November 14th, 15th & 16th

Stoke Mandeville Stadium
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire

Awalim

Ziah Ali McKinney-Taylor

Her extensive background in bellydance includes Egyptian, Tribal and Turkish. She has a broad base of folkloric dance study including Kurdish, Persian, Rajisthani, North African, Israeli, Turkish Rom, and Egyptian

She also produced a crtically acclaimed video "Yalla! Yalla!" of Awalim's show at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Clips can be seen on the Awalim website. Ziah's new venture is a sci fi con type bellydance festival called Tribal Con.

Ziah will be joined by fellow troupe members.

Sarah is the director of Kismet Bellydance Ltd. Her dancing career spans three decades and covers everything from representing Britain in professional Latin American competitions worldwide, through teaching in Fred Astaire dance studios in the USA, to being Carolena Nericcio's UK representative charged with co-ordinating and promoting Carolena's activities and the original FatChance Bellydance format in Britain.

FatChange Bellydance trained, Deana has been dancing ATS for four years and has been dancing with Sarah and Tribe of Kismet for two years. She teaches her own regular ATS classes for The Kismet School of Bellydance and assists Sarah with her ATS classes and in preparing the 'Tribe' for performance.

Zehara is a full time professional dancer and teacher and her dance style is celebratory and joyous and has strong African overtones. Her main influence being African dance which is very organic, earthy and physical.

Steffi of Barefoot Bellydance 

She began her dance training with classical Egyptian and other styles, but fell in love with Tribal when she met Paulette Rees Denis during one of Paulette's visits to the UK in the late 1990s and has been dancing Tribal ever since.

In 2006 Steffi went to Portland, Oregon, USA to study with Paulette and qualified as a Gypsy Caravan Style Teacher, Levels One and Two. 

Steffi especially loves teaching complete beginners, and those who are new to Tribal, as she loves to share her passion for this dance with those who are unfamiliar with it.

Having such a strong tribe of dancers and musicians to work with in Barefoot Bellydance allows her to bring her passion for the dance alive.

Rick Cobert and Chris Turner
Barefoot Bellydance Band

Largely self taught, they began drumming with the dance troupe from its inception and almost from the beginning of their drum training. They have studied under Sallah Dawson Miller and Doug Schaeffer of Gypsy Caravan and Mizna, along with using A.V materials from such teachers as Hossam Ramzy, Tim Garside, Issam Houshan and Uncle Mafufo.

They have been English Morris Dancers with Grand Union Morris for over 20 years. This background in folk dance and their involvement during dance practices etc gives them a special sensitivity to the musical requirements and "feel of" Tribal Style bellydance, which can be most keenly felt during improvised dance sections, where the emphasis of the beat or even the rhythm itself can be varied to compliment the dancers' movements.

Chris and Rick performed with members of the Gypsy Caravan band (now Mizna) for Gypsy Caravan's headlining dance performance at Tribal Vibe and Tribal Vibe North in October 2007.