Ananda
Born into a musical family, dance has always been a part of Ananda Moyi’s life. Her earliest memories are of dancing in the kitchen with her mom and sister while her dad’s band played in the next room. It was no surprise to her family when she told them she had fallen in love with the art of belly dance.
Her first few lessons just happened to be two different workshops at two different spiritual gatherings, which both connected her with the spiritual history of this dance for the first time. After that she began taking tribal belly dance classes from Sri Tarasita of Rakadu in Lexington, Kentucky. Again the spiritual side of this dance became routine as each class started with an Indian blessing.
Later she moved to Oregon where she continued to study tribal belly dance and has taken workshops with Amy Sigil (UnMata), Colleena (Indian Fusion), and Heather Stance (Urban Tribal). Ananda’s dance is also influenced by her years of being a children’s yoga teacher as well as the many spiritual paths, rituals, and ceremonies she has embraced and woven into this art form known as belly dance.
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Jeannie
Jeannie is Luminessah’s Earth Goddess. A Capricorn born New Year’s Eve, she definitely came to dance. As a child she was a natural dervish, spinning under the full moon. After taking classes in modern, jazz and African dance, she knew she had found her style when she took belly dance.
Before moving to Eugene in 1992 she studied privately in Key West, Florida. Once in Eugene, she immediately joined the local belly dance guild and immersed herself in classes, workshops, competitions, rituals, festivals, performances and private study.
Thirteen years later she came to Luminessah with a deep love for live music, Tribal improvisation, temple poses, 9/8, double veil and trance dances like the Guedra.
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Lila
Beginning her dance career at the age of five with classical ballet, Lila has always loved the expression of creative movement through dance. Trained in ballet for 13 years while living in Portland, Oregon, she has a great respect for many dance forms and enjoys fusing balletic movements into her Tribal and Egyptian belly dance.
Lila began studying Egyptian Cabaret belly dance in 2003 with the internationally acclaimed instructor and performer Razia in Eugene, Oregon. Soon afterward she re-located to southern Illinois where she continued her studies until leaving to travel, which eventually brought her back to Eugene. Having seen Tribal belly dance at the Shrewsbury Renaissance Festival she was immediately drawn to that style and began to immerse herself in the world of Tribal and Tribal Fusion belly dance. She has studied with Heather Stance of Urban Tribal, Zoe Jakes of The Indigo, and Amy Sigil of Unmata, among many other teachers of all styles of belly dance.
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Ziola
Ziola started her love affair with dance at the age of 4 with training in tap and ballet. She continued to study and perform throughout grade-school. Although she never stopped dancing, her formal training stopped there until discovering belly dance in college. What started as a great way to relieve stress from her tedious studies turned into one of her greatest passions in life.
While attending SCSU and getting a degree in meteorology, Ziola studied and performed Turkish, Egyptian and Classical Indian dance. In 2004 she moved from Minnesota to Eugene, Oregon with her husband. Soon after that she discovered American Tribal Style belly dance and fell in love all over again. She has since been studying and performing tribal fusion on a regular basis, as well as teaching occasional workshops.
