Each year the Western Australian Middle Eastern Dance Festival (or WAMED) runs a scholarship program to help bring worthy dancers that may be facing obstacles to their festival. As a single mum living in a regional area Jade has found it difficult to get high level training in such a niche area such as Belly Dance.

Travelling all the way across the country to take the training was still a prohibitive expense until Regional Arts NSW stepped in and saved the day. “I was thrilled to receive a gold scholarship from WAMED” explains Jade. “But without the grant, I would not have been able to make use of the scholarship – I am so incredibly grateful to Regional Arts NSW and WAMED to have had the opportunity”.

WAMED is one of Australia’s premier Middle Eastern Dance events. Each year it hosts an international star, this year’s International guest was Ranya Renee, one of Jade’s favourite dancers. “It was so wonderful to work with such an accomplished dancer, her approach to dance is quite different from anything I have experienced before and the workshops were challenging but rewarding to everyone”. While at WAMED Jade also furthered her studies with professional dancers from WA in a variety of Middle Eastern styles as well as an intensive workshop in dance from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan!

Jade has been studying Middle Eastern Dance for more than 13 years now but considers herself a perpetual student. “The more I learn – the more I realise there is to learn”, she laughs, “Middle Eastern dance is such a rich and diverse art form with an incredibly long history”. Jade teaches at Bellingen and Dorrigo and has already started implementing her new skills in her regular classes and at the local schools she teaches at, much to her students delight. She can be contacted on 66554896 or via her website www.jadebellydance.com

The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional, remote and very remote / isolated Australia.