Current Luminessah Members
Ali
Ali connects and honors the roots of belly dance, a sacred sister circle empowering and uplifting each other. A true medicine in the art of healing and ritual. She delights in the power of dance and is thankful it is such a presence in her life. It has connected her with so many amazing people, and continues to do so.
Ali has been dancing in many different forms her whole life. She discovered Tribal bellydance in Kentucky from Sri Tarasita of Rakudu Gypsy and immediately fell in love with tribal style. Ali has been influenced and taught by many different dancers and teachers. She continues to learn and also share this sacred dance with others.
Ali weaves her experiences of yoga, ritual, ceremony, spirit dancer, and lover of life into her dance creating blessings and stories to share with all.
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Regina Anne
Regina Anne has been dancing all her life. She is certainly not ashamed to admit that her first influence was the 1980’s Solid Gold Dancers. And her first ever performance in 6th grade was to Flashdance. This earned her the nickname “Flash” from her gym teacher. Regina Anne found the art of Belly Dance right at the turn of the Millennium. A very auspicious time indeed. To her, dance has is the physical formation of poetry, where words fail movement gives life. So, nine years ago, when she found a troupe of grounded, self assured belly dancers in Arcata, Ca., known as Shaken Not Stirred, it was no wonder that she looked to write herself right into their world.
Regina Anne has studied under Sharon O’Meara, Shoshanna, Brigit Fraga, Jaya Rose Krupp, and Denise Blaze. She attends workshops where ever and whenever possible. She has been influenced by every dancer she has ever seen. Each dancer that reaches to bring joy, passion, and beauty to the world is a hero in her eyes.
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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.
Luminessah Alumni
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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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.
In 2008, Ziola was fortunate enough to experience belly dance in it’s most-ancient form: a birthing dance. She danced through her pregnancy, performing with Luminessah at 5 days OVERdue! When the day of her daughter’s birth arrived, her dance sisters were there with her, swaying and undulating her through all 26 hours! She feels infinitely blessed to have entered motherhood in such a sacred way.
With baby on board, Ziola and her husband moved back to their homeland in Duluth, MN in 2009. She now teaches and performs tribal fusion belly dance there, spreading the joy and ancient spirit of dance in the Northwoods. She is very grateful for all the beautiful souls she was able to shake her hips with in the Pacific North West.
