Lady Fred

Frédérique began studying American Tribal Style Belly Dance in February of 1997 with Jill Parker and soon after joined Parker’s dance troupe, Ultra Gypsy. In December of 1999, almost two years later, Frédérique left Ultra Gypsy to delve into creating something new, simultaneously helping to pioneer the dance style known today as Tribal Fusion Belly Dance.
After more than a decade long journey of experimentation and self-realization, Frédérique has become known for her avant garde performance style, detail-oriented instruction, as well as for her audio engineering and graphic design capabilities which have enabled her to achieve complete creative control.

Frédérique’s signature stage persona incorporates elements from the 1800's through the 1920's Hollywood era in accompaniment with an arrangement of animated music box themes. Her aim is to share her love of those things she finds inspirational. And in that pursuit, Frédérique’s core focus is to live in the moment and to give of her purist self no matter how emotionally driven or poetic that “self” is. And for this reason, each performance is entirely improvised. She has been perceived and proclaimed by audiences to portray a porcelain doll or even a puppet yanked by imaginary strings onstage. This puppet image may help explain Frédérique as a performing artist: a bundle of creative energy thrust into motion, as if beyond her own control, by a deep seeded need to follow and trust her intuition.

Intuition also plays an important role offstage in Frédérique’s life. As a spirited instructor, Frédérique still finds herself a dedicated student. This allows her to teach with the same enthusiasm her students have for learning. When you experience her giving instruction, don’t be surprised to find her in full concentration one moment leading class in hand and arm gestures and the next moment to see her break out into uncontrollable laughter. Her ability to not take herself too seriously, however to take what she does seriously, is something her students adore about her. It inevitably lays down the ground rule in establishing an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable learning a dance that can otherwise feel daunting in group settings. But to Frédérique, class is not just about learning new moves. Frequently, she will break away from a demonstrative format to give short lectures. Her reasoning: to ensure her students learn not only through emulation, but also through gaining an understanding of why certain moves are carried-out the way they are. Experience has shown her that through teaching “why” in addition to “how,” students become better dancers. Frédérique’s unique instruction materializes from her philosophy of teaching technique as well as the importance of developing one's own style; she wants her students to learn how to apply technique whether to their own repertoire, or one they are developing, promoting them to sophisticate themselves in their own dance style.

But when curtain calls, the dedicated instructor manifests herself into an unmitigated creative force. Frédérique approaches each performance as a conceptual narrative, which makes music essential for this to transpire. She pushes musical boundaries by editing, mixing, and arranging her performance sets. Because Frédérique’s music sets are uniquely hers, there is seamlessness between she and her music; a connection that can mislead an unseasoned spectator into believing the performance is completely choreographed. Rest assured: it is not; it is her close connection with the music that enables her to incorporate intricate nuances in her dance to create a story. Such intricacies not only demonstrate her technical skill and fluidity, but also give her performances their theatrical flair.

But her passion for music aside, Frédérique finds yet another way to satiate her need to create through designing all of her own advertising materials: her website, business cards, fliers and t- shirts are all her original designs.

Frédérique’s interpretive style is a compilation of life experience, passion, and diligence filtered through her vivid imagination. Although clearly discernible by her audience, her style seems to impart re-invention as a centrifugal aspect of who she is on and off stage. For this reason, Frédérique not only leaves her audience waiting in anticipation for more, but waiting to see where she will take them next.