A welcome return to the festival for Barefoot Bellydance, who wowed audiences throughout the 2008 festival and filled the dance marquee with their workshop.

Barefoot Bellydance and Band perform tribal style bellydance, and was started in 1999 by dance teacher Steffi Colbert and her husband Richard. Steffi had been teaching for 14 years, and she and some of her more advanced students saw an opportunity to form a separate dance performance group. She teaches in her local area, and directs and choreographs the dance performance. In addition to her studies in the UK and Europe, Steffi travelled to Portland, Oregon to study with Paulette Rees-Denis at the Caravan Studios and has been certified as a Gypsy Caravan Tribal Technique Teacher.

Richard Colbert, leads the band of local musicians and percussionists who have worked hard to develop their own original sound made up of a fusion of western and Arabic influences. As far as they are aware they are the only bellydance troupe in the UK that perform exclusively to live music created by the Barefoot Band

www.barefootbellydance.co.uk