Canberra Casbah Workshop Artist: Rachel

2018: Act Development and Stagecraft

Rachel debuted on stage in 2009 and soon became a seasoned belly dancer in Turkish restaurants across Canberra.

She has an high energy, engaging and cheeky and style and puts an emphasis on emotional expression through her dance. Grounded in Oriental and Cabaret belly dance, Rachel experiments in fusion styling and has developed her own special blend of showgirl inspired fanveil technique which she teaches at the Canberra Dance Theatre.

Her versatility and performance style has taken her across the country to perform at iconic events such as the Newcastle Belly Dance Festival (Newcastle, 2016), the Tribal an Trance Festival (Sydney, 2010), the Sydney Middle Eastern Dance Festival (Sydney, 2011), Floriade (Canberra, over several years),the National Folk Festival (Canberra, 2012), and the Canberra Multicultural Festival (Canberra, over several years).

Her passion to elevating the art of bellydance has seen Rachel produce the local event "Arabian Nights at Polit" which is a colourful and exotic bellydance showcase which runs every three months and features interstate guests and local soloists or troupes across a range of belly dance styles.

Rachel also performs other styles and produces shows under the stage name Jazida.