aladdin the belly dance

Fri 20th – Sat 21st December

The Merlin Theatre, Meadow Bank Road, S11 9AH

An Evening of dance, colour and magic!


Shimmy School Presents…Aladdin The Bellydance

Aladdin the Belly Dance – a theatrical dance production based on the well known tale of Aladdin.

When Aladdin, a poor kind-hearted street urchin, is saved from arrest by a young girl who reveals herself as Princess Jasmine, their adventures begin. A cave of wonders, a magical lamp complete with a wish granting genie, against the will of the Sultan’s villainous adviser Jafara and her sneaky snake charmers who have their own plans for the lamp.

A fantastical production taking you on a magic carpet ride in a search for love, happiness and a diamond in the rough. An evening collaboration of dance, circus and carnival performances showcasing local community groups, organisations and budding performers.

We have self-funded this entire project with car boot sales, sponsored walks, tabletop sales, haflas and more!!! You you can read more about that here. The show was a huge success and both performances were sold out, that was over 370 tickets!
Shimmy School Belly Dancers in Aladdin the Belly Dance

Dance Styles

Some of the dance styles included were:

  • Saaidi

  • Fallahi

  • Nubian

  • Contempory

  • Bombasudan

  • Raqs Shaqi

  • Raqs el Shamadan

  • Tribal Fusion

  • Bollywood

  • Samba

Behind the Scenes

We had a great team helping us behind the scenes; Matt Glas was our sound technician as well as part of the film crew and Keria Rhodes as our stage manager. Many of the costumes were created by the wonderful Yasmin Long, who is a long time friend of Shimmy School. You can buy some of her pieces in her etsy shop. Many of the set pieces were made by ArtWorks Sheffield, which is a non for profit creative arts organisation, inspiring and helping adults with learning disabilities to achieve their potential.

We had collaboration from… Zubaidah Belly Dance, EWDA, U3A, Boomshanka Tribal, Sisters of Tribellica, Dance Stars, Greentop Circus, Hype Dance, Moonstruck Design and a load of budding solo artists.

Thank you!

We would like to offer a HUGE thank you to everyone involved, especially to our Shimmy School ladies who helped put things in motion from the very beginning. Our wonderful ladies not only starred in the show, they helped with writing funding bids, ticket sales, advertising, fundraising and supporting the other groups involved by teaching the finale dance. On the night they did an amazing job as stage ninjas and were a massive reason the show was such a success.

To everyone else involved, because of you, Eleanor’s dream came true; there was a clear aim from the start to make this an inclusive community project with those involved forging connections and friendships within the Sheffield Dance community and those aims have been met tenfold.

The performance was filmed and we still have DVDs available for £15 each, contact us to order yours.