ALYASATI
ALYASATI is a Melbourne based Fusion Bellydance School directed by Sarah Moulton. Sarah is passionate about sharing her love of Fusion Bellydance and believes it is a platform for dancers to reclaim their confidence & body awareness and reconnect with their authentic self-expression through dance.
Her dance school ALYASATI weaves together beauty, artistry, empowerment and the serpentine qualities of Fusion Bellydance which is inspired by the dances from the MENAHT region, Central Asia, blending with elements of Contemporary and Modern dance.
Sarah teaches regular beginner & intermediate Fusion Bellydance classes at Moss Studio in Brunswick and online.
Alia
Alia is a professional Belly Dancer & Teacher, and has worked all over the world, especially in Egypt, where she earned her Performer’s License there. She performs all around Melbourne at restaurants, weddings, functions, festivals and events and created Lotus (with Nashat Abdelsayed) which is a co-operative of dancers, musicians and singers that explore & perform MENAGaT cultures, as well as pushing the envelope to take Middle Eastern Dance into different directions and dimensions, including fusing with other dance genres.
She is especially interested in teaching Belly Dance for Women’s Health, and People’s Fun & Fitness and has taught workshops extensively around Australia and overseas, as continuing learning & research. Alia is currently teaching at the Brunswick Neighbourhood House (De Carle Street).
Amanda PB
Amanda is the owner of APB Dance and a co-founder of the Far East Belly Dance Collective. She has been dancing for 15 years and this year completed her Intermediate Dancer 2 certificate with the Salimpour School. She is currently working on her Teaching and her Advanced Dancer certifications with the school. Outside of dancing, Amanda is also studying the culture and history of the Arabic region as well as learning to read and write Arabic. Amanda has dazzled audiences across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA and will be performing in the worlds longest running belly dance show, Bal Anat in April.
Amanda is the Melbourne team leader for the annual Shimmy Mob flash mob, a worldwide event that raises funds for local domestic violence services, such as Berry Street, which the Melbourne team support. She also runs First Run Stage, an initiative that gives performers a “training” stage to learn valuable performance skills on, and various other events throughout the year.
Amanda’s classes run both in the studio and online and welcomes everyone who wants to have fun to come join her classes.
APB Dance Troupe
The APB Dance Troupe is a new dance group which has spent the last 6 weeks learning the choreography that is being presented today.
Aqua Moon
Aqua Moon is an eclectic group of women guided by creatrix Lauren Fisher, hailing from the Outer Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, specialising in Group Improvised and Folkloric Fusion bellydance styles. Known for their quirky and upbeat approach to movement, music and costume, they are popular at many local festivals and community events.
Bluefire Bellydancers
The Bluefire Bellydancers are a true representation of their school ethos of including dancers of all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities. Located in the Western suburbs, they bring the joy of bellydance to many community events and festivals around Victoria!
Carla Lee
Carla Lee found Bellydance in her mid-40s and instantly fell in love with this beautiful art form. Belly dance gave her passion and joy to live a second life and will accompany her for the rest of her life. Since 2020, Carla has been actively involved in learning from both Australian and international teachers. Carla’s current mentors are Alisa Shine, Angella Kim via online platforms and Elena Fosteril in in person class. Carla is currently working on how to improve presence in her performances and would love to share this in ‘Summer dream’.
Catkin
Catkin is a fusion dancer based on modern Egyptian Technique. She infuses cabaret and tribal belly dance influences. She adds in circus elements including contact juggling, fans, isolation hoops, fire fans and staff.
Dancessence
Dancers in the Dancessence group explore their individual responses to music to develop a performance piece. Combining similarities and differences, they therefore dance solo and together in a choreographed improvisation that showcases unique style and interpretations of music.
Dantilla
Dantilla, ‘lace’ in Arabic, evokes qualities of beauty, strength, and elegance that are displayed in Dantilla troupe performances through the variety and depth of its members in Middle Eastern dance experience.
Entwined Bellydance
Established in 2009, Entwined Bellydance is one of Australia’s most prolific fusion bellydance companies, presenting work at numerous music and arts festivals and events around Australia since 2014. Under the direction of founder/principal Laura Entwined, Entwined Bellydance Troupe have presented and performed 4 successful and sellout full-length shows in Melbourne over the past 5years, and regularly present and perform choreographed and improvised dance work at renowned community and lifestyle events around Victoria. The school has trained, inspired and developed numerous emerging Melbourne fusion dancers of the years, many of whom now work/teach/perform professionally, and through regular classes, training and performance opportunities has become a platform for developing emerging fusion bellydancers in Melbourne and beyond. For more information head to entwinedbellydance.com
Helen Patrice
Helen Patrice is an eclectic dancer, pulling from belly dance, cabaret, fringe, and interpretive. She retired from teaching belly dance and professional performance over ten years ago, but keeps her hand in with quirky performances at haflas. She is currently rehabilitating her body after surgeries in 2022.
Isabel
Isabel is a newish but familiar face on the dancing scene, returning to performing after a long break. Isabel’s early belly dance tended to be in what was called ‘cabaret’, but now more commonly called ‘Tarab’ and associated with ‘golden era’ or ‘classical’. For Isabel, the attraction of belly dance was, and still is, its ability to explore the human condition and give physical form to the emotional story of music.
Joanna
Most known for her blend of cabaret, musical theatre and MENAHT dance, Joanna has quickly become a firecracker staple within the Melbourne belly dance scene. She currently has the honour of being a key member in the Melbourne Bellydance agency and Pro Team troupe, teaching two courses at the renowned Maison Burlesque, and working with her own clients in the MENAHT, cabaret and queer industries. Joanna is currently preparing to represent our beautiful Australia in several international bellydance festivals across France, Spain and Greece.
Laura Entwined
A Queensland-born, Melbourne-based movement teacher, choreographer, troupe director and performance artist, Laura Entwined, has been performing since 2006, and has graced the stages of some of Australia’s biggest arts, music and lifestyle festivals, and performed internationally in NZ, Indonesia and the USA. Laura has been studying the art and techniques of yoga and bellydance for 15 – 20 years with over 40 teachers worldwide, teaching workshops around the country since 2010 and successful weekly classes in Melbourne since 2013. Director/founder of Entwined Bellydance in 2009, the company has expanded to include a range of training and performance programs from bellydance, fusion dance, movement therapies, yoga and pilates, and produced 4 sell-out full length shows in Melbourne.
Lauren
Lauren is the Creatrix behind Aqua Moon and has enjoyed all forms of Bellydance for 14+ years, with a particular fondness for Fusion styles such as FatChance Style (aka ATS), Global Caravan and Datura Style. Her approach to music and movement is often colourful, upbeat and a little sassy, yet every now and then, she allows her shadow self to come out and play. Which will it be for Summer Dreams?
LilliM
LilliM is a powerful and dynamic performance project by Melbourne dancers Bek Kelly, Briohney Tilley, HoneyBea & Sarah Moulton. Each dancer has experienced 8-13 years of deep devotional immersion in the Fusion Dance artform and in this collaboration, bringing their own inspiring and eclectic influence of traditional, contemporary & neo Fusion Belly Dance.
LilliM’s performances connect deeply with the audience as they weave together stories exploring the archetypes and elements and how these are experienced by the human existence through dance.
Maria Rosales
Born in Venezuela, Maria has a lifelong passion for Middle Eastern music and dance. This passion has led her to dance and deepen her knowledge of Raqs Sharqi for over 15 years. She has trained with internationally acclaimed dancers from Venezuela, USA, Egypt, Australia, and Argentina.
Maria is a former member of the prestigious Melbourne Belly Dance Pro team directed by Josie Palermo and danced alongside some of the most popular and sought-after belly dancers in the Melbourne belly dance scene. Currently, Maria is based in Brisbane and continues to learn and grow as a dancer. She is committed to presenting high-quality shows and delighting her audience with her unique style.
Melanie Khanum
With Armenian parents hailing from Istanbul, bellydance has been part of Melanie’s life since birth. Following her travels to Turkey, Iran, and Lebanon in 2018, Melanie formally commenced her Egyptian bellydance journey. Her native comprehension of Turkish language and music, and Bachelor of Arts sub-majoring in Arabic Language, assisted Melanie to quickly advance in her learning of Egyptian bellydance.
With the advent of plentiful online dance classes, Melanie has been a student of many Australian and international bellydancers. During the Melbourne lockdowns, Melanie took advantage of her knowledge of unique Armenian musical timing and dance gestures to commence her study of Classical Persian dance, again learning from both Australian and international professionals. She has since expanded her repertoire to include Uzbek and Afghan dances. Melanie is honoured to dance to a modern rendition of well-known Afghan folk song “Ke Mataw” at Summer Dreams.
Melbourne Bellydance
Melbourne Bellydance was established in 2012 to provide high quality, glamorous bellydance performance experiences for a wide range of audiences. Director Josie Palermo has had over 3 decades of local and international experience in middle eastern dance and is proud to work with the best dancers and musicians in Melbourne. All our dancers are internationally trained and have worked in 1000s of shows. We also collaborate with talented drummers and Arabic musicians to bring an authentic sound to all our live performances.
Prue
Prue a seasoned professional who has been gracing the stage for the majority of her life. Prue is the founder of The Dance Safe Project, specialising in safe dance practices and injury prevention and management for Bellydancers. You can find out more at www.thedancesafeproject.com. Prue is also one of the duo who bring Summer and Winter Dreams to life!
Red Belly Black
Red Belly Black has been a renown Melbourne troupe for almost 20 years. They are best known for introducing Tribal and Fusion dance to Melbourne audiences for the first time and continue to push the boundaries of contemporary Belly Dance with their diverse and captivating choreographies.
Rita
Rita is a Lebanese dancer, born and raised in Lebanon and has been dancing since she was a young girl. She took up Oriental dance in Australia over 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. Rita is a performer, teacher, choreographer and foremost a lifelong student of oriental dance and is always looking to learn and to improve her art. This has led her to attend many workshops with international and interstate teachers to enrish her dance repertoire and also travel to Egypt and Lebanon where she can continue to study with master dancers.
Rita brings a wealth of knowledge and feeling to her dance performance where she tries to pass on this dance as authentically as possible. She is a fun and energetic performer that will keep you dancing on your toes. She is also a skilled an innovative teacher and has developed a distinctive style when it comes to teaching Middle Easter dance to Western women.
Tanbura Bellydance
Tanbura Bellydance dance improvisational group bellydance (formerly ‘American Tribal Style’), for fun and friendship, performing at farmers markets and other community events in the Eastern Suburbs. Based in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, group director Jedda teaches classes in Ferntree Gully.
Zabelle
Zabelle’s signature style is a tapestry of Middle Eastern dance influences, inspired by studying with master teachers in modern and traditional genres.