Kuranda Tribal Bellydance joins Tribal Zest at Festival Cairns

Sienna converted her personal car and trailer into a beautiful bedouin tent as we danced our way through the streets of Cairns to celebrate Festival Cairns' 50th birthday on 21st August 2011.  The theme for the 50th birthday celebration was 'time machine' and we were dressed to be gypsy hippies.

Amanda and Lisa on the Tribal Zest float at Festival Cairns
(Photo-Carolyn Tonks)

The tribe from Tribal Zest were all decked out and ready to dance.  So onto the tarmac barefeet and all we danced for the full parade through the streets of Cairns.  To join in the fun, Amanda and I from Kuranda added to the circle.

The crowd were really enjoying the festival parade, clapping, smiling, some people were so overwhelmed that they would run out from the crowd to give the dancers a kiss on the cheek.  

Tribal Zest dance their way down the Esplanade of Cairns

(photo-Mark Newton)

The noise was incredible, so we added to our music with tabla drumming and zilling, to show how talented we all are.

The next day, imagine my surprise when our very own Amanda shows up in the Cairns Post.  I am not surprised, her energy was shining through as she danced and smiled her way through Cairns.

Amanda Miller dancing with Tribal Zest at the Cairns Festival (photo-Cairns Post)

Junior bellies dance class in Kuranda - let's give it a go!

The soccer Mums and Dads of Kuranda have requested a junior bellies dance class to run concurrently with the soccer practice on Wednesday nights.  So we are going to give it a run this week.   Moves will be kept simple with a focus on musicality, rhythm and co-ordination.  Thanks to my fellow bellydance sisters who have given me ideas and insights into teaching young girls.  I am looking forward to searching for some new music to suit this group and looking forward to really analysing and breaking down the tribal moves to adapt them to an age group of 6-8 year olds.  Thank goodness i have a teaching background!  Wish me luck!

A day of drumming with Yeow

Wow - what a great drummer and teacher - a rare combination!
Yeow from Bellyslap in Melbourne [bellyslap@gmail.com] gave us four fantastic hours of teaching at the Temple.  Starting with the basic sounds of the tabla, some warm ups and the rhythms of tabla drumming including: falahi, ayoub, maksoum, baladi, saidi, heavy saidi, nawari and chiftitelli.  By the end, my hands were tingling and my poor neglected drum never sounded better!
Thanks for an awesome day of drumming!  It is so great to extend our belly dance repertoire from dancers to percussionist musicians also.  I look forward to sharing what we have learnt with our Kuranda tribe and extending our repertoire to be experienced in dance and percussion in the form of zills and tabla drums.

Yeow at the temple

(pictured back:Lisa, Leila, Carmen, Jasmin, Patti, Storm, 

middle: Jo, Yeow, Babushka, 

Front: Sienna, Nina, Jo and Sharna)