They are young, gorgeous and talented and they have been showing the country that they know how to move.
This is Hizi-Hizi Belly Dance, a group of young women who dance out of Diana Moore Dance World ,in Lambton, and have made it to the semi-finals of SA’s Got Talent.
Founded by Tarryn Rego, the team currently has five members, namely Tarryn, Julia Scafidas, Pavia Abrosie, Melissa Joubert and Cassidy Mansour.
They entered SA’s Got Talent as they wanted to share the passion and joy of belly dancing with South Africa and to inspire others to take part in this amazing form of art.
“We would love Hizi-Hizi to become a well-known household name and, if we win SA’s Got Talent, we will use the prize money to open up an independent Hizi-Hizi Belly Dance Studio, so that we can share our knowledge and skills in the form of belly dance with our community and our country and, hopefully, eventually expand our passion to other countries around the world,” said Julia.
The group has been preparing for the competition by spending numerous hours choreographing and rehearsing their routine, with Tarryn heading the choreography.
It features some authentic, traditional belly dancing, with an element of surprise.
A significant amount of time has been spent composing the music and planning the costumes to best fit the dance.
All the team members began belly dance class lessons with Tarryn at Diana Moore Dance World and subsequently joined the professional Hizi-Hizi group at various stages of their dancing careers.
Tarryn first started dancing at the age of four.
She took lessons in tap, modern, Latin American, freestyle, hip hop and belly dancing. She has been performing as a professional belly dancer since 1999 and has been teaching belly dancing for over 10 years, as well as performing in many countries.
After taking part in ballet for 12 years and then competitive freestyle dancing for five years, Julia decided to begin belly dancing (with Tarryn) in 2005, to further explore her passion for Arabic music and the Arabic culture.
She has been performing professionally since 2007 and has danced in various countries.
Melissa has loved dancing since she was a little girl and started ballet before she even started school.
She took dance studies at school and attended classes for almost every dance form before finding her passion and niche in belly dancing in 2007.
Pavia took part in ballet and modern dance before beginning belly dancing at the age of 12.
She danced at various studios before joining Tarryn five years ago.
Cassidy began belly dancing at the age of three, after she saw Tarryn dancing at a family function.
She also does tap dancing and has done ballet and modern dancing, too.
For normal professional performances the team practises for two-and-a-half hours, once a week, however, for SA’s Got Talent, they have been putting in between 10 to 15 hours of practise a week.
On hearing that they had made it to the semi-finals, Julia said they were “pleasantly surprised and extremely excited”.
”It’s a dream come true for our group,” she added.
Now the group needs to get through the semi-finals and into the finals.
To do this, they are asking the community to assist them.
The live semi-final performance of SA’s Got Talent will air on e.tv at 6.05pm on November 1.
Voting only takes place between 7pm and 7.30pm.
The team’s SMS voting number will be screened during the SA’s Got Talent show.
“We would love the community to help us make the finals by voting for us,” said Julia.
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