2010 Presenters

Keep checking back as we continue to add presenters as they confirm and we finalize our list - it looks to be an especially wonderful year!

 MUSIC:

Donovan Arthen

Donovan has been on the path of the drum and fire circle since he was born. Teaching west African rhythm professionally for the past six years, he is a co-founder of the AzaAshe Dance and Drum company in Western Massachusetts. Currently Donovan is a music major at Wesleyan University where his focus is traditional folk music from around the world, including West-African rhythms, South Indian voice and percussion, Taiko drumming, Eastern European vocal music, and Medieval Vocal music. He has a Strong passion for ethnomusiclolgy and the connection between cultures and their traditional musics.

Su Walenta

Su has been dubbed an "A List" session player and seasoned performing artist hailing from her lifelong home of New York City. After 22 years of playing fiddle, guitar and 5-string banjo, Su finally fell in love with the djembe around 1990, when she was initiated into African poly-rhythm by Sanga-of-the-Valley (one of Olatunji's lead players in 'Drums of Passion'). and blossomed into shekere when in 1995 she received her first gourd from Madelane "Ayayo" Nelson (Women of the Calabash, and Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints"). Su went on to a devoted study of shekere, djembe and conga with many wonderful and gifted teachers through the years. Among them: Babatunde Olatunji, Madelane "Ayayo" Nelson, Joe Barnes, Michael Markus, De Papa Ladji Camara, Bemba Bangoura, and Mamady Keita. 

Above all, Su enjoys teaching and playing at sacred gatherings -----grateful for the opportunity to open her vessel to the divine movement of Spirit. Su is committed to sharing what she has learned from her amazing teachers and profound experiences, and helps players of all levels improve their form, avoid injuries, and open to the ecstatic joys of rhythm.

MOTION:

Johnny Scovel

Johnny Scovel returns to SpiritFire this year, bringing years of experience in traditional Haitian and Cuban drumming and dance. He is a seasoned and inspiring teacher, lecturer, and performer. Johnny has engaged in scholastic and independent study of various African, Caribbean, and Native cultures, with a special interest in religion, drumming and dance. From 1983 to present, Johnny has been an active ceremonial drummer, playing for Haitian Voudou Ceremonies and Cuban Lucumi and Kongo ceremonies in Haiti, New York, Florida, California and his home state of New Mexico.

Sarah Wood

 Tribal Fusion Artist Sarah "Jezebel" Wood is a new arrival to New York Bellydance scene. She moved to the Hudson River Valley from Boston to follow her heart and work for visionary artist Alex Grey/ CoSM. Upon her arrival she was welcomed warmly by Sera Solstice artistic director of Solstice Ensemble and owner of Solstice Studios where Sarah now teaches weekly classes in Manhattan and performs with Sera’s troupe Solstice Ensemble.

Sarah loves to nurture and cultivate the deep creative beauty and strength that we each hold as dancers and envisions dance as fluid meditation where our bodies are the catalyst to experience higher levels of consciousness.

 Sarah has studied traditional Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) with Lakshmi Amman, and spends many summers dancing in the sacred fire circle community. Sarah has studied and performed Bellydance with Shakti Rowan and Naraya in Boston where she was part of professional dance troupe Vadalna. Sarah has performed alongside musical talents Incus, HuDost, and Copal.

VOICE:

Julie Woods 

~ It seems that my labels keep changing as I keep growing!  ;-))) Currently, I'm standing in being an "Urban BlissShaman".  As I prance my own path, I'm sharing my lessons with -- and learning wonderful lessons from -- every soul I encounter.  I continue to revel in the privilege and pleasure of expressing my love for growth in my own life in a way that, I hope, can inspire others to find health and healing for themselves. Through music, painting, dance, percussion, and -- of course -- vocals, I learn and share in ways that exponentially open me into places of love and service.  Although it sounds like tofu-yogurt-and-birkenstocks talk, I really do believe that, ultimately, we're all expressions of The One.  As always, thank you for your generosity in helping me joyously bring forth ever-evolving ways to empower my self, our shared communities, and the world. 

Abigail McBride

 Abigail McBride is a musician and artist, based in Las Vegas. She is a highly skilled facilitator of fire-circle technology, and the co-author of Universal Fire Circle Alchemy.  Her latest album, Fire of Creation is a collection of her original music that has been inspired by the fire circles.  Abbi is also the lead singer and percussionist for Zingaia.  Her recent release, Dancers of Twilight, has won critical acclaim.  She travels worldwide, performing magic, belly dancing, and teaching drumming and movement workshops. She spends her free time practicing the art of levitation as lead assistant to her husband, magician Jeff McBride.

SEVA and the MYSTERIES:

Michael Dunning

Michael Dunning is a healer - shaman, musician, writer and artist from Scotland.  He is the founder and director of the “The Sacred Yew Institute” which teaches a shamanic - embryology and offers a Foundation Training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. Michael has written about his spiritual illness and the extraordinary healing relationship he developed with an ancient and sacred Yew tree in the book “Soul Companions” and in “Sacred Hoop” magazine.  See www.yewshamanism.com and www.sacredyewinstitute.com

Alisa Wright Tanny

Alisa Wright Tanny (Yogini & BodyDancer) is an Integrative Movement Therapist, Infant/Child Developmental Movement Educator and Movement Intuitive.  She holds a Masters Degree in Expressive Arts Dance Movement Therapy, is a certified Pilates Instructor, Embodyoga™ Teacher, and is certified in teaching Embodied Developmental Movement and Anatomy of Body Systems through Yoga, from the School for Body-Mind Centering®.  During the past eight years Alisa has extensively studied and assists teaching with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of the School for Body-Mind Centering®, approaching the embodiment process from a dynamic cellular fluid awareness.  Alisa’s approach to supporting and listening is transmitted with a strong compassionate and loving emphasis; balancing the body’s natural expression of organic fluid rhythms, nervous system and glandular tone, and muscular skeletal structural alignment.  Alisa’s presence provides the space and safety for inquiry and exploration, transformation and integration, and joyful embodied empowerment.  Alisa has been teaching dance, movement education and rehabilitation for over 30 years.  She has a private practice in Western Massachusetts specializing in working with infants, children and women with specialized health needs. www.embodimentstudio.com