About A-Z Study Courses

	I was born in Perth, Western Australiaon September 15th 1969. My background is a Mediterranean mix; a Macedonian-Greek mother and a Croatian-Serbian father. The first time I saw a bellydancer was when my father - a music producer and sound engineer - sponsored the famous Romany Gypsy singer/dancer Esma on an Australian tour. Dance and music was an integral part of life as I grew up in suburban Australia and was exposed to a variety of cultural arts and musical styles through our multicultural family and friends. My passion for dance began when I was 17, when I took my first Oriental dance lesson. The music and shape of Arabic dance fascinated me and I quickly got swept up in the festive aspect of it all! I danced for the sheer joy of it - the celebration, the fun, the sense of discovery. Becoming a performer was never a 'planned' career, but it opened the door to the world for me. Dance became the pacemaker in my life - I literally moved to wherever it took me. I've lived in Turkey, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and now, Egypt. In my twenties I spent many years 'living out of a suitcase full of sequins' and travelled extensively. In my dancing days, some of the people and events I performed for were amazing - including The King of Malaysia, Crown Prince of Selangor, Prince of Pahang, Malaysia's Prime Minister, Princess of Morocco, Prince of Oman plus contracts at the Cairo Ramses Hilton, Star Cruises Asia Pacific and the world's largest Casino - Genting Highlands.
As my career took shape as a dance performer and teacher, world culture and 'living art' became my favourite subjects; seeing how people expressed themselves through the arts in everyday life and through cultural celebration. Spending many years researching dance, I integrated my studies with a BA in Fine Art History, focusing on geometry, music-space relationships and Islamic pattern in art and architecture. Sufism and ancient religions fascinated me too - particularly the ways dance and music were part of the mystic experience. In Singapore, I explored Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian philosophies and their intrinsic music, movement and meditation patterns. I opened dance studios in Australia and Singapore and worked with choreographers in Egypt, where I also began hosting tours. It was a wonderful way to meet and teach people from different countries, and therefore construct a universal teaching language. Travel, teaching, performance, people - I enjoyed them all immensely, yet needed to simplify my activities to embrace new forms of creativity that were emerging. Possibly the most defining time in my life was when I decided to stop performing and consolidate my research in ways that would help others. Although performance and palaces were wonderful, they were rather self-indulgent and my priorities had shifted over the years. So I developed systems for teaching dance based on my cultural knowledge and understanding of music, using fractal geometry and the core moves to express all styles of Oriental and folkloric dance. This became known as A-Z Bellydance, and because it evolved into a transferable 'dance language' I sold my studios and produced instructional videos instead - my 'virtual studio'! I was pleased that so many teachers around the world started using and sharing the information. I published a book - 'BELLYDANCE' with Allen and Unwin. It was satisfying to see the research collated into an accessible format that presented Middle Eastern dance from a rhythmic, historic and cultural perspective. A fan of celebration and education, I founded the WAMED Festival in Australia, and ran it for 9 years before passing the event over to a great team of dance promoters in WA.
To celebrate the transformative power of dance, Pulse8 Fitness and AstroBelly were created. AstroBelly incorporates elements of symbolism with bellydance. Pulse8 programs utilise powerful moves from various cultural dance styles. With the help of the main A-Z team (Renate Van Dordrecht, Jilyan Andersen and Suzanne Oehlers) who have helped create A-Z Bellydance Study courses - Personal Techniques and Teacher Training, A-Z teachers broadening networks worldwide. We run Teacher Training every two years, a wonderful event with dancers from around the world. With artistic assistance of talented musicians (and film-makers) like Omar Kamel, bringing these ideas to fruition is possible. I believe that bridging the gap between dance arts and wellbeing - linking them in a complimentary fashion - will become more evident in years to come. Egypt, Sphinx Festival, Egypt and Farida Fahmy I have been living and producing dvds and muisc in Egypt for ten years now. Since 2009, the year my daughter was born, my main project has been the SPHINX FESTIVAL in Cairo. Its an ultimate culmination of the roots of dance and culture - offering a creative new vision for artists. I also archive Farida Fahmy's work and costume E-Books and maintain Farida Fahmy's website as a cultural resource for dancers worldwide as well as a documentary on her life in progress at the moment. 2011 is my last year of travel and teaching around the world and training Pulse8 Instructors in all continents, as I leave the dance world and embark on a full time career in film production.		Filming AstroBelly in Egypt Aref, Keti, Nasser, Omar Kamel RECENT INTERVIEW WITH DUNJA MAY 2011 click here to read
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