Grabbed this off my automated "belly dance" Google News feed. From www.wilmingtonstar.com/articl...urrents :

"I just returned from Asheville's first Americana Burlesque and Sideshow Festival, where my friend and former belly dance teacher Princess Farhana (who studied traditional Raqs Sharki in Egypt) came all the way from Hollywood, and was featured along with many amazing North Carolina performers. Asheville group Baraka Mundi offered tribal-style group choreographies. A woman known only as the "Mystic Oracle" gave a stunningly graceful traditional show - all with a curved sword balanced on her head. Claire Dima did a techno-pagan piece dressed as a fairy. Then, after two old-Hollywood-style glamour numbers, Farhana stole the show with a final burlesque strip-tease as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz while demonstrating the insane, Alien-like stomach undulations she is known for. The festival also featured numerous "circus arts," fire dancing and workshops. Info on next year's event will be posted at: www.side showburlesque.com, while Baraka Mundi offers a Tribal Dance, Music and Culture Camp this September in western N.C. (see www.tribori ginal.org for more info)."

More at the above link, wish I could have been there!