Shimmy school came about as a way to bring together dancers in the community of Sheffield. It has resulted in the formation of many great friendships from people who have found a love of belly dance and the deep culture and meaning behind the dance. By coming to classes you can just dip your toe into the waters of belly dance and use it as a fun way to get fit or (as is usually the case) get as involved in the belly dance community as you like and fall in love with the dance and everything that comes with it.


Eleanor Gaywood

Eleanor is the founding director of Shimmy Shows and Shimmy School.
Eleanor started her belly dance journey at just 10 years old in an after-school club. She then went on to learn from Jenny Muhlwa at age 14 and started teaching Belrobics classes for Jenny at age 16. Eleanor found a passion for performance and began to perform belly dance professionally in local restaurants at aged 18.
During her time at university and and whilst still performing in restaurants, Eleanor started teaching her own class. This class became popular and Shimmy School was born!

When Eleanor graduated university in 2015, Shimmy School moved with her to Sheffield where classes grew and the number of sessions in the week exploded! Today Shimmy School teaches an average of 110 people per week from all walks of life! The School teaches many types of classes and workshops including;

  • A fun introduction to belly dance for kids parties and Girl Guides
  • Weekly fitness classes
  • Weekly choreography classes
  • Private classes for professional dancers
  • 1:1 tuition for dancers entering competitions
  • Sessions for people with anxiety disorders
  • Specialised group classes for people who have suffered strokes, or have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease
  • Regular sessions for St Luke’s Hospice

There are teams of Shimmy School teachers reaching as far as Wolverhampton, Bristol and Somerset!

Shimmy Shows is a more recent addition to the CV! Eleanor has been performing professionally since the age of 18 and has gone on to play the lead in Sleeping Beauty the Belly Dance (2012), dance on ITV, BBC and Sky1, dance in music videos, work on board cruise ships for HAL and TUI, dance and corporate events, weddings, festivals and much more! Eleanor is very dedicated to her ongoing training having weekly private classes at Hype Dance in Ballet and travelling the globe to gain knowledge from the world’s best teachers. Eleanor recently won the first Scholarship to train at Cairo Festival in Budapest with Mercedes Nieto, she also has been working in Cairo yearly for Randa Kamel at Raqs Of Course where she takes lessons from the leading teachers in Belly Dance as well as continuously taking fitness courses to better her teaching.
Eleanor’s most recent achievement is directing and choreographing the 90 strong cast production of Aladdin the Belly Dance.

The motivation behind the production was Eleanor’s desire to raise the profile of belly dance, to develop the community of dancers here in Sheffield and to connect with different groups who would not otherwise have the chance to work together.

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