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dancer

Mehitabel has been performing since a very young age. She discovered bellydance in 1991, but was unable to pursue it fully until over ten years later when Najmes from California started teaching in Wrexham, following Suhaila Salimpour's technique. Mehitabel was introduced to Black Sheep Format American Tribal Style dance by Akasha in 2005, and has gone on to be certified to teach this style by Kajira Djoumahna. She also holds the Foundation Certificate from the Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance (JWAAD).

She has studied ATS and Improvisational Tribal Style under Kajira Djoumahna, Wendy Marlatt, and Donna Gardner, Tribal Fusion under Sharon Kihara, Ariellah, Morgana, Asharah, and Geneva Bybee, Flamenco with Penny Caffrey and Maria del Mar, and Gypsy dance with Sylvia Zalas. As a professional costumier, she believes that the over-all look of a performance is as important as the choreography, and drives the style and visual presentation of the group.

She is also one of the founders, and is Chief Cat-Herder, of Gothla UK, Europe's premier and largest festival of Gothic Belly Dance.

Inspirations: Nine Inch Nails, Hole, Lady Gaga, Ariellah, Deshret Dance Company, Sharon Kihara, Black Sheep Belly Dance, Morgana, my family, my Weird Sisters.

belly dance

Halaleh has been performing since the age of ten, pretty much anywhere ‘they’ will let her. She was introduced to Bellydance when talking to Mehitabel about going to Morris Dancing and being dragged along to a new class that was starting. She fell in love with it and so far has not fallen out of love. The outfits are much better than the ones for Line Dancing too. Being told she needed a mysterious sounding stage name she declared she would be called ‘Tulip’. Her Weird Sisters being patient sorts did a translation search and thankfully discovered the word H’alaleh ('Tulip' in Hungarian) and a compromise was reached.

She has studied various forms of Bellydance under various instructors and she also holds the Foundation Certificate from the Josephine Wise Academy of Arabic Dance (JWAAD). As a 5’10” Amazonian dancer, she loves the way that ATS embraces all shapes and sizes and gives an acceptance and unity to the dancers. Plus being different sizes allows for better stage presentation (This dancer is small... this dancer is far away...)

Halaleh is the co-founder of the group, being the Bad Cop to Mehitabel’s Good Cop. As a sad old goth, she tends to agree with Mehitabel’s style and visual presentation of the group, which makes for a quiet life for all and explains why Weird Sisters is STILL going strong after all these years. But her crazy ideas and bloody-mindedness lead to some of the more extravagant choreographies.

Halaleh is the proud Mommy of the Weird Sisters' Official Mascot, a rather overly friendly Rottweiler called Moo, (who looks better in a pink t-shirt than Lilly the Hedgehog).

Inspirations: Sisters of Mercy, Breed 77, Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Iron Maiden, Offspring, Black Sheep Belly Dance, Sharon Kihara and my Weird Sisters.

tribal dance

Fifi was genetically engineered in Butlins, from Fruit Bat DNA and green bellybutton fluff. She began dancing at 4 years old, when her evil keeper would make her perform on hot coals for tourists and scraps of food. At age 8, she escaped and lived in the wilderness that is Wrexham, raising an army of kittens to go forth and do her bidding. It was an epic failure. By age 10 she was sectioned under the mental health act and remains incarcerated today with her teddy Huw-bear, only being released for public performances with Weird Sisters if she has been good.

She currently has an unhealthy obsession with the psychological profiles of serial killers and Nigella Lawson.

Inspiration: The Smiths, The Cure, Bjork, Kate Bush, Tim Burton, Bertold Brecht, Brutal Ballet, Susannah and The Magical Orchestra, Willo the Wisp and 'those voices'.

gothic dance

Ibtisam found the Weird Sisters after a long search and a brief foray into Egyptian belly dance. Her name means 'Smile' in Arabic, so named as she loves to smile. This does not go down well with the Sisters, however, who prefer a scowl more that anything else. Ibtisam's love of smiling has forced the Weird Sisters to take some drastic action, and they are considering choreographies where they will drag her on stage in a sack, until she stops smiling. This has been reconsidered however, as the group occasionally needs a short person to stand at the front (for symmetry).

Of her experiences as a dancer, Ibtisam said...

"Basically, I'm in it for the sparkly stuff and getting dressed up"

Inspirations: My Weird Sisters, Star Wars, Monsters Inc, Goldfrapp, Beats Antique, Bjork, Korn, NIN, PJ Harvey - but will dance to anything...

Louby began performing at the tender age of 4, where her stage debut as a rollerskating rabbit ended in disaster after only one performance when she became highly allergic to something in the dressing room, thus ending her (very brief) dreams of performing for the next 22 years.

She eventually resurrected her dream, and has been dancing for three and a half years after the Weird Sisters kindly adopted her and undertook the project of a lifetime to teach her all they know. Louby now has her own signature move, known rather cleverly as the 'Louby Lou', and she can often be found performing this move and proving that it can indeed be done to ANY piece of music....

Louby does not attend workshops, instead preferring to let her Weird Sisters do the hard work in these places, who then teach her the goods at a more leisurely pace and with vast amounts of patience.

Inspiration: Metallica, Sisters of Mercy, Kings of Leon, Shakin Stevens, Terry Pratchett, Lilly the hedgehog, my children and my Weird Sisters

Gothic tribal

After being caught illegally, but successfully, conducting experiments with Fruit Bat DNA and green bellybutton fluff, Agama was deported to the Middle East where she spent two years leading sheep around Old Testament sites and trying to loose them in the fleshpots of Cairo. Having sorted out a great deal with a kebab wholesaler, she invested in a string of camels and via the rest of Africa made her way back to the Isle of Man. It was there, while hanging out with a motorcycle club, that she finally discovered belly dance.

Once again she fell foul of the law, creating Mini Me belly dancers out of goat droppings and selling them as ‘ceramic sculptures’. She is now hiding out in North Wales and ventures forth with Weird Sisters only when she feels safe in the knowledge that her past won’t catch up with her.

Inspiration: Brian Froud, R.H. Giger, Manu Chao, Salif Keita, Chemical Brothers, Kaiser Chiefs, Eels, Placebo, Tim Burton, Shakra, Ariellah, and my family, who if Carlsberg made families…. Oh and not forgetting wine and wine and more wine!