Photo by Margarita O'Brien, Emobie Photography

We are SO excited to be performing four times at the upcoming Eugene Celebration, August 26 – 28. Friday night we’ll be at Cozmic Pizza with local Middle Eastern band Americanistan, along with other fabulous belly dancers! Saturday evening we’re performing with Mood Area 52 at Cowfish, and Sunday we’ll be doing two afternoon ambient roving sets with Americanistan. Check out the events page for details.

In September we’ll be dancing in another excellent Fusion Friendly show (Gipsy Nouveau) – this month’s theme is Roma/Gypsy inspired and the featured performers are the amazing Znama from Portland. That’s on Saturday the 10th at Cozmic Pizza and other performers include Christine Moon, Sarina, and many more. Then the weekend of the 16th – 19th we’ll be dancing with Mood Area 52 at the Faerieworlds Harvest fesitval at Buford Park (Mt. Pisgah). We highly encourage you to check this festival out, there will be so many wonderful performers including the headlining band, Faun, from Germany!

We hope you’re wrapping your summer up with a bang and we hope to see you soon!

Just wanted to update here so you know we’re still around! So far we have two confirmed shows for the summer, a variety show on July 30th and Fusion Friendly on September 10th. There are other shows in the works which I will add to the events page as they are confirmed. Hope to see you out enjoying the sunshine!!

This photo is from back in June when we opened for Eugene Fashion Week’s Avant Garde show at the Oakstreet Speakeasy. Photography by Claire Flint Last of Three Seed Design.

Spring seems to be stirring, at least here in the Pacific Northwest! Luminessah is getting some spring fever a little early, and so we are in the process of inventing and creating new costumes, new moves, and finding new music that moves us!

We are so excited for MEDGE‘s 4th Annual Alternative Night next week! I will just say that we have a very season-appropriate set planned… and some pretty awesome costumes in the works! Christine Moon, the featured performer, hasn’t danced in Eugene in a LONG time and we are looking forward to seeing her, along with all the other lovely ladies that night! We hope to see you all there!

On March 5th we’ll be dancing as part of Sophia Sanctuary’s annual International Women’s Day celebration. This is an all-day event with workshops, healings, a ritual drum circle, and much more. All proceeds will benefit Sophia Sanctuary, a local organization who’s mission statement is very close to our hearts:  “We are a circle of women committed to Healing, Education, Ritual and Service (HERS). We are open to all women and honor all sacred traditions. We are seeking to create a safe haven for women to share their spiritual vision, healing arts, sustainable living skills, social activism, and love for the Earth.” Please check out the link for more information about this event!

A lot has happened since I last wrote! We did an awesome show with Mood Area 52 at the Oak Street Speakeasy, opened for the Yard Dogs Road Show (the picture to the right is from that night), danced at a local all-fusion belly dance show, and I think there’s something else I’m forgetting too…Oh Regina was featured at MEDGE in December and she was beautiful!

So our next big thing we’re looking forward to is MEDGE’s annual Alternative night in February. The featured performer is Christine Moon who hasn’t danced in Eugene in years so we are really excited to see her! There will be lots of other wonderful dancers at that show too, it is a do-not-miss if you love fusion and alternative belly dance!

There are a couple other things in the works, possibly a show in Portland, and more collaborations with musicians we love! Stay tuned and check out the events page for details!

Our show with Mood Area 52 last night opening for Nosferatu was awesome! It’s such a fun Halloween show!

We are really excited to announce that this coming Friday, Nov. 5th, we will be opening for the amazing vaudeville/cabaret Yard Dogs Road Show at the WOW Hall! This is such a treat for us, we LOVE the Yard Dogs!! It is one of the best shows you will ever see, no doubt about that.

And on the 20th we’ll be with Mood Area 52 and Macaco Velho at the Speakeasy, this will be super fun. Expect a little theater and be prepared to DANCE!

Looking to December we will be performing at an all-fusion show being organized by local dancer Sarina Dorie. The show is Sunday Dec. 5th and will be at Cozmic Pizza. Other local fusion dancers/troupes performing include Hip Service, Candice, Raka, Jamara, Tia, and more! Then on December 17th our own Regina Anne will be the featured performer for the Middle Eastern Dance Guild of Eugene!

For details about these shows please see our events page. Hope you had a great Halloween and are enjoying fall!

It’s definitely Fall now!

Luminessah at MEDGE's Alternative Night 2010

We have decided to take a longer break from teaching so we can really focus again on Luminessah as a performance group. We will start teaching again though eventually, and we will keep you posted as to when that will happen!

In the meantime, we hope to see you at some of our upcoming shows! This coming Saturday we are dancing at MEDGE’s 7th annual Fall Festival, and we are very excited to have been invited to perform in the evening show! The Festival is a wonderful all-day event with workshops, vendors, dancing all day, a raffle, and more! The evening show features Kathy Stahlman and the other workshop instructors (Amani, Jeannie, Ireta, and Elena Villa) as well as Luminessah and Raks Ahroosh.

Then on Oct. 30th we will dance with Mood Area 52 at the Bijou Theater to open for the screening of Nosferatu, with an original live soundtrack by Mood Area 52. It’s a great way to start off your Halloween night!

On November 20th we will be presenting an evening of live music and dance along with Mood Area 52 at the Oak St. Speakeasy. We will also have the awesome Brazilian band Macaco Velho opening.  I am really looking forward to this show, plus there’s no cover!

Details for these shows can be found here.

Hope to see you at these shows and we hope you are enjoying this gorgeous autumn!

Summer is almost over, and we are excited to announce that we will have new classes starting the last week of September, in a new location! Details are still being worked out, but they will be posted in the next couple weeks so check back! Also if you would like to be added to our email list please contact us.

At the Eugene Celebration last week we performed with Americanistan along with other beautiful dancers, that was a blast! We always love dancing with Americanistan! Then later that night we danced at the Starlight Lounge with Mood Area 52, and realized it was our one year anniversary of Regina’s first performance with us, and also of our first performance with MA52! We had a great time with a great audience there. Ali was in California at the time and we missed her very much, but Regina and I had so much fun!

So for the next coming months we have a few things in the works. We will be performing in MEDGE’s 7th annual Fall Festival evening show on Oct. 16th, and we are also planning another show with Mood Area 52. Check out the events page for details about those shows. We also will have new business cards in the next month, and hopefully a new home page here as well! Exciting!

Thank you all for your support and have a great end of summer!

In  early June we did a photo shoot with photographer Jesse Shields which was a lot of fun and we got some great pictures! I think that new business cards and maybe an overhaul of this website might be coming soon with these new photos…

Our summer class session still has two more weeks left, come down to Upstart Crow on Wednesday nights and check it out! When this session is over we’ll be taking a break from teaching until September, we’ll keep you posted on that! Thank you to all our students, you make classes so fun and rewarding!

We have a couple shows coming up that I want to mention. First, on July 9th, we are presenting an awesome evening of World Music and Dance featuring ourselves, Priyo and Gypsy Moon, and an amazing tribal fusion dancer from Portland, Jaya Krupp. We will be dancing a set of our own as well as with Gypsy Moon. If you like Afro-beat, gypsy or flamenco music, you will love Gypsy Moon! They will be playing a whole set so bring your dancing shoes and boogie with us! More details here.

Then on July 11th we’ll be performing out at the Oregon Country Fair in Veneta, OR at 11 am at the Youth Stage. This set will be with live musicians, and more details will be announced soon. If you’re going to Fair this year, stop by and see us!

We also have several other shows and projects in the works so as always stay tuned. We hope to see you on the 9th at Cozmic Pizza or out at the Fair! Blessings!

Since I last updated here, Luminessah has performed at a few really fun shows I want to mention: The First Friday Artwalk theater show “No Shame Eugene” in March, a benefit for Glenn Falkenberg also in March, and a show at the White Eagle in Portland with Mood Area 52 last weekend. Thank you to all who helped make these shows happen! If you would like to see photos from these and other events please see our Facebook page.

Our current class session still has a couple more weeks so please feel free to come check it out! We’re at Upstart Crow Dance Studios every Monday and Wednesday at 6:30.

As always check out our events page to see where we’ll be next, or contact us to be added to our mailing list.  Blessings and happy spring!