Vibrant colours whirled around the white walled room, carried by the ebb and flow of ancient sounding music. Through the walls coffee cups and plates clink in the capable hands of cafe staff – the dancers are a surreal sight tucked into a blank room in the back of East Maitland’s Organic Feast.
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The Shimmy Sisters were warming up for the final rehearsal before their major annual dance on Saturday night. Their third annual hafla, an inclusive and public celebration of belly dancing, will be held at Largs School of Arts from 6pm.
The proceeds of the evening will go to Maitland’s women and children’s shelter and service provider Carrie’s Place. The group’s founder, Mikola Lee, said the profile of domestic violence appeared to have been growing steadily over the past five years but the issue’s prominence had skyrocketed in the last 12 months.
“It’s been in the media more, it’s spoken about more with the likes of Rosie Batty,” she said.
Earlier this month the sisters signed up for Shimmy Mob, a world-wide coordinated day of dance.
Along with hundreds of other groups around the world, the Hunter sisters marked May 14 by dancing across their local area collecting donations to support their local women’s refuge.
“I liked it because it was global but also grassroots,” she said.
The mob danced at multiple sites from Kurri Kurri to Morpeth and collected more than $600 in the process. Ms Lee said the takings, which were markedly more than last year, were a sign to her that the domestic violence issue was striking a chord with the community.
“There were a lot of notes in our bucket,” she said.
Ms Lee said the philosophy of her dance studio, and other shimmy groups around the world, was defined by a strong sense of social justice and responsibility.
“Being a group of women it’s good to be able to give back to the community in a way that’s just for women,” she said.
“And a few of the ladies here can relate to the stories [of women at Carrie’s Place].”
She said the aim of the Shimmy Sisters was to establish a community of dance, one in which members support each other outside the studio.
“Yes we dance together but they also drop in on each other when times are tough – it’s about connection,” she said.
“And you can’t fight domestic violence without a strong support network.”
She cited Felicity Shoars’ poem as the motto for world-wide collection of shimmy groups.
“We dance to be free, to express and rejoice, but today we all dance to give the silent a voice.”
