Diane Petty

I have been studying Eyptian dance since 1994. I started by enrolling on a 'Bellydance' night school here in Weymouth and found I really enjoyed both the music and dance. It was here I met Margaret Marsh, who introduced me to to the more earthy and grounded form of Raqs Sharqi. She took me under her wing and encouraged me to attend workshops. I regularly went to workshops with Hilal School teachers including Anne Ashcroft and later Juliana Brustik at Portsmouth. Whenever possible I attended workshops with Katrina Robinson, Terri Hardy, Judy Hammond and also went on residential weekend workshops. I also attended Aliya Burch's (another knowledgeable and encouraging teacher) workshops in Glastonbury and Taunton.

I have visited Egypt and loved the culture and music and had lessons with well-known Cairo dancers. In 2002 I was asked to perform with Tamarisk (Aliya's dance company) and danced in the show 'Dances of the Nile' both in 2002 and 2003.

I have performed numerous charity events throughout the years, which has sometimes included teaching a short workshop.

In 2006, Ellie Atkinson and I formed a partnership to further our creative skills and ideas. Our aims are to raise the profile of Egyptian dance in Dorset, foster good relations with other styles of Middle Eastern dance and bring Guest Raqs Sharqi style teachers to Dorset.

We have our own website: www.raqssharqidorset.co.uk which we use to advertise and promote our work. We also have a You Tube channel: www.youtube.com/user/raqsdorset

We have performed at many local events and arranged Haflas and workshops in the area. Our biggest achievements to date have been our very successful 'Evenings of Egyptian Dance' that we co-produced and directed. These were in 2007-LEYLA KEBYRA and 2008-AYOUM SAEEDA which together (with the DVDs that we produced for each show) raised over £2000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. The AYOUM SAEEDA show was also perforemd in the Portsmouth area.

We are currently busy with our third production, scheduled for February 2010.