Anne Kingston - The Art of Belly Dance

resume

Anne teaches and performs Middle Eastern dance throughout the UK. A qualified JWAAD (Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance) Diploma Teacher and now a teacher trainer on the JWAAD Foundation course, her style is relaxed and fun.

Anne prefers modern Egyptian style and travels to Egypt regularly to study the latest techniques and research various aspects of the dance. Although her main destination is Cairo, in 2003 she discovered a love for deserts while trekking across the Sinai to raise money for Scope with fellow dancer, Natalie Nardone. In April 2005 she visited and slept under the stars in Egypt’s White Desert and in Nov 2007 organised her own week long dance holiday to the Tunisian Sahara with Desert Journey along with Natalie. Anne organises week long dance holidays in Cairo with Farida Adventures and various parts of Tunisia with Desert Journey including a dance desert trek. Anne has recently returned from the Farha Festival a week long dance holiday in Egypt with a full Egyptian band.

Previously trained in tap and jazz dance and with an interest in many other dance forms Anne also likes to explore fusions with other dance styles and is well known for her fun fusion dance choreographies. Anne has studied Middle Eastern dance over 15 years with many international dance teachers including Raqia Hassan, Farida Fahmy, Yasmina, Mahmoud Reda, Nadia Hamdi, Aida Noor, Leila Haddad, Sara Farouk, Lubnor, Amel Tafsout, Pauline Sayhi, Khaled, Mohammed Khazafy, Suraya Hilal, Medea Mahdavi, Wendy Buonaventura and Josephine Wise. She performs regularly as a soloist and also as a member of the Tarab Dance Company. The Company are currently touring their latest show ‘Strictly Bellydance’ throughout the north of England and Scotland.

resume

Anne participating in a African dance workshop in Harrogate

Anne is a regular teacher at the Northern residentials at Ford Castle, she also teaches two residential weekends annually at Burton Manor College in Cheshire with fellow tutor, Shirley Lewis, and a residential weekend in a 3 star hotel in St Helier, Jersey with Jacky Cullum.

Other teaching events include day and weekend workshops at Alston Hall College, Lancashire, workshops at Fantasia, London, the International Bellydance Congress near London and Raqs Britannia. Anne is also a regular teacher and show compere at the popular Jewel of Yorkshire (JOY) festivals and teaches numerous day and weekend workshops throughout the UK.

As well as teaching four classes a week, presenting workshops and giving talks on Middle Eastern dance Anne also researches and writes for the Northern Arabic Dance Association (NADA) magazine (previously she co-edited the magazine with Kay Taylor for 8 years). She has recently handed also passed on the role of NADA's Development Officer in order to devote more time to Just Because www.justbecause.org.uk.

resume

Anne dancing with Randa Kamel on the Nile Maxim, Cairo

Memorable moments for Anne (and there are many!) have been the unique opportunity to dance with the Feret el Negoum band and singer Sa’fa Farid, at the 2007 Farha Festival in Newcastle and again on the Farha Festival in Luxor in 2009, meeting Fifi Abdou and Sohair Zaki, seeing Amr Diab in concert in Cairo and London, performing at the Royal Albert Hall with Cheb Khaled in the London Concert for Afghanistan, being invited to dance at an Egyptian wedding in Cairo, listening to my lovely friend and oud player Eman while sailing towards Abu Simbel, performing with the Tarab Dance Company especially at the Algiers Hilton on New Year’s Eve 2007 and the Edinburgh Fringe, dancing under the stars with the Bedouins in the Sinai and Sahara deserts and dancing with Egyptian boys in a Reda style choreography ny Mohamed Ghazafy in Luxor in May 2009.

Anne works part-time as a Communications Officer for the Lancashire Environmental Fund at the Wildlife Trust headquarters in Cuerden Valley Park near Preston. Work includes producing the Fund’s Annual Report, attending project launches, writing press releases and publications, handling communications and organising the Fund’s Annual Event. It’s a job she loves and one which enhances her skills as a communicator which she finds particularly useful as a dance teacher and compere.