Just over a month to go until the Shimmy Shake Festival. Time to get to know this year’s Festival Headliners. We kept up with rising talents all over the globe, listened to your wishes and watched shows that made our jaws drop. All of this, to offer you the best of the best, so let’s get to know these ladies!
Piny Orchidaceae (Portugal)
Piny started Middle Eastern Dance classes in 1999 and shifted her focus to Hip Hop culture in 2003, creating an all-female Breakdance crew - Butterfliessoulflow. 2005 and 2007 she traveled to NY to be close to the Hip Hop and Clubbing scene, whilst finishing a degree in Architecture and a postgraduate degree in Scenography. She has always been a pioneer, teaching the then little known dance-styles called House Dance, Vogue, and Waacking in Lisbon. In 2012 she started up Orchidaceae Urban Fusion, where she combines Hip Hop, Breakdance, House, Waacking, Vogue and Tribal Fusion Bellydance. 20 years later she is extremely well known performs and teaches, as do members of her company, all over the world.
Piny teaches the Friday 3-hour intensive this year, and a 50-minute Waacking workshop on Saturday. On top of that, you can see her perform in the Gala Show.
Patricia Zarnovican (Slovakia/Germany)
Patricia is one of the pioneers of Tribal Fusion in Germany. She has taught and performed ATS® and Tribal Fusion Bellydance in over 20 countries since 2006 and was invited to teach at some of the most prestigious Tribal Bellydance festivals in the World. Patricia also performed one of Horacio Cifuentes' choreographies together with Rachel Brice and Samantha Emanuel at the Oriental Festival in Berlin in 2012. She is a dancer in the Chorus at the National Opera in her hometown Hannover and was hired as a soloist for the opening ceremony of the European Games in Baku (Azerbaijan). Patricia is a certified ATS® teacher and official FCBD®Sister Studio since 2016 (re-certified 2018) and passed Rachel Brice' 8 Elements Cultivation in 2019.
Go back to the roots of Tribal Style and ATS with Patricia in one of her workshops on Saturday or Sunday, and watch her shine in the Gala Show.
Leo Orchidaceae (Portugal)
Leo graduated in Sports Science in 2002 and had her first contact with Street Dance a year later, in a Hip Hop dancers formation. She has traveled to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and many other places to study different Hip Hop dance styles, and with Piny, was one of the founders of the all-female Hip Hop crew Butterfliesoulflow. She was also the artistic director and choreographer of Jazzy Dance Crew. In 2013, she started working with Piny Orchidaceae in dance fusion duets and was invited to join Orchidaceae Urban Tribal as one of its main choreographers. In the last years, she has taught workshops all over the globe and participated in several dance competitions, stage performances, video clips, and TV commercials.
Saturday Leo will teach us all about Popping. Also, do not miss her perform in the Gala Show!
Kira Habibi Lal (Ukraine)
Kira is a Tribal Fusion Bellydance performer and a certified teacher of Tribal Fusion, yoga, and fitness. During her career, she had won several international dance competitions and performed all over the globe. She was trained by some of the best dancers worldwide among which Sherri Wheatley (USA), Manca Pavli (Slovenia), Tjarda (the Netherlands), and the guru of Tribal Fusion – Rachel Brice (USA). Kira teaches all over the globe, is the organizer of the annual international festival “Tribal Autumn in Lviv”, and the director of the dance project “Apsaras’ Breath”, Ukraine.
Develop your Serpentine Technique with Kira in the workshop on Saturday, or watch her mesmerizing performance during the Gala Show.
Tjarda van Straten (The Netherlands)
Tjarda is a world-class choreographer, dancer, movement and yoga instructor, coach and certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst. She performs and teaches throughout the world, including Russia, the USA, and Asia. Tjarda regularly gives individual and group coaching sessions to help dancers and movers grow. As well as being one of the top Tribal dancers worldwide she is also a mobility trainer at BioCheck where she works with people that have burnout or chronic fatigue syndrome.
You can see Tjarda’s innovative and meaningful choreographies and creative movement vocabulary in the Gala Show on Saturday.