What is MEDANZ?

MEDANZ is the Middle Eastern Dance Association of New Zealand, a non-profit Incorporated Society.

Middle Eastern Dance (MED) is a term, which includes a number of dances, which originated around the Mediterranean and North Africa. It is often known as "belly dance" in the West.

For more information see the: Belly Dance Info pages.

Who can be a member?

MEDANZ is open to Middle Eastern Dancers (students, amateurs and professionals), teachers, musicians, vendors, and general supporters.

Any serious student (or teacher) in New Zealand will find benefit from membership

What are MEDANZ's aims?

Its aims include: (Paraphrasing the constitution)

  • Providing a supportive environment for MED
  • Fostering interest and understanding of MED
  • Promoting the sharing of information
  • Developing and promoting ethical standards
  • Providing a forum for dancers for discussion of significant issues
  • Facilitating learning and performance opportunities

The full aims and structure of MEDANZ is explained in our constitution which you can download here in PDF format.

 

What does MEDANZ provide for its members?

Networking:

We provide a network for dancers. Our main method of communication is the Newsletter (available online and in hardcopy) which comes out every two months. This contains notices of upcoming events, reviews, and articles of general (MED) interest.  We now also have an mailing list for email distribution of news and events between Newsletters.

In addition our annual Middle Eastern Dance Festival provides a range of great opportunities to meet, socialise and network with dancers, teachers, musicans and vendors from all over the country.

Funding:

MEDANZ provides funding for dancers and dance groups to host teachers from both other parts of the country and from overseas.

Funding is provided to event organisers to help with travel costs of the visiting teachers.

Teacher Listing:

MEDANZ maintains a list of local teachers and teachers who have previously taught at the MEDANZ Festival.

We are also planning to start developing reviews of festival workshops so you can read about the experiences students have had in classes and different teaching styles.