About Us
Phoenix Belly Dance is a multi-award-winning entertainment company and school based in Auckland, New Zealand. We love sharing the art of Middle Eastern dance through our classes, workshops, and performances that fuse contemporary concepts with the traditional roots of belly dance. Candice Frankland, the Director, founded the company in 2010, and has been working hard at growing the community and elevating belly dance in New Zealand as a serious dance form through extraordinary performances, theatre shows, collaborative projects, hosting international teachers and the annual Weekend Belly Dance Retreat. We offer a whole range of options to anyone interested in dance fitness, cultural learning through music and movement, and outstanding performances.
Our hope for classes and workshops is to educate and develop relationships within the community, including students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. Our mission is to promote a fun learning environment and supportive performance demonstrations, with pride, passion, and elegance.
ABout Candice Frankland
Candice Frankland is the founder of the award-winning company Phoenix Belly Dance in New Zealand. She is an international teacher, winner of Belly Dance Evolution’s casting competitions, has scored lead roles in the BDE tours, and in BellyQueen’s Silk Road Tour, and represented NZ and Australia at the BestInWorld international dance event.
Candice is known in her local dance community as a kind, knowledgeable teacher, a source of innovation in performances, and for finding creative ways of bringing the community together.
Candice is recognised in the International belly dance community for creating supportive retreats, gatherings, and tours to strengthen knowledge and develop a sense of belonging amongst professionals, teachers, and students. Her commitment to this drives her goals to uplift and support the dance community in New Zealand, collaborate with like-minded artists locally and internationally, educate the public, produce modern artistic concepts, and teach about the culture and roots of the dance.
Messages for our 10 Year Anniversary from some of our international friends: Marta Korzun, Aziza, Kateryna Siham, Jrisi Jusakos, Joana Saahirah, Rabiya, Anasma, Kaeshi Chai, and Helene of Norway