Samantha is The Bellydance Superstars' newest Tribal Contingent member.  
Born to a Belgian mother and English father, she is currently based in Canada.
After quitting ballet at age 6, when her teacher told her she would never make a dancer, Samantha did not return to dance again until she was 16, when her mother took her to a local belly dance class.   Within six weeks she had appeared in her first public performance.   Everything she has done since then has, directly or indirectly, fed and reinforced her passion for the art.

A free-spirited nomad by temperament - with Eco-activist tendencies - she traveled through Europe for several years in caravans and converted buses.   Along the way she became an expert Fire Dancer, performing at many festivals.   This developed into an interest in Martial Arts weaponry (Kung Fu) and within her first year of training she had won the local Ladies Free fighting Tournament.   This in turn led back to belly dancing, where in 2003 she was re-inspired by a  Fat Chance Belly Dance performance in Glastonbury , and later by personal encouragement from Rachel Brice in the UK.   There was a dignity and strength in Tribal Style that has Samantha hooked ever since.  
Her own signature style includes strong posturing, sharp locks and 'liquefied' arms.   She loves the interaction between dancer and audience, and is happiest on stage.

Largely self-taught and self-funded (for a long time her day job was as a construction worker), Samantha is a committed teacher as well as performer.   Her accessible teaching style reflects the fact that she still considers herself to be a beginner student, always hungry for more training and new ideas, always refining basic techniques and fusing new inspirations from mentors both in and out of the belly dance scene - anything from a new DVD to a picture hanging in a gallery, to a sea-creature moving through the water.   Her great ambition is to raise respect for belly dance as an art form in Europe and to help raise the standard among practitioners there.

Samantha is Level 1 certified and Member of Suhaila Salimpour's school of dance, California.   She is the only British member of The Bellydance Superstars and features in the new Tribal Fusions DVD.   She has performed widely on stage in Canada, the UK and Ireland.   In 2005 she joined Wendy Marlatt's Dublin based performance troupe Rashani International and returns to Dublin whenever she can.  
In 2007 she was nominated for Zaghareet Magazine's annual Best Kept Secret Award.

Birthday:     23rd April
Home base:     Her vintage suitcase
Favourite movie:   The Dark Crystal
Favourite creature:   Jellyfish.