Middle Eastern Dancing Links
Links checked and updated 19th June 2008
These links are all available elsewhere on other sites. What I've tried to do here is to assemble some of the best for your convenience. Scouring the internet and following link after link is time consuming and one usually has to trawl through some pretty awful sites to get at the good stuff. Not all the sites listed here are brilliant examples of the web designers art but all of them have worthwhile content.
What constitutes 'the best' here is my humble personal opinion based on what I've found so far. No-one pays us to put their links here, nor do we insist on a return link. If you have other links you think should be here please let me know and I'll take a look. Email me
I've given a brief description of each site to help newcomers decide which to visit first. If you're an 'oldtimer' these sites are probably already on your favourites list.
Diana Mehira Diana is a dance teacher and performer based in Derby and specialising in Turkish style.
I've seen her dance and she's awsome. Watching her perform a duet with Tati Hafsa is an experience guaranteed to have your jaw on the floor.
The Shimmychicks website. The Shimmychicks are three Lincoln ladies, Barbara, Claire and Diane, who do the most amazing Bollywood and Tribal style dancing in addition to the more "normal" stuff. They've conned Nigel, Claire's husband, into building them a website and it's looking good! If you don't know them already look out for their performances (on their website) and make sure you see them. I guarantee you won't regret it!! I'm one of their biggest fans.
Arab Esque Our own Donna Conway's website. Donna now has her souk ready for the road and would love to be invited to your haflas or events. See our shops page for more details or go directly to her website from the linked name.
British Tribal Style A new website (March '08) from Tati Hafsa and Pauline Qu from Nottingham.Their entry page describes the site as: a celebration of the eccentricity and unique styles of Arabic Dancers in the British Isles....Our goal is to return to the essence of Arabic Dance, to embrace the differences in styles and interpretations whilst encouraging individual expression and innovation.
Tati Hafsa This is Tati's main site (see above) and includes her shop as well as stuff about events and workshops. Tati (along with Pauline) spend so much time at Lincolnshire events now that I've appointed them both as honourary Yellow Bellies.
Pauline Qu Q'ar Body Art. Pauline is a henna artist as well as a very accomplished Tribal style dancer.
For more on Pauline's henna see the article on our articles and reviews page.
Penny Walters' website, Penny does everything from running a souk and catering (Bristol area but I'm told she'll travel for a big enough event) to arranging Egyptian dance holidays and renting out an apartment and guide in Luxor. Her site was highly recommended after one of our stalwarts indulged herself with a week of dance decadence in Luxor and loved it to pieces.
AngelaDanette is a close neighbour to Lincolnshire (Mansfield, Notts area) and describes herself as: Performing Artiste & Teacher of Middle Eastern Dance. She is an accomplished Dancer, Singer and Guitarist. She has studied dance and music since the age of 6 years, performing at 11 years old in theatrical musicals including the Who's rock opera, "Tommy" where she played Sally Simpson, and a small part in Andrew Lloyd Webbers, "Jesus Christ Superstar." Angela confesses that her website is in need of updating. See our teachers' page for more detail in the "Out of Area section."
Beverley Smith Beverley is primarily an Egyptian style dancer and teacher and is based in the Leeds area. In addition Beverley now designs and makes many kinds of costumes and runs the ‘Beladi Bazaar’, which can be found at the workshops and events she organizes throughout the year.
Candi Colgrave-Bell Candi says: I want this site to be a useful information site for Egyptian style bellydancers everywhere as well as my students and people who attend my workshops.You will find costume and music advice,song translations and background information on famous dancers as well as events you can attend and information about my classes and workshops. I update regularly www.rakscandi.co.uk
Farida Adventures The web site of the Kay Taylor, well known to most Lincolnshire (and UK) dancers and a stalwart of N.A.D.A. This site tells you about her Middle Eastern dance tours to Cairo, Rakassa and Istanbul, Her other site (Farida dance, listed on our shops page) sells dance costumes costumes by top designers from Cairo & Istanbul. The Farida Dance site also has interesting articles including some which describe her entry into the Middle Eastern dance world and her progress to teacher and professional dancer.
Hossam and Serena Ramzy If the names of this couple are unfamiliar to you you must be new to Middle Eastern dance; learn them now and visit their website. Hossam is a world class percussionist, musician, producer and gentleman from Egypt. He is passionate about his art and his culture. Serena is a world class Middle Eastern dancer from Brazil, The word that best describes Serena is 'lovely'...on the inside as well as outside. Visit their site to find out about them and to see the selection of CD's DVD's, videos, music etc they have for sale. Take the time to read Hossam's excellent articles too. (N.B. You can listen to samples of their CD music online with Realplayer) If you attend a Ramzy workshop be prepared to be worked hard and to get your money's worth.
Lincolnshire Dance Their mission statement says: "lincolnshire dance will inspire, motivate and support those involved with the provision of dance opportunities within Lincolnshire to develop a coherent and integrated dance ecology within the county." Does the wording make you scratch your head? They have to talk like that, they have European funding. In practical terms, they're there to promote all forms of dance in Lincolnshire. If you're a teacher they can help you transform your experience into an NVQ quaification. Well worth looking at their site to see what they can offer.
Wiggle is the prime site for the Northern region and has some coverage of the rest of the country too. Lists most teachers and many haflas and workshops. A most useful site.
Anne Kingston Anne is a professional Middle Eastern dancer and sometimes teaches at workshops in the county. She's an excellent performer and is personally a credit to the Middle Eastern dancing community. Her site is well worth a visit.
Shira. An American site, shows teachers and all kinds of other stuff worldwide (including the UK). Packed with pages of Middle Eastern dance info including Middle Eastern dance history. Set aside an hour or two to browse here.
kismet-bellydance Vivienne is based in the Milton Keynes/Newport Pagnell area. She has some interesting events scheduled along with her shop and Middle Eastern dance info and links,
Oriental Dancer Salome's site, Salome is an American dancer and performer based in Oregon. A very useful site with articles, star interviews, translations of Arabic lyrics and much more. A very good feature is their dancers' forum. This is a very active forum with members all over the world, if you ask a question here you are likely to get some intelligent responses.
A Taste of Cairo Tacey Gibbs web site, Tracey is a well known professional Middle Eastern dancer. This site has links to events and workshops outside the area we'd normally cover as well as having info about her dance agency and about having dance photos taken by a professional photographer. Also info about belly dance holidays.
N.A.D.A The website of the Northern Arabic Dance Association.
NADA is the central body for Arabic dance for the North of England and Scotland. N.A.D.A also produces an excellent magazine published 3 times a year and included in the cost of membership.
The Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance. The Josephine Wise Academy runs and promotes classes, workshops and performances throughout Great Britain and is dedicated to improving the standard and raising the profile of Arabic Dance in the West.
JWAAD has run an annual Summer Residential Course every August since 1990. They also run a Teacher Training Diploma Course and now have qualified teachers all over Great Britain and parts of Europe. The academy also runs the much acclaimed twice-yearly London FANTASIA festival. See their website for more details.
Mosaic Arabic Dance Network Mosaic Arabic Dance Network UK was founded in 1993 by a group of dancers who wished to raise the profile of Arabic Dance. They organise workshops and events, publish a magazine and provide an insurance scheme for dance teachers. See their Website for more details.
Pedralta.com A beautiful site. Donna and her husband's web talents fill me with envy. A UK-based site for Tribal belly dance and Middle Eastern Dance with articles and information on dance, fitness, health and travel. Also sales of mainly Tribal style dance wear. I'd say it's well worth taking the time to browse through Donna's site.
Khaled Mahmoud. Khaled is that rare jewel in England, a male belly dancer. He's from Cairo but now lives near London. Khaled is a superb dancer and very popular teacher. He shimmies like an earthquake with a high fever. Khaled will be teaching at Jewel of Yorkshire again in March '07 and I suspect that his classes will sell out fast. I had the pleasure to see him perform at JoY3 and to meet him the next day. He's a real showman and very a pleasant chap.
Afra al Kahira Based in Devon, Afra's site is far more than a belly dance shop. She has many excellent articles, ranging from how to choose a teacher to how to set up as a teacher, from 'Body Fascism' to 'The Importance of Good Manners.' Also reviews, and much, much more. In addition she runs ASMED the Al Kahira School of Middle Eastern Dance. You can easily spend a couple or three hours browsing through her site and following her links like I did.
Morocco's Meanderings I found Morocco's site (based in New York) via a link from Afra's site. This is another one that's well worth the time it takes to browse through. I found her article called "If Prices Are Up All Over, Why Are Dancers Getting Less?" particularly fascinating but there are many others there and you might prefer to start with "The Ethics of Ethnic" or "Belly Dancing and Childbirth." Whichever you choose I hope you'll enjoy her writing style as much as I did. This lady has had a career in Arabic dance since before many of you (not me) were born and really knows her stuff.
Links checked and updated 19th June 2008
These links are all available elsewhere on other sites. What I've tried to do here is to assemble some of the best for your convenience. Scouring the internet and following link after link is time consuming and one usually has to trawl through some pretty awful sites to get at the good stuff. Not all the sites listed here are brilliant examples of the web designers art but all of them have worthwhile content.
What constitutes 'the best' here is my humble personal opinion based on what I've found so far. No-one pays us to put their links here, nor do we insist on a return link. If you have other links you think should be here please let me know and I'll take a look. Email me
I've given a brief description of each site to help newcomers decide which to visit first. If you're an 'oldtimer' these sites are probably already on your favourites list.
Diana Mehira Diana is a dance teacher and performer based in Derby and specialising in Turkish style.
I've seen her dance and she's awsome. Watching her perform a duet with Tati Hafsa is an experience guaranteed to have your jaw on the floor.
The Shimmychicks website. The Shimmychicks are three Lincoln ladies, Barbara, Claire and Diane, who do the most amazing Bollywood and Tribal style dancing in addition to the more "normal" stuff. They've conned Nigel, Claire's husband, into building them a website and it's looking good! If you don't know them already look out for their performances (on their website) and make sure you see them. I guarantee you won't regret it!! I'm one of their biggest fans.
Arab Esque Our own Donna Conway's website. Donna now has her souk ready for the road and would love to be invited to your haflas or events. See our shops page for more details or go directly to her website from the linked name.
British Tribal Style A new website (March '08) from Tati Hafsa and Pauline Qu from Nottingham.Their entry page describes the site as: a celebration of the eccentricity and unique styles of Arabic Dancers in the British Isles....Our goal is to return to the essence of Arabic Dance, to embrace the differences in styles and interpretations whilst encouraging individual expression and innovation.
Tati Hafsa This is Tati's main site (see above) and includes her shop as well as stuff about events and workshops. Tati (along with Pauline) spend so much time at Lincolnshire events now that I've appointed them both as honourary Yellow Bellies.
Pauline Qu Q'ar Body Art. Pauline is a henna artist as well as a very accomplished Tribal style dancer.
For more on Pauline's henna see the article on our articles and reviews page.
Penny Walters' website, Penny does everything from running a souk and catering (Bristol area but I'm told she'll travel for a big enough event) to arranging Egyptian dance holidays and renting out an apartment and guide in Luxor. Her site was highly recommended after one of our stalwarts indulged herself with a week of dance decadence in Luxor and loved it to pieces.
AngelaDanette is a close neighbour to Lincolnshire (Mansfield, Notts area) and describes herself as: Performing Artiste & Teacher of Middle Eastern Dance. She is an accomplished Dancer, Singer and Guitarist. She has studied dance and music since the age of 6 years, performing at 11 years old in theatrical musicals including the Who's rock opera, "Tommy" where she played Sally Simpson, and a small part in Andrew Lloyd Webbers, "Jesus Christ Superstar." Angela confesses that her website is in need of updating. See our teachers' page for more detail in the "Out of Area section."
Beverley Smith Beverley is primarily an Egyptian style dancer and teacher and is based in the Leeds area. In addition Beverley now designs and makes many kinds of costumes and runs the ‘Beladi Bazaar’, which can be found at the workshops and events she organizes throughout the year.
Candi Colgrave-Bell Candi says: I want this site to be a useful information site for Egyptian style bellydancers everywhere as well as my students and people who attend my workshops.You will find costume and music advice,song translations and background information on famous dancers as well as events you can attend and information about my classes and workshops. I update regularly www.rakscandi.co.uk
Farida Adventures The web site of the Kay Taylor, well known to most Lincolnshire (and UK) dancers and a stalwart of N.A.D.A. This site tells you about her Middle Eastern dance tours to Cairo, Rakassa and Istanbul, Her other site (Farida dance, listed on our shops page) sells dance costumes costumes by top designers from Cairo & Istanbul. The Farida Dance site also has interesting articles including some which describe her entry into the Middle Eastern dance world and her progress to teacher and professional dancer.
Hossam and Serena Ramzy If the names of this couple are unfamiliar to you you must be new to Middle Eastern dance; learn them now and visit their website. Hossam is a world class percussionist, musician, producer and gentleman from Egypt. He is passionate about his art and his culture. Serena is a world class Middle Eastern dancer from Brazil, The word that best describes Serena is 'lovely'...on the inside as well as outside. Visit their site to find out about them and to see the selection of CD's DVD's, videos, music etc they have for sale. Take the time to read Hossam's excellent articles too. (N.B. You can listen to samples of their CD music online with Realplayer) If you attend a Ramzy workshop be prepared to be worked hard and to get your money's worth.
Lincolnshire Dance Their mission statement says: "lincolnshire dance will inspire, motivate and support those involved with the provision of dance opportunities within Lincolnshire to develop a coherent and integrated dance ecology within the county." Does the wording make you scratch your head? They have to talk like that, they have European funding. In practical terms, they're there to promote all forms of dance in Lincolnshire. If you're a teacher they can help you transform your experience into an NVQ quaification. Well worth looking at their site to see what they can offer.
Wiggle is the prime site for the Northern region and has some coverage of the rest of the country too. Lists most teachers and many haflas and workshops. A most useful site.
Anne Kingston Anne is a professional Middle Eastern dancer and sometimes teaches at workshops in the county. She's an excellent performer and is personally a credit to the Middle Eastern dancing community. Her site is well worth a visit.
Shira. An American site, shows teachers and all kinds of other stuff worldwide (including the UK). Packed with pages of Middle Eastern dance info including Middle Eastern dance history. Set aside an hour or two to browse here.
kismet-bellydance Vivienne is based in the Milton Keynes/Newport Pagnell area. She has some interesting events scheduled along with her shop and Middle Eastern dance info and links,
Oriental Dancer Salome's site, Salome is an American dancer and performer based in Oregon. A very useful site with articles, star interviews, translations of Arabic lyrics and much more. A very good feature is their dancers' forum. This is a very active forum with members all over the world, if you ask a question here you are likely to get some intelligent responses.
A Taste of Cairo Tacey Gibbs web site, Tracey is a well known professional Middle Eastern dancer. This site has links to events and workshops outside the area we'd normally cover as well as having info about her dance agency and about having dance photos taken by a professional photographer. Also info about belly dance holidays.
N.A.D.A The website of the Northern Arabic Dance Association.
NADA is the central body for Arabic dance for the North of England and Scotland. N.A.D.A also produces an excellent magazine published 3 times a year and included in the cost of membership.
The Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance. The Josephine Wise Academy runs and promotes classes, workshops and performances throughout Great Britain and is dedicated to improving the standard and raising the profile of Arabic Dance in the West.
JWAAD has run an annual Summer Residential Course every August since 1990. They also run a Teacher Training Diploma Course and now have qualified teachers all over Great Britain and parts of Europe. The academy also runs the much acclaimed twice-yearly London FANTASIA festival. See their website for more details.
Mosaic Arabic Dance Network Mosaic Arabic Dance Network UK was founded in 1993 by a group of dancers who wished to raise the profile of Arabic Dance. They organise workshops and events, publish a magazine and provide an insurance scheme for dance teachers. See their Website for more details.
Pedralta.com A beautiful site. Donna and her husband's web talents fill me with envy. A UK-based site for Tribal belly dance and Middle Eastern Dance with articles and information on dance, fitness, health and travel. Also sales of mainly Tribal style dance wear. I'd say it's well worth taking the time to browse through Donna's site.
Khaled Mahmoud. Khaled is that rare jewel in England, a male belly dancer. He's from Cairo but now lives near London. Khaled is a superb dancer and very popular teacher. He shimmies like an earthquake with a high fever. Khaled will be teaching at Jewel of Yorkshire again in March '07 and I suspect that his classes will sell out fast. I had the pleasure to see him perform at JoY3 and to meet him the next day. He's a real showman and very a pleasant chap.
Afra al Kahira Based in Devon, Afra's site is far more than a belly dance shop. She has many excellent articles, ranging from how to choose a teacher to how to set up as a teacher, from 'Body Fascism' to 'The Importance of Good Manners.' Also reviews, and much, much more. In addition she runs ASMED the Al Kahira School of Middle Eastern Dance. You can easily spend a couple or three hours browsing through her site and following her links like I did.
Morocco's Meanderings I found Morocco's site (based in New York) via a link from Afra's site. This is another one that's well worth the time it takes to browse through. I found her article called "If Prices Are Up All Over, Why Are Dancers Getting Less?" particularly fascinating but there are many others there and you might prefer to start with "The Ethics of Ethnic" or "Belly Dancing and Childbirth." Whichever you choose I hope you'll enjoy her writing style as much as I did. This lady has had a career in Arabic dance since before many of you (not me) were born and really knows her stuff.