Lamia Barbara - Vio.La
With over 10 years of extensive dance training, Lamia Barbara is an internationally touring dancer and instructor based in Siracusa, Italy.
Fascinated by Eastern cultures and arts as a child, Lamia Barbara began studying Bellydance at 18 years old in Siracusa, her hometown, with Jlenia Schiavo (Cabaret Style Bellydance) and Nadia Hekmat (Egyptian and Folk Bellydance).
After 5 years of training in both Bellydance and Yoga, she discovered and deeply fell in love with Tribal Fusion Bellydance. By that time there were no regular classes or any teacher in Siracusa or South Italy, so she found herself obsessively studying through workshops with great masters, traveling all over Europe. Her formation includes intensive education with Rachel Brice, Mardi Love, Manca Pavli, Ariellah, Samantha Emanuel and many others.
In 2010 Lamia was certified in the I level of Fusion bellydance technique’s format with Suhaila Salimpour. In the same year she began to perform during dance events in Italy and Europe, and to teach at Tery al Kubra school of Eastern dances in Catania.
In 2011 she joined Manca Pavli’s Amaya Dance Company during the European tour, and began the artistic collaboration with her friend Violet Scrap leading up to the project Vio.La.
In 2012 Lamia organized Tribalnatyam, the first event dedicated to Tribal Fusion Bellydance in Sicily. Now at its 4th edition, Tribalnatyam quickly became one of the biggest events in Europe with international masters and students from all over the world.
Lamia loves to collaborate with dancers, musicians and choreographers creating performances that blend theater, music and dance. Her artistic collaborations include performances with Mardi Love, Violet Scrap, April Rose, Haza Nadyka, Skogen, Cardiac Rhythm and Cairomaxum.
Lamia’s devotion to dance and art brings her to explore several dance forms, in the ongoing research of the connection between poetry and body expression.
Her various dance training includes Ballet with Paolo Pavani and Antonella Crucitti, Contemporary dance with Emma Scialfa, Flaminio Galluzzo, Salvo Alicata and Shobana Jeyasingh, Butoh theater- dance with Valeria Geremia.
Lamia fell in love with Yoga as a teenager and never stopped being amazed by the depth and beauty of this ancient discipline. She still studies and practices it on a daily basis.
In 2013 Lamia discovered Bharatanatyam (classical dance from South India) and felt it as the natural development of her studies in both dance and Yoga.
She deeply committed to the study of this dance form and is currently completing her Bachelor Degree in Bharatanatyam at the Conservatory of Vicenza under the direction of her teacher Nuria Sala Grau. Beside the intensive dance training, her academic formation at the Conservatory also includes Indian music and singing, sanskrit and many historical and theoretical studies.
Lamia’s holistic approach to dance explores the history, philosophy, theory and technique of dance and music with an emphasis on the ethic of experimental fused dances and the great importance given to the connection between meaning and expression.
Taking inspiration from her studies in dance and Yoga, Lamia Barbara presents a unique style that blends eastern and western elements, tradition and modern expression, searching for that sacredness of the body that belongs to every dance.
With over 10 years of extensive training, studying and performing all over the world, Lamia’s vision of dance aims towards the connection between body, mind and spirit.
Violet Scrap is an Italian rising star of the international Tribal Fusion scene. After a early life spent studying music and visual arts, she begins her journey with bellydance at the age of 18, finally feeding a lifelong desire.
She starts studying with Syria Nejma, a local dance teacher, approaching the styles of Baladi, Saiidi, Ghawazee and Khaleeji in 2007.
In 2008 she starts dancing with the world music group Groowa Circus with the fellow dancer Irene Copolutti. Hours of improvised performances every night will be one of the strongest sides of her formation as a dancer and performer.
Her natural tendency to self expression drives her to fuse Oriental dances with Urban dances, thus bringing her in contact with the Tribal Fusion style, the love that changed her life.
After a few years of self-teaching, she starts travelling in Italy to train officially, picking very selectively only the best professionals around: Rachel Brice, Mardi Love, Samantha Emanuel, Cera Byer. Ashley Lopez, Ariellah Aflalo, Kami Liddle, Heather Stants, Colleena Shakti, Manca Pavli, are just a handful of names.
In 2011 she starts collaborating with another very well-known italian dancer, Lamia Barbara, with whom she gives birth to the VIO.LA project, a dancing duo that aims at pushing boundaries and create beauty.
The same year she starts training ATS, and starts teaching weekly Tribal Fusion classes in Perugia and Foligno. In September 2011 she begins her travellings abroad to perform at Shows and Haflas.
Pushed by the love for the art form and the incredibly supporting worldwide feedback, 2012 is the year of her turning to fulltime dancer. Keeping up with her bellydance formation, she jumps from Yoga to Bharatanatyam, from House dance to Theatre, and starts working with the crew from the Street Dance School in Perugia. She starts studying popping and hip hop and collaborating with the dancer Alessandro Fava, and has the chance to dance for the musicians Filastine and Nova.
In 2013 she organizes The Urban Fusion festival in Perugia, the first bellydance/hip hop themed festival of the world.
To this date, she has teached and performed to many festivals and events, in Italy and abroad, trying to bring her peculiar vision of the possibility of dance all the way to Argentina, Russia, France, England, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Bosnia-Erzegovina, Estonia and Austria, now planning to step her tiny feet across the Atlantic Ocean in search for more dance and more learning.
Mat Jacob
As many of us, Mat Jacob first fell in love with Tribal Fusion Belly Dance when she first saw Rachel Brice move. A whole new universe opened up for her then.
Since that very moment, Mat has with much passion and dedication followed Miss Brice along with other muses she discovered on the way. She had the privilege to study with some of the most influential artists, in her opinion, of the tribal fusion belly dance world: Mira Betz, Zoe Jakes, Mardi Love, Amy Sigil, Illan Riviere, Ariellah, Kami Liddle, Heather Stants and last but not least, her recent important discovery, Piny and Orchidaceae Tribal. All of them make her heart beat with inspiration.
Mat is honored to have been a part of Rachel Brice’s project Datura and is a guest dancer of Kami Liddle’s dance company Goldstar.
Mat was the first level 3 certified from Rachel Brice’s 8 Elements program in the world and is certified to teach level 3 Unmata style ITS.
She thinks Djeynee and Yuko should be in this bio cause she certainly wouldn’t be the same without them.
She thinks her students should also all be in this bio because they are just as important as her teachers.
Piny Orchidaceae
Piny is a full hearted dancer. She started dancing Belly Dance and Salsa in 2000 and after two years discovered Hip Hop culture and felt totally in love. For some years she immersed into Hip Hop and left in pause the first dance styles she tried.
In 2006 she created with Lucia and Leo a female Hip Hop Crew called ButterflieSoulflow, where they developed their work in dance (Breakdance, Hip Hop, House Dance, Popping and Waacking), doing stage shows, freestyle sessions and dance battles. They started a dj project called Soulflow djs playing only with vinyl and they did graffiti for some years. They were supported by Red Bull Portugal and Eastpak Portugal, and went to New York, Paris, Tokyo, London, Amsterdam, Lausanne, Stockholm and Zurich, to dance, to absorb but especially to share and learn.
During these years she finished her degree in Architecture, influence that is very present in her work.
She felt in love with Tribal Fusion Belly Dance in 2005 and started developing her style and fusion since then.
In 2009 she was invited to Jukebox Project, a professional Hip Hop Dance Company based in Lisbon.
In 2012 she finished her degree in Contemporary Dance at Escola Superior de Dança in Lisbon, where she studied ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, acting, music and others.
That same year she founded the Urban Tribal Belly Dance Company Orchidaceae and invited her crewmates from ButterflieSoulFlow and some dedicated students to integrate the project. The aim was use all vocabularies in one project; the urban dances, the Contemporary Dance and the Tribal Fusion Belly Dance. The company has now 8 dancers with different backgrounds, building a strong and growing repertoire, freestyle and research.
In the last 5 years she has worked with different choreographers (contemporary dance) as Filipa Francisco, Marco Ferreira, Kwenda Lima, Tiago Guedes, Ricardo Ambrózio, Victor Hugo Pontes, Tânia Carvalho and Raquel Castro. With these different projects she performed in several Contemporary Dance Festivals in countries like Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, England, Poland, Holland, Brazil.
As a choreographer she saw her first piece “(I)logical Body” chosen to be presented in a emergent choreographers festival in 2011.
She has always looked for the teachers she loved and travelled to learn with them. She highlights in her learning process: Hip Hop and House Dance (Vasco Alves, Leo, Brian Green, Kapela, Yugson, Ejoe, Sekou, Hiro, Cebo Carr, Marjorie Smarth) Waacking (Archie Burnnet, Antoinette Gomis, Yoshie), Vogue (Archie Burnnet, Benny Ninja), Contemporary Dance (Gustavo Oliveira, Margarida Bettencourt, David Zambrano, Teresa Ranieri), Breakdance (Bgirl Baronesa, 12 Makakos), Tribal Fusion Belly Dance (Samantha Emanuel, Kami Liddle, Rachel Brice, Mardi Love, Ariellah, Silvia Vasconcelos, Alexis Southall, Anasma, Mat Jacob).
She has been teaching since 2007 regular classes in Lisbon, and in national and international events in the different styles that she researches (Tribal Fusion, Urban Fusion, Contemporary dance, Hip Hop, Waacking, House and Breakdance).
In 2014 she started traveling to perform and teach at International Tribal Fusion Festivals as a soloist or with her company Orchidaceae Urban Tribal (Spain, France, Italy, Finland, England, India, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Estonia, Slovakia, U.S.A).
With other dancers from Lisbon she is one of the organizers of TribaLx, Lisbon International Tribal Fusion Festival and ODI (Orchidaceae Dance Intensive, for advanced/professional dancers).
She always continues to learn, to take classes, to look for more, trying to find the balance between studying, teaching, choreographing and dancing for Contemporary Dance projects, Hip Hop and Tribal Fusion Belly Dance.
She just likes to fly, experiment and try. And start everything again.
Fusion Faire 2017
Lamia Barbara
Violet Scrap
Mat Jacob
Piny Orchidaceae
Michelle Sorensen
Based in Salt Lake City, UT, Michelle Sorensen is a professional Belly Dancer with nearly a decade of dedicated dance training and is an 8 Elements Certified Practitioner. She has sought continued instruction through workshops and other events from some of the most innovative dancers in and out of the belly dance scene.
Some of her recent dance loves include Jamaican Dancehall and Contemporary dance. Along with belly dance, she has discovered a love for the Aerial Arts, including pole, silks, lyra, contortion and various other cirque style apparatus.
"Cross training" in this form of dance has helped her with stamina, strength, flexibility and clean lines. She is available for instruction, private lessons and workshops both locally and internationally.
Michelle Sorensen
Violet Scrap - Vio.La