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Welcome to Celebrating Dance!
Based in the beautiful seaside town of Torquay, Celebrating Dance is one of the UK's longest running and biggest Bellydance Festivals!
What to expect......
Celebrating Dance is exactly as is sounds: a celebration of LOVE of bellydance and all the sister dances that come under this umbrella term.
We love to share passion trough dance and strive for diversity, inclusivity, authenticity and affordability for all. This festival is welcoming and fun, over the years we have truly built up a family vibe that is addictive!
Come and find out for yourself just how much we love to DANCE, LEARN and LAUGH together!
History
Anna , Sandra & Zara took over Celebrating dance festival in 2022 but both have been part of the Celebrating Dance family for many years, both as students and teachers.
As the new hosts, it is a privilege to keep this legacy running and are so grateful to the hosts and dancers who preceded us. We are dedicated to continuing the success and love of Celebrating Dance Festival.
Afra al Kahira started the CD festival in 2001 shortly after she and her husband, John, moved to North Devon. Afra realized that there was a growing dance community which had very little access to quality workshops from top teachers. So, she decided to rectify the matter and Celebrating Dance was born!
In 2016, after 16 wonderful years, Afra and John handed over the running of the festival to Nikki Livermore. Nikki brought her passion for live Egyptian music and drumming and grew the variety of teachers and workshops on offer.
A little more about the hosts
Anna and Zara created ‘Online Zoom Hafla’ to support Cairo Artists during the pandemic. They have produced 16 events so far and supported over 75 Source artists! They are so excited to bring the energy & ethos from Cairo live and in person to Celebrating Dance Festival.
Our Mission
Celebrating Dance is more than a festival. It is a community.
For 25 years, dancers have come together through Celebrating Dance to learn, perform, make friendships, share experiences and celebrate the dances and music we love.
Our mission is to love that community, help it grow and make sure it has a future.
We want Celebrating Dance to be a place where dancers of different ages, backgrounds, abilities and levels of experience feel welcome and represented. A place where dancers who have been part of the community for decades can come together with dancers who are only just beginning their journey.
Community Comes First
The festival may happen once a year, but our community continues throughout the year.
Through our Facebook and WhatsApp groups, online workshops, talks, goal-setting activities and other events, we encourage people to stay connected, support each other and have something positive to work towards.
Dance Should Be Accessible
We believe dance should be available to as many people as possible.
We make accessibility part of how we plan the festival. This includes lower-mobility workshop choices, seated classes, quieter spaces for people who may find our busy evening events overwhelming, and working with individual needs.
Respect the Cultures Behind the Dance
We believe learning the movements is only one part of learning the dance. Understanding the music, people, traditions, history and cultural context matters too.
We actively bring dancers, musicians and speakers with direct cultural connections to the dances we teach into our festival.
We want our community to learn directly from cultural voices, experience live music and develop a deeper understanding of where these dances come from. Our aim is to encourage appreciation rather than appropriation and respect for the cultures that have given us the dances we love.
Representation Matters
We want the people on our stages, in our classrooms and throughout our festival to reflect the diversity of the wider dance community.
Over the past five years we have actively worked to increase representation, particularly for BIPOC dancers, as well as encouraging diversity in age, body shape, background, experience and neurodiversity.
We also believe LGBTQ+ dancers should feel welcome and represented within our community.
For us, inclusion is not simply saying that everybody is welcome. It means looking at who is actually in the room and asking what we can do when people are missing from it.
Supporting the Next Generation
We want the knowledge and friendships built during the first 25 years of Celebrating Dance to continue for another 25 years and beyond.
Part of that means encouraging younger and newer dancers into the community while keeping our long-standing dancers at its heart.
