Collaborators:
Past, Present & Future
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Jeanne-Marie
Sutherland has
a Master's degree in art therapy and special education, but
prefers to call it "empowerment arts"; she is the
founding director of Empowerment Arts Initiative and M3PLAY.
She offers arts experiences in group venues with a focus on
empowerment through meaningful threshold opportunities
(more). She develops and creates programs
utilizing "mythic consciousness", using metaphors
and archetypes in themes to explore the Mysteries of life and
our interconnectedness. She is a scholar and explorer in the
realm of the Arthurian and Grail mythos and includes these characters,
themes and stories in her work. Jeanne-Marie
is also a collaborator in the CO.MUNITY
Project .....contact |
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Ivan
McBeth, originally
from the United Kingdom, lives near Montpelier, VT. He is a
Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, and is the founder
of the Megalithic Order of Druids. He is the founder of the
Sacred Space School of Shamanic Studies and teaches ongoing
shamanic healing courses. His passion is the creation of sacred
space, especially stone circles in magical landscapes. To date
he has designed and built 15 stone circles in various countries
around the world, some by machine, some by hand. He is a founding
member of the Circles for Peace project in the USA, and the
author of a book called The Crystal Journey. He blows a dijereedoo,
throws a mean boomerang, and often stares meaningfully into
the distance.more |
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Darlene
Jenson
is the Headmistress of Wog Harts School of
Natural Magic. She has a BA in counseling school-age children
and has more than 15 years experience directing camps and after
school programs. Darlene believes in a creative, eclectic approach
to education. As a parent of a child with a disability, she
brings the desire to help all children discover their unique
abilities, talents and skills. Darlene has home schooled her
child for the past 7 years. She created Wog Harts School
of Magic to combine her love of teaching and her desire
to have a group experience for her son. She enjoys creating
programs that encourage each child to develop a joy for learning
by giving them opportunities to enhance their self esteem, their
creativity, their ability to find their own voice. contact |
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Crispin
Boulter,
has been learning and practicing skills to mentor kids in earth-based
knowledge beginning with a year apprenticeship at Vermont Wilderness
School in 2005. Since that time he has become a dedicated student
of cultural design on a timely quest to help rediscover, adapt
and implement the common threads found in all healthy native
cultures throughout the world and throughout time. He draws
on a crafty set of back woods skills, as well as from experience
with sacred plant medicine, participation in men’s groups,
a love of sauna/ sweat lodge, martial arts, peacemaking principals
and a desire to be of service in the community. In this regard,
he is inspired to work with others to create both healthy and
empowering edge/ awareness experiences and a meaningful, contemporary,
ceremonial and ritualistic life for each other and for the next
generations to come. |
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Teresa
Comtois
discovered her talent for communicating with the spirits of
the earth and using that power to master things such as Reiki,
Tarot card reading, Hypnotherapy, and Witchcraft. All this,
with a dash of showmanship, her early training in dance and
many years worth of holistic knowledge, was destined to lead
her into the world of Middle Eastern dance. She is incredibly
knowledgeable of all ritualistic practices, so much so that
she has taught classes on calling the corners and other beginner’s
magik. She is a beautiful and talented dancer with a style that
is natural and delicate. She combines all her talents, using
dance as a form of relaxation and communication with the inner,
magical self. In her hands the art of belly dance certainly
becomes a magical tool for any woman to use to celebrate rituals,
get exercise, or just celebrate how beautiful they really are.
contact |
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The
Goddess Dancing™ (Cathy
Moore- "Qalayla")
is
Certified Nurse Midwife holding an MS in nursing from the University
of Lowell, and a certificate in nurse midwifery from Baystate
Nurse Midwifery Education Program in Springfield, MA. She holds
an appointment as a clinical instructor in the department of
OB/GYN at Harvard Medical School. She is also certified as a
Pre & Postnatal fitness instructor through the Dancing Thru
Pregnancy™ program.
Cathy has over 20 years experience in women’s healthcare,
and as a birth professional. Her work “catching babies”
supports and is supported by her knowledge of this birth dance.
She has been belly dancing since 1996. She is married to Dean,
and is the mother of a canine child, Pumpernickel. more |
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Pacita
Prasarn
Pacita first fell in love with Middle Eastern dance almost 11
years ago and since then has:
• Taken every dance class her time and pocket will allow
• Pursued haflas in many parts of the country like a rock
star groupie
• Began teaching just to offset the gas money she spends
on belly dancing
• Has at least 1/3 of her living space occupied by hipscarves,
tassle belts, veils, swords, canes, sticks, trays, candles,
music, drums,... She shimmies while waiting in line at the supermarket....
Pacita recently taught several workshops in Manila, Philippines
where she was featured on the television show, “Unang
Hirit”, and performed for a Philam Inc. private function.
contact |
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Dan
Myers
Dan
is first and foremost a geek…but a geek in many, many
areas. Aside from being a fencer, graphic designer, advertising
manager for The Vermont Renaissance Festival, jewelry
designer, gamer, “Dance Dance Revolution” fanatic,
costume designer, sea chanty singer, swing dancer, and trivia
maven, he has also managed to add doumbek drummer and musician
to the list. He was featured alongside Pacita on “Unang
Hirit” and the Philam Inc. private function and taught
the drum classes in her Manila workshops as well as private
lessons. Dan currently plays doumbek and recorder and has recently
picked up the mizmar and clarinet. contact |
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Elizabeth
Nett
is devoted to sharing Middle Eastern dance with others. She
teaches and brings the dance to life in diverse "performance"
venues. Elizabeth recieved her B.A. in Social and Behavioral
Science from the University of Southern Maine. She has worked
extensively in the field of Human Services supporting adults
to achieve an individually fulfilling life, continuing to develop
many Social and Recreational oppurtunities in local communities.
Through her on-going study and involvement in the Belly Dance
Community, she has realized the many holistic benefits that
this Ancient Eastern Art Form provides a student, both as an
individual and as part of a group. Liz is dedicated to teaching
the public about the true meaning of this Art Form through classes,
workshops, and performing at both community and fund-raising
events. Liz is founder and director of troupe "BEHIND THE
VEIL", through which women of every age and ability are
welcome to participate to spread this educational mission in
a myriad of ways. contact
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Mellea
(Whitney Suter)
has been dancing since 1998 and teaches
in the Pioneer Valley of western MA. Her teaching experience
includes Greenfield Community College, Pioneer
Valley Performing Arts High School, Northampton
Center for the Arts, Dancing Dragon and various
other dance and yoga studios in her area. As a soloist Mellea
performs Raks Sharki (bellydance) and also performs and directs
with ADHAM, a troupe of 5 talented dancers skilled
in tribal and cabaret. She produces shows as a member of the
Middle Eastern Arts Collaborative (www.meacshows.com)
with Shifah (Joanne Tibaldi). Mellea is generous
and skillful in her teaching style, and welcoming to all women
and girls, embodying the Feminine in her dance and presence
with strong technique and natural grace. For more about Mellea,
go to her online site: www.meacshows.com |
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Judith
Reichsman has an
MFA in dance and an MA in Theology and is a member of the Sacred
Dance Guild and will be on the Board of Directors in 2007.
She found InterPlay®
: improv-ing, dancing, singing, telling stories, in Berkeley,
California, and could not live without having more of it. Judith
was part of the North Carolina company, Off the Deep End
Ensemble. "InterPlay® is the most fun
I've had since I was 5 years old... especially since I get to
keep any and all wisdom I've gained since then! I came to InterPlay
as a dancer and came out as a storytelling singer-dancer, which
is to say, I found performance art." She especially loves
dancing and doing InterPlay in churches and synagogues
and other spiritual communities, and facilitates community-building
at prisons, schools, businesses, etc. |
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Emuna
(Faith Kaufmann) of the Crescent Dancers
began belly dancing in 1991 and joined the Valley's
premier Middle Eastern Dance troupe, the Crescent Dancers,
in 1994. Her background includes Music, Modern Dance, and many
traditional and international dance forms. Emuna has
studied with local and internationally known master teachers
(Shifah, Sharon Arslanian, Eva Cernik, Anahid Sofian, Leyla,
Riskallah, Morocco, Melina ...) and performs and teaches Middle
Eastern Dance throughout the Pioneer Valley and southern Vermont.
Due to a background in music as well as dance, she brings a
great depth and understanding of rhythms and musicality to Middle
Eastern dance in all its variations.
Emuna's brilliance shines in her understanding of music,
timing and composition and she lights up when sharing the dance. |
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Luz
Elena Morey's
work supports the enhancement of self-awareness, self-esteem,
creativity and community through participation in breath-centered
and element based energetic attunements. Participants young
and old engage in nature and awareness deepening exercises and
are supported in expressing themselves through creative sound-making,
creative movement, visual arts and dramatic play. Special attention
is given to positively reflecting and nurturing individual participants.
Luz Elena has over sixteen years of training in transformational
theatre with Saphira Linden, of Omega Theatre in Boston. She
has studied, and continues to study, with professionals in multi-cultural
holistic healing and expressive arts modalities. Luz Elena is
currently finishing her Master's Degree in Developmental Psychology
and completing work towards becoming a nationally Registered
Drama Therapist. contact |
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