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We were able to spontaneously arrange a performance followed by a workshop at the Queens Bazaar Spring Event in Linz Dornach. Many thanks to Dalida Events for the invitation!
We had a lot of fun. In additon to classic FCBD Style we were able to include two songs, dancing sword dialect, developed by the wonderful Melody Orullian Bustillos and skirt dialect, created by the incredible Gudrun Herold.
Our member Alex was at the event with us and offered brilliant support by distributing flyers, filming and taking photos.
Another small highlight: After the performance, there was the opportunity to dance with us on stage as part of a small taster workshop. We had lots of girls who enjoyed it, but apart from them Amira got in touch with us again after a long break and was able to join us. It was also our first meeting with Silvia and now we can’t imagine our classes and groups without them!
Skills ’n’ Zills as a festival is the brainchild and passion project of Anam Damhsa’s director Julia Stoiber and her dance partner and friend Tina Daxberger. The initial idea in 2022 was to increase dancer numbers at the local drumming group annual meetup on the banks of the Danube. To make the weekend still more appealing for dancers to travel to, they included three workshops to be held over the weekend led by their OG teacher, Gudrun Herold. The event was held privately through word of mouth and ‘advertised’ via Facebook Messenger.
In 2022 they also heard that the Viennese Caravanseray fusion style festival was changing dates from August to June which left August 2023 open for them to hold an FCBD style festival without treading on any toes. Being considerate and aware of the dance community as always was key. And so, Skills’n’Zills as an international festival was born.
They needed teachers and so Julia naturally reached out to friends, Kelley Beeston (UK), Melody Bustillos (USA) and Lisi Brümmer. (DE) Of course, they had already decided that Gudrun Herold (DE) would be invited back as the OG teacher. They also reached out to vendors and decided on My Choli plus Margit, and Margarete while also offering a chance for others to sell some preloved pieces.
The three-day FCBD style festival was held on the second weekend in August and kicked off with registration, handing out the festival merch and the first workshops. Gudrun held a performance intensive and Lisi taught flamenco fan dialect created by Katarzyna Lidia Weichert of Hamsa Dance School, Poland. After the workshops came the tech rehearsal, and then the show took place. It’s difficult to put into words the excitement and electricity of the atmosphere as the international dancers put on an incredible performance. Old school, modern, frame drum, single sword, double sword, a zilling showcase, skirt, flamenco fan dialect and more were showcased by talented top dancers and teachers interspaced with a local more traditional style belly dance group and a Bollywood performer. “I thought my heart would burst with pride,” said Julia Stoiber. The audience were similarly thrilled and amazed at the quality. No one had really known what to expect as the style isn’t as well known in Austria but the audience clearly enjoyed what they had seen.
Saturday brought more workshops from Kelley, Melody and Gudrun. Participants sharpened their skills and practiced spatial awareness, frame drum dialect and Melody’s famous Queens’s court dialect. In the evening, participants headed to the Lentos Museum to dance on the banks of the Danube to Linz’s Ur Ton drummers.
As the dancers approached, the heavy beat and rhythm of the drums beckoned them. The Hafla style evening then began with a gratitude meditation to honour the public, the drummers and each other. After that, the dancers had a beautiful evening of dance and chatting in a relaxed picnic style atmosphere as the sun set over the picturesque landmark of the Postlingberg Church.
Sunday morning brought yet more workshops where the participants learned about musicality and more sword work. The weekend came to a beautiful close at the Little Dancer restaurant in Linz over individual delicious and beautiful taster boards.
It was a perfect end for the special event and Julia and Tina were beyond happy, grateful and extremely touched at the overwhelmingly positive response by the dancers and teachers. They are definitely looking forward to the next event in 2024!
As every year, taking part in the annual ATS®/FCBD®Flash Mob World Wide 2023 had been in our calenders for a while .
And this year we were lucky enough to have some special guests. Elisabeth was unfortunately only part of the fun behind the camera for health reasons, but we were once again able to dance with our Anam Chara Ladies Margit and Anneliese. We also had Louise Merritt with us, which made us particularly happy.
When choosing the locations, we made sure that we would promote our dance style in a meaningful way and therefore travelled to the area where Julia usually teaches. The Upper Austrian Mühlviertel offers some beautiful locations. Be it in St. Veit with a view of the Waxenberg ruins or in the picturesque town square of Oberneukirchen. Last but not least, we went to the banks of the Danube, where we danced at the Ottensheim ferry landing stage.
We had a wonderful day and enjoyed our time together as much as ever. You can see the result in video form here:
This event, formaly known as Linzer Landes-Ritterfest, offered us the chance to perform in front of an audience in our own home town. An opportunity we were very happy about. Anam Damhsa, supported by Anam Chara and Julia’s student Christina performed classic FCBD®Style, skirt dialect and sword dialect in 3 sets. 2 of the performances took place directly at the Main Square (Linzer Hauptplatz). The middle one at Alter Markt.
Even though we had to shorten our first set due to the heat in order not to keep the horses waiting any longer, we had a lot of fun. And of course we promoted Julia’s classes – with success!
There was also time to relax together, to stroll around and even to take a trip to Little Dancer to finalise details for our upcoming event.
Thank you so much to Max from rhiannon for the trust and great organisation!
Photos by Anam Damhsa & Johann Lackner
For the third year in a row we made the trip to Vienna. Well, Julia and Tina went there. The bot of them were able to take part in several great workshops at this year´s edition of CarVie, or Caravanseray Vienna. And they finally got to meet some familiar faces in person for the very first time.
At the Restaurant Show “Feast of Desire” our duo got the chance to perform two times. In the first half they danced to NEFFEX – Free Me and after the break to Betty Booom – Puttin’ on the Ritz. The skirts decided to misbehave here and there, but the audience was amazing. What a night!
We had an amazing time and we are looking forward to our next meeting in Linz at Skills `n’ Zills!
In mid-May, the “Anam Ladies” headed to Rome for the absolutely brilliant Roma Tribal Meeting. Workshops, performances, shopping, sightseeing, great conversations and hugs…. so many wonderful memories in such a short time!
For Julia and Tina in particular, things got really busy on the very first day. As soon as they got off the train, they had to get to the studio right away to take part in the preparations for the Performance Intensives. At the Dreams Show they helped to bring the Dance Sisters Collective´s vision to life as part of a “school of fish”. Julia was also part of the Open Stage Show in the “Flock of Birds” performance led by Taisa Jah Surya.
The selection of workshops was really great and we were able to take away many new and deepen other things. We did manage to squeeze in some time for sightseeing before heading back home.
We already miss this amazing city and most of all the wonderful dancers, teachers, friends and dance sisters we met at Roma Tribal Meeting. 
A huge thank you to everyone who shared this weekend with us and made it special…. And of course to Isabel De Lorenzo and her team for this amazing event!
Damhsa Pics:
Photos by @roberto_radimir:
On Saturday April 22, 2023, we had the pleasure to be invited to perform on stage at Linz’s very own Spirit of the Orient’s show in Mittertreffling. We took part in three performances. Firstly, a skirt performance to Puttin on the Ritz by Betty Booom. This was coincidently Tina’s first time on stage with us and our first stage performance together as Anam Damhsa! We are so proud of her, and she did brilliantly.
Then Anam Chara performed a slow piece to Tavern in the Mist, wearing beautiful flowing green and blue costumes especially for the piece.
Julia and Tina performed as a duet to Drumspyder’s version of Ya El Moulayitin. We were able to perform duet passings as well as the DoSiDo and the Orbit! Whoop whoop! The atmosphere backstage was incredible with everyone working together seamlessly to make sure all the costume changes happened.
Next, our own Elisabeth who also moderated the show, explained some FCBD® Style history to the audience and Julia and Tina did a short demonstration. It was huge fun and the audience really enjoyed it.
At last, it was time for the big finale! Anam Damhsa were joined by Anam Chara and Julia’s student Christina, so we had a group of six of us on stage. We danced to the Bay City Shimmy by Phil Thornton. We began with our gratitude meditation and moved into a chorus and duets formation, moving into a stagger to finish. The audience smiling and clapping is always a joy, and this was also Christina’s first time with us on stage dancing FCBD® Style, so it was a hugely successful evening.
One lady enjoyed it so much she asked about learning and has since begun with Julia. Watch this space!
Other groups that performed were local bellydance groups from Altenberg and the Mühlviertel as well as SOTO themselves. The whole evening was delightful, and we would like to thank SOTO for inviting us to perform!
Every year, an event takes place that unites the community dancing to one song and also makes it visible to the outside world. The “ATS®/FCBD®Flash Mob World Wide“.
We are very proud to have participated twice this year. Once with our dance sisters from Anam Chara, only a few metres away from the studio where we train together. And once as a trio in Oberneukirchen and Bad Leonfelden, where we were able to drum up a bit of publicity for Julia’s beginners’ course.
This year the chosen song was “Solovey” by Go_A.
Here are our two videos and, as a special treat, a behind-the-scenes look thanks to Julia’s vlog:
To find videos of other groups, use the following hashtags:
Rome was wonderful! The Roma Tribal Meeting was wonderful! Julia, Elisabeth and Tina took part in many workshops, learned an incredible amount, met many already familiar faces and even more new ones, plundered the brilliant bazaar and of course sightseeing, good food and a drink or two were not neglected.
The time in Rom was also put to good use as we were able to record new interviews for our series “FCBD Faces”. Go check out our YouTube channel!
Julia took part in the Performance Intensive with Francesca Pedretti and was therefore also on stage on Saturday. A video of this will follow shortly. The same is true for the video “Caravan – A Dance Journey”… Both Julia and Tina took part in the second edition of this exciting project. It celebrated its premiere during the online show!
In addition, we were lucky enough to participate in the online show for the second time. Here you can watch our contribution, which we recorded together with the Ur-Ton Trommelern at Pöstlingberg, Linz:
And here’s the whole show:
The Utopia of Love @ Roma Tribal Meeting 2022:
Some pictures…
Photography during filming our video: Johann Lackner, Fotoklub Feldkirchen
