website
Sophia is a busy Sydney performer. Her background in ballet, jazz and samba shows in her muscle control and sense of rhythm. Her style is her own mix of Egyptian, Greek, Lebanese, Turkish with a dash of South American flavour.
Sophia will soon be teaching in the Northern Beaches and North Shore of Sydney. If you're interested, register your interest on her website, Born to Bellydance.
Annette runs the Hippy Hippy Shake belly dance studio in South-West Sydney. Her extensive knowledge and qualifications in human movement bring an extra dimension to her belly dance teaching. Here she is in action in class:
One of Sydney's doyennes of belly dance, Leonie Sukan not only runs a successful belly dance school but organises one of the premier events on the Australian belly dancing calendar, the Sydney Middle Eastern Dance Festival. For Sydney dancers, it's quite simply an unmissable event - and bellydancers come from all over Australia to take part in workshops, dance in the Sunday showcase, attend the concert and ball, and shop at the Souk.
Leonie is a fun and knowledgeable teacher and one of the few in Sydney who teaches the Turkish style. For more information on classes, visit her website.
Below is a clip from the 2008 festival concert:
What can I say about Georgette? I've taken her classes (currently at Amera's Palace in Newtown and Hips Don't Lie Belly Dance Academy at Parramatta). Her lively, bubbly personality is a great motivator - plus she really knows her stuff. She's also a lovely entertaining dancer, with precise technique and an irreverent sense of fun - book her through Born to Bellydance.
This performance at the 2008 Sydney Middle Eastern Dance Festival is typical. I wish you could have seen the whole thing - I saw it live and she shimmied...and shimmied...and shimmied some more. Then she mimed feeling a bit faint (still shimmying) and a roadie rushed out with a bottle of water. She took it and threw it back - still shimmying - then, revived, shimmied even more! Comedy and awesome skill at the same time - amazing!
The next clip is of a surprise performance sprung on Georgette at the Hips Don't Lie Hafla, so it's totally improvised:
Here's a clip of Sydney belly dancer Kamelia at the 2008 Farha tour:
Kamelia has been dancing for 5 years and performs regularly around Sydney. Here's another clip of her, this time at the Dergah Grill in Sydney:
Watch this space for her website (coming soon). In the meantime, you can contact her via email at
Danielle Lopes de Melo hails from Brazil and has been in Sydney for three years. She incorporates Brazilian moves into her belly dancing to create her own original style. She has recently started teaching in Sydenham at Latin Motion Dance Studios and at Salsa Republic in Chippendale.
If you'd like Danielle to perform at your function, she can be booked through her website.
This is an unusual clip for this site - a dancer at home rather than performing in public - but it's worth seeing!
Magdalena is originally from Sweden - this clip was taken in Sydney.