Dancer Bios
Amy admits to being an ATS devotee, though she confesses to having an ever growing playlist of songs set aside for solo projects. After seeing Philadelphia Tribal at the 2002 Spoutwood Fairie Festival, Amy fell in love with with tribal belly dance and patiently waited until her friend Sara Sathya started teaching in January 2004. Since then she has been following both tribal and cabaret teachers around Baltimore, and has attended workshops with Rachel Brice, Hipnosis, Tribal:PURA, Domba, Zafira, and Baraka Mundi. Though she swore she'd never teach, she's now aiming to take the General Skills Certification course with Carolena Nericcio in order to help build a strong tribal community in Baltimore.
When not dancing, Amy loves playing around with all kinds of fiber; fire dancing; visiting the library; hanging out on the couch with her partner, cats and laptop; and trying to spend more time outside.
Amy can be contacted via email.
Brooke has been dancing in various forms since she can remember- ballet, modern, english/irish/scottish country dance. Though she's always loved dancing, it wasn't until she discovered Bellydance that she truly found her calling. Brooke first discovered Bellydance in her teen years, but promptly forgot it until she stumbled into Lisa Zahiya's (now of Baraka Mundi) class a few years back and instantly became enamored of Improv Tribal Fusion. She has since studied with such wonderful teachers as DOMBA, Ava Fleming, Piper Hunt, Caroleena Nericcio and Megha Gavin. Her passion for ATS has currently taken hold of her and she is focusing on becoming certified with Caroleena Nericcio in the coming year.
In her other life, Brooke is a Print/Web/Multimedia Designer with her own freelance company, MettaDesign and can be reached via emai;. She also enjoys knitting things, cats, her amazing hubby, DJ Domestique, and Firefly.
Flissy has been a dedicated student of tribal bellydance since 2006, when she started taking tribal improv classes at Avalon Studio with Rebecca/Kumari and Jessica/Bastet. Since those early days, Flissy has studied regularly with Asharah and has most recently been following her passion for pure ATS by working with Jen from Sammati, and received her ATS General Skills certification in July 2009. She has supplemented her regular studies with workshop hours from nationally recognized dancers such as Carolena Nericcio of Fat Chance Belly Dance, Kajira of Black Sheep Belly Dance, Paulette Rees-Denis of Gypsy Garavan, Maria and Olivia of Zafira, and Lisa Zahiya. She can also be seen performing funky, contemporary fusion, as one half of Verve Tribal with Chris, the creative mastermind behind the beautiful jewelry at Sihaya Designs.
Flissy is an experienced yogini and RYT 200 certified yoga instructor. Her strong yoga practice supports her dance by allowing her to dance with more physical and spiritual freedom. For more information about her yoga instruction, please visit her website, OmChantress.
Nora, born with her 'dance name', never quite got over her mortification of being a big clumsy 7-yr-old dropout from a 6-yr-olds ballet class until her maman noted her inability to stop tapping her feet at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing, and sent her to charm school at the ripe old age of 26. She became a student of Frankie Manning and his students' Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hop legacy, along with studying (deep breath) the basic 6, polka, cojunto, Cajun 2- step/zydeco, mambo/salsa, Texas swing, flamenco, and Argentine tango (with great love for Neotango music), not to mention repeated hijinks with Fluid Movement, the Pontani Sisters and Trixie Little! She found bellydance as a much-needed release while in grad school, and returned to it in Baltimore later when seeking a partnerless non-social-dance outlet. She is enthralled to have found the exact opposite in the brilliant company of extraordinary women and their supporters.
She is proud to count among her teachers: Lotus Niraja, Piper, Driana Kai, Sara Sathya, Kajira Djoumahna, Lisa Zahiya, Rebecca/Rivka Kumari, Heather Stants & Jill Parker/Ultra Gypsy, Ansuya, Sera Hopi, Sharon Kihara, Asharah, Hajai, Caroleena Nericcio and Megha Gavin/Tribal Pura, all of DC Tribal, and most of all, her Kallisti sisters. Yalla, y'all!
