About Lien

I, Lien Siwalette am born in Holland. My parents are from the South Moluccans. These are a group of Islands in Indonesia.
I was 9 years old when I learned the Moluccan dance. In 1978 I came in contact with the oriental dance.

Blessed with 2 fantastic teachers:


Catherine Ruillet

Shortly after I took belly-dance lessons from Catherine Ruillet, who now lives in Italy. After a while, Cathrine, Anneke Bakker, Aafke and me organised fashion shows with clothes from the middle-east, which we showed all over the Netherlands.

Port of the show was a performance from Catherine. Anneke and me also danced at het fashion shows. I learned to improvise during those performances, and the importance of communication with musicians.

Website Catherine Ruillet

Alexander Sipahelut

In 1990 I danced with a Mollucan dance-society: Bunga Kenangan, it was lead by Alexander Sipahelut. Alexander taught me the traditional Moluccan dance. Also I was taught Eastern dance technique's.

With this group I performed all over the Netherlands. With his guidance I learned to understand choreography. He also teached us how te get a team to dance to perfection.


The way of dancing of Alexander and Cathrine is the basis of my teaching today.