Arielle    Bastet Belly Dance  

Miramar is a troupe of gorgeous belly dancing goddesses from Stratford-upon-Avon. First formed in 2005 by belly dance teacher and performer Val Rainbow, the troupe is comprised of Val's most experienced and talented dancers.

The troupe have gone from strength to strength since starting out, honing their dance and performance skills with local village fetes, fund raisers and haflas, all around the Midlands area. Their biggest achievement to date has been a full scale theatre show in February, in collaboration with two other troupes, Tribe-Ulations and Qetesh, where they danced 7 different original choreographies, including a spectacular finale with the other troupes. They are one of the first troupes in the country to dance with both Isis wings and veils, and have even more innovative plans for their next big show in Spring 2008!

You can see their first performance of 'Isis' on YouTube or on MySpace.

Miramar's line-up has changed over the last 18 months, saying goodbye to Melantha and Elaine, but recently have welcomed Helga, Anne, Sandra and Annie into the ranks. They have worked extremely hard to catch up on the rest, learning choreographies in double quick time, in order to perform at some recent local gigs, including the end of term hafla. And not forgetting to welcome a very accomplished honorary member of the troupe, Jasmine Le Buomp, who adds a touch of humour to many performances!

Miramar love to dress up, and are regularly complimented on their professional appearance, and beautiful costumes, and are already planning outfits for the show in the spring!

The troupe are unafraid to tackle new challenges, and their dance repertoire ranges from more traditional Egyptian choreographies, through to funky Turkish pop, and Arabic techno. They use a variety of different dances, some created by Val, other choreographers such as Galit Mersand, Karine Butchart, and Di Cox, as well as several numbers created by the group themselves. Some dances have been created co-operatively through rehearsal and improvisation, and they are currently looking forward to performing a new veil dance created by their youngest member, Anese.

They have also recently started to create a DVD of all the dance choreographies, in order to make them available to Val's other students.