This page is dedicated to my Dance Mothers and Spiritual Teachers. 

My life’s greatest Muses, and Hierophant’s who’s expertise has shaped the way I bridge consciousness with form. I have had the honor and privilege of studying under their tutelage, and am forever grateful for their inspiration, instruction and encouragement. 

The impact of their direction and downloads of wisdom will forever be remembered, acknowledged and honored within the Elemental Fusion Dance Format, and sacred expressions shared through the Animara platform. 

Thank you beloved teachers. 

~Tiare Valouria

Kumu Raylene

Kumu Raylene Kawaiaea, also known as Raylene Lancaster, was a beloved elder, revered kumu hula (traditional dance teacher) and a cultural consultant and preserver who lived in North Kohala, Hawaii. She was a teacher at Queen Liliuokalani Children’s Center and a practitioner of the ancient Hawaiian art of reaching agreement or “making things right” called Ho’oponopono. She took part in numerous community events and her presence was sought after for blessings and dedications to new buildings and organizations.  She is remembered as a beautiful individual whose love and wisdom touched many on the island of Hawaii and beyond. It is said that any person who stood before her felt worthy and loved – the true meaning of “Aloha.”

Virginia Holte

Virginia Holte is the Founder and Artistic Director of the West Hawaii Dance Theatre and Guest Instructor / Choreographer for The Maui Academy of Performing Arts. A Graduate of the Academy of the Washington Ballet under the late Mary Day, Ms. Holte enjoyed a long professional dance career with Indianapolis Ballet Theatre, Chicago Ballet, Washington Ballet and various guest appearances with Ballet Internationale, New Jersey Ballet, and Indiana Ballet Theatre N.W. A Third Series practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga, certified in the Pilates Method, Mat and Equipment from the Physical Mind Institute, Ms. Holte is an International Certified GYROKINESIS® and GYROTONIC® Specialized Master Trainer. She has been sharing her love of ballet and movement with the Hawaii community since 1986.

Paulette Reese-Denis

Founder and pioneer of the Global Gypsy Caravan Dance Company.  Paulette is an inspirational teacher, mentor, and friend. Her wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion are shared so freely and with such love that she cannot help but fire up the same passion in her students – a burning desire to honour her teaching and dance. 

globalcaravandance.com

Severina D'addona

Former member of Gypsy Caravan Dance Collective, Director of Znama Dance Studio and founder of Znama Dane Company.

Rachel Brice

Rachel Brice is a contemporary performer in Fusion style belly dance based in Portland, Oregon. She was the artistic director and choreographer for The Indigo Belly Dance Company and a frequent performer with the Bellydance Superstars. She now runs Studio Datura, the 8 Elements of Belly Dance training programs, teaches classes with Datura Online, and continues to tour internationally.

rachelbrice.com

Jamie Lynn Colley

A current member of Urvasi Dance Company, Odissi Indian Classical Dance under the tutelage of Dr. Ratna Roy. She is an experienced educator with a demonstrated history of working with diverse communities in higher education and the performing arts. Accomplished education professional with a Master of Fine Arts – MFA focused in Interdisciplinary Arts-Dance/Theater from Goddard College and a Master of Education focused on Adult Education, Curriculum, and Diversity.

Prajwal Vajracharya

Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya is a 35th generation Tantric Buddhist priest from Nepal and ritual master of the Charya Nritya dance tradition and other ritual forms. Prajwal began his training in Charya Nritya, the dance aspect of Newar Buddhism, from the age of eight, receiving formal instruction from his father, the Buddhist scholar and ritual master Ratna Kaji Vajracharya. Prajwal Vajracharya is now the foremost teacher, practitioner, and performer of the tradition. He is a veteran of several world tours. He teaches beginning and advanced students around the globe. He founded Dance Mandal in 1996, and the Foundation for Sacred Buddhist Arts of Nepal to preserve and expand this rare ancient form of Buddhism and its related traditions. Learn more at www.dancemandal.com

Anastazia Louise Aranaga

Anastazia Louise is a multimedia artist with a diverse palette of experience spanning multiple arts and entertainment fields.

Anastazia is the founder and artistic director of Bad Unkl Sista, a Butoh fusion performance art ensemble that combines unique choreography, improvised music, couture costuming, and physical theater elements to produce site-specific durational performances that seek to provoke and inspire – changing how witnesses relate to the performers, to the world, and to themselves.

Staz offers a personally developed movement style that combines a lifetime of performance experience distilled from a vast array of teachers and collaborators. She has been performing and teaching this presence technique for 30 years, and also designs and creates visual and wearable art in the form of handmade costumes, fabric installations, jewelry, painting, poetry, and resin.

badunklsista.com

Jeff Cullen

Artist and Author of Liber Kthonia, is located in Syracuse, New York. He specializes in subjects of the occult and esoteric. Inspired by his mother and two sisters, he began his journey in Paganism in the summer of 1998 after a long childhood fascinated by witchcraft, and familial lineage of witches dating back to ancient Greece. Being raised in the wooded hills of Central New York, he spent a lot of time communing with Nature and Her spirits. He and his sisters would cast spells and weave magic in the deep woods, craft tools and runestones from Her elements, and construct temples in fallen trees. By doing so, he was initiated into Her mysteries through secret and personal rituals. After years of learning the Craft from the forest, he moved to Chicago where he began to seek guidance in many of the perils of city life.

Hekate, Goddess of Crossroads and Queen of Witches answered the call and he knew She was the secret guide behind many of the events of his life. Guided by his patron gods, Hekate and Pan, as well as minor workings with other deities and spirits, Jeff has become quite adept in witchcraft and divination through the art of rune casting. As he creates his art, he channels the deity or spirit in their most primal and sacred form which results in a dark yet unique creation.

jeffcullenartistry.com

Swami Chetanananda

Swami Chetanananda is a spiritual teacher, author, and highly accomplished practitioner of kundalini meditation and tantric sadhana.  He is a current direct decendant of the Nityananda Lineage through the transmission and empowerment of Swami Muktananda and Swami Rudrananda. 


Lama Wangdu Rimpoche

Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche is a lineage holder of the Longchen Nyingthig, Shije, and Chöd traditions. Born in 1935 in Tingri Langkor, Tibet, he received transmission and training from his root Lama, Naptra Rinpoche, and completed the traditional 108 charnel ground Chöd pilgrimage before he was twenty. Naptra Rinpoche sent Lama Wangdu to Nepal on pilgrimage shortly before the Chinese closed the border in 1959. A well-trained and experienced yogi, he has lived in Nepal ever since, spending much of his life in retreat and serving the Tibetan refugee community.

J. Allan Cross

J. Allen Cross (Oregon) is a practicing Folk Witch and paranormal investigator. He serves as psychic-medium and occult specialist on a well-known investigative team out of the Portland metro area. He enjoys working as a consultant for other teams and spiritual workers, exploring haunted and abandoned places, and writing about the paranormal. He is the author of American Brujeria and The Witches Guide to the Paranormal.


Cyndi Brannen

Cyndi Brannen, PhD,  is a psychologist, author and teacher. She teaches and writes from the crossroads of psychology, spirituality and traditional wisdom, merging ancient knowledge with modern practices. Her work explores the journey through darkness to wholeness using the archetypes of the witch and Hekate. Her teaching focuses on personal healing through herbalism, rituals,  meditations, and exploration of the deeper self. She founded The Covina Institute, a soul school dedicated to the pursuit of wholeness through structured programs of study and transcendent experiences. After years of a successful career in academia and healthcare, she transitioned to teaching and writing about reclaiming the sacred feminine through spiritual practices after she became convinced that mainstream psychology was not sufficient to lead to personal wholeness. 

keepingherkeys.com