2023 ABDC Committee
Each of the 5 sitting members of the 2023 Australian Belly Dance Convention Committee comes with a unique history and intention to help create an inclusive, encouraging and safe space for members (new and old) of the Australian and New Zealand belly dance communities to come together.
Listed in alphabetical order (because date of birth was considered too easy).
Amanda
By day, Amanda is a project manager, certified Scrum Master and Agile Coach to teams of up to 15 people working in the digital space.
By evening, she has been a dancer for 15 years, a musician for over 40 years and a DJ for over 15 years. She has run large events featuring major international bands and artists for over 25 years, touring them locally, interstate and internationally; and smaller productions both within and outside the belly dance community.
Amanda has a long history of presenting at professional conferences for her day job, and has several papers published in journals based on her extensive experience in digital systems.
Amanda is a current certified instructor and student within the world-renowned Salimpour School of Belly Dance, holding the Intermediate Dancer 2 certificate and is currently working on completing her Advanced Dancer and teaching certificates and was a cast member of the 2023 Bal Anat performance.
As a part of her studies within the Salimpour School, Amanda has been studying not only dance movement but culture, history, music, language and context for where this all fits in both historically and in modern times.
She wants to promote a sense of education, community and inclusion through her fundraising efforts and events that are focused on helping to increase the experience of less experienced dancers.
David
David is a certified sports coach and has been involved in not-for-profit community sports management for over 10 years as secretary for a sporting club with over 150 members.
He is a dancer, having participated in Scottish Highland Dancing as a child, and has been training in ballet for the past 4 years as a way of extending his ability to perform at a high level in his chosen sport.
David has been a DJ for over 20 years, been involved with running weekly and monthly nightclub events, band gigs and touring artists across Australia.
He is a sound and lighting engineer, who has mixed for bands big and small for over 15 years and currently rents out his services and gear for small-stage performances across Melbourne.
He has been a performer with a small theatre group for 15 years and took his first belly dancing class in the early 1990s (even if that part of his life didn’t last as long as others would have liked).
David’s other interests are in fundraising for groups that support communities through car rallies and designing costumes for dancers and performers. He has been doing the latter for over 25 years and is proud that his first designs were for Madi Gras.
Emily
Emily has worked as a Primary/Secondary teacher for well over 12 years. She has been working in various leadership roles providing support to not only the students but also their families and community on their learning journey.
At night Emily runs her own community dance school, Bluefire Bellydancers, in 2 locations and in July is opening up a third. She is a belly dancer for 18 years with a history of musical theatre and drama she loves to create her own choreographies, dance and play.
As an educator, she is very passionate about sharing, upskilling and educating the community. She believes that we are always in the process of learning and growing and that this doesn’t ever stop. The second she says she doesn’t need to learn anymore is the moment she needs to quit dancing.
She wants to be a part of BellyCon to give our community another platform in which to grow and learn. From dance history to mental health and body awareness, she wants to reach and support as many people as possible and help everyone learn together. Education and community are her passions and dance is her joy.
Michael
Micheal has had a career greater than 20 years in the sterile manufacturing space, during this time he has been involved with the organization of many conferences and training events both within Australia, Internationally and Online. Some of Micheal’s current professional responsibilities include project management, marketing, training, planning and contributions to professional conferences.
Micheal has joined the committee to assist and contribute with his professional event-related skills.
He has joined the committee for BellyCon as he is community minded and highly values education and the benefits this gives individuals and the community at large. When the idea was first propositioned he realised his professional skills and experience could be useful in supporting and assisting to bring BellyCon to success.
In his professional life, he is also the President of a not-for-profit professional association which seeks to bring knowledge and education to his industry and peers.
His professional values include openness, honesty and inclusiveness and he hopes to bring these to the benefit of BellyCon and all who attend.
Prue
Prue brings a lifetime of passion, experience and education in dance to the Australian Bellydance Convention. Prue holds a Diploma of Dance Teaching, Diploma of Pilates Movement Therapy as well as qualifications in Business Management, Costume Design, Make-Up Design and Visual Arts.
With over 36 years of experience in dance training and performance, and over 20 years of teaching, Prue’s main focus is sharing her love of dance. She strives to bring together all those who love dance, from the enthusiast to the student and her fellow professionals.
Prue believes everyone can benefit from the joys of dance and hopes that the community benefits from the opportunities presented at the premiere of BellyCon!