I can't remember when I fell in love with Bellydance - but when I finally got round to taking classes, I was completely hooked. I now hope that my passion for the dance will pass on to my students and hopefully the people who see me perform.

I always remember being attracted to the music of the Middle East and other world music such as the Indian Tabla and Sitar. It was probably through the movies that I first saw bellydance. I used to watch a lot of Sinbad The Sailor movies as a child and the exotic looking costumes and oriental melodies had me sent. I am sure also ‘From Russia With Love’ with the fantastic bellydance scene must have been yet another seed to be sown.

It was in 2004 when I was looking for life drawing classes in my area, that I thought to ask one of the venues if they knew of anyone doing Bellydance classes. The rest as they say, is history. I began Egyptian Dance lessons with Aliya Burch and she was a great person to learn with and I got an excellent grounding in the basics. Since then I have continued to study through visiting workshops which come to the UK and recently have studied alot with Mira Betz, a truly inspirational and original dancer from San Fransisco. She concentrates on bringing a personal twist to the dance and encourages individual style rather than copycats. I consider Mira Betz my teacher, even though she is many miles away!

I then saw The Bellydance Superstars in 2005 which blew me away and in 2006 attended ‘Raqs Britannia’, a bellydance extravaganza which the Superstars organise where you can go to workshops and buy costumes from the Souk and see British and American dancers perform in the evenings. These events are great opportunities to learn from some of the top dancers in the world. There are many dancers who inspire me, but in particular Mira Betz (with whom I've studied the most with), Fifi Abdou, Randa Kamel, Sam Hasthorpe, Ozgen, Bastet, Zoe Jakes, Bozenka are my top favourites.

The other attraction to bellydance for me is the costuming. I design and make many of my own costumes and can provide this service for other dancers as well. My costumes are streamlined and swing from classic to outrageous and are finished to a high quality that you don't find in a lot of belly dance costuming.